The resources of California

Front matter

RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA.

THIRD EDITION

By JOHN S. HIT TELL.

Preface

in full sight of the greatest rewards for snccess, and witli the fewest chances of failure.

The general public are aware that California is a peculiar state, and their attention has often been called to certain prominent points of wonder, like those to which I have just referred ; but hitherto there has been no careful attempt to sum up all that is known of her resources and natural history. I have undertaken that task, and the result of my undertaking is in this book placed before the ^'eader. I have been a Californian since 1849, and expect to be as long as I may live. All the most interesting associations of my life are connected with this state. I arrived in the country while it was still under a territorial government, and more than a year before it was organized as a state under act of Congress. I saw the land in its original w^ildness, and saw society, order, trade, industry and polity developed ; and I now see about me the, beginnings and promises of science, art, literature, philosophy, and whatever can enrich or honor humanity. I have seen the state grow up, and its history is part of my life. The land-marks of its chorography, and the prominent events of its political, social, and industrial progress, mark epochs in my memory. Many of the happiest days of my life have been spent here, and here I hope to enjoy whatever blessings the future may have in store for me. If then I fail to do justice in my book to California, the failure will not be for any lack of love of her. Neither will it be for any lack of attention or industry. During the last nine years, I have assiduously collected every thing within my reach relative to the industry, resources, natural history and population of the state. I have looked through all the newspapers published between Crescent City and San Diego, and have examined all the books written about the country, Spanisli, Jb'rench and German, as well as English. I have

PREFACE. VU

been in the extreme nortli, and the extreme south ; I have gone to both extremities by land and sea ; I have travelled through the centre of her great basin ; I am intimately acquainted with her richest agricultural districts ; I know something of her mining and agriculture by experience and practice ; and, hnally, I have endeavored to compress into this book all the important att^iinable facts. Amidst so much information, there are undoubtedly some little errors ; but the fair critic, before condemning and expatiating upon minor faults, will pass judgment upon the'question whether the book is or is not more comprehensive and instinictive than any other, or than all others relating to the same subject.

Of course, when I quote from the writings of others, I use quotation marks, and give credit according to the rules of honorable autliors ; but I have adopted, without quotation marks, various passages from articles written by myself, and published in different newspapers and magazines. Since the work is intended for popular use, and should be free from every thing not intelligible and interesting to the general reader, I have made no references to authorities ; and, indeed, I have drawn my information from so great a variety of sources (in many instances newspapers), that it would have been very inconvenient for nie, and cumbersome to the book, to cite the authority for every statement. In case," however, that the accuracy of any statement in the work should be called in question, I think that I can produce in CA'Cry case credible evidence, and in most cases the conclusive proof While I have drawn my material from many different sources, I claim as much originality as is possible for so comprehensive a collection of facts, in so many and so distinct branches of knowledge.

San Francisco, March, 1862.

Introduction

PROGRESS OF THE LAST FIVE YEARS.

§ 1. Preliminary. — Since the first edition of this book was prepared for the press five years have elapsed, and in that time some progress has been made by the industry of California, and some new light has been thrown upon the resources and physical geography of the State. In this introductory chapter, I shall try to state briefly the main points of the additional information obtained since 1862.

§ 2. The Galifornian Alps. — The State Geological Survey discovered, in the summer of 1864, that the Sierra Nevada, between latitudes 35° and 38*^, has the wonderful mountain region of California. Shasta, which towers in solitary grandeur 7,000 feet above everything in its vicinity, and shows its mantle of eternal snow to a wide area in three States, is no longer our highest peak. Mt. Whitney, in latitude 36° 30'', which is surrounded by so many other peaks of nearly equal height as to attract no special attention from a distance, rises to about 15,000 feet, while Shasta is only 14,440.

Not only is Shasta dethroned, but also Switzerland. The Helvetian Republic has, for hundreds of years, had the fame of possessing the greatest area of elevated land, and the largest number of great peaks within the limit of high civilization, but the newly discovered mountain region surpasses Switzerland. That country has only four peaks above 13,000 feet, and not more than 150 square miles above 8,000 feet, while we have 100 peaks above 13,000 feet and 300 or more square miles above 8,000 feet.

