The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 23, 1898, Page 11

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 23 feet from bedrociz; conts in the co laid down 1l i = remote part of the shall" i atte ne State from Ma 1 find, did not attract the until tion of the prospector ie ; but the army of miner s was so great and so re the end of the early xtended from on the north to the boundary and the south and south- of the early Southern California , and ile s of locali- ) different il in the more :count of the - of water and_ timber, as a whole un- millions of dol- and silver have ‘their 1 that which consumed, works, es is S0 feet long, ca conveys the The perr point at the anent h fcot of there to the opposite e hardnes rock to the west d $2 per cubic yard. ecanal and side dam »ension bridges cross the canal, giving waste way. The main in the southern arison with other por- the industry in was languishing since been mined counties in com tions of the S Southern California and fitful for thre Within its limits there 4000 are mining lily worked not claims, or are considered of at least sufficient value by the owners to justify them in ing up their annual assessment k ry mining district is immediately sible to one or the other and some- both of the railw hin one or two da ing districts is Randsburg. From this latter point the new railroad runs to Johannesburg, which is a miles east of Randsburg. S > the outgrowth of the mines of the and are qu! flourishing There is now a population Both plac “camps.” DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. Headquarters, Washington, D. C., August 1, 1848. of all thing who befor cloth was, most 1 Bver rich deposit sion seemed to be h and yet Indians, new what a breech afford to buy the hard can m veloping new and only apprehen- it the metal would be found in such abundance as serious- 1y to depreciate its v The incipal store ‘Sutter’s Fort, had received in )0 worth of thig at other merchants had also made Large nes, %0 poor and degraded, have suddenly be- come consumers of the luxuries of I before mentfoned that the great part of the farmers and rancheros had andoned their fields to go to the ines; this is not the case with Captain ter, who was carefully gathering his vheat, estimated at 40,000 bushels. Flour is already worth at Sutter's $36 a barrel, and soon will be $50. Unle large quantities of breadstuffs reack the country, much suffering will occur; ach man now able to pay a , It is believed the merchants and Oregon a upply for the coming winter. st moderate estimate I could n from men acquainted with bject s that upward of 4000 men were working in the gold dis- trict, of whom more than half were Indians, and that from $30,000 to $50,- 000 worth of gold, if not more, & ily obtained. The entire gold dis- with v few exceptions of - vears ago by the rican authorities, is on land be- longing to the United States. It was a matter of serious reflection with me how I could secure to the Government certain rents or fees for the privilege of procuring this gold; but upon con- sidering the large extent of country, the character of the people engaged and t small ttered force at my command I resolved not to interfere, but permit all to work freely, unless broils and crimes should call for inter- ferenc ) surprised to learn that crime of any kind was very unfrequent, and that no thefts or robberies had been committed in the gold district. Al live in tents, in bush houses or in the open air, and men have frequently about their persons thousands of dol- lars’ worth of this gold; and it was to me a matter of surprise that so peace- ful and quiet a state of things should continue to exist. Conflicting claims by W to particular spots cause collisions, as the extent of country is so great and the gold so abundant that for the present there is room and enough for all. The discovery of th st deposits of gold has entirely changed the char- acter of Upper California. Its people, before engaged in cultivating their small patches of ground and guarding their herds of cattle and horses, hav ail gone to the min or are on thel way thither. Laborers of every trade have left their work benches and tradesmen their shops; sailors desert their ships as fast as they arrive on the coast, and several vessels have gone to sea with hardly enough hands to spread a sail; two or three are now at anchor crew taken of but the; ground may place, too, from the thin the influence of the mines; ty-six soldiers have deserted from the post of Sonoma, twenty-four from that of San Francisco and twenty-four from Monterey. For a few days the evil appeared so threatening that great danger existed that the garrisons would leave in a body. Many private letters have gone to the United States giving accounts of the vast quantity of gold recently dis- covered, and it may be a matter of surprise why I have made no report on this subject at an earlier date. The reason is, that I could not bring my- self to believe the reports that I heard of the wealth of the god district