MINES AND MINING CAMPS.

71

included. By the turn of the season, in October, the number had certainly doubled, although the white mining population for the year could not have exceeded 10,000 men. Arrivals in 1848 have as a rule been overestimated. News did not reach the outside world in time for people to come from a distance during that year. It is impossible to trace the drift of the miners, but I will give the movements of the leading men, and, so far as they have come under my observation, the founders of mining camps and towns.

The success of Bidwell in the north was quickly repeated by others. Two miles from his camp on the north fork of Feather River, one Potter from the Farwell grant opened another bar, known by his name. Below Bidwell Bar lay Long Bar; opposite, Adamstown, first worked by Neal. From Lassen's rancho went one Davis and camped below Morris Ravine, near Thompson Flat. Subsequently Dye and company of Monterey with 50 Indians took out 273 pounds in seven weeks, from mines on this river. The aborigines began to work largely on their own account,

'Simpson should not say there were 3,000 or 4,000 miners at work three months after the discovery of gold, because there were less than 500; four months after the discovery there were less than 1,000; nor should the Reverend Colton speak of 50,000 in Nov., when less than 10,000 white men were at work in the mines. My researches indicate a population in California in the middle of 1848 of 7,500 Hispano-Californians, excluding Indians, and 6,500 Americans, with a sprinkling of foreigners. Of the Californians, probably 1,300 went to the mines, out of a possible maximum of 2,000 able to go, allowing for their larger families. Of the Americans, with smaller families and of more roving disposition, soldiers, etc., 4,000 joined the rush. Add 1,500 Oregonians and northerners, arriving in 1848, and 2,500 Mexicans, Hawaiians, etc., and we have a total mining population of somewhat over 9,000. Cal. Star, Sept. 2, 1848, Dec. 9, 1848, allows 2,000 Oregonians to arrive in 1848, and 100 wagons with U. S. emigrants. The gov. agent, T. B. King, indicates his belief in a population at the end of 1848 of 15,000, or a little more. Report, 15; U. S. Gov. Docs., 31st cong. 1st sess., H. Ex. Doc. 59, 7. The committee of the Cal. const. convention, in statement of March 1850, assumed a population of 26,000, whereof 8,000 Americans, 5,000 foreigners, and 13,000 Californians, but the last two estimates are excessive. See also Stillman's Golden Fleece, 32; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, ii. 393; Grimshaw, Narr., MS., enumerates only five sea-going vessels at San Francisco early in Nov. 1848, and these evidently all on trading trips, and as late as Feb. 1849, the First Steamship Pioneers, found only a few ships here. It is difficult, therefore, to make up 5,000 foreign arrivals before 1849, for the influx from Sonora is shown elsewhere to have been moderate so far.

and Bidwell found more advantage in attending to a trading post opened by him.8

The success on Feather River led to the exploration of its main tributary, the Yuba, by Patrick McChristian, J. P. Leese, Jasper O'Farrell, William Leery, and Samuel Norris, who left Sonoma in July, and were the first to dig there for gold, making in three months $75,000 The diggings on the Yuba were subsequently among the most famous in California, and form the scene perhaps of more of the incidents and reminiscences characteristic of the mining days than any other locality. The leading bars or camps were those of Parks, Long, and Foster, where miners, although poorly supplied with implements, made from $60 to $100 a day; and it is supposed that they lost more gold than they saved, on account of the clumsiness of their implements.10 Below, on Bear River, J. Tyrwhitt Brooks camped with a party." Reading extended his field to Trinity River, the most northerly point reached in 1848; but he had the misfortune to encounter a company of Oregonians on their way south, and these, imbittered against all

Bidwell's Cal. 1841-8, MS., 231-3; Seeton, in Oroville Mer., Dec. 31, 1875. McChristian, in Pioneer Sketches, MS., 9. Jonas Spect states in his Diary, MS., that he found gold on the Yuba, near Long Bar, June 1st. See also Yolo Co. Hist., 33; Yuba Co. Hist., 36.

