The record-union., 1897-06-02
THE MINES ABOUT YOU Bet.
An Important Cold Producing District in
Nevada County.
A Correspondent Describes the Red
Dog 1ine and Other Prop
critics.

Especial Correspondence of Record-Union.) }
YOU BET, May 31.-The little town
of You Bet lies about midway between
Nevada City and Dutch Flat. 1t is not
very large place but its residents are
prosperous and progressive.
There is a very excellent public
school, affording advantages equal to
most grammar schools. There is a
public hall and lodge rooms, general
merchandise store and two saloons.
The place is located partly on the top
of quite high ridge, which affords a
magnificent view of the surrounding
country for many miles. 1t was once
the center of an extensive hydraulic
mining section, but that kind of mining
has been closed for years. Residents
are now engaged principally in devel-
oping drift gravel mines.
The Red Dog mine is the most prom
inent- Work was commenced over a
year ago on an incline shaft, which was
sunk to a depth of 200 feet, at an angle
of 3S degrees. From the bottom a
drift has been run 200 feet, through
hard rock. and will be continued till
an upraise develops the fact that the
center Of the channel has been reached.
In order to facilitate work an air COM
pressor was put in some two months
since and a Burleigh drill is now pro-
PEELED by it, making good progress. The
incline has two compartments, one for
the track and one for pumping. The
machinery is run by water power
The incline was started in about the
center of a bend in the old channel,
which is believed to be the old Blue
Lead channel that runs through Quaker
Hill and Blue Tent
To the south of the bend spoken of
the Brown claim was drifted out, and
from a section 600x600 feet there was
100000 extracted. 1t is believed that
the ground in the drift claim being op-
ened will prove as rich if not richer
on account of its being on bend of the
channel-than the Brown claim.
To partly pay the running expenses
of opening this claim some of the own
ers have been ground sluicing on ad-
joining ground, known as the Cooling
mine, for some little time, using water
conducted through open pipes from a
little reservoir near by to the banks of
the claim, where it falls down the
banks, thus washing the loose gravel
AAeC ~A1O SA0AOCo OCAOWs Tie SOIO
is caught.
This is the claim about which much
has been said in the press and about
which committee of the Chamber of
Commerce of Sacramento inquired last
month, on their visit to this county
Curiosity induced me to visit the
place and to quite thoroughly investi-
gate the situation. Though the water
was not applied during my stay there,
I could very easily determine it's ac-
ton.
1t would require lively stretch of
the imagination to discover anything
in it, or around it, of an hydraulic char
acter
There is little, if any pressure of
water, which falls over the banks. be-
cause the old pipes through which it
runs are open at head and foot, or at
both ends-they merely acting as a
hume to convey the water from the
little reservoir near by to the banks of
the pit, just as a wooden f1ume would
do. Pines were used instead of wood
en- flume simply to save expense. The
company had lot of old pipe and its
use for the purpose would save buying
and hauling lumber to make a wooden
fiume
l should judge that at least one half
and possibly two-thirds of the material
washed is red cement or blue gravel.
Of so heavy a character that it will
undoubtedly lodge within 200 yards of
the mouth of the f1ume below. There
is six or eight feet of sandy soil on the
surface which will undoubtedly be
washed lower down the stream.
[ believe any fair minded man who
knows anything about mining would
unhesitatingly declare the Cooling claim
sluice mine. Hydraulic mining is de-
fined to be a method whereby ground is
excavated by means of water discharg-
ed against it. under pressure A good
sized monitor would move more gravel
in a day than the process used here
would remove in twenty days.
l understood from the operators that
they only use the waste water of the
South Yuba Canal Company, which
only lasts from two to five months.
Without an injunction work would nee
essarily soon cease from want of water.
The action of the Anti-Debris Asso-
citation in this case is deeply to be re-
GREETED by a large majority of the peo-
pie OF the State, I feel quite sure. No
one. not even in the mountains, desires
TO see hydraulic mining prosecuted un-
less there can be safeguards thrown
around it which will prevent damage to
the valleys.
In the case mentioned it is believed no
such damage can result, and therefore
mining men have a fear that it is the
purpose of the Anti-Debris Association
or the more radical members of it
to have all sluicing of gravel brought
under the restrictions of the Camin-
etti Act in relation to hydraulic mining.
This impression. whether true OF
false, is TO be regretted, for it is belieye
ed that there was an honorable and
early solution of the hydraulic mining
question not far away, if unity of ac-
ton could be had between the two Sec
tions. Peace and mutual forbearance
could accomplish much. Wrangling and
litigation viii accomplish nothing, ex-
cept the imDoverishment of both sec-
tions. 1t is the earnest wish of all that
conservative men of both sections can