The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-19
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Special Correspondence of the Globe.
REDDING, Cal, Sept. 13.-I little
thought as passed through this place
en- my way north that within two
weeks there would be a gold excite
ment in this section second only to
that which is now sending hundreds to
Alaska, but such is the case, and hay
ing a few days of leisure 1 retraced
my steps to find out the truth.
1t is now no longer a matter of news
that few miners have found mug
gets aggregatfng over 100000 across
the mountains from here on various
creeks leading into the Trinity river,
particularly Morrison gulch and Coffee
creek The gravel beds of these gulches
and creeks are full of gold, some In
cucumber seed flakes, or nuggets,
and flour gold or dust, not to speak
of the gold bearing lodges which have
been mined for many years.
Now, 1 find on inquiry that this re-
gion is no new field for the miner
Over beyond the mountains along the.
Trinity and Salmon rivers the small
miners have been quietly working for
nearly forty years, but their section Is
so isolated, lying off the railroad and
with hardly any good wagon roaos
to and through it, that very little has
been known of their operations. Only
now and then some lucky man would
come out with a sackful of nuggets, as
the Graves brothers did the other day
with their $4,000, to deposit them with
some bank and then go back to get
some more.
But this K1ondike business has set
the country all aflame, and while gold
4 lit .fofn OH
along ever since the first discovery,
fifty years ago next January, the fact
is now made public. Why, twenty-five
years ago Charles Nordhoff said in his
book on California, published In 1917:
IF any one tells you that the mines
of California are worl2d out, he knows
nothing about it. No year
passes without the discovery of new
and important veins of the precious
metal in California. y We shall
hear less of brilliant discoveries or OF
great and sudden fortunes, but 1 be-
lieve the gold crop will be greater year
after year"
1 met Mr.. Nordhoff a few months
ago in San Diego county, and so pre-
sumo he is still alive to rejoice at the
verification of his prediction. In fact,
having traversed the state of Cal1for-
MIA from the Mexican line to Oregon,
L
Diego to Seattle this summer past, l
have not failed to note the evidences
of mining still carried on in small
way by solitary individuals and in
large way with stamps and vast CAPT.
tai by corporations. AS writer in
one of the Southern papers said last
May: There is no boom on, but the
burning of powder and the breaking
Of ground are going on from the So
h o-6 NV 1rc NO
a jawbone fraternity" When 1 was in
the San Jacinto mountains last May,
l heard of at least one mine that was
cleaning up $1,000 a week, but it was
not for sale. Its owner was after
good living only, and was satisfied
with what he got.
The working of old mines and tailings and
washing placer deposits are going on all over
the world, not merely in California. When |
was in Santo Domingo in 1891 l became pos
sessed Of half ounce nugget of fine gold
and saw several others-a whole handful, in
fact-one of which weighed five ounces. Still
there was no excitement there. The poor
people in the mountains, when they were in
need of a little money, merely went down
to the river and washed out what they need
ed. The river gravel was their bank OF de-
post, and it never went dry.
And so in California and along this coast
generally, only the people here are not salts
fed with such slovenly methods as the Dom
ingians. Our mint authorities at the close
S157 713, 300 and since that time 1t had been
placed at $1,000 co., though this may be
an exaggeration. But it is undeniable that
California has gone on steadily adding to
her pile, and according to appearances, Will
still keep on doing so. AS in olden times
here, the best returns are from sluggish
rivers or the beds of buried streams below
the level of the others and in the shape Of
coarse gold and nuggets.
Although the excitement over the recent
finds promises to recall the great Leadville
craze yet, as 1 have said, the finding of gold
here has been predicted and the predictions
verified. The region where even. greenhorns
westerly from the railroad at this point; to.
ward the coast in Trinity county. North OF
1t is Siskiyou county, having the same surface
conformations and drained by the same
rivers, and of this county state mining ex
pert last year said: That portion of the
country from little east of Mount Shasta
is composed of series of high, ,precipitous
mountains and intervening valleys. The
mountain chains have not general course,
but trend in all directions inclining more
particularly to the north and east The |
water courses flowing westerly through these |
intervening valleys have their main outlet to |
canyons and mesas along the watersheds are |
filled with the detritus from the denuoaII tia
of the mountains, and the gravels resultlng
from the vast erosionS contain Immense
values of the precious metals
Both hydraulic and deep mining nave peen
pursued here for many years the amounts
they aggregated over 100000; Four hun
bred stamps are at work crushing Ing out the
gold of the quartz Lodges, and ZOO men are
eemnloved in the mines, of whom only about |
one.fourth are Chinese. There are probably
hundreds of mines in this rugged region.
most of them owned and worked by indi-
viduals who earn enough from moderate Ia
Dor in the summer to last them through the
year.
Is not this a great deal better than to HE |
to country where the winter is nine months
long, provisions dear, every expense beyond
the calculation of ordinary man? Here in
Northern California there is the perfection OF
nIirnaAas Cnnu does mt hv till about the