OFFICIAL REPORT ON THE GOLD MINES.
The following is an official account of a visit paid to the gold region
in July by Colonel Mason, who had been appointed to the military
command in California, and made his report to the authorities at
Washington. It is dated from head-quarters at Monterey, August 17,
1848.
"Sir,--I have the honour to inform you that, accompanied by Lieut. W.T.
Sherman, 3rd Artillery, A.A.A. General, I started on the 12th of June
last to make a tour through the northern part of California. We reached
San Francisco on the 20th, and found that all, or nearly all, its male
inhabitants had gone to the mines. The town, which a few months before
was so busy and thriving, was then almost deserted. Along the whole
route mills were lying idle, fields of wheat were open to cattle and
horses, houses vacant, and farms going to waste.
"On the 5th we arrived in the neighbourhood of the mines, and proceeded
twenty-five miles up the American Fork, to a point on it now known as
the Lower Mines, or Mormon Diggings. The hill sides were thickly strewn
with canvas tents and bush-harbours; a store was erected, and several
boarding shanties in operation. The day was intensely hot, yet about
200 men were at work in the full glare of the sun, washing for
gold--some with tin pans, some with close woven Indian baskets, but the
greater part had a rude machine known as the cradle. This is on
rockers, six or eight feet long, open at the foot, and its head had a
coarse grate, or sieve; the bottom is rounded, with small cleets nailed
across. Four men are required to work this machine; one digs the ground
in the bank close by the stream; another carries it to the cradle, and
empties it on the grate; a third gives a violent rocking motion to the
machine, whilst a fourth dashes on water from the stream itself. The
sieve keeps the coarse stones from entering the cradle, the current of
water washes off the earthy matter, and the gravel is gradually carried
out at the foot of the machine, leaving the gold mixed with a heavy
fine black sand above the first cleets. The sand and gold mixed
together are then drawn off through auger holes into a pan below, are
dried in the sun, and afterwards separated by blowing off the sand. A
party of four men, thus employed at the Lower Mines, average 100
dollars a-day. The Indians, and those who have nothing but pans or
willow baskets, gradually wash out the earth, and separate the gravel
by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with sand, which is
separated in the manner before described. The gold in the Lower Mines
is in fine bright scales, of which I send several specimens.
"As we ascended the south branch of the American fork, the country
became more broken and mountainous, and twenty-five miles below the
lower washings the hills rise to about 1000 feet above the level of the
Sacramento Plain. Here a species of pine occurs, which led to the
discovery of the gold. Captain Sutter, feeling the great want of
lumber, contracted in September last with a Mr. Marshall to build a
saw-mill at that place. It was erected in the course of the past winter
and spring--a dam and race constructed; but when the water was let on
the wheel, the tail race was found to be too narrow to permit the water
to escape with sufficient rapidity. Mr. Marshall, to save labour, let
the water directly into the race with a strong current, so as to wash
it wider and deeper. He effected his purpose, and a large bed of mud
and gravel was carried to the foot of the race. One day Mr. Marshall,
as he was walking down the race to this deposit of mud, observed some
glittering particles at its upper edge; he gathered a few, examined
them, and became satisfied of their value. He then went to the fort,
told Captain Sutter of his discovery, and they agreed to keep it secret
until a certain grist-mill of Sutter's was finished. It, however, got
out and spread like magic. Remarkable success attended the labours of
the first explorers, and, in a few weeks, hundreds of men were drawn
thither. At the time of my visit, but little more than three months
after its first discovery, it was estimated that upwards of four
thousand people were employed. At the mill there is a fine deposit or
bank of gravel, which the people respect as the property of Captain
Sutter, though he pretends to no right to it, and would be perfectly
satisfied with the simple promise of a pre-emption on account of the
mill which he has built there at a considerable cost. Mr. Marshall was
living near the mill, and informed me that many persons were employed
above and below him; that they used the same machines as at the lower
washings, and that their success was about the same--ranging from one
to three ounces of gold per man daily. This gold, too, is in scales a
little coarser than those of the lower mines. From the mill Mr.
Marshall guided me up the mountain on the opposite or north bank of the
south fork, where in the bed of small streams or ravines, now dry, a
great deal of coarse gold has been found. I there saw several parties
at work, all of whom were doing very well; a great many specimens were
shown me, some as heavy as four or five ounces in weight; and I send
three pieces, labelled No. 5, presented by a Mr. Spence. You will
perceive that some of the specimens accompanying this hold mechanically
pieces of quartz--that the surface is rough, and evidently moulded in
the crevice of a rock. This gold cannot have been carried far by water,
but must have remained near where it was first deposited from the rock
that once bound it. I inquired of many if they had encountered the
metal in its matrix, but in every instance they said they had not; but
that the gold was invariably mixed with wash-gravel, or lodged in the
crevices of other rocks. All bore testimony that they had found gold in
greater or less quantities in the numerous small gullies or ravines
that occur in that mountainous region. On the 7th of July I left the
mill, and crossed to a small stream emptying into the American fork,
three or four miles below the saw-mill. I struck the stream (now known
as Weber's Creek) at the washings of Sunol and Company. They had about
thirty Indians employed, whom they pay in merchandise. They were
getting gold of a character similar to that found in the main fork, and
doubtless in sufficient quantities to satisfy them. I send you a small
specimen, presented by this Company, of their gold. From this point we
proceeded up the stream about eight miles, where we found a great many
people and Indians, some engaged in the bed of the stream, and others
in the small side valleys that put into it. These latter are
exceedingly rich, two ounces being considered an ordinary yield for a
day's work. A small gutter, not more than 100 yards long by four feet
wide, and two or three deep, was pointed out to me as the one where two
men (W. Daly and Percy McCoon) had a short time before obtained. 17,000
dollars' worth of gold. Captain Weber informed me, that he knew that
these two men had employed four white men and about 100 Indians, and
that, at the end of one week's work, they paid off their party, and had
left 10,000 dollars' worth of this gold. Another small ravine was shown
me, from which had been taken upwards of 12,000 dollars' worth of gold.
