SIXTEEN MONTHS
AT THE
GOLD DIGGINGS.
BY
DANIEL B. WOODS.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
82 CLIFF STREET.
1852.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and fifty-one, by
LEONARD WOODS,
In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Southern
District of New York.
PREFACE.
It is almost inconceivable what an excitement was produced upon nations
and individuals by the discovery, less than four years since, of gold
among the mountains of Upper California. Tides of human life soon set in
toward this one point; currents here met, whirling and contending with
increasing force; and, where all was silent and calm before, was heard
the roar, and seen the violence and agitation of the maelstrom.
The writer was for sixteen months employed in the gold mines, chiefly
upon the American and Tuolumne Rivers and their tributaries. His reasons
for compiling his notes and presenting them to the public may be briefly
stated. It was the request of several friends that he would keep a
journal of his mining life, exhibiting its lights and shades, its
fortunes and misfortunes. This he did, jotting down from day to day the
incidents as they occurred. Many mining companions, aware of this fact,
requested him to prepare his journal for the press, that their friends
might thus have a view of their circumstances and employments.
Having so long been a miner, and acquainted with all his privations and
sufferings; having experienced his elation at success and his
depression at failure; having passed through the trying season of
acclimation, and lain once beneath a lone oak, expecting, as he looked
up to the stars shining clear above him, there to end his days; having
rocked the gold-digger’s cradle, wielded his pick and spade, messed and
slept with miners, he is prepared to present a correct view of his
subject for those who have friends at the mines.
He considers that it will be proper to present incidents of travel on
his journey to California, in connection with the more important object,
both to afford a view of the dangers and difficulties of the earlier
emigrants to this country, and also to maintain the unity of his plan.
He hopes to make this little volume useful to those who are, or who
expect to be, engaged in the arduous employments of mining. If any shall
be encouraged to perseverance--especially if any young men who shall be
thus thrown into circumstances where immorality and vice are so
prevalent, and to which many give themselves up too easy victims, shall
be put upon their guard, his best wishes will have been accomplished. He
recalls, with sadness, the case of a merchant of education and
refinement, who left a large circle of friends and a young family. With
bright hopes he started for the gold placers. Disheartened by several
failures, depressed at his separation from his family, he sought in the
social cup to forget his sorrows and disappointments. Within three
months from the time he arrived in the country he became a subject of
_mania a potu_, and died in the streets of San Francisco. The path of
vice in California lies not through the ordinary influences of life; it
leads not, as elsewhere, through a long course. It lies rather on an
inclined plane, and speedily runs down into despair and ruin.
I intend to make this volume a miner’s manual, in which he may find
important directions relating to the various mining operations.
Another motive with the writer is the desire to induce all who are doing
_well enough_, who are living within their means and laying by a little,
to remain satisfied at home. The question is often asked, _Who should go
to the mines?_ It is very sure that a man with a family depending upon
his daily efforts should not go. He should not exhaust his slender
means, and run himself in debt, with the hope of making himself
independent in one or two years. Let such a one, who is inclined to do
this, picture to himself his wife struggling alone with poverty or
sickness, his children left without a father’s presence and love to
guide and protect, and himself a homeless wanderer, subjected to the
privations, hardships, and sickness incident to such a vagrant life.
Let the young man go, if he will, who has no family depending upon
him--who has a strong constitution, and stronger moral courage; who is
sober and persevering; who has little prospect of making a comfortable
living at home, and who can make up his mind to spend five years from
it, and to enjoy as few comforts as did Diogenes. To such a one there
may be some comfort in even a miner’s life. He has not, like the man of
family in a similar condition, to experience how much the heart can
bear and not break--to live only in the future, while he
“Drags at each remove a lengthening chain.”
His is not the history of an _exile heart_. He may enjoy the rest of the
laboring man beneath God’s own glorious canopy. The hardships which he
endures in this, the _gold-age_ of his life, may make him more satisfied
with his situation when he returns home, while the troubles which once
annoyed him will not there be experienced.
DANIEL B. WOODS.
_Philadelphia, July 1, 1851._
SIXTEEN MONTHS
AT
THE GOLD DIGGINGS.
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY.
California extends from Oregon to Sonoma and Lower California, and from
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. It shows a coast-front extending ten
degrees of latitude, from the thirty-second to the forty-second
parallel. To the voyager it presents only high and forbidding
headlands--mountain ranges which step down from the broad table-lands in
the interior, and push a bold foot far out into the waters of the ocean.
This country possesses 420,000 square miles, and is remarkable for its
lofty ranges of mountains, among which lie interspersed limited but
beautiful valleys and more extensive plains. Its diversity of climate
and soil is as great as the varieties of its surface.