10 Parks Bar on the Yuba was discovered in August by Stephen Cooper, John Marsh, John P. Long and two brothers, Clay, Willis, and Nicholas Hunsaker, who afterward held important positions in Contra Costa county. Charles Covillaud opened a store there later, and employed a number of Indians to dig gold for him. He married, on Christmas, 1848, Mary Murphy, one of the survivors of the Donner party. He purchased the rancho where Marysville now stands, laid out the town, and named it for his wife. Parks, from whom the bar was named, came across the plains in 1848. Although fifty miners were at work when he arrived, and had been for some time, the bar was christened after him, because he was a man with a family, and more persons answered to the name of Parks than to any other. See account by Juanita, in Sacramento Rescue, Jan. 26, 1871. Juanita was a young Scotchman, John C. McPherson by name, with considerable literary ability. While mining at Long Bar he composed a song in praise of the Yuba, which became a favorite among the miners, and has been frequently printed. Long Ear was named after Dr Long. Burnett and a number of his companions from Oregon began their gold-seeking at this point. The population was then 80 men, 3 women, and 5 children. Foster Bar was one of the last opened in 1848. The gravelly clay dirt, often twelve feet from the surface, was hard to work. 11 Brooks' Four Months, 119-28. His party obtained 115 lbs of gold by Sept. Later, Buffum tried and failed.

Indians by the recent bloody wars in which they had been engaged with their own aborigines, drove him and his party of natives away from what afterward proved to be an exceedingly rich locality.12

Early in June John Sinclair went from his rancho, near New Helvetia, to the junction of the north and south branches of the American River, twelve miles above his house, and there worked fifty natives with good success. During the same month a party of Mormons abandoned their claim on the south branch of the American River, and crossing to the middle. tributary, discovered the deposits on what was later known as Spanish Bar, twelve miles north-east from Coloma. This stream was the richest of any in all that rich region, this one spot alone yielding more than a million of dollars.

Into a ravine between the north and middle branches of the American River, fifteen miles north-east of Coloma, stumbled one day an Irishman, to whom in raillery had been given the nickname Yankee Jim, which name, applied to the rich deposit he there found, soon became famous. A few miles to the north-east of Yankee Jim were Illinoistown and Iowa Hill, found and named by persons from the states indicated. W. R. Longley, once alcalde at Monterey, was followed by Dr Todd into the place named Todd Valley. Hereabout remained many Mormons, who forgot their desert destination, turned publicans, and waxed fat. There were Hannon, one wife and two daughters, who kept the Mormon House; Wickson and wife, the house to which under their successor was given the name Franklin; while Blackman kept au inn at one of the fifty Dry Diggings, which, at the great renaming, became known as Auburn. 13

12 Weaverville Trinity Journal, June 20, 1874; Pacific Rural Press, quoted in Merced People, June 8, 1872.

13 Ferry, Cal., 105-6; Oakland Transcript, April 13, 1873; Alameda Co. Gazette, April 19, 1873; Hutchings' Mag., vol. ii. 197. On these streams some deserters realized within a few days from $5,000 to $20,000 each, and then left California by the first conveyance. Carson's Early Recollections, 6;

North of Coloma Kelsey and party opened the diggings which took his name. South of it Weber Creek rose into fame under the discoveries of a company from Weber's grant, now Stockton, including some Hispano-Californians. After a trip to the Stanislaus, and a more favorable trial on the Mokelumne, with deep diggings, they proceeded on their route, finding gold everywhere, and paused on the creek, at a point about twelve miles from the saw-mill. There they made their camp, which later took the name of Weberville; and while some remained to mine, the rest returned to Weber's rancho for supplies. Trade no less than gold-digging being the object, a joint-stock association, called the Stockton Mining Company, was organized, with Charles M. Weber as the leading member. The company, although very successful with its large native corps, was dissolved in September of the same year by Weber, who wished to turn his attention exclusively to building a town upon his grant. On the creek were also Suñol and company, who employed thirty Indians, and Neligh.