This Alpine region of California occupies the upper part of the Sierra Nevada, from Castle Peak to Kern River, a distance of 200 miles ; and throughout that distance all the main peaks rise to 13,000 feet or more. The exact height of Mt. Whitney is not known. The surveying party made two trials to get to the summit, but failed. C. R.

ii INTRODUCTION,

King reached an elevation of 14,730 feet, and was there arrested by a precipice. He thought there were 300 or 400 feet of elevation above him. The main Fork and the North Fork of Kern River rise on the southern and western slopes of this mountain, and King's River on its northwestern slope. The main Fork of Kern River runs southward for thirty miles through a tremendous caiion, in the upper part of which the river falls 10,000 feet within six miles. A mountain whose summit is six miles east of Mono Lake, and 7,000 feet above it — a pretty steep ascent — is called Mt. Dana. A peak further south, with an elevation of 13,700 feet, is called Mt. Grant ; another of 14,500 feet is called Mt. Tyndall ; a third is styled Mt. Brewer. From Castle Peak, in latitude 38°, for a distance of 200 miles along the summit of the Sierra, there is no pass known feasible for a wagon, or less than 11,000 feet in altitude. It would not be safe to assert, however, that no lower pass will be discovered. Much of the range has not yet been examined. Throughout all this Alpine region the views are very extensive, and the scenery grand beyond that of Switzerland, though not so picturesque ; that is, not so beautiful in little places. At some future time it will become a place of great resort for tourists and travelers.

§ 3. The Great Brought— The winters of 1862-63 and 1864-65 proved to be unusually dry, the former bringing only 15i and the latter only 8i inches of rain at San Francisco, instead of the average of 21 inches. Two such dry seasons coming together proved very disastrous, and there was a general failure of crops, and a great mortality among cattle. It was estimated that out of 3,000,000 horses, neat cattle and sheep that were in the State in 1862, 800,000 perished by starvation within two years, and most of those which survived had a very narrow escape. The southern coast counties suffered most severely, some of them losing two-thirds of their cattle, which were the main stock of their wealth. The year 1865 is known as the year of the great drought, and the native Californians say that at no time within forty years had two consecutive seasons passed with so little rain.

§ 4. The Earthquake of 1865— On the 8th October, 1865, San Francisco was visited by an earthquake that surpassed in violence any shock felt here within the recollection of tlie oldest inhabitants. It occurred on Sunday at 12:45, P. M. just about the time when the morning services were being closed in the churches. Two-thirds of the front of a new four-story brick building on the corner of Third and Mission streets (the mortar of which had not had time to dry yet) was thrown down. Parts of the fire-walls and chimneys of two dozen brick

INTRODUCTION. Ul

buildings were tlirown down. The walls of the City Hall, of the old Merchant's Exchange on Battery street, of California Engine House on Market street, the Pennsylvania Engine House on Jackson street, the Market building at the corner of Pine and Market streets, besides a multitude of others, were badly cracked. Several wooden buildings which were being raised, and were supported on temporary scaffolding or blocks, were thrown down and demolished. The falling cornices and fire- walls filled some of the streets with dust, and fell on four or five persons, some of whom were seriously hurt, though the injuries did not prove fatal in any case. In those churches where the services were not closed, the people rushed for the doors in a very disorderly manner.

§ 5. Geological Survey. — A geological survey of the State was commenced in November, 18G0, and has been since prosecuted under charge of Prof. J. D. Whitney. He has been assisted by Wm. M. Qabb, in paleontology, W. H. Brewer and H. N. Bolander in botany, J. G. Cooper in zoology, A. Remond and Clarence King in general geology, Wm. Ashburner in economical geology, C. F. Hoffman, V. Wackenreuder and J. T. Gardner in topography. The expense of the work has so far been about $100,000. Only two volumes of the report have been published, but others are ready for the press, and several will soon be out. The following are some of the results of the survey :

