The Argonauts of California: being the reminiscenses of scenes and incidents that occurred in California in the early mining days

by Charles Warren Haskins

Claims, which by the panning process yielded daily but an ounce or so, now gave down, by the use of the cradle, from one to ten ounces, and in some cases even double the last amount. The richest part of any ravine or gulch, was, of course, near the center, or where the water course had deposited the greatest quantity, consequently the first miners would confine their work chiefly to such portions of a ravine, and those who came after would work nearer the banks, where the gold was usually finer and much lighter. By the use of this machine very high wages could be made from gravel, which would not pay to pan.

As winter approached, emigrants who had come by steamer and across the Isthmus of Panama, as well as “around the Horn,” now commenced to arrive in great numbers, and not being satisfied with the prospects of the camp scattered about in various directions over the country in the search for new mines. Soon other towns and camps were started; some very rich and valuable placer mines being discovered in the vicinity of Hangtown. Great excitement prevailed, and at this period of its history Hangtown contained almost as large a population as the chief city of the country, San Francisco, and a year later Eldorado was called the banner county. The winter following passed without the occurrence of any events in this portion of the country worth relating. The rains were light, with but little snow, and the weather warm. Towards spring news was received that rich mines had been found farther north. From this fact it was concluded that all the gold had originally been washed down from the north by floods or brought down by glacial action; consequently, the mines would be richer as you advanced toward the North Pole. This belief was almost universal among the mining classes, and some were so sanguine that such would prove to be the case, that one miner offered to bet, “that if yer’d only go fur enough to the north yer’d find ther gold all coined and sacked up, ready for shipping.” Great preparations were therefore made for leaving the old worked-out mining regions in the central portions of the State, and towards the spring of ’50 the stampede commenced for the Yuba, Bear River, and other rich mining camps at the north.

CHAPTER VII.

The Kanakas—The Dry Diggin’s Deserted—Admission of the State—Scarcity of Reading Matter—The Cost of Letter Postage—The Ingenious Bartender—Prices of Drinks—Celebrating the Fourth of July—Hard Characters.

EARLY in the Spring of ’50, a number of Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands came up into the mines; but being of an amphibious nature, they concluded to prospect the bed of the South Fork of the American River. They found a depression in the bed of this river some fifty yards in length and about fifteen feet deep. After a little prospecting, they concluded that there was enough gold in that cavity to satisfy them, and they proceeded to work the same in the most primitive style. They procured a number of empty kegs to which rocks and ropes were attached. These were sunk at the most favorable points, and the Kanakas, by diving down, would shovel the sand into them. They were hauled up and the sand was washed in cradles in the usual manner. But this deep cavity, like many others upon the various rivers, contained but little gold, as was afterwards discovered by a company that bought out the Kanakas, for upon pumping out the water by the use of water-wheels, not enough gold was found to pay the expense of working it.

The fact that the deep holes and depressions found in the river beds of California contained but little gold was a singular discovery, and an unaccountable phenomenon to the miners, for, owing to the great specific gravity of gold, it should always settle to the lowest places, and it is upon this principle that the miner is enabled to make use of the cradle and sluices for the saving of gold. For such reasons it was hard to explain why the greatest quantities should be found on the higher riffles in our river beds and the less amount in the deep cavities. The only explanation of this phenomenon, in my opinion, is that these deep depressions found in the river beds were scooped out by glacial action after the gold had been deposited there.

About the middle of April in the spring of ’50, the central mining regions were almost entirely deserted. All business had ceased, and within a radius of ten miles, where hundreds of miners were hard at work but two or three months before, not more than six or eight remained. In the creek, for a distance of four miles from the upper part of Hangtown, to the village of Cold Springs, a distance of about five miles, but four miners were at work, all doing well, and two of them to my knowledge, were washing out daily from six to fifteen ounces. All hands had struck out for better diggings. Did they find them? A few, perhaps, but the greater portion of them, who returned to their old mines in autumn, and found their claims occupied by others, concluded that they rather missed it. The rains being over by the last of April, mining with cradles through the summer season was impossible, except in a few localities. In some cases dirt was conveyed by ox teams and other means of transportation to where it could be washed, and other miners again would throw up their pay dirt on the bank, ready for washing in the fall.

During the summer, an excitement was occasioned by the wish and desire of all Eastern men, or Yankees (for at that time all persons from any point east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio were called “Yanks” by all those who came from States west of it), for the admission of the State into the Union. And the State was admitted into the Union on September 9th, 1850. From this day, everything seemed to undergo an entire change, and instead now of being a resident thousands of miles from home in a foreign land, we had by an act of Congress been transferred, as if by magic, into our own country, under the protection of the Stars and Stripes. Officers were now elected, and the machinery of a State Government put into motion. Posters could be found tacked upon the trees, stating that certain candidates for the various offices would honor our town by exhorting from a stump, or from the top of a whiskey barrel, upon the topics of the day, and what they would do if elected. Other candidates followed in proper time and order.