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History
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History of Humboldt County California - Historic Record Co., Los Angeles, 1915
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CHAPTER XVI.
Gold Mining in Humboldt County.
No history of industry would even approximate accuracy if it should omit some account of the early mining excitement and mining scenes in Humboldt county, which really got its first impetus from the mining industry along the Klamath river. It is interesting to hear the early settlers describe the old Gold Bluff excitement of 1852, a period when by all accounts even the ocean itself became a miner and washed up thousands of pounds of gold on the beach of Trinidad. The accounts of the gold found in those olden days read like a romantic story from the times of the Spanish conquest.
In those years it was generally said and quite commonly believed that almost any man of good enterprise and muscle, stirred by ambition, could take his hat and a wheelbarrow, and in about an hour gather up enough gold to last him for a year or two. But this excitement, bad as it was for some things, really led to the settlement of the county, although it did not lead to fortunes for those who followed it. It frequently made people dissatisfied with everyday affairs and created a gambling craze.
In the early days placer mining was followed with a considerable degree of success on the Klamath river, but the gold digging has always been of nominal importance when contrasted with lumbering and agriculture. Recent reports from the Government at Washington indicate that Humboldt county may have a new era of placer mining, especially if modern methods of looking for the black sand containing platinum are put into use.
It should be remembered that the Klamath river country north of the great redwood belt is possibly the most inaccessible part of the county, containing many mountains and rocky stretches of country. It is even yet unexplored.
For a time quartz mining occupied considerable attention, and during the period of the quartz mining excitement a few very valuable mines were discovered. For a long period hydraulic mining was carried on to some extent, and at one time there were twenty-four miles of running ditches. During the year 1880 almost four thousand inches of water were used in mining operations each day. The hydraulic mining met with little or no embarrassment such as confronted it in the Sacramento Valley country where the bottom lands were practically destroyed by the hydraulic mining debris. Humboldt county has swift-flowing rivers and no bottom lands along their banks to be destroyed by hydraulic mining if it should be carried on in the north.
For a long time a bench flume at Big Bar, which was eight miles below Orleans, was successfully worked by the hydraulic process. It yielded dividends for about five years, and it was the opinion of Judge J. P. Haynes at one time that this process would revolutionize all mining in the Klamath region.
Prospecting was for a long time directed towards the high bars and benches on the Klamath which a number of persons believed would afford the best mining region in the state. The mining properties were owned very largely by private citizens, who pocketed their own dividends without consulting anybody else or any corporation.
Orleans bar, a famous place upon the Klamath, was known for many years to the old miners, because the gold belts which run transversely throughout the Western states from Colorado, seem to terminate here on the Pacific coast. Placer mining was prosperous and a large amount of capital was invested in that enterprise. The early dreams of the placer and quartz miners were doomed to disappointment, however, for they failed to bring forth as much as had been hoped for in the way of profits. The beauty of the property when it was worked was that the slickens, which is a very serious question in some other parts of California, did not injure anyone on the land below.
It should be said that gold has been found in almost every part of the county extending from Dobbyn's creek to the Trinity section and Scott's bar.
An old writer says that the starvation times on Salmon river formed an interesting chapter in the history of that important region. So great was the fear of wintering that not half a hundred men were to be found on the stream in December, 1850. These had provided themselves with a sufficient supply of provisions and passed the winter comfortably. As soon as it was believed that the more rigorous part of the winter had passed, miners began to flock in from Trinity river, Trinidad, and Humboldt, and some came up the Sacramento river and even through the famous Scott valley. This was late in January, and early in February, 1851. Many of those from Trinidad and Humboldt were unprovided with supplies, as they had expected to find them on the river, and knowing that there were pack-trains at those points preparing to bring in provisions, they were a little bit careless. The result was that although a few small trains arrived with supplies the provisions were soon eaten up and there was a crowd of several thousand men without anything to eat, and this is the reason that the name of "starvation camp" attached to the neighborhood. In the month of March a terrific snow storm set in, and blockaded the mountain trails so badly that it was impossible for pack trains to pass through to the relief of the unfortunate miners. One may still hear stories of the sufferings of those days when the miners were forced to live on mules, on sugar, and sometimes got along half-starved, on almost nothing. The olden writers tell us that those who took their rifles and went hunting met with very poor success. We read of one man who killed two grouse and was offered $8 each for them, but he declined the sale, for he needed them himself. The extremity to which some of the men were reduced was very great and for more than a month not a pound of extra food beyond the scant provisions they had on hand came to their relief. At last the packers got as far as Orleans bar, and men who had made a trail through the snow took small packs on their shoulders and carried them across the mountains to their starving friends. The records say that toward the last of April a train of mules made its way through to Salmon creek and found a hearty welcome among the half-starved miners. Hundreds of men who had been snowed in had made their way over the mountains, some to Orleans bar, others to Trinity, and others to Scott's bar, and the newly discovered mines at Yreka Flat. They suffered terrible hardships on the way, and reached those places almost famished.
Even in the olden days it was known that there were thousands of dollars to be made in the gold dust lying waste along the beaches of Humboldt county, but if it was a puzzle that could not be solved then, it is still a puzzle to capture the fleeting dust and flakes of gold from the sand. From Table Bluff to the Klamath river, over a distance of more than sixty miles, there is an almost unbroken gold-bearing sand beach exclusive of the Gold Bluff beach mining claims. The deposit is said to have accumulated from the crumbling debris of old gravel banks which came upon the beach and from the ample discharge of the waters of the Klamath river.
This process of erosion and dissolution is going on continuously, and there is said to be not a panfull of sand along the entire expanse that will not show golden colors, while in many places where the action of the water has been just right the sands appear yellow in golden streaks. There were more than ten thousand acres of this gold-bearing sand worked between Table Bluff and the Klamath river for a time, and there are thousands of acres that might be utilized under modern methods today if those modern methods were to capture the secrets of utilizing the fine gold.
The Gold Bluffs are located on the beach twenty-five miles north of Trinidad and nine miles south of the mouth of the Klamath river. In the days of the early gold excitement of California, Gold Bluff was one of the most notoriously rich of all the placers. After many years it still held a reputation as a steady paying proposition, but the amount of treasure taken out of its claims will never be exactly known. The gold-bearing gravel bluffs extend some eight miles on the beach, and in many places the beaches are a perpendicular wall of unbroken gravel three and even four hundred feet in height.
Some years ago a writer describing the conditions obtaining in this region spoke as follows: "Every winter, after the parching of summer has cracked the earth, the soaking rains of winter caused large slabs of earth and gravel to cave in and split off the perpendicular face of the bluff, millions of tons falling upon the beach. At high tide the noisy surfs washed to the base of the cliff, which is subjected to incalculable washing and swashing during heavy storms. The cakes of gravel become dissolved and are ground to pieces and carried about by the action of the water."
From time to time and during a long period of years efforts have been made and a great deal of money has been invested in the attempt to save the fine gold that could be found in large quantities along the beach from Crescent City to the mouth of Little river. As heretofore said, this gold is very fine, a mere scale, and to separate it from the sand is the problem that has baffled the skill of almost all inventors. It is known that a large number of machines have been put on the market, backed with claims that they would accomplish wonderful results, but as yet, the machine to do the work has not seen the light of day and most of the beaches which gave promise that they would make many men rich have been abandoned. It may be that some day the beach mines will be worked to advantage, but this can not be until great improvements have been made on the methods which now obtain.
Recent reports by various departments of the Federal government indicate that placer mining may reach a stage of perfection which will enable many of the tracts of gold-bearing sand in Humboldt county to be worked to advantage. It should be said in conclusion that the government reports indicate that Humboldt county's placer mines contain, probably, some of the richest platinum possibilities to be found anywhere in the United States. At any rate the Humboldt county placer mines are destined to receive a great deal more attention from mining men, engineers, and scientists than they have ever received in the past.
