Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-09

North, South and Middle Fork and the
numberless creeks that empty into them,
cleaning up the bars, washing down the
banks where possible. fuming the bed of
the stream, running drifts into the hills and
sinking shafts on the fats to obtain the vast
treasures of precious metal which in all
these places abounded.
MANY MILLIONS IN GOLD.
During the first 10 years of gold mining
in California, the average return to each
man was from $50 to S25 per day. Four
thousand miners working 800 days to the
Multiplying this by the lowest estimate per
day, $40, and we have S24, ,O0O, 900 a year
from Oroville and its near vicinity.
Experience proved to the gold miners Of
'49 that the precious metal had gradually
been washed down from its matsrix in the
quartz lodges in the hills ant gulches till it
reached the bottom of the larger streams.
which became the great natural storehouse
of the same. Acting upon this idea miners
were always delving into the beds and.ehan-
nels of the creeks and rivers whenever pos.
sible.
Various plans were taken to lay bare the
bottoms of the streams, but the most COM
mon method was by wing dams. These
stream and angling down stream and back,
so as to confne the water into a narrow
space. This laid bare part OF the bed, or
channel, and enabled the miners to extract
the gold lying In the gravel. but the crew
icing of the bed rock was impossible owing
to seepage water.
Of course this method of mining was i'm
possible in many places, and especially so
with the larger streams. In such cases the
river was damned and the water forced into
long wooden fume built in many cases at
tremendous cost.
LUMBER 500 PER 1000 FEET.
In some instances the lumber for these
fumes had to be whip.sawed, while in
others it was transported at cost of $50 or
500 per 1000 feet. Such were the riches
in the beds of the creeks, however, that
nearly every tributary of the Feather had
miles of its channel fumsd, and the amount
of gold thus obtained was an enormous sum.
Some idea of the extent of river mining
can be obtained from the open noted mines
in this locality. In 1857, when the famous
Cape Claim was was worked near Oroville,
the expenses of huming and laying dry the
river bed amounted to S176,9S5. Two hun
dred and fifty men were employed from
May to November, and in AZ days of mining
it is estimated by reliable men that no less
than 81, 900, 900 in gold was taken from the
mine during that single summer, and it is
known that $3.50, 600 was paid in dividends
in this town.
In this celebrated claim 142 pounds of
pure gold were taken out in single day.
| The value of this was S36 672, and if we esti-
| mate that 200 men were employed this
| would average for each man S183 for the
| days labor.
John Norton, resident of this town at
the present time, washed in the Cape Claim
the richest pan of dirt ever taken out in the
California gold mines. 1t contained 81
| ounces or about 1854.
CLEANING UP A RIVER BED.
Above Morris ravine and below historical
Longs bar the Feather enters a narrow and
| rock-bound gorge, and in the early mining
DAYS the difficulties were so great and the
| cost so enormous that the enterprising gold
miners shrunk from attempting to mine this
portion OF the stream.
The problem was to lay bare the bed of a
| mighty river held between rock-bound
mountain walls, and to keep its waters out
| of such bed for time sufficient to admit
of the surface gravels being removed SO that
| the bed rock and lower gravel layers within
which the gold was imbedded could be
sscleaned up" and the golden treasure
stripped from its home with four or five sea-
| sons mining.
To lift a great river from its rocky bed, a
river that has flow of 1000 cubic feet per
second, hold it safely while an army of
| miners clean out its sands and gravel and
scrape clean the very rocks themselves, de-
serves and will rank with those gigantic en-
! gineering feats like that of building the Mt.
| Gents tunnel between France and Italy,
where the Alpine barrier between those two
| 80 4Lak 1T I,,,I
the great tunnel beneath the Hudson river
to connect Jersey City with New York, or
like that beneath the waters OF the Thames
at London.
Major Mclaughlin saw that single sea-
| son was too short period in which to erect
the dam, build the great flume and mine the
river in satisfactory manner. He there
fore planned to build the dam this year up
to low water mark. and by cutting gigantic
canal and building series of great walls
during the winter and spring, to finish all
the work by 1891. so that operations could
begin in the river early in the coming sea-
son. To gain these objects was a task Of
more than ordinary magnitude, as we have
already pointed out, but to make them more
apparent and show the grandeur OF this
undertaking, we give below some details con.
cerning the dam to be constructed.
This head dam, as planned, is designed tC
serve as a permanent structure. The site
selected seems formed by nature for this very
purpose. Each eminent engineer who ha:
examined the river, selected this very spot
which presents great advantages for the
work proposed. The dam will extend from
great rock point at the foot of South Table
Mountain to a high mass of rock in the
center Of the stream, and thence to the op
posite bank.
| A MONSTER DAM
The solid part of the main dam will bt
14O feet long and 10 feet wide on top. Its
height will be about Al feet with a shutter
dam or superstructure of 10 feet This shut
ter dam will fall down on to the main dan
during winter floods. Added to the mair
dam will be secondary dam--diagonal-
160 feet long and about II feet in height.
A pier of masonry 15 by 80 feet In plar
and about six feet in height is provided fol
at the point of junction of The two parts o.
the dam, and also an abutment of simllal
construction is planned at each extreme enc
of the dam. In other words, there are two
parts of the dam, and each parts to be bull
OF two pieces.
In constructing this dam nearly 60O, ,0O(
feet of lumber will be used. There will mo-