until I visited it myself. I have no hesita- tion now in saying that there is more gold in the country drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers than will pay the cost of the present war with Mexico a hundred times over. No capital is required to obtain this gold, as the laboring man wants noth- ing but his pick, shovel and tin pan, with which to dig and wash the gravel; and many frequently pick gold out of the crevices of rock with their butcher knives In pieces from one to six ounces. A soldier of the Artillery Company returned here a few days ago from the mines, having been absent on fur- lough twenty days; he made by trad- ing and_ working during that time $1500. During these twenty days he was traveling ten or eleven days, leav- ing but a week in which he made a sum of money greater than he re- ceives in pay, clothes and rations dur- ing a whole enlistment of five years. These statement< appear incredible, but they are true, access to the work from the shore. water pow mass of rock near the nk is occupi will be rare, | n San Francisco with no | on board. Many desertions have | One of th the pipe- that ad middle of the river, and shore. The first 120 feet 1 by the fore 1 from 70 dam is ¢ surmounted crowned with a This lowered. 1898 o were by am that can be latter prov in the river. 6000 cubic yards of roc! used in the construc- iest rocks that the der- ied out ¢f the river banks; framed timbers 8x8 inche rau n is made to meet any It required 70,000 feet T mouth of that gulch. A sub-flume is bui east bank, discharging over the end dam. Two hydraulic elevatcrs are used, which are sup- plied with power from a reservoir in the adjoining hills, whose lifting power with 1000 inches of water under a head of 480 feet amounts to 510,000 gallons an hour, discharging into the sub-flume The gold found in this part of the river during the preparatory work along the rim was fine and thin. construction, and has a height of 52 feet. The water slope is doubly planked with two-inch boards. The upstream slope is boarded and made tight by sluic- ing in sand. earth and gravel from the banl The dam is provided with a water cushion, and every- thing done for the security of the work that knowl- edge and experience could suggest. To prevent damage to the head of the canal by the waters coming down Morris Ravine in the spring of the year, it became necessary to wingdam the t along the and or in the in the district of about 2000 or ple, of whom 600 are miners, empl Where Randsbu w stand ther i ee a ¥ or a human being. stores, well supplied, and rest: nts, public even churches. Public order intained, and, notwithstanding » with which the community n brought together, one is quite safe in his person and property Randsburg cr Johannesburg as he is in San Fra Los Angeles." The at Rands been at worl placer district a 1 in They found of mine rich decompose and by ]XI"\H‘HIIH_‘I it up unning it | through their wa took much t, level desert south of e is what is known as district. On cutling urface soil and g the found to be trave by nall veins of | gold. | It is one of the agr | this district that ther, quartz, often rich in nark- able number of min doing more or less milling aing out bullion. The milling capacity of the district is now nearly 100 stamps. Noi of the mills are larger than ten stamy and they ted wherever there sufficient water, within a dius of ten miles from Randsburg. The output of the district at present is not less than $100,000 per month, and that ratio will probably be maintained during the cur- rent year. The “dry washer” has cut no insig- nificant - figure in prospecting the | deserts and mountains of Southern Cal- ifornia. It was with a dry washer that Mooers (who was formerly a newspa- | per man) and his companions found Randsburg. Three prospectors were dry-washing when they found La For- tuna mine, just a little way across ‘the Colorado River in Yuma County, Ari- zona, from which Charles D. Lane is now taking out from $50,000 to $100,000 | per month in gold, with which he fights the battles of “free silver.” Dry wash- i v work, but many spectqr by this method makes the which he needs for hunting quartz mines. A really good equipment for a desert prospector wil include a | compact and easily carried dry washer, three good burros, two for pack ani- mals and one for saddle, a pair of ten- gallon kegs for water and the usual camping outfit. Many travel with a less comfortable equipment, but they ought not to do so. And they cannot be too careful about seeing that the supply of water in the kegs never runs out. Most of the tragedies of the desert are caused by carelessness or mishap in the matter of water. Nothing is so calcu- lated to “rattle” even a brave man as the appalling knowledge that he is out of water; that the spring or “tank” upon which he relied is dry and that he is at least a day’s ride across a hot and sandy desert or through rough mountain trails, to the nearest supply. It is mental quite as much as physical suffering that brings insanity to the unfortunate