Iowa Hill looking towards First Sugar Loaf Mountain. 1875
Streets and houses washed away by hydraulicing.
From research of Bob and Sharon Balmain, with exerpts from
their book
"The Road To Iowa Hill, Journey of Memories"
Iowa Hill is located on the steep ridge between the North Fork of the American River and Shirttail Canyon. It can be reached by following the narrow, winding, and steep Iowa Hill/Mineral Bar road, along a similar route traveled by 19th Century miners; there to be greeted by fabulous views of the American River below, and flower studded hillsides in the spring. To reach the Iowa Hill area in 1851, you would cross the River on a ferry, and push your way up a steep mule trail, nine miles to the first settlement in the area, Elizabeth town.
The first miners worked the stream beds of the major rivers with pans, rockers and sluice boxes, scouring the bed rock and bars. They diverted the streams and as the easily obtainable gold was depleted, they dug into the ancient river channel which meandered through the Iowa Hill Divide. In 1852 new rich diggings were discovered at Iowa Hill. Extensive ditches were built to supply water to the area. As the pickings got slimmer, they began tunneling under ground. There were several small mining towns on the Divide, along with Iowa City: Independence Hill, Roach Hill, Monona Flat, Grizzly Flat, Wisconsin Hill, Birds Flat and Elizabeth town (named after Elizabeth Brown, who along with her husband and two boys, kept a hotel there).