Q.David Bowers
Larkin believed that the gold would last several years at the least. Others with whom he talked thought it would extend a century or more. There were no scientists or geologists to give reliable reports, so one guess was as good as another. At the time of Larkin's second letter nearly three quarters of the houses in San Francisco were vacant. A lot with a house on it was being sold at the price an empty lot sold for earlier.
In Monterey to the south the same situation was happening. Houses were abandoned, tradesmen left, and commercial activity was at a virtual standstill.
At the mines Larkin had seen a gentleman who earlier had served as attorney general for the king of the Sandwich Islands. Now he was digging an ounce and a half per day of gold. Nearby were judges, attorneys, and administrators doing the same thing.
At Monterey Col. R. B. Mason, Jr., governor of California, became increasingly concerned as he observed nearly the entire working population leaving for the gold fields. On June 17, 1848, he left Monterey accompanied by Lt. William Sherman. Arriving in San Francisco three days later he found that nearly all the male inhabitants had gone. On his earlier visit the same town had been a busy and thriving community.
Crossing San Francisco Bay in a launch to Sausalito, and then going by way of Bodega and Sonoma to Sutter's Fort at New Helvetia, he arrived on July 2nd. During the trip he saw stray horses and cattle wandering through abandoned fields of wheat, farms growing up in weeds, and countless vacant houses. Sutter's Fort was a beehive of activity. Goods were coming and going and activity was bustling. Only two mechanics remained on hand to help Sutter build things, each of whom earned $10 per day. Storekeepers were paying Sutter $100 per month for a room at the fort. A twostory house within the fort enclosure had been leased as a hotel at $500 per month.
From the fort Mason went 25 miles up the American River to the Lower Mines, also known as the Mormon Diggings, where about 200 miners were busy and where a store had been set up. From that point he went about 25 milesfurther up the river to Coloma. He spent several days examining the mining area in the company of James Marshall and Capt. Charles M. Weber. At that time he estimated that 4,000 people were engaged in mining activity. At one place he saw a trench about 300 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2 or 3 feet deep. From this area two men and their employees in a weeks time time had taken 17,000 in gold. After paying the employees, the two leaders had $10,000 net profit remaining. He saw another small ravinewhich yielded $12,000. Nearby were many other ravines and tributaries which appeared to be quite similar but which one had yet touched.
An incident reported at Weber's store, made of brush and located on Weber's Creek, illustrates how plentiful gold was at the time and how it was regarded. A prospective customer came in and picked up a box of seidlitz powder, an effervescent used as a mild cathartic, and asked the price. Weber said that it wasn't for sale. The man offered an ounce of gold for it, but Weber told him that although he had just paid 50c for the powder he didn't want to sell it. Weber was then offered an ounce and a half, valued at $24 at the time, so Weber felt he couldn't refuse. The exchange was made.
Mason had hoped to visit the mines which had developed on the Yuba, Feather, and Bear rivers, but before he had a chance to do so he was recalled to Monterey. He returned home after having been away a month. On his way back he visited a quicksilver mine at New Almaden, located about 12 miles south of San Jose. He took note of the manner in which the quicksilver ore was reduced. The furnaces consisted of large iron kettles of the type originally made to process whale oil aboard ship. Each furnace was comprised of two of these kettles, one inverted with the bottom up over the other, thereby forming a closed iron chamber. From a hole in the top kettle a brick-lined flue led to a separate condensing chamber of cooler temperature, at the bottom of which was a small iron reservoir.
Each morning -the furnace would be filled with ore. All day an intense heat would be applied to the bottom of the furnace chamber causing the quicksilver, or mercury, to volatilize or sublime, and in the form of vapor pass through the flue to the chamber. Upon cooling the metal would condense on the chamber walls and trickle down to the iron reservoir at the bottom, from which salable metal could be extracted.
During the two days of Mason's visit he saw four such ovens operating, yielding a net of 656 pounds of mercury, salable at the time for $1.80 per pound at Mazatlan, Mexico. In California there was no need for quicksilver yet, but within a short time it was to become an important part of the gold extraction process.
Upon his return to Monterey, Mason gathered together his notes. He estimated that from $30,000 to $50,000 per day was being produced in the mines. He considered the possibility of securing for the government a royalty, or rent, from the miners, but after contemplating the vastness of the land, the character of the people, and the difficulty of enforcing such an idea, it was dropped. He believed that the government should not interfere unless crime or other problems arose. At the time there was very little crime in the gold districts. In fact, it was almost unknown. Miners would carry hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of gold with them or would leave it in their tents, and there would be no problems.
Col. R. B. Mason, Jr. called upon the people on July 25, 1848, to help apprehend deserters from the military forces. There were no people in the military to help, for the officers were just as eager to go off to the fields as were the men. Furloughs were given to many soldiers and officers, and many who could not obtain leave simply deserted. Faced with demands of up to $300 per month for a cook's wages, few officers and officials could afford their services, so they prepared their own food. One reported:
This morning for the fortieth time we had to take to the kitchen and cook our own breakfast. A general of the United States Army and commander of a man-of-war, and the mayor of Monterey in a smoking kitchen, grinding coffee, toasting herring, and peeling onions!
The military situation became so bad that by November 1848 an advertisement in The Californian, which had since resumed publication, advised that the sum of $40,000 was available for the capture of deserters from a certain squadron, to be divided as follows: for the first four people deserting since July, $500 each, and for all others $200 each, the reward to be paid in silver dollars upon delivery of the deserter.
On August 17, 1848, ten days after the proclamation at Monterey of the treaty transferring sovereignty of the California Territory from Mexico to the United States, Col. R. B. Mason, Jr., wrote an account of the gold situation. He enclosed as many facts as he could as well as specimens of gold nuggets and cinnabar (mercury ore). The account and its enclosures were sent by specialmessenger to Washington. Using this information, President Polk in his annual message of December 5,1848, informed the American people of the situation.