The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1881-02-03
A RIVER BONANZA.
Big Find Expected at the Bottom of a
California River.
Con Ersncisao Chronicle

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The most extensive mining operation
of its kind ever known in the history
of California has been inaugurated by
eastern capitalists Of Chicago, NewYork
and Boston at Big Bend, on the north
fork of Feather River, ten miles above
Oroville. One million dollars, it is said,
has been pledged to the undertaking,
and $4,000 paid in to start the work.
The scheme contemplates the working
out of thirteen miles of the bed of the
Feather River, not by the old process
of fiuming, but by a tunnel of sufficient
capacity to drain the river bed, SO that
it can be worked in a manner familiar
to the early miners on the American
River, where SO many fortunes were
made in flush times. The Feather
River at Whisky Bar makes a large
bend thirteen miles in length in the
shape of horseshoe. Near this juno
ton with the west branch there runs
into the latter a stream called Dark
Canon. This stream heads in the di-
rection Of the upper portion of the
north fork and in the neighborhood of
Whisky Bar. The distance between it
and the bar straight through the divide
is less than 1900 feet 1t is proposed
to construct an eocene tunnel half a
mile above Whisky Bar to Dark Canon
of sufficient dimensions to drain the
thirteen miles Of the horseshoe bend,
and the securing Of the gold in the
channel will then, of course, be an easy
matter. This tunnel will be II 600 feet
IN length, and will be little larger
than the ordinary railroad tunnel. 1t
will have a fall of fifty-two feet nine in
ches to the mile, with a capacity of
discharging 6,S20 miners inches Of
water per second. At the highest por-
ton of the divide the level of the tun-
mel will be 1900 feet from the surface.
The formation of this divide is mineral
in character, consisting of strata of
slate, porphyry, and diorite. At Ham
| ilton bar, where the water will be TAX
en- out, dam will be constructed, the
lower portion Of which will be of ma
sorry. Along these thirteen miles sew
eral small creeks run into the river,
and by means of bitches along the
banks Of the main stream, an abund-
ance Of water can be obtained, and the
gravel which is probably from fifteen
to thirty feet deep can easily be wash
ed by the most improved methods in
placer mining. BY the well-known
process Of fluming great fortunes have
been made in the neighborhood of Big
Bend in years past. The works, how
ever, could only be prosecuted during
the dry season, as the floods always
swept away the works. With a tunnel,
of course, this trouble will be obviated.
At the Cape claim, from 3,40O feet Of
the river, by wing-dams and flume,
in forty-two days, S6SO,OOO was taken
out, with only one-third Of the claim
worked, when the season closed. An
other attempt to f1ume the whole Of
Feather River was frustrated by the
early rains, which swept the whole fab
TIC away. Judging from what has been
taken out, old miners estimate that
thirteen miles of the river at Big Bend
contain about s15O,0OO,0OO. Of course
to reach it requires the best engineer
ing skill and an outlay of at least ST.,
10000 before substantial results can
be achieved. Waldemar Allstrom,
the financial head of the enterprise,
feels competent to grapple with the
undertaking By taking up the water
right and running the tunnel, the man
ayers of the tunnel will get an extern
sive right, which they may hereafter
turn into a source of revenue for irri-
eating. When the bed of the river is
worked out, it may be, that irrigating
bitches will be constructed, and the
waste scattered through dry regions in
the Sacramento Valley, where it will
find sale, and become source of per-
manent revenue.