The channel which forms the entrance into this singular country from the
Pacific is two miles in width and three in length, and is opposite,
under the same parallel of latitude, to the Straits of Gibraltar. After
passing through this channel, the lowest of the series of bays, that of
San Francisco, opens broadly before you, dotted with several islands
clothed with verdure, and rocks white with their coating of guano,
around and upon which hover and settle immense flocks of sea-fowls.
Above the ranges of hills, in the east, rises the distant Sierra,
crowned till July with its winter snows. The bay opposite the city is
twelve miles wide, and, with the bays above, contains anchorage ground
sufficient to accommodate every vessel, from the ship of war down to the
schooner, in the whole world. In the north, the bay contracts into a
narrow passage, and opens soon into a second spacious bay, ten miles in
diameter. Still another strait connects this bay with a third,
containing numerous islands, and receiving, at its head, the waters of
the Sacramento and the San Joaquin. These, with the Colorado, are the
principal rivers of California.
The mountain ranges may be briefly described. Fifty miles from the
barren and sandy shore of the Pacific, and running parallel with it, is
the coast-range, well defined, but not so elevated as the other more
remarkable range. This is the Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Range, which bears
its lofty peaks, covered even into summer with snow, far into the sky.
This range is one hundred and fifty miles farther inland, and also runs
parallel with the coast.
Within all this lies the available portion of California, which consists
of several fertile valleys, among which I shall notice particularly
those of San Juan, and of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The former is
of limited extent, being not more than twenty miles long by twelve
wide, but of great fertility. This may be regarded as the garden of
California. There can not be found a more salubrious or more equable
climate in any part of the world. It is said to resemble that of
Andalusia, in Spain. This valley is situated between the coast-range and
the Pacific, and extends from the Bay of San Francisco north and south.
The valley of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin lies between the
coast-range and the Sierra Nevada. It may be considered as one
continuous valley, the two rivers uniting their waters at the head of
the bays. It extends in length from about the forty-first parallel of
latitude, three hundred miles to the delta of the Sacramento, and thence
to the head waters of the San Joaquin. Over this whole region is found
scattered the evergreen oak, resembling the trees of an old
apple-orchard, and upon the ridges grows the red-wood. A fine growth of
pine is found among the mountains.
All the tributaries of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rise among the
Sierra Nevada. It is of importance to have the position of these well
understood. The first branch worthy of note in descending the Sacramento
is called Feather River. Bear Creek and the Yuba are streams emptying
into this river. The American River is another branch of the Sacramento,
fed by those streams named North, Middle, and South Forks. In proceeding
south up the San Joaquin, the Stanislaus is the first river of note. The
next branch is the Tuolumne, and then the Merced--the Rio de los
Mercedes of Old California, and abbreviated into Mercey by the miners.
Higher up are the Marepoosa, King’s, and some smaller rivers. All these
are rapid, clear mountain streams, containing abundant supplies of the
finest salmon. The Sacramento and the San Joaquin have no tributaries on
the lower or western side.
Still within these interior limits last described lies a comparatively
narrow belt of land, difficult of access, guarded by a thousand dangers
and privations, yet possessing all the extraordinary and magical
influence of Aladdin’s cave, and realizing our boyhood’s dreams when we
filled our hats with the shining coins. This--the heart of the
country--is the true, the mysterious _California_--the shrine at which
tens of thousands of weary and exile pilgrims do homage, and where
already great multitudes have left their bones. This is
_California_--the country lately an uninviting wilderness, where the
Indian and the bear disputed possession, now, all along its streams,
upon its bars, in its gulches and ravines, covered with the tented home
of the miner, while its hill sides echo back ten thousand eager voices,
the din of innumerable picks and shovels, and the scraping and grating
sounds of a thousand cradles incessantly rocked, emptied, and refilled.
Let us attempt a description.
Between the Sierra Nevada on the east, and the Sacramento and San
Joaquin on the west, and at about twenty-five miles distance from both,
are the foot or lower hills of the Nevada. These foot-hills embrace, or
rather constitute, the gold region. They are perfectly defined upon the
lower side, where they rise abruptly from the level plain below. Upon
the upper side they are irregular, often running up toward the
mountains, and rising to an elevation of three or four thousand feet.
This belt of land is five hundred miles in length and fifty in width. It
is traversed by the tributaries of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin
which have been mentioned. These streams, rising in the Sierra Nevada,
and flowing west, cut their channels through these foot-hills. They also
receive, in their progress, the arroyos from a thousand springs, which
burst out over all this enchanted region. These creeks and rivulets,
sometimes gliding smoothly along to their meeting, and sometimes
becoming impetuous mountain torrents, form the world-renowned ravines
and gulches of the California gold diggings. During the prevalence of
some great freshet, or other cause sufficient to produce such an effect,
these streams are sometimes pushed out of their former channels, which
instead are filled up, sometimes to the depth of thirty or even forty
feet, with a loose foreign soil. Such placers constitute many and the
most important of the “dry diggings,” which sometimes spread themselves
out over valleys to some considerable extent, and were doubtless formed
by washings from the hills in the vicinity.
The “river diggings” include the bars and auriferous portions of the
channels of the tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, during
their passage through the foot-hills.
Though the broad belt of ground which has been here described is named
the gold region, it is by no means to be supposed that the precious
metal is found equally distributed over its surface, as if it had
rained down, or been thrown broadcast by some volcanic action over the
whole country. The placers where the auriferous dust is found are, in
comparison with the whole extent of the country so named, exceedingly
limited. The miner often travels many miles over this region--he wanders
for days along its river banks and over its bars, and turns aside into
some of its numerous ravines--he often pauses to examine spots which
appear to him favorable, and with his pick, shovel, and knife--always
his companions--digs his fifty holes, testing each with his pan, without
success. And even when he comes to the favored bar or placer from which
many pounds of gold may have been taken, there is perhaps one chance in
fifty in favor of his collecting any considerable amount of gold. Upon
these very localities thousands of industrious miners barely make their
living. The hopeful miner eagerly hastens, with high expectations, to
the diggings. He chooses his bar, and marks off a claim; this he
faithfully “prospects,” then abandons it for another and another, till
he comes to the conclusion that the whole business is a lottery.
The primitive formations prevailing through the gold diggings are the
soft granite and the talcose slate. The superstrata are various, and
depend upon the formations in the hills adjoining. The first in
importance, as being intimately combined with the gold, is the quartz.
This is found in broken fragments, from the fine pebbles to the huge
masses, over the whole surface of the country. It is often seen crowning
the hill-tops, and sometimes is found in veins in the valleys. There
can be no doubt that the quartz and the gold were formed in combination.
This is now so universally admitted as not to require to be
substantiated. It is also placed beyond a doubt that the gold of the
mines has been attrited, and taken to the various deposits by the action
of water; and the gold is found in coarser or finer particles, according
as it is exposed to a greater or less degree of this action. In some
cases, the gold has been found running in veins, more or less rich,
through the quartz, and so closely combined that they must be reduced to
powder before they can be separated. With but few exceptions, however,
the working of these veins has not proved profitable.
Perhaps there is no part of my whole subject so difficult to be
described as the climate of California. One cause of this is, that it is
so different in various parts of the state, and in the same part during
the various seasons. In general there are two seasons--a wet and a dry.
The first commences about the middle of October, and continues to the
first or middle of April. It must not be supposed that there is rain
continually during this season. My journal exhibits the following
statistical results:
In October, 1849, it rained two days--the 9th and 10th.
In November, 1849, it rained fourteen days--cloudy three days.
In December, 1849, it rained eight days--cloudy three days, and snow one
day.
In January, 1850, it rained seventeen days--cloudy one day, and snow
three days.
In February, 1850, it rained four days--cloudy three days, and snow
three days.
In March, 1850, it rained nine days--cloudy three days, and snow one
day.
In April, 1850, it rained one day--April 5th.
During the months of October, November, and December, 1849, and of
January, 1850, the mean average temperature indicated by the thermometer
was as follows:
At sunrise, 36°.
At noon, 50°.
Lowest at sunrise, 23°.
Highest at sunrise, 48°.
Lowest at noon, 40°.
Highest at noon, 50°.
In February, 1850, in the morning, 36°.
In February, 1850, at noon, 62°.
In March, at morning, 39°.
In March, at noon, 58°.
The Hon. T. Butler King estimates, in his report to government, that the
soil west of the Sierra Nevada covers an area of between fifty and sixty
thousand square miles, and is capable of supporting a population equal
to that of Ohio or New York at the present time. A large portion of this
land, although fertile, can not be cultivated, owing to the drought. The
portion of the soil capable of irrigation is comparatively small, and
lies upon the rivers and streams.
The products of this state are various. The climate and soil are well
suited to the cultivation of wheat, rye, barley, and oats, the last of
which grows spontaneously over the whole length of the sea-coast, and
for many miles into the interior. Irish potatoes, turnips, onions, and
beets are produced in great perfection. The various fruits are
cultivated with facility.
It is not the design of this work to give a history of California
previous to the discovery of its gold. But it may be proper, in
connection with the geography of the country, to present a brief history
of the mines and the operations of the miners.