15

The Stockton company had scarcely been established at Weber Creek when a man belonging to the party of William Daylor, a ranchero from the vicinity of New Helvetia, struck into the hills one morning, and found the mine first called, in common with many other

Buffum's Six Months, 77. Sinclair was one of the first to find gold on the north branch. McChristian, in Pioneer Sketches, 9.

14 The other members were John M. Murphy, Joseph Bussel, Andy Baker, Pyle, I. S. Isbel, and George Frazer. Not having at hand all the requisites for the outfit, while the company proceeded to Weber Creek, Weber went to San Francisco and San José, and there bought beads, calico, clothing, groceries, and tools, which were sent by boat to Sutter's embarcadero, and thence transported by wagons to Weber Creek, where a store was opened. Amongst the other articles purchased was a quantity of silver coin, attractive to the natives as ornaments. From the rancho were sent beef, cattle, and whatever else was available for use or sale. Weber, in Tinkham's Hist. Stockton, 72. According to San Joaquin Co. Hist., 21, there were other prominent members, but they were more likely to have been only of the party, and may have joined at another time and place.

13 Buffum, Six Months in the Gold Mines, 92, says that William Daylor, a ranchero near Sutter's Fort, was with Weber at Weber Creek, and that the two employed 1,000 Indians and took out $50,000. See, further, Carson's Early Rec., 5; S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 13, 1859; Alta Cal., July 31, 1856; Brooks' Four Months, 93.

spots, Dry Diggings, afterward Hangtown, and later Placerville.16 It proved exceedingly rich, yielding from three ounces to five pounds of gold daily to the man; and from the middle of June, through July and August, the 300 Hangtown men were the happiest in the universe.

Thus far extended the northern district, which embraced the tributaries of the Sacramento and the north side of the Bay," and centred in Coloma as the point of primary attraction, and whence fresh discoveries radiated. The region below, tributary to the San Joaquin, was largely opened by Indians.18

On the Stanislaus, where afterward was Knight's Ferry, lived an Indian known to white men as José Jesus. He had been instructed in the mysteries of religion and civilization by the missionaries, and was once alcalde at San José. Through some real or fancied wrong he became offended, left San José, and was ever after hostile to the Mexicans, though friendly to others. Tall, well-proportioned, and possessed of remarkable ability, with the dress and dignified manner of a Mexican of the better class, he commanded

6 Buffum's Six Months, 92-3; Ferry, Cal., 105-6. The gulches and ravines were opened about two feet wide and one foot in depth along their centres, and the gold picked out from amongst the dirt with a knife.' Carson's Early Rec., 5.

17 The Californian states that about this time there were many gold-seekers digging in the vicinity of Sonoma and Santa Rosa.

Is A map, entitled Positions of the Upper and Lower Gold Mines on the South Fork of the American River, California, July 20, 1848, is probably the earliest map made expressly to show any part of the gold region, unless it was preceded by another on a larger scale of the same diggings, which bears no date. There is, however, another map, which is dated only five days later than the first mentioned, and is entitled, Topographical Sketch of the Gold and Quicksilver District of California, July 25, 1848, E. O. C. D., Lt U. S. A. This is not confined to one locality, but embraces the country west of the Sierra Nevada from lat. 37° to 40°, and has marked on it all the places where gold had been found at that date. A Map of the Southern Mines, by C. D. Gibbes, 1852, accompanies Carson's Early Recollections. The many books and pamphlets published about California in Europe and the eastern states in 1848–9 generally contained inferior maps, and in some cases an attempt was made to show the gold regions. Such may be found, for instance, in Foster's Gold Regions; Wilkes' Western America; Brooks' Four Months among the Goldfinders; Hartmann's Geog. Stat.; Beschreibung von Cal.; Hoppe's Cal. Gegen wart; Oswald, Californien; Colton's Three Years; and many other similar works. The earliest purely geological map appears in Tyson's Report, pub. lished by the war department in 1849.