Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-11-30
Afternoon Session.

dorado county. mere The WltnesS QescrlOeQ
the mines at Greenwood Valley Georgetown.
Spanish Dry Diggings and Michigan Bluffs ]
| Afternoon Session.
| Mr.. Sheldon, continuing ito Mr.. Cadwala-
der)-I never have seen any pipe-clay in the
American river. Slickens travel equally as fast
as the water. Iput dam IN the river in 1870 /;
it stood one year and filed with gravel. sand
and slickens. That dam was IL or IA feet
| high, and backed the water for distance of
q quarter of mile. The whole bottom of
the river in early times was very rocky, COM
posed of cobble.stone and small powders.
The deeper you delve in the bottom Of the
river the more and larger rocks you find. The
bars along the river were composed of sand,
gravel and small cobble. The gravel in the
bars was finer and more compact than the
river-bed. Main Bar. Mississippi Bar and
Texas Hill are composed of fine sand, gravel
and cobble. Miners used more water and
| did more mining opposite Folsom after 1862
than had been done previously. The Chinese
began to do the bulk of the bar mining in
| 1868. Horseshoe Bar has been worked by
white men since 1870 The Chinese are still
| working these river bars. There perhaps is
| not one-tenth as many Chinese at work at
present as there were ten years ago.
THE GRADE
| OF the river-bed from Auburn to Folsom has
| become more even than il was in early days.
| The deep holes in its bed have become nearly,
| if not quite, filed up with sand, gravel and
cobble, When the water is very high it is
very dirty and muddy. I have seen the
North Fo,k when it contained only 2,4O0
| inches of water, miners measure. When the
| water Is very muddy it is something Ia color
like this mo. 81 l have seen cobblestones
deposited on the bars below the bridge at
| Folsom. Have seen deposits of sand and
quartz on the banks below Folsom ten feet
above low.water mark.
Cross,exauination Ito Mr.. Catlin)-Wit-
ness was shown map of the North Fork
and asked if he had ever seen one like it.
He said he recognized ard had been familiar
it'll it for the last fourteen years. The bars
that have been describing are all properly
laid out here and the general outlines of this
map in my opinion are correct. The town
of Rsttlesnake Bar originally lay near the
river and is all washed away. The mining
here was principally done prior to 1865. The
soil at Rattlesnake was red.' Underneath it
was gravelly and carried considerable cobble-
stone. In 1867 the town contained 800 or 600
Inhabitants. Their principal occupation was
mining. The principal mining was dene be-
tween 1904 ana lCUO i uo Ouih VI btiC llihiuS
was done prior TO 1862. Rsttlesnake Bar
and Oakland covered about 300 acres. That
| is all mined off. Manhattan was very long
and low bar. It was composed of sand and
cobble.stone, 1t was very shallow, only
about five or six feet deep. / sold the water
TO the miners on Manhattan Bar. The next
| important bar below Rattlesnaks wac Horse
| shoe. The mining here was done similarly
| to that on the bars above. The tailings
were dumped into the river. There was no
hydraulicking done on these bars. Doten's
| Bar was the next of Importance following
down the river. In 1855 there was papula-
ton Of miners on that bar of about 1000.
This bar was mined similarly to the bars
above, and in come places was twenty feet
deep. Carrolton Flat is below, opposite Con-
denim Bar It lay about $50 feet above the
river. Condemn Bar was much lower than
Carrolton Flat. 1t was composed of very
coarse material, heavy gravel and large
cobble. The first time saw Condemn Bar
was July 8. 1853. Long Bar is opposite
Doten's Bar. The ground on this bar was
very low, and composed Of cobble, sand and
gravel. Beals' Bar Is at the junction of the
! North and South Fork. 1t was about 80
/ feet above the river. In 1885 we polled 150
votes at Beals' Bar.
MOST OF TIE MINING
Was done here prior to 1862. The sluices all
tailed into the river. have seen tailings
piled up at the edge of the river during the
summer twenty feet high. There has been
an area exceeding 100 acres washed away at
Beals' Bar. The next important mining
camp, following down the river, was Slate
Bar Hill. The miners here were supplied by
| water from the North Fork ditch. The dig
gings were composed of red soil and gravel,
and varied in depth from four to twenty feet.
A large quantity Of the tailings from this
mine were run into the American river. Five
or six companies commenced mining there in
1855, and mining has been going on at that
/ place more or less ever since. During the
| past year there has been no mining done
/ along the north bank of the North Fork, ow-
| ing to the fact that the North Fork
canal has been broken and conveyed
no water to this section of the
country. Mining commenced on Main Bar
since 1866. There has been more mining
done on Main Bar since 1862 than before.
Mississippi Bar is one of the largest on the
river. It is, perhaps. more than one and a
half miles long. 1t lies very low, and does
not exceed fifty feet in hight above the river.
Mining commenced on this bar in 1855.
| There we're great many miners at work on
! tais bar. There has been more gravel
washed from The banks there since 1852 than
before. Their taiIings' pile ffom the end Of
| the sluices would extend into the river some
times for distance of $50 feet. In 1856 il