In the spring of the year 1848, Mr. Sutter employed two men to make an
exploring tour along the branches of the American River, where it passes
through the foot-hills already described, to find a growth of pine
timber, and a suitable site for a mill for sawing it into boards. The
site and the timber were found upon the south branch of that river.
Little dreamed those day-laborers, as they broke ground for their rude
mill, in that solitary wilderness, that the results of that day’s labor
would give employment to thousands and tens of thousands of such
implements as they then used; that the one spadeful of red dirt, at
which they gazed so intently, at the bottom of which a few yellow bits
of shining dust appeared, was soon to exert a mysterious, a profound
influence upon the commerce, the welfare, the destinies of the whole
human family. An influence was about to go forth from that narrow ditch
which would return again, and bring with it an innumerable multitude,
thronging from every quarter of the world, overcoming all difficulties,
bringing with them their houses and supplies, and spreading themselves
over the hills and valleys of this country. That moment was an epoch in
the world’s history. It was the discovery of GOLD; and, which is of far
more importance, it was the _planting of the_ ANGLO-SAXON _upon the
shores of the Pacific_.
At this time California contained but fifteen thousand people. The belt
of gold country was comparatively uninhabited, and entirely without
supplies of provisions, except such as might be procured by the rifle of
the hunter, and as entirely destitute of shelter. In a few weeks after
the 1st of June, 1848, it is estimated that there were five thousand
miners. As they came generally without provisions, these commanded an
exorbitant price. At the time Rev. Alcalde Colton visited the mines,
which was some time after the discovery, flour sold for $4 the pound,
sugar and coffee at $4, a tin pan $6, laudanum $1 the drop, rum $20 a
quart, and picks sold at $18 each. It was not until the summer and fall
of 1849 that the American emigration began to arrive. They came across
the plains, through Mexico, by the Isthmus, and around the Horn; and
before the winter it was calculated that there were fifty thousand
engaged in this business. During this season the miners extended
themselves along many of the streams and through many of the ravines of
the gold region. The provisions were scanty and unsuitable. Very few
vegetables, and little fresh meat, were to be purchased at any price.
Flour and pork were the staples, which were sold at $1 the pound till
the rainy season commenced, when they sold for $2. A few bottles of
pickles which reached the mines were sold at $6 and $8 the bottle. In
the winter good boots brought $96, and ordinary $32 and $64.
The year 1850 opened more favorably in the supplies furnished at the
mines. It was estimated by Mr. King, who wrote at that time, that during
the year there would be one hundred thousand miners employed. Many of
them had built themselves comfortable log or stone houses--provisions
were more abundant, and at lower rates. Vegetables, fresh meats, and
fish were constantly supplied, many of them from the vicinity of the
mines.
It will be perceived that the statistics which I have prepared of the
profits of mining differs essentially from other published tables. I
have only to say in defense of my own, that they are the result of the
most careful observation and inquiry during sixteen months’ residence in
the mines. They are furnished by individuals most of whom have given
their names and residences in connection with the results of their
labors. The table presents the average profits in their most favorable
aspect, being furnished by a class of industrious and persevering
miners. The winter averages of fifty-six miners in the best of the
southern diggings is $3 26 for each day to each miner.
The summer averages were based upon the operations of mining companies
located upon the most profitable bars of the Tuolumne, and furnished in
every case but one by the secretaries of those companies. The table
gives the result of thirty-five thousand eight hundred and seventy-six
working days, which was bullion valued at $113,633 95, or an average of
$3 16 for each day’s labor to each man.
Hon. T. Butler King, in his report to government, gives the average as
$16 per diem. It is a question of some importance which of these is the
correct estimate. Let us present the aggregate amount of gold taken out
of all the California mines during the year, according to both
estimates. According to that of Senator King, and allowing the year to
have three hundred and thirteen working days, the one hundred thousand
miners would give the sum total of $500,800,000, or over half a billion
dollars yearly, while the average sum would be $5008 to each miner. The
other estimate would average $1004 73, and present the total profits of
the mines for the year as $100,473,000. One would think that the rest of
the world should be satisfied with having picked from the pockets of
this old California miser who has hoarded his treasures so long, nearly
a hundred million of dollars in one year! Half a billion! that would be
taking too much!
Not only is the digging of gold the most uncertain of all employments,
it is also one in which science and all past experience are at fault. No
rules can be given, no evidences furnished for finding the concealed
veins or opening the rich deposits. The miner is not sure of his gold
till he holds it in his hand, and then it seems very difficult for him
to hold on to it. One of our coins is very properly denominated the
eagle, since it seems endued with wings, and is so apt to fly away.