Hundreds of similar ravines, to all appearances, are as yet untouched.
I could not have credited these reports had I not seen, in the
abundance of the precious metal, evidence of their truth. Mr. Neligh,
an agent of Commodore Stockton, had been at work about three weeks in
the neighbourhood, and showed me, in bags and bottles, 2000 dollars'
worth of gold; and Mr. Lyman, a gentleman of education, and worthy of
every credit, said he had been engaged with four others, with a
machine, on the American fork, just below Sutter's Mill, that they
worked eight days, and that his share was at the rate of fifty dollars
a-day, but hearing that others were doing better at Weber's Place, they
had removed there, and were then on the point of resuming operations.
"The country on either side of Weber's Creek is much broken up by
hills, and is intersected in every direction by small streams or
ravines which contain more or less gold. Those that have been worked
are barely scratched, and, although thousands of ounces have been
carried away, I do not consider that a serious impression has been made
upon the whole. Every day was developing new and richer deposits; and
the only impression seemed to be, that the metal would be found in such
abundance as seriously to depreciate in value.
"On the 8th July I returned to the lower mines, and eventually to
Monterey, where I arrived on the 17th of July. Before leaving Sutter's,
I satisfied myself that gold existed in the bed of the Feather River,
in the Yubah and Bear, and in many of the small streams that lie
between the latter and the American fork; also, that it had been found
in the Consummes, to the south of the American fork. In each of these
streams the gold is found in small scales, whereas in the intervening
mountains it occurs in coarser lumps.
"Mr. Sinclair, whose rancho is three miles above Sutter's on the north
side of the American, employs about fifty Indians on the north fork,
not far from its junction with the main stream. He had been engaged
about five weeks when I saw him, and up to that time his Indians had
used simply closely-woven willow baskets. His net proceeds (which I
saw) were about 16,000 dollars' worth of gold. He showed me the
proceeds of his last week's work--14 lbs. avoirdupois of clean-washed
gold.
"The principal store at Sutter's fort, that of Brannan and Co., had
received in payment for goods 36,000 dollars' worth of this gold from
the 1st of May to the 10th of July. Other merchants had also made
extensive sales. Large quantities of goods were daily sent forward to
the mines, as the Indians, heretofore so poor and degraded, have
suddenly become consumers of the luxuries of life. I before mentioned
that the greater part of the farmers and rancheros had abandoned their
fields to go to the mines. This is not the case with Captain Sutter,
who was carefully gathering his wheat, estimated at 40,000 bushels.
Flour is already worth, at Sutter's, 36 dollars a-barrel, and will soon
be 50. Unless large quantities of breadstuffs reach the country much
suffering will occur; but as each man is now able to pay a large price,
it is believed the merchants will bring from Chili and the Oregon a
plentiful supply for the coming winter.
"The most moderate estimate I could obtain from men acquainted with the
subject was, that upwards of 4,000 men were working in the gold
district, of whom more than one-half were Indians, and that from 30,000
to 50,000 dollars' worth of gold, if not more, were daily obtained. The
entire gold district, with very few exceptions of grants made some
years ago by the Mexican authorities, is on land belonging to the
United States. It was a matter of serious reflection to me, how I could
secure to the Government certain rents or fees for the privilege of
securing this gold; but upon considering the large extent of country,
the character of the people engaged, and the small scattered force at
my command, I resolved not to interfere, but permit all to work freely,
unless broils and crimes should call for interference.
"The discovery of these vast deposits of gold has entirely changed the
character of Upper California. Its people, before engaged in
cultivating their small patches of ground, and guarding their herds of
cattle and horses, have all gone to the mines, or are on their way
thither. Labourers of every trade have left their work-benches, and
tradesmen their shops; sailors desert their ships as fast as they
arrive on the coast; and several vessels have gone to sea with hardly
enough hands to spread a sail. Two or three are now at anchor in San
Francisco, with no crew on board. Many desertions, too, have taken
place from the garrisons within the influence of these mines;
twenty-six soldiers have deserted from the post of Sonoma, twenty-four
from that of San Francisco, and twenty-four from Monterey. I have no
hesitation now in saying, that there is more gold in the country
drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers than will pay the cost
of the present war with Mexico a hundred times over. No capital is
required to obtain this gold, as the labouring man wants nothing but
his pick and shovel and tin pan, with which to dig and wash the gravel,
and many frequently pick gold out of the crevices of rocks with their
knives, in pieces of from one to six ounces.
"Gold is also believed to exist on the eastern slope of the Sierra
Nevada; and, when at the mines, I was informed by an intelligent Mormon
that it had been found near the Great Salt Lake by some of his
fraternity. Nearly all the Mormons are leaving California to go to the
Salt Lake; and this they surely would not do unless they were sure of
finding gold there, in the same abundance as they now do on the
Sacramento.
"I have the honour to be,
"Your most obedient Servant,
"R.B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, commanding.
"Brigadier-General R. Jones,
Adjutant-General, U.S.A., Washington, D.C."