Q.David Bowers
In some areas gold was claimed by making excavations in the manner of digging a well. Often this would be done by sinking a vertical shaft and hoisting dirt up from the bottom by means of a crank-operated windlass. In other instances the tunnels would be horizontal and would extend into a hillside. This method was called "coyote mining." It was said that one place near Nevada City was so honeycombed with "coyote mining" holes that it was called Coyoteville until it was washed away in later years by hydraulic mining procedures.
Hydraulic mining, a method by which whole mountain sides were washed away using high pressure water from hoses, became popular several years after the gold discovery. A pioneer was A. Chabot, a Frenchman, who mined a gravel deposit on Buckeye Hill, near Nevada City, by using a high-pressure water hose to wash gold-bearing gravel and earth into a sluice box. In 1853 E. E. Matteson, who had a claim on American Hill near Buckeye Hill, fashioned a hose with a metal nozzle (which the Chabot device did not have) and aimed it directly at a gravel bank, thereby washing down large amounts of material. Later, devices called "monitors" were made. These used one or more high pressure nozzles, often mounted on an iron or wood framework, which directed streams of water up to several hundred feet away.
Hydraulic washing caused extensive devastation to stream beds, filling them with gravel and filth, and, in the lower ranges, causing havoc to agricultural areas. Finally the courts prohibited this method.
In later years one of the most famous hydraulic mining areas was near North Bloomfield, about 10 miles northeast of Nevada City. Earlier gold was discovered there by two adventurers, an Irishman and a German, who found a promising deposit around 1851.
One of them went to Nevada City to obtain supplies. Following a drinking session, he regaled his listeners with glowing tales of immense wealth, without divulging the exact location of the find. The next morning a large crowd of people followed him back to the discovery area. He apparently diverted them, so the group began prospecting along a creek and met with little success. Later, in 1853, when hydraulic mining commenced there, a town named Humbug, after "humbug" or hoax, was started in that location. In 1856 the citizens, upon the establishment of a United States Post Office, changed the name to the more proper-sounding North Bloomfield.
In the early days of 1848 and 1849 gold was obtained with a minimum of effort. One prospector, Buffum, later wrote of his adventures in Six Months in the Gold Mines. He told of his first discovery:
I shall never forget the delight with which I first struck and worked out a crevice. It was the second day after our installation in our little log hut, the first having been employed in what is called "prospecting" or searching for the most favorable place at which to commence operations.
I had slung pick, shovel, and bar upon my shoulder and trudged merrily away to a ravine about a mile from our house. Pick, shovel, and bar did their duty, and I soon had a large rock in view. Getting down into the excavation I had made and seating myself upon the rock, I commenced a careful search for a crevice and at last found one extending longitudinally along the rock. It appeared to be filled with a hard, bluish clay and gravel, which I took out with my knife; and there at the bottom, strewn along the whole length of the rock, was bright yellow gold in little pieces about the size and shape of grains of barley.
Eureka! Oh, how my heart beatl I sat still and looked at it some minutes before I touched it, greedily drinking the pleasure of gazing upon gold that was in my very grasp and feeling a sort of independent bravado in allowing it to remain there. When my eyes were sufficiently feasted, I scooped it out with the point of my knife and an iron spoon and, placing it in my pan, ran home with it much delighted. I waited and found that my first day's labor in the mines had made me $31 richer than I was in the morning.
On the Yuba River, a tributary of the Feather, Patrick McChristian, J. P. Leese, Jasper O'Farrell, William Leery, and Samuel Norris found $75,000 worth of gold in three months. For a group of Mormons a rich gold deposit on a branch of the American River at a place known as Spanish Bar yielded more than $1 million worth of metal. "Dry Diggings," often shortened to "Dry Diggins," was the name at one time for nearly 50 different locations, some just small spots, which lacked abundant water. The Middle Fork of the American River was considered to be the richest area of all and contained more sand bars than any other tributary, several of which were said to have yielded from $1 million to $3 million each. Camps and settlements along the river included Michigan Bluff, Rector Bar, Sailor's Claim, Horseshoe Bar, Massachusetts Flat, Condemned Bar, Long Bar, Whiskey Bar, Rattlesnake Bar, Milk Punch Bar, Dead Man's Bar, Manhattan Bar, Oregon Bar, Murderer's Bar, Wildcat Bar, Willow Bar, Hoosier Bar, Green Mountain Bar, Poverty Bar, and countless others. Mud Canyon and American Bar are said to have yielded $3 million each, whereas Horseshoe Bend, Volcano Bar, Greenhorn Slide, and Yankee Slide yielded sums from $1 million upward.
As years went on, water was often transported long distances at great expense to work areas in fields, hillsides, and other locations not along streams. By the end of 1855 El Dorado County had over 600 miles of sluices erected at a cost of $1 million.
The area between the Middle and North forks of the American River was quite rich. The district around Auburn was opened up in 1848. One of the best deposits was found in the ground beneath House's Hotel and enabled the proprietor to earn about $100 a day digging in his basement. On the nearby Bear River the town of Dutch Flat became prominent. In the community one limestone structure, with doors and windows covered by heavy iron plates as was customary in the area to provide security against unauthorized visitors and protection against fire, served as an assay office and bank.
Miners who spent the 1848-1849 winter on the Yuba River made a number of new discoveries. The town of Rough and Ready became an important mining center, and in 1850 nearly 1,000 voters participated in the election. During one skirmish with the government, Rough and Ready declared itself to be an independent nation. However, soon all differences were resolved.
The largest nugget discovered in the early 1850s was probably that found at Carson Hill, Calaveras County, in November 1854. Hittell described it as "a lump, 15 inches long by 6 inches wide by 4 inches thick, weighing about 195 pounds troy, and worth over $43,000," whereas Bancroft described the same object in this fashion: