Rush Cañon, the site of Cañon City, and Weaver Creek, the site of thriving Weaverville. The county claimed in 1856 over 2,500 miners, whose average income amounted to $1,000 each for the year. Fluming and hydraulic undertakings were in the north-west restricted to a small area, owing to unfavorable surroundings. This interfered also with the reduction of quartz. Ledges had been discovered in 1851, and the excitement which seized upon the branch throughout California found its due response also here; but distance from the base of supply for machinery and provisions so increased the obstacles presented by nature, inexperience, and costlier labor, as to cast a long spell upon the industry. 31

31 In the Reading district, centring round Shasta, or The Springs, a number of camps sprang up in 1849, along and near Clear Creek, among which Briggsville and Horsetown became the most prominent and enduring. Hayes' Mining, iv. 49 et seq. The bed of the creek proved rich, and by the autumn of 1850 some 20 dams were placed to turn the current. Sc. Trancript, Aug. 30, 1850. Northward rose the noted Grizzly Gulch, Flat Creek, Gold Run, Muletown, Churn Creek, Buckeye, Mad Mule, Hardscrabble, and other gulches. The main Sacramento toward Soda Springs acquired fame, chiefly La 1850, when Dog Creek and other tributaries lured the prospector. The mystic Lost Cabin, which so long formed one of their ignes fatuí, was said to have been rediscovered after 14 years. Yreka Union, Feb. 20, 1864. McLeod River also proved remunerative, and new fields continued to be unfolded, as shown by the scattered notices in Alta Cal. for 1850 et seq., and Shasta Courier, 1852-4, passim. Early in 1855, the main Sacramento created a decided excitement, the bars at different points yielding readily $5 per day and upward. Sac. Union, Apr. 13, 19, 1855. In the following year the yield was declared to be greater than ever. S. F. Bulletin, Jan. 29, Feb. 19, 1856; and Shasta flourished till it acquired a population of some 6,000. The increase was greatly due to flumes, tunnels, and other extensive operations, which moreover increased the construction of ditches, particularly in 1855. The most notable enterprises were the Clear Lake ditch, 35 miles in length. Briggsville was supplied by a special ditch from Cottonwood, and shared in the conduit to Lower Texas Springs. Sac. Union, Feb. 15, Apr. 10, May 29, June 12, Oct. 30, 1855, etc. Yet during 1856 water became scarce, which interfered with sluicing. Beyond Mount Shasta, whose volcanic flows had covered many ancient deposits, Siskiyou revelled in a series of rich districts tributary to the upper Klamath. Oregonians on the way to and from the Sacramento had prospected them with moderate results; their unfoldment was due chiefly to the attention created by Reading's venture on the Trinity, to which stream he penetrated in 1848 by crossing from Cottonwood Creek with a band of Indians, and finding sufficient inducement to return in 1849 to work the bar bearing his name. He was joined by Kelsey and others, who reported a yield of from $100 to $300 per day. Placer Times, Sept. 29, 1849, etc.; Alta Cal., Aug. 2, 1849; S. F. Herald, June 8, 1850; Sac. Transcript, Oct. 14, 1850. R. G. Shaw and his unfortunate companions were among the few who dared to winter here. The glowing accounts transmitted roused a lively interest in the south, and as the Trinity was supposed to abut at Trinidad Bay, this point was regarded as the best entrance to it. Expeditions accordingly

VARYING DISTRIBUTION

367

The southern gold region, below El Dorado, as I have said before, is marked by a less regular distribu

