The record-union., 1893-04-28
REMINISCENT OF THE DEBRIS
CONTROVERSY.

SNNA&J
history of the controversy relating to the
right of miners to deposit mining detri-
tus in the mountain streams, which must
of necessity be precipitation upon valley
lands. Mining was the traditional para
mount industry of this State from lS49 to
1870, period of about twenty years. A
man would have been deemed either a
traitor to the highest industrial interests
OF the country or fool who would have
declared that any species of mining
should be checked in the interest of the
agricultural development of the country.
From 1850 to 1860 the mining counties
of the State had majority in both
branches of the Legislature, and that in
dustry, therefore, governed the State
The politician, who is seldom honest and
never wise, professed friendship for the
honest miner, and made that profession
good by the introduction into the Legis-
lature of radical measures favoring the
prosecution of mining.
0AuoAAJ ~ DSBdn " De perceived
that in the aggregate mining does not
pay; that the individual instances of sue
cess are counter-balanced by the number
less instances of failure; that gold is
worth just what it costs TO take it out; and
that if it could be produced at profit. it
would decline in value. On the other
hand hneroTl fn HA IL. Il
permanent wealth of the country resided
in the fertility of its soil, and the industry
and intelligence of its agricultural popu-
lation.
When hydraulic mining was fully in
2ugurated. the quantity of earth moved
by the torrential mountain streams be-
came so great that the valuable valley
lands. as well as the navigability of the
rivers and bays of California, were men
aced with destruction. We include the
bays because at the time hydraulic min
ing was suspended by injunctions issued
out of the United States Courts, observa-
ton sufficient had been accumulated to
justify the opinion that the bar outside
the Golden Gate at San Francisco would
soon be impassable; that the bay of San
Francisco itself would within short
period be ruined, and that the naviga-
bility of the rivers of the State would be
wholly destroyed.
1t was the clear presentation of these
facts which resulted in legal triumph of
those who sought to restrain hydraulic
mining and place it under perpetual in
junction as a nuisance. In this work this
paper was pioneer. 1t was one of the
first to sound the note of alarm. and con-
tinue persistently III its opposition to hy-
draulic mining until proposition of COM
promise suggested by engineers emin-
ent in their science was mooted. 1t be-
came apparent also that both sides of the
controversy were right when seen from
the standpoint of each. To relieve this
statement from ambiguity, it may be said
that large investments had been made for
the storage of water and the establish
ment of equipment for the prosecu-
ton of hydraulic mining, and that,
therefore, the owners of the capital
invested had in a very large sense a
right to the prosecution of an en-
terprise, for which they had not only been
permitted to prepare but had been en-
couraged to believe was legitimate. On
the other hand, the valley was right, since
through the ownership of lands, cities
had been established upon the
natural waterways of the State, which
waterways had been dedicated to
the commercial uses of the world
by virtue of their original nayiga-
bility and by force of legal conclusion.
1t was one controversy in which there
was an apparent equity on both sides.
The miners struggled to represent the in
Justice cessation of hydraulic mining
would inflict upon them. The valley
made an equally clear case of the wrong
the perpetuation of hydraulic mining
would inflict upon its inhabitants.
Every consideration of fairness de-
manded that an experiment at least
should be made in the direction of retain
ing mining detritus in the mountains
and foothills, and thus permit hydraulic
mining to proceed without injury.
The session of the Legislature ap-
preaching, this paper, after full exam
ination of all the facts of the case, and
the personal assurances of the most emf
nent engineers in the United States,
yielded so much of its position against
hydraulic mining as to advocate COM
promise by an attempt to restrain the
detritus from infiicting injury, encour-
aged also by assurances of Governmental
care in the direction of preserving the
navigability of the rivers.
The unfortunate history attending that
result is still fresh in the minds of all
who are contemporaneous with the facts.
The experimental restraining dam was
constructed in the Yuba River.
The first food down the channel of that
stream made deposit behind the works
constructed, which convinced all who
examined the ground, after the dams
had been broken and swept away in
part, that the quantity of detritus carried
away by streams had never been approx
mately represented or appreciated. By
that experiment it became apparent that