The coast mountains rose from the sea before the Sierra Nevada, and the latter range was for long after much lower than now ; and a vegetation, different from that which now flourishes here, covered the land. Afterwards came a series of great volcanic convulsions ; the Sierra Nevada was lifted up on three successive occasions, separated by long intervals. A hundred volcanoes poured out vast floods of liquid fire and of water mixed with ashes. Mounts Shasta and Lassen, Pilot Peak, Spanish Peak, Old Man Mountain, and Castle Peak, and a multitude of others for which we have no names, were all ablaze at once. There were intervals of rest between their periods of activity, and alternate beds of lava and of alluvial gravel or soil exist on the hills as deposited in what were then valleys or the beds of rivers. An area of not less than 20,000 square miles is now covered with lava. The three periods of upheaval were first at the close of the Cretaceous era ; second after the deposition of the Miocene tertiary ; and third after the later Pliocene. This last upheaval is supposed to be still in progress.

It was during this period of volcanic activity that the earliest man of whom any remains have been found in the world, lived, and he lived

JV INTRODUCTION.

in what is now Calaveras County. A few years since, some human bones were found in England and France, showing that men lived in those lands in a former epoch, contemporaneously with the hyena, the rhinoceros, the elephant, and numerous other animals which disappeared from Europe long before the beginning of our historical records. This discovery made a great sensation in the learned world, and was tjie basis of Lyell's great book on "The Antiquity of Mankind." The ancient human bones of Europe were foimd in the later tertiary formation ; but now a human skull has been found in California in the pliocene, a much older formation. This skull is, therefore, the remnant not only of the earliest known pioneer of this State, but the oldest known human being. The skull was found in a shaft 150 feet deep, two miles from Angel's, in Calaveras county, by a miner named James Matson, who gave it to Mr. ScriBner, a merchant, and he gave it to Dr. Jones, who sent it to the State Geological Survey. Prof. Whitney went to the place, examined it, questioned the persons who had had the skull in their possession, and he is entirely satisfied that it was found in the shaft, as represented. The shaft passes through five beds of lava and volcanic tufa, and four deposits of auriferous gravel. The upper bed of tufa is homogeneous, and without any crack through which the skull could have been introduced from above. The published volume of the State Survey on the Geology of California states that man existed here contemporaneously with the mastodon, but this fossil proves that he was here before the. time in which the mastodon was known to extist. Prof. Whitney has divided the animal paleontology ot the State into two epochs ; the pliocene, or the epoch before the great volcanic eruptions which covered a large part of the State, and the post-pliocene, which came after the eruptions. Most of the prominent animals, the fossils of which have been found here, such as the mastodon, elephant, rhinoceros, bison, tapir, mammoth bull, horse and buflklo, have not been encountered in the pliocene, and all the vegetables so far met there are of species not now living in the State.

After the volcanic epoch came the glacial epoch, in which glaciers, far grander than any that now exist in the alps, were found in all the large ravines on the high mountains, where their marks still remain, though the rivers of ice gradually disappeared before the .gradually increasing warmth of the climate. The auriferous gravel in the ancient river beds was deposited in the latter pliocene, and it was followed by a great outbreak of volcanic energy, which covered the gravel with beds of lava and other eruptive material.

INTRODUCTION. . y

The gold deposits of the State lie not in the Silurian rock^, which were previously considered to be the basis of all rich auriferous regions, but in the Jurassic or Triassic lithological formations of later date.

The coal region of California lies not in the tertiary rocks, as was previously supposed, but in the Cretaceous, the highest portion of the secondary era.

The limits of the Jurassic and Cretaceous have been traced with tolerable accuracy over most of the area of the State.

All the principal high points of the State, long known, have been ascended, their geological character examined, and their precise altitude ascertained.

A large district, previously unheard of by the public, has been found to rise to a height of eleven thousand feet or more, with a hundred peaks that rise about thirteen thousand feet, and a general elevation, extent and grandeur of scenery that surpass Switzerland.

The Big Tree has been found to exist, not merely in a few isolated groves, as was supposed, but in extensive forests, with tens of thousands of trees, along a considerable portion of the Sierra Nevada.

Large bodies of excellent pasturage were found in places previously unknown to the whites.

It has been ascertained that the men and mammoths, whose bones are found deep in the hills of the mining districts, lived together in the same age, and their remains were buried side by side in the same natural convulsions, which happened many thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of years ago.

