&
Capt. Bristow's railroad
(Excerpts from Placer County Directory of 1861 & "The Riches of Gold Hill & Virginiatown", from a February 12, 1993 Auburn Sentinel article by Bill Wilson)
There was gold, plenty of gold along Auburn Ravine in the Gold Hill-Virginiatown areas in the early 1850's. No one knows for sure how much was recovered, but some say there was a minimum of $16 million in gold taken from the rushing stream and along the banks of the ravine. Others said it might be as high as $50 million, if every ounce was reported. There was a cracker barrel kind of report during the heyday of mining in 1852 that there were so may miners in the ravine "you could walk on their backs and never get your feet wet" and "if you could see the water, you could find gold".
Gold Hill received its name from the fact that gold was discovered on the hill, which arises in conical shape. In the spring of 1851, simultaneous with the discovery of gold on various hills in the State, a party of Georgia miners set out from the town of Ophir, four and half miles above the place now known as Gold Hill, on a prospecting expedition. They passed down the Auburn Ravine from bar to bar looking for some place where they might make a rich strike as others had done before, above and below Ophir. As this party reached a low point marking a hill in the Auburn Ravine, just below an extensive flat, gold was discovered in the rich and dark alluvial soil.
Gold Hill, with a population of 1500, had two hotels, a general store, school, a number of saloons, A Masonic hall and a jail.
. . . The good people of Gold Hill, like all other communities at any early day, entertained jealousies, resulting from prospective trade and difference about which direction the streets should run. Two formidable parties arose and they very nearly equally balanced in numbers and "prospective" wealth, could not agree and the result was that the east and west streeters lost their temper and "seceded" down the ravine about half a mile. . .and built up Oro City.
Virginia, or now called Virginiatown, was only two miles from Gold Hill and the residents shared a common interest in extracting the gold and getting a water supply to do it. There was a total of some 3,500 miners in the area working in the gravel and on the banks of the Auburn Ravine by fall 1852 and the spring of 1853. Virginia, somewhat more prosperous
than Gold Hill, had its usual number of saloons, hotels, livery stable, churches, stores, blacksmith shop and other businesses. At the height of search for gold, there were 2000 miners working wherever they could find a site to dig or wash gravel. There was surplus water in the ravine, but getting it to the uphill mines was an impossible project at the time.
That was when Captain John Bristow built a railroad in Virginia without question the first in the county and many believe to be the first in the state. It was mule and man powered with wood tracks and dump cars to carry the diggings for water processing. The so-called railroad was abandoned shortly, apparently when the mines it served had been sufficiently mined and productivity came in question. There was another railroad project organized later for a railroad from the Bear River some 20 miles away to connect with the ravine mines, but the plan did not get too far, even though a stock company was formed.
. . .When the mining along the ravine was at its peak, it was not rare to see as many as 500 persons on the main road going to and from the mining sites.. . .Henry Sheldon Anable, who mined with his brother, William, at Gold Hill recorded they hit paydirt in 1853. He noted in his journal that their claim was rich and they had 30 men employed at four dollars a day, top pay in those early days.
The Masonic Lodge in Gold Hill was the second Masonic group in the county, and during the initial installation of officers 19 Master Masons were in attendance on May 5, 1853. When gold mining declined and the town's residents moved from the area, the lodge was moved to Lincoln.
Many Chinese were also working the streams for gold, some came just after gold was discovered, others moved there when the Central Pacific Railroad route was completed through the county. They were not welcome by the Caucasians and anti-Chinese groups were formed in the 1880's.
(More information about the small towns and mines around Placer County can be found in the Placer County Directory of 1861 and the 1882 Placer County History by Thompson and West available at the Placer County Museum Gift Shop -see book section)