Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1910-07-23


the invention of the giant nozzle ef-
fected an enormous saving in labor.
Where 100 men had been employed
in benches on a 75-foot bank,
with picks and shovels, breaking the
bank into the sluices below 1t was
possible to do the work with ave
or six men on the nozzles, and the
results were better.
When the shallow river bars and
small creeks had been washed for
their best pay they were left to .~e
Cinnamon and the white miners be-
gan hydraulicing the old channels,
which are common in certain parts
of the Sierras and are found at vary
ing depths. There was not much
quartz mining there at the time, and
the chief interest attached to those
operations whereby water under
pressure, through a nozzle, could
handle thousands of tons of mater
ial quickly and at small cost. All
the water was appropriated and mil
lions of dollars expended in dams,
reservoirs, bitches and fumes. Some
enterprises inaugurated were so ex
tensive that they required years TO
, complete. Then the gold production
of the state, which had fallen off
for time after the depletion Of the
shallow diggings, began to increase
and shortly afterwards reached its
highest point.
In the meantime agriculture Lad
become an important industry in
| the valleys below and notwithstand-
| ing the large revenues tte farmers
were receiving from The mines, in
exchange for farrn produces and otE-
Crwise they began 70 protest against
the practice OF hydrauIicklng for it
| was choking the wa.er Courses and
60 using widespread damage. The
| miners were literally washing the
muuI 'ains down and d'Impipg tie
debris into the valleys, covering up
cu,rpg the aban Jnment of the
farm lands. In some instances the
destruction Of cities was threatened
and Sacramento, the state capital
was several times in imminent dan
ger.
| The matter was taken into the
legislature, and for fifteen or twen-
ty years it was agitated there, in an
endeayor to secure the enactment OF
measures to regulate the mining in
dustry. Miners were arrested times
without number for working their
mines in disobedience of the orders
Of the courts. The farmers kept
spies in the mining regions to see
that the injunctions were observed
and it was common thing for the
miners to bribe the spies. Some liv-
es were lost during the contest, and
lives were threatened repeatedly.
Then the federal government got
| liIO JHC IdoS anu lOOh IhS oluS vi
the farmers on the ground that the
naVigable rivers OF California were
being obstructed by debris and sedi.
ment. Congress refused to approp'
: riate any more money for the riV-
ers and harbors of California and as
result hydraulic mining ceased
except under certain restrictions.
There are no state laws in Cali.
fornia to prevent hydraulic mining
but the federal government main
tains a debris commission to which
application for permit must be made
by any one desiring to engage in it
The debris commission must be sat
istied before granting any permi
that it is possible for the appli
cant to impOund all debris anC
therefore prevent it from entering
the streams, and as there are only
a few places where the debris cal
be impounded successfully in an!
considerable amounts, this practical
ly put a stop to all hydraulic min
ing, although it is known that the
gold-bearing gravel of California
would continue to yield millions o.
dollars yearly for an indefinite per
iOd of time