An extensive collection of minerals, vegetables, and preserved or stuffed animals, has been obtained, and will be prepared for exhibition so soon as the State prepares a proper place for it.

§ 6. Wheat. — Within the last three years much larger crops of wheat have been grown than ever before, and during the twelve months ending July 1, 1867, San Francisco exported wheat and flour equivalent to 1,700,000 barrels of flour, more than twice as much as was ever exported in any one year before. The production of barley is about the same as it was seven years ago, while the area sowii in wheat has increased considerably. Of late, many hills which were before untouched by the plough, have been sown in wheat.

^ 7. Fruit. — There has been a very slight increase in the number of apple, pear and peach orchards since 1862. Cherries have been very profltable near San Francisco, and a multitude of trees have been planted in the vicinity of the bay. It has been found that some trees

VI INTRODUCTION.

which thrive in the coast valleys do not thrive in the Sierra Nevada. Mr. Weatherwax, an orchardist at Mud Springs, El Dorado county, has ascertained, by trial, the Benick is the most profitable apple there, and after it come the Red Romanite, the Red Cheek Pippin, Prior's Red, the Belleflower and Esopus Spitzenberg. The most profitable pears are the Bartlett, Easter Beurre, Vicar of Wakefield and Winter Nellis. Mr. Nickerson, of Placer county, obtained, as gross receipts from a years's crop on his best trees, eight years old, the following prices, viz : figs, $75 ; pear, peach, apple and plum, each, $60 ; apricot, $50, and nectarine, $45.

§ 8. The Grape. — The number of vineyards has increased greatly within five years, especially in the counties north of the bay and in the Sierra Nevada. According to the Report of the Surveyor General of the State, for 1866, in that year 1,312,730 gallons of wine were made, and there were 15,410,077 grape vines in vineyard. It is not determined yet, by common consent among winegrowers, what are the best wine grapes, but many of the most intelligent viniculturists think that for light white wines, the best grapes are the Golden Chasselas, the Burger, the White Rhenish Muscatella, the Riessling, the Chasselas Fontainebleau, and the White Green ; and for red wine, the Zenfenthal, the Black Malvoisie, the Black Burgundy, the Running Burgundy, Black Cabrunet and the Traminer. For the table, the White Muscat of Alexandria bears the best price ; and for raisins, the White Malaga, called also the Fiherzagos, is preferred.

In the first and second edition of The Resources, the largest grape vine of the State was inadvertently passed over without notice. In 1765 Seilora Dominguez, a native of Mexico, and a resident of Santa Barbara county, rode from Monterey to her home, and before starting she picked up a grape cutting for a switch. When she had ridden twenty miles she saw that her switch was budding, so she took care of it, and after getting to her liouse at Montecito, she planted it in the garden. The vine grew, and now its trunk is 15 inches in diameter, and its branches are supported by an arbor 114 feet long and 78 feet wide. Its annual yield of grapes is three or four tons. Sertora Dominguez, who planted it, died on the 9th May, 1865, at the age of 105 years, after having given more than 300 children, grand children, great-grand children, and greatrgreat-grand children to the State. The vine was watered from a mineral spring, find the old lady said the grapes and the wine from it were better than any others in the neighborhood, and that the superior excellence was due to the mineral water.

INTRODUCTION. VU

E. M. Smith, in Coloma, has an Isabella vine which is now in its fifth year, and in 186G it bore 1,500 bunches of grapes, which weighed 420 pounds. He estimates the yield this year at 2,500 bunches and 1,000 pounds. I visited the vine and started to count the bunches, but gave it up in despair, and determined to accept Mr. Smith's estimate.

The value of the wine exported in 18G3 was $79,000 ; in 1864, $41,000 ; in 18G5, $89,000 ; in 18GG, $1G9,000 ; and in the first half of 18G7, $G2,000.

The principal wholesale wine houses of San Francisco are the following, viz: The United Anaheim Wine Growers' Association. (B. Dryfas, agent,) deals only in Anaheim wines ; G. Groezinger & Co, Mercado & Seully, and Kohler & Frohling, deal in California wines generally; M. Keller and A. Eberhardt deal chiefly in Los Angeles wines ; and I. Landsberger and M. Hoadley deal chiefly in still and sparkling Sonoma wines. Any orders to these houses for wines, by express, would no doubt be promptly and honestly filled. Persons in the East desirous of getting specimens of California wines, can send their money with instructions.