set out by sea in Dec. 1849, and found the bay after much search. Pac. News, Apr. 26, 1850, etc. Disappointment in the course of the Trinity tended to disperse the gold-seekers, and to promote the opening of other districts, swelled by the inpouring mass from the Sacramento Valley. Crossing from the Trinity, prospectors, led by Rufus Johnson, found in June 1850 rich bars on Salmon River, especially at the forks and up the north branch. Thence they crossed to the Klamath and followed it up to Shasta River, where Gov. Lane had just been making a fairly successful test in July-August. Inexperience with the ground and with mine indications stamped most efforts in this section during the year, and Yreka Flat and other rich places were then declared worthless. Nevertheless several precious spots were found, such as Scott Bar, from which Scott was driven by Indians, in August, although others followed and sustained themselves. Pac. News, Aug. 22, 1850, has contradictory reports, with best yield at 10-15 cents per pan, but later accounts--Id., Oct. 18, Nov. 1, Sac. Transcript, Oct. 14, Nov. 10, 1850, Cal. Courier, July 1, 1850, and Alta Cal., June 7, 1850, etc.-gave such glowing accounts that a rush set in during the winter. The smallest average was an ounce, while many took out $100 daily. Early in Feb. 1851 a thousand miners passed through Sacramento for the north. Sac. Transcript, Feb. 14, 28, 1851; Pub. Balance, Jan. 25, 1851; Cal. Courier, etc. The chief allurement was Yreka flat with its coarse gold, opened in the spring of 1851, which lured 2,000 men within a few weeks to build Yreka, first called Thompson Dry Diggings, then Shasta Butte City. Frogtown, or Hawkinsville, near by, became the centre for Long, Rich, Canal, and Rocky gulches. Humbug Creek, 10 miles below, belied its name by a profuse yield, which in 1853 occupied 1,000 men, and gave rise to Freetown, which died in 1854, Riderville which revived in 1859 as Plugtown, Mowry Flat, or Frenchtown. McBride Gulch was well known, and beyond Joe Lane Bar, near the mouth of Yreka Creek, Greenhorn Creek gave many a fortune after 1850. Still more renowned was Cottonwood, on the creek of that name, later Henly, with a number of tributary channels, gulches, and flats. Southward, below Shasta River, were Hamburg and Oak bars of 1350, and Virginia. On Scott River, famed for its coarse gold and nuggets, Scott Bar long sustained itself, closely rivalled by Junction, Slapjack, Lytte, Poorman, French, and Johnson bars. Near the latter rose in 1854 Simonville. The three-year-old Deadwood on McAdam's Creek then received a decided advance, but declined after 1858. Hardscrabble and Oro Fino were minor neighbors. Mugginsville, or Quartz Valley, experienced a quartz excitement in 1852, which later bore fruit in two mills. Rough and Ready unfolded into Etna, and Thompson Creek added its quota. Below Scott River rose a number of bars, as Mead, China, Masonic, and Fort Goff. Gen. Lane gives his experiences here in 1850-1. Narr., MS., 108–12; also, Anthony's Rem. Siskiyou, MS., 6-14; Siskiyou Affairs, MS., 10; Yreka Union, June 5, 1869, etc.; Ashland Tidings, Aug. 9, 1878. Barry, Up and Down, 125-30, mentions some rich throves; Hearn's Cal. Sketches, MS., 3. Steele refers to the Yreka discovery in Or. Jour. Council, 1857-8, ap. 42-3; Placer Times, Nov. 15, 1851, etc.

At first, miners on Scott River were restricted to pan and knife working, and the usual pickings returned nothing less than pieces varying from $2.50 to $900. Sac. Transcript, Jan. 13, Feb. 1, 14, 28, 1851. Some accounts are contradictory, yet the yield continued large, with new developments reported every now and then till 1855, at Pinery, which were the last important diggings of Siskiyou, says Yreka Union, June 5, 1869, although the old points widely sustained themselves, aided by quartz and a little hydraulic work. Indian Creek was famed in 1855-6. S. F. Bulletin, Mar. 3, 1856. Poverty Gulch gave $4 per bucket, etc. Sac. Union, Nov. 10, 1854; June 15, July 19, 1855; Alta Cal., 1851-6, passim; Hist. Siskiyou Co., 29, 59, 210 et seq. Quartz leads were found on Humbug Creek and in Scott Valley as early as 1851, and

tion of placer deposits, which occur chiefly in patches and pockets in coarse form, rendering the search more

