The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-05-03

VIII were present the DlIIH OIL quartz
mining on Gold Mountain, near Grass Val
ley, late in 1850, is Frank Morse, who is
an engineer at the San Francisco Mint.
His interest in the nebulous history of
that beginning of quartz mining was
greatly stimulated by an account re-
Gently published in these columns in con-
nection with the Peapody-Gold Hill suit,
involving the oldest quartz mine in the
State. The following is part of the story
told by Mr.. Morse:
Il suppose there are not more than
three or four, if as many survivors of
that meeting of December 80, 1850, when
the Gold Mountain mining district was or
ganized. | remember the time quite well.
went out there in september, 1880, from
Parks Bar, on the Yuoa near Marysville,
where | had been running a wheelbarroW
for SIG a day until 1 got a fever, as so
many of the miners did.
This rich ledge on Gold Mountain was
known to exist for some months before
this organization of the district, and the
recording of claims. The ledge was
broken off and turned downhill like a sort
of wave and it was not found in place
short of about forty feet below the sur
face. The side of the hill below the vein
and the ravine were rich and claims were
being worked when | got there, each
claim being 90 by 40 feet. The rules OBJ
served elsewhere in nearby diggings were
followed, but claims were not recorded
until December 80, 1850, when laws were
adopted and a recorder elected. Thomas
CracklinS claim merely happened to be
the first one recorded and so ranks as the
Oldest one by the record. Some of the
rock of the broken VEN was very rich
and, of course, the dirt was rich. The
only way most of US could work the rock
at first was by pounding up the richest
then panning out. A man by the name of
Huff, who l think was an old Georgia
miner, had a big mortar and it was the
only one in the diggings. He and his
party rugged up spring pole and pound
ed out $780, 900 that winter. Long years af-
ter l found Huff ranching on the Ameri
can River. To show now much we knew
about quartz mining, d few of US pooled
our claims and run tunnel 25O feet long
that tapped the ledge about forty feet
below the surface. There was no water
to contend with and we could much better
have just sunk a shaft forty feet deep,
but we had an idea that we ought to have
a tunnel for some reason, probably be-
cause it would be easier to get the rock
out. l remember that Joseph Cracklin
took out $4,000 with a mortar and went
East in 1851. | helped him pound it out.
Two men, Walsh and Wheeler, bought up
number of the claims that winter and
turned their sawmill into a quartz mill.
They afterward sold to London com
pany, who sent out Melville Atwood as
manager, about 1852.
Some of those first mills built in 1851
would be great curiosities now One was
set up near my cabin and would work
night and day-if they could get it to
work. l would be trying to sleep in
my cabin and would hear them say, We'll,
boys, | guess We've got steam enough
now Then the thing would start up and
go set-choo, rattlety-bang, rattety-
bang, rattle-ty-bang, rat-tle-ty-bang, sst,
choo-bang', and then it would stop. The
Kelly mill was no, not very t 6f away away
The wooden mOrtarS were lined with
boiler iron. As remember the cam shaft
it was a big log Is inches thick with the
wooden cams mortised in spiral row
around il. AS the journals were all of
wood, it would squeak frightfully. You
could hear it a mile sometimes. When it
would squeak a fellow would climb up
and dope the bearings with molasses.
l suppose they did not have any grease
TO spare. A lot of the rock ore We
took out of our tunnel and sent to the
first mill went only $40 a ton, and as we
had to pay $50 ton to have it crushed,
We quit.
Herbert Long, an emintent mining au-
thorty has written for the New York
Engineering and Mining Journal an ex-
tensive and interesting account of the
Iron Mountain mine of the Mountain Cop
per Company, in Shasta County, which is
being operated on so large a scale.
The ore deposit, he says, is part of a
great lode, III some places hundreds of
feet wide. The mine proper consists of a
great lens of ore roughly shaped, like
ships hull that has been thoroughly
contain /, $50 900 tons of sulphides. There
is an excellent prospect of finding similar
ore bodies to the north of it. The fol-
lowing is an interesting estimate of the
value of the mine:
Assuming the correctness of Mr.. Hill S
estimates of quantity and richness. the
sulphides contain very nearly $4,000 short
tons of metallic copper. The sulphides
and oxides together have over $3,000,000 in
gold, and 100000 ounces silver, assuming
there are 900 900 tons of workable limo
a
prices of the three valuable metals would
be something over $53 900 600. This is
quite enough to make a good mine.
After prolonged study of the mine and
its ores | concluded that it would require
ten years for the exhaustion of the known
ere body, and that by working on the
plans which | submitted to the company,
an annual net profit of 81 800 600 would be
secured, or S13 100000 in all. The present
worth of this sum might very reasonably
be taken as the value of the mine and
this, at the ruling rates of interest would
be about $4,000 900 This estimate deal
ing only with the known resources, is
moderate Wnen we recognize the prob
/ abilities of the remainder of the great
area which is not yet fully prospected,
but in which ore is known to exist in no
small quantities.
1T can hardly be believed that this mine
| laid unapprecated though not unknown,
| through so many years, while an active
search for mineral went on through this
netghborhood and all over the State. For
years, the Iron Mountain mine was
hawked about for a buyer unsuccessfully.
end was eventually sold for $500 600 part
stock, part cash to the present owners,
the Mathesons of London, and their asso-
ciates.'
The news comes this week that the Col
orado company, which is just starting one
great gold dredger on, bench of the
American River at Mississippi Bar. six
miles miles from Folsom, $50 feet above the
river, is planning to construct three or
four more in that region. Other dredging
enterprises are in process of elaboration,
and the increase of dredgers promises to
be rapid. This form of the industry has
great possibilities in California, but like
anything in mining must be handled with
skill and discretion.
Mr.. Postlewaite, who is California s
leading authority on the subject, says:
1.-THE field for dredging in California is
an immense one. Nearly all the rivers
draining into the Sacramento will pay to
dredge in parts. There is virgin ground
in the beds Then the old deposits of tail
ings are often rich, for they lost a good
deal of the gold then. Besides the
benches and old channels there are many
basins up in the mountains that would
pay well. Where there is a natural or ar
tificial supply of water within twelve feet
of the surface ground can be worked
Ground must first be thoroughly pros
pected. To sink shafts with timbering and
pumping is costly, If not impossible. There
is now in use a steam traction prospecting
machine, costing $4,000, which will sink