The following are the chief varieties — viz : Red Wine, White Wine Port, Sherry, Madeira, Sparkling Sonoma and Angelica. The Red and White are usually the plain grape juice in a vinous state of fermentation ; the Port, Sherry and Madeira are made stronger, either by letting the grapes remain on the vine until much of the water has evaporated or else by adding brandy. The Angelica is not fermented. The lio-ht wines of California are almost invariably pure ; and the strong wines have no admixture that deserves to be considered an adulteration.

§ 9. Hop.— The cultivation of the hop on a large scale has been established with profit. Several fields of cotton, of several hundred acres each, were cultivated for two or three years during the war but now the business is less profitable, and most of those who engao-ed in it have abandoned it. In 1866, 198 bales of Californian cotton were brought to San Francisco, from Tulare and Los Angeles counties. Flax seed and the castor oil are both grown in the State now.

§ 10. SUk Worms. — Extensive fields have been planted with the white mulberry, and the breeding of silk worms has been commenced on an extensive scale, and a silk factory has been erected at San Josd. It is found that the worms thrive wonderfully well in our climate, and are so heavy that it is sufficient to feed them once a day, by giving them a big supply in the morning.

§ 11. Quartz 3fimug. —Qn&rtz mining in California is in a very

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

satisfactory and progressive 'Condition. The number of mines being opened and mills being built is much larger tlian at any previous time ; and, what is more important, the enterprises now in progress are in the hanfls of men who, as a class, have more learning, more experielnce and more prudence than those who erected quartz mills before the discovery of the Washoe mines. All the energy and capital of California were concentrated in silver for four or five years, and we are now just getting to study gold-quartz mining as a regular business.

Among the principal quartz mines of the State are the following : The Princeton Mine, which has produced $4,000,000 ; the Pine Tree and Josephine, which together produced $350,000 from the 1st May, 1860, to the 1st May, 1863 ; the Mariposa Mine produced $84,948 in 1864. Those four mines are in the Mariposa grant, and liaA^e all been idle since 1865, because of mismanagement. The New Britain has yielded $52,000 ; the Sherman, $200,000 ; the Kite's Cove yields $150 per ton ; and the Potts' Mine, $50,000 annually.

In Tuolumne county, the Soulsby yields $100,000 annually; the Piatt has paid $40,000 profit ; the Grizzly has produced $125,000 ; the Excelsior, $300,000; the Sell & Martin, $150,000; the Tennessee, $60,000 ; the Austrian, $100,000 ; and the Sophia, $45,000 ; the total yield of the App, the Reist, the Heslep, and the Golden llule have not been reported, but they are doing a large amount of work, and are all valuable.

The Morgan Mine, on Carson Hill, in Calaveras county, (according to the statement of Thomas Dear, who is reputed to have better opportunities of knowing than any body else,) produced $2,800,000 from February, 1850, to December, 1851. Mr. Stevenot, however, who claimed an interest in the mine, though he did not succeed in the courts, says the sum was $1,500,000. At any rate, immense masses of gold were found, and the town of Melones, at the foot of the hill, was the largest mining camp in the State for a time. For sixteen years the title was in litigation and the mine in idleness. Work has been resumed lately. The South Carolina has yielded $400,000 ;• the Reserve, $100,000 ; the Bovee, $600,000 ; Hill's Mine, $250,000 ; and the Cherokee, $100,000.

The Hayvvard mine, in Amador county, has been reported to be the most profitable mine in the State. About 24,000 tons- are crushed in a year, and there are 120,000 tons in sight. The present supply of ore is obtained 1,200 feet below the surtuce, and 300 feet below the level

INTRODUCTION. ix

of the sea. The total yield, according to rumor, which no doubt exaggerates greatly, has been $6,000,000. The Keystone, a mile and a half distant, pays $80,000 a year in dividends. The Oneida, a mile and a half distant in the other direction, has produced very large sums, and has in sight 90,000 tons of rock, expected to yield about $17 per ton. The total expense is about $5 per ton. The Seaton mine has yielded $100,000.