prospector under such con- ditions, and a plain cross supported by @ pile of stones marks the last resting place of not a few brave men who, suf- fering from the pangs of thirst, have wandered about the desert aimlessly and in circles, until finally exhausted. The bodies cf such are nearly always found divested of clothing, which they tear off in their delirium. | E o | DEVELOPMENT OF OUR MINING LAWS. By A. H. RICKETTS. NTIL the Federal mining law of 1866, Congressiona legislation with regard to minerals had been sporadic and unimportant, and until the passage of that act there was no mining law in the United States other than that estab- iished by the miners of the different mining tricts into which the State was divided by them. Mi s’ customs grew up or rules were adopted at mass meetings of the miners which had the of law in the ¢ ricts in which y were adopted. This system was hed in California by the Argo- 1 adually extended in its gen- features to the other mining States ame the American common law ing. is a popular fallacy that these ceuracy ferent origin to them. The old Cali- had little or no experience in mining. *“The Spanish-American tem,” vs the late Mr. Gregory Y the distinguished authority on mini law, “which has grown up under the practical working of the mining ordi- nances for New Spain was the founda- tion of the rules and customs adopted.” mator Stewart has ascribed unde- served merit to the early miners in pro- nouncing them the authors of the local rules and customs. In his letter to Sen- ator Ramsey he says that the miners were forced from the necessity of the case to make laws for themselves; that each mining district formed its own rules and adopted its own customs; the similarity of which throughout the entire mining region, extending over an area of 50,000 square miles, was so great as to attain all the beneficial re- sults of well-digested general laws. They were democratic in their charac- ter, guarding against every form of monopoly, requiring continual work and occupation in good faith, to consti- tute a valid possession. This letter is an interesting paper, coming from a representative miner, and is correct in stating the nature of the rules and customs, and the uni- formity of their adoption. But they were not the spontaneous creation of the miners of 1849-50. They reflect the matured wisdom of the practical miner of past ages, and have as their founda- tion, as has been stated, in certain nat- ural laws, easily applied to different situations, and were propagated in the California mines by those who had a practical and traditional knowledge of them in varied forms, in the countries of their origin, and were adopted and no doubt gradually imyroved and judi- ciously modified by the Americans. This self-evident fact can be admitted without detracting from our national pride. P hcse regulations do ot materially differ from existing national and State laws upon mining; they fixed the boundaries of the district, the qualifi- cations of the locator, the size of the claims, the manner in which claims should be marked and recorded, the amount of work which should be done to secure the titie and the circum- stances under which the claim might be considered as open to relocation, and as the doctrines of the common law respecting the rights of riparian owners were not considered as appli- cable, or only in a very limited de- gree, to the condition of the miners, D BY THE /M ER. late except the general principles of law; but the act of that year restrict- ed the rights of miners to formulate lo- rules; and the State law of 189 subjects them to further restrictio numerous regulations were adopted by which the first appropriator of waier to be conveyed or used for mining or other beneficial purposes was recog- nized as having to the extent of actual depend upon the rules of a mining dis- trict bounded by others with different rules as to the manner of marking the boundaries of a claim, the appropria- tion and use of water for mining pur- use the better right, and rights to so that mow but little is left to the poses, etc., as actions respecting mining water acquired under the local rules miners of this State with respect to claims and water rights, ditches, etc., and customs are protected by the district legisiation. They are still, are yet governed by the local rules and Federal mining law. however, permitted to form mining dis- custo when the same are not in con- The districts were sometimes co- tricts and fix their extent and bounda- flict with the general mining laws. extensive with the jurisdiction of the ries; the size and extent of mining It is remarkable that people coming county, but usually did not contain claims, provided they do nct exceed here by hundreds of thousands took more than one hundred square miles, the maximum limit allowed by law, possession of hundreds of millions often not more than ten, and there prescribe the number of monuments worth of property, which was not open by law to occupation, with so little con- fusion and so little