several companies formed in 1852, Siskiyou Affairs, MS., 22--3; but high prices and wages, and difficulty of introducing machinery, added here to the general obstacles in this branch in early days, and it received a long-enduring check, till 1862, when Humbug rose into prominence. The first ditch, the gross 21 miles, was constructed in 1852 from Ranchería Creek in Cottonwood, and several others were added by 1856, notably the Shasta River canal, 80 miles, completed in the spring of 1856, at a cost of $200,000. Sac. Union, Dec. 14, 1854; Feb. 2, Apr. 14, May 11, July 6, 1855; Alta Cal., Feb. 5, July 19, 1856; S. F Bulletin, Feb. 11, 1856. Below, on the Klamath, were several bars and creeks of note, which added to the wealth of Del Norte county, as Indian Creek, and the adjoining well-sustained Happy Camp, with subsequent hydraulic works. Wood and Wingate, were among the main river bars below. Elk Creek yielded well, and around Crescent City sprang up a flourishing district, with Bald Hills, which gave rise to the ephemeral Vallardville, and to more enduring hydraulic claims, and with the Smith River mines, notably Myrtle Creek, which paid from $5 to $25 per day. Van Dyke's Stat., MS., 8; Sac. Transcript, Jan. 14, 1851. There were also French Hill, Hayne Flat, and Big Flat, the latter with extensive gravel beds. Bledsoe's Del Norte, 10, 21, 39 et seq.; Crescent City Herald, Nov. 29, 1854; Hist. Humboldt Co., 121, etc.; Sac. Union, Dec. 14, 1854; June 15, 1855; and references above. Klamath county shared also in the gold tribute of Klamath River, and Orleans Bar, which became the county seat in 1856, dates since 1850 as her first placer field. Her largest yield came, however, from the Salmon River fork, with Gullion Bar, Negro Flat, Bestville, and Sawyer Bar as leading places. On Frost Bar, a large party made from $2,000 to $6,000 each within two months. Sac. Transcript, Oct. 14, Nov. 14, 1850; Feb. 1, 14, 28, 1851. Early in 1851, about 1,000 persons left Trinidad for that river, paying from $1 to $225 a pound for packing food. Two men had come down from Salmon River with $90,000, the result of three weeks' work. The stream continued to yield well, and in 1855 the miners were making from $6 to $50 per day between Bestville and Sawyer. At Sawyer it was proposed to exclude Chinese. Alla Cal., Apr. 2, Aug. 7, 1854; Apr. 21, May 25, 1855; July 26, 1857; S. F. Bulletin, Mar. 11, 1857; Aug. 4, 1856; Sac. Union, Feb. 15, Apr. 2, May 10, Aug. 17-18, 1855. Humboldt county could show little of mineral resources beyond her share in the scanty Gold Bluff production. The interior of Trinity county absorbed the main sources from this coast region by occupying the headwaters of Trinity River. Reading's Bar of 1848-which worked in 1849-51, revived in 1852 had been followed in quick succession by a series of diggings, as Evans', dating since 1849, with the first log cabin, and with a ditch in 1851. In 1850 the number of camps multiplied, including Red, Whetstone, Slate, Pike County, and other bars. Steiner flat, or ville, lasted many years. 1851 rose Trinity Center, long prosperous, Eastman, Bolt, and Deadwood diggings, Arkansas Dam, twice dammed in 1854 at a cost of $45,000. Point, Polka, and Poverty bars, and Miners, or Diggers, ville followed, the latter on Stewart Fork, where in 1855 rose Ridgeville, or Golden City, with 700 inhab. in 1856, though it soon declined. One of the most prosperous places was Weaverville of 1850, which became the county seat in 1851, and claimed at one time 4,000 inhabitants. It lay on Weaver Creek, which was prospected in 1849. Cañon Creek had two prominent camps in Mill Town and Cañon City, the latter dating since 1851, and having in 1855 fully 400 inhabitants. It revived in 1858. Below Cooper, Big Bar, with first female settler, Mrs Walton, and Manzanita, were among the bars opened in 1849, followed in 1850 and later by Big Flat, which counted 250 persons in 1855, Vance Bar, North Fork, important in 1852, and Taylor Flat. On the lower Trinity were Cedar Flat and Burnt Ranch. The Sac. Transcript, Apr. 26, Oct. 14, 1850, Feb, 14, June 15, 1851, reports that one man

In