In El Dorado county, the richest mines have been the Pacific, which has yielded $500,000 : the Woodside, which yielded $13,000, in specimens ; the Danes and the Shepard.

In Placer county, the Harpending, the Green Emigrant and the Schnable, are the most notable.

In Nevada county, the Eureka, reputed to be the best worked mine in the State, has yielded $1,500,000 ; the North Star $500,000 profit ; the Allison $2,300,000 ; Massachusetts Hill $5,600,000; New York Hill $500,000 ; Missouri Hill $200,000 ; the Fellows $1,000,000 ; Norambagua $80,000 ; Gold Hill $4,000,000 ; Union Hill $74,000 ; Empire $1,300,000 ; Hueston Hill $1,000,000 ; Osborne Hill $1,000,000 ; Lone Jack $500,000 ; Gold Tunnel $1,000,000 ; Nevada $400,000 ; Sneath & Clay $300,000 ; Lecompton $250,000 ; Wigham $200,000, and Banner $200,000.

The Sierra Buttes yielded $224,000 gross, and $154,000 net, in 1866 ; and has three years' supply of ore in sight. This mine has paid more regularly than any other in the State, and if the milling capacity were increased, could be made to surpass any other mine in the State in yield. The Independence, on the same vein, yielded $100,000, in 1866, and has ore in sight to last three years. The Primrose, 2 miles distant, has yielded $226,000— idle. The Union, one mile from Alleghany, yielded $75,000 in a pocket.

In Plumas county, the Eureka has yielded $1,600,000 ; the Mammoth, $1,000,000 ; the Crescent, $500,000 ; and the Whitney, $68,000.

In Yuba county, at Brown's Valley, 12 miles from Marysville, and not more than 300 feet above the level of the sea, are the Pennsylvania, which yields 1,000 tons and $10,000 net per month ; the Jefierson, which has paid $250,000 of dividends ; and the Dannebroge, which has yielded $250,000.

§ 12. Sulphur ets.— Most of the quartz mines, and especially the richer ones, have in the rock from one to five per cent, of sulphurets of iron, which contain from $20 to $1,000 per ton of gold. This can- :not be obtained by amalgamation ; and the only resource is to separate A

X INTRODUCTION.

the sulphurets (the specific gravity of which is 5,) from the pulverized quartz, (the specific gravity of which is 2^.) This separation, called concentration, must be done with the assistance of water. The long sluice is now considered the best machine for concentration. The sluice has a grade of 3 or 3 inches to 12 feet ; and riffles half an inch thick are introduced gradually as the boxes fill up, the sand being occasionally stirred with a hoe. When the sand is 8 inches deep, the riffles are gradually removed one by one, and the sand again stirred up ; and in this way the sulphurets are obtained in a very clean state. The sulphurets are then roasted, and put into a chlorine bath. The chlorine unites with the gold ; the chloride of gold is dissolved in water ; and the gold is precipitated by sulphate of iron. This process costs usually about $30 per ton, although one superintendent says the expense, exclusive of his own supervision, is only $9. The cost of concentration is $10 per ton of sulphurets where the rock contains one per cent.

. § 13. Cement Mills. — Cement Mills have been brought into use since 1833. At the bottom of some of the ancient channels, Llie richest pay is found in a stratum of clay and gravel, so cemented together that it will not dissolve in the sluice ; and the only mode of separating the gold from the dirt, heretofore, has been crushing in a stamp mill. Many of these mills are now in use, and their number is increasing rapidly. The gold is usually coarse in the cement. The material is not so hard as quartz, nor is it crushed so fine ; so the crushing does not usually cost over 50 cents per ton. A pan has lately been invented for reducing cement. It is an iron pan, six feet in diameter, and eighteen inches deep, in which four iron rakes, radiating from the center, each with three strong teeth, revolve rapidly. A large stream of water pours in, and the pulverized stuff" is carried off" through small holes in the bottom. The large stones are discharged through a gate. There are two sluices, one to carry off* the stones, and the other to carry off" the dissolved clay.