litigation. There is no similar instance in history where property of such value was taken uj by So many owners or claimants under no higher law than that made by them- selves and which gave such absolut: were in places a dozen districts within a radius of ten miles. Quartz claims were usually 200 feet along the lode, with all its dips, spurs and angles.” for each locator with an additional 200 feet to the discoverer of the lode and as many locators might join in one location as they saw fit: and custom marking the exterior boundaries of a claim, etc. But under the State law the mining recorder is no longer given legal existence, and for all practical purposes a mining claim may as well be without as within the limits of an organized mining district, as the te is generally understood. In the latter allowed a double claim to the discov- event it is governed by the general pro- ::}:{}?l“%d:‘ all in respect to mining erer of a placer deposit or bar dig- visions of the Federal and State laws. ~ The riots, troubles, protracted suits Eings. s At one time there were at least 500 ¢ Inw that seve. to Callformia an mn. The size of placer claims depended mining districts in this State. the fortunate name for_lawlessness for a upon the character of the “diggings” names of which were distributed amor : e time did not come from the acts of the miners. The miner made his own la and abided by them. But the land grabber, the squatter, the speculator who claimed land under United States laws with all the protection th:t they gave them were the persons who caused riot, bloodshed and filled our courts with cases criminal and civil. The local laws and customs of miners have been sanctioned by national and State legislation and approved by the courts. Threir spirit pervades all exist- ing law upon the subject and they will ever remain & monument of the love of order, system and fair dealing of the miners of California, who in vast num- bers from all parts of the world probed the earth in all directions for the pre- cious metals “in the days of gold—the days of '40.” and the amount of labor necessary to open them. In the hill diggings the claim was usually 100 feet wide and reached to the middle of the hill. River diggings embraced a certain distance up and down the river or creek with lateral distances on the banks. Neglect to work a claim within a limited num- ber of days worked its forfeiture. The Act of 1866 proposed no new sys- tem. It was a recognition of rights which had grown up under the tacit consent of the Government. It as- sumed the existence of mining customs or rules, and conferred the rights ex- pressed subject tc such customs or reg- ulations, when the same were not in conflict with the laws of the United States. Up to 1872 there was practically no limit to the rower of miners to legis- the appropriate, the poetical and the ridiculous, the last predominating, each having its own code of laws without extraterritorial effect and creating proportionate confusicn and conflict. Since tire law of 1895 the entire State is practically one mining district with a law of uniform application; but cor fusion still exists here in regard to the possible size of locations, the manner of marking their exterior bcundarie etc., as that law, unlike that of other mining States, is strangely silent upon those points, leaving such matters still within the jurisdiction of the mining distriets. Hence particular care should be taken to get the description of a mining dis- trict in the State in which a location is situated as important questions still CROSS SECTION GOLD DIGGINGS OF A GULCH IN THE KLONDIKE orrect and comprehensive idea of the earth’s formation In the ramous Klonaike gold ll‘if‘ld:b‘:;:nn::n;o';:z;;h‘:“;a‘:.ter possibly can. The various gulches along and contiguous to the Yukon River lic invalleys from 200 to 3000 feet wide, between hills and mountains covered with light timber. It is of slow growth and ranges from brush to 12 inches through. If summertime this timber is cut and later used in thawing the ground to reach bedrock. For every cord of wood used in the Klondike district the Canadian Government exacts a duty of 2 cents per cord. Many claim owners are required to go two or three miles back in order to get this wood, which use Guite eypensive, out a positive necessity. . make“':'t:n a pmmect?-':3 first co‘»‘:men::s work on his claim he tears off a layer of thick moss from one to one and a half ‘eet deep. He then builds a fire and continues to thaw a layer of frozen muck and gravel which extends in depth from two t0 thirty feet until the pay streak is reached. The hole being burned down, is usually from five to ten feet in dlameter. and is continued through the pay streak from ome to three feet deep and from two to 100 feet wide, until bedrock ' veached. During the winter the pay streak dirt is hoisted out, and when the snow thaws in May and June p: . B c+ ia afforded for the clean-up that brings fabulous wealth to the hardv vrospector. Bench claims % . square and 7 feet above high water, 5