The San Francisco call., 1904-08-19
VINES COVER WHEEL.

Madeira, when he saw the venerable
relic, dismounted at once and began
investigating like a connOisseur. over
the framework and a wheel that the
waters had once known as a playfellow
blackberries and honeysuckle had
grown. He tore some Of them away
and a battery of two crude stamps that
had been worked by a cam consisting
of a clumsy wheel with two round
pieces of wood projecting from its rim
was revealed. The framework was
there, all intact. Madeira had acciden
tally stumbled on the Oldest quartz
mill eXtant in California. He had found
a prize. He was then on his way from
Delta to Trinity Center, in Shasta
County, to secure some material for
Mineralogist Aubury, to be used in the
California display at st. Louis. On his
way he crossed He'll Creek and Dam
nation Gulch. This will in no way
shock the residents of Trinity Center.
for these are actual names and the
people there are thoroughly used to
them; they are even taught in the
geography class of the district school,
so the little ones speak them trippingly
and with no false modesty. He wasn't
looking for anything startling on Dog
Greek and that's why he made a strike
there.
Madeira found upon investigation
that the Bank of Shasta owned the old
mill and didn't know it. 1t had never
known the venerable quartz pulverizer
was in existence. He asked for it in
the name Of the State) and the bank
readily consented to present it to Cali
fornia. Banks have no sentiment in
such matters. To them the only kind
of mill that looks good is one that is
running.
The relic Of the gold days was
brought to the exposition and set up in
the mining gulch here, just as it had
stood for ffty-one years in it's noun
tain fastness. Standing near an up-to-
date mill that can make powder out of
more rock in an hour than it could re-
duce in week, the Dog Creek veteran
serves to illustrate the evolution Of the
stamp mill in California.
MAKERS ARE UNKNOWN.
The names Of the men who erected
the old mill are lost in the dim dawn
of history" There were two of them
and they took about $4,000 out of a
pocket thev worked on the old Trinity
mine. Their mill reduced about 300
pounds of ore a day, about a ton a
week. 1t was worked by a six-foot
overshot wheel and had a mortar f1f-
teen inches long and a foot wide. The
stamp rods were of wood and the iron
SliOCSS WHICH WelSneQ Out POUNDS
each, were made in San Francisco The
wood used in construction was Cali
fornia cedar and 1t has stood the test
of time WELL
This was not the first stamp mill
erected in California, though it is the
only one of the earliest that is in ex-
! istence The honor of having put up
the first stamp mill belongs to John
Slime, who is still living, at the age Of
/ "a, in French Gulch "a Frenchman
probably blazed the trail into this de-
pression), Shasta County, though the
voice of the mill is stilled forever and
its fragments are scattered by the
stream. Shines mill was in Nevada
! County.
Californians at the fair gaze in rev.
erence upon the old mill. Its EARRING
growl as it munched it's f1inty food
startled the solitudes of Shasta when
san francisco was yet a babe among
| cities and before any one deemed a
connecting thread of steel from ocean
10 ocean possible. The echo Of those
Two noisy stamps lives in the hum and
pustle OF a growing State that gold
started on its way to greatness.