Chapter XI

Weber--Sullivan--Stockton--Hudson--Georgetown--Sam Riper--The Slate Range--The “Biggest Lump” yet found in California.

That immense fortunes have been made in California is beyond a doubt; many of them, assuredly, have been by gold-digging and trading, the latter occupation, in some cases, proving even more profitable than the former. The man who has been most fortunate in the mines is, probably, Charles M. Weber, a German, of whom I have previously spoken, who left his rancho on the first discovery of gold, and collecting a large herd of Indians, placed them at work at various mining points, finding them in provisions, and purchasing their gold from them with blankets at a hundred dollars apiece, and every other article of trade at correspondingly enormous prices. The untutored Indian, who had spent all his life in roaming over his native hills, subsisting upon acorns and wild game, and clothed in the skins of the deer and the wolf, the moment he found himself able to live sumptuously upon flour, and some of the little luxuries of life, and clothe his swarthy limbs in an elegant Mexican _serape_ or Yankee blanket, was ready to part with his gold, of the value of which he had no idea, on the most accommodating terms. I have seen Indians at Culoma, who, till within the previous three months, had been nude as newborn babes, and had lived on roots and acorns, clothed in the most gaudy dresses, and purchasing raisins and almonds at sixteen dollars a pound.

It is said that Weber, before he gave up the digging of gold, had, by the labour and trade of the Indians, made between four and five hundred thousand dollars. He then purchased the ground on which the flourishing town of Stockton now stands, laid it out in building lots, and is now probably worth over half a million of dollars, and his present trade and sale of lots will, without doubt, double this amount in one year.

John Sullivan, an Irishman, who, when I first arrived at San Francisco, was driving an ox-team, some time in the summer of 1848, discovered a _canon_ near the Stanislaus River, which proved so rich that ere the winter was over he had taken from it twenty-six thousand dollars worth of gold dust. With this he established a trading post, purchased property in San Francisco, and is now on the high-road to a large fortune. The _canon_ he discovered has ever since been called Sullivan’s Diggings, and has been celebrated for the “big lumps” which have been taken from it.

A man named Stockton, who came to California in the same ship with me, and who was a private in our regiment, settled upon the Stanislaus River, in the early part of September, 1848. He was a keen, trading genius, and, striking out of the beaten track, bought a mule, and started, with a small lot of trinkets and little articles of luxury, into the mountain Indian region. Here his faculties “for driving bargains” were brought into full play, and it is said to be a fact, that he has sold several boxes of raisins to the Indians at their weight in gold! Stockton made a great deal of money; but lately, through some mismanagement in his business, has, I believe, failed, and commenced the world over again.

A young man named Hudson, from New York, I think, discovered a deep _canon_ between the town of Culoma and the Middle Fork, about eleven miles distant from the former place, and six from the latter. This is a place which, in my travel to the Middle Fork and back, I have crossed four times without ever thinking of disturbing it. But in the summer of 1849, Hudson struck into it, and by digging some four feet reached the granite bed of the _canon_, on which lay immense masses of gold. In the course of six weeks he had dug some twenty thousand dollars. The gold in this _canon_ is all large and of the purest quality, being generally entirely exempt from the admixture of quartz, which is usually found in large pieces. The largest piece found here, and which I had the pleasure of seeing, weighed a little over fourteen pounds clear gold, and was worth nearly two thousand eight hundred dollars. The success of every one who has worked in this _canon_, has probably been more uniform than in any other place in the whole mining region.

A boy, nineteen years of age, named John C. Davenport, from New Bedford, took out here, one day last fall, seventy-seven ounces, and the next day nearly ninety ounces of pure gold. The _canon_ I have above referred to is now called Georgetown, and has become a thriving little community, there being, at present, about two thousand people digging there, who have built themselves comfortable log houses, and have settled down quietly to labour and enjoy the fruits of their toil.

A young man, named Samuel Riper, from Waterloo, New York, who, with three companions, went on to the Yuba River in June, 1849, in company with Dr. Bullard, dammed off a place about fifty miles above the river’s mouth, seventy feet long by twenty-five feet wide. By severe labour, occupying the party of four nearly a fortnight, they succeeded in perfectly drying this part of the river’s bed, and commenced washing the earth they found in it, consisting of a red gravel, solidly packed into the crevices of the rock. The earth turned out about three hundred dollars per day, and in less than two months the party of four divided among themselves the sum of fifteen thousand dollars! Immediately above this, two of the same party dammed a much smaller place, and in two weeks took out three thousand dollars worth of gold.

About seventy miles from the mouth of the Yuba River is a curious formation of rock called “The Slate Range;” it is upon the bank of the river, and extends along it. Above it are lofty and precipitous hills, exceedingly difficult and dangerous of descent,--but the richness of the slate rock beneath has well compensated all who have endured the toil of descending. The slate lies about four feet below the earth’s surface, and between the thin strata the gold is found adhering to the rock. Over sixty thousand dollars worth of gold has been taken from this range during the past summer.

But one of the most curious circumstances in connexion with the gold mines occurred at the old “Dry Diggings,” of which I have previously spoken. These were entirely deserted last spring, having been used as a mere wintering place, and abandoned when the weather admitted of travelling. As emigration rushed in, however, people again began to settle at the old working-places, and the “Dry Diggings” were soon again filled up. The houses were placed in a long valley, through which a stream ran, and as the diggings thus far had all been found in the ravines which run up into the hills,--no one ever thought of trying the valley itself, which was in fact nothing more than a ravine of a larger kind. But within the past summer this whole valley has been completely dug up, and immense quantities of gold have been taken from it. Even the ground on which the houses stood has been uprooted, and one man named Wilson took from under his own doorstep about two thousand dollars worth of gold. In another case, three Frenchmen removed the stump of an old tree which lay across the pathway on the road from the dry diggings to Culoma, commenced operations, and in one week dug nearly five thousand dollars. I might go on multiplying instances of extraordinary success in gold-digging. But so many stories of this nature are already in circulation, that I will merely add one more.

Dr. H. Van Dyke, with a company of about thirty men, went on to the North Fork in August last, and constructed a dam on that river just above its junction with the American Fork. Within the first three days after the drainage was completed, the company had taken out fifteen thousand dollars; and afterwards, for nearly a month, made from five to twelve ounces a day per man.

The largest piece of gold which has yet been found was picked up in a dry ravine near the Stanislaus River, in September, 1848. It contained a large admixture of quartz, and weighed a little over twenty-five pounds, being worth five thousand dollars. A piece weighing twenty-seven ounces and a half was found by a young man named Taylor at “Kelsey’s Dry Diggings,” on the South Fork, about eight miles from Culoma. I saw this piece at the Mill last spring, and it is now in the possession of Hon. Edward Gilbert, one of our representatives in Congress from California. It is a beautiful specimen, about six inches in length, the gold being inlaid in a reddish stone. This piece was found by pure good luck, having been probably thrown up from the ravine in some loose dirt, where it was picked up by Taylor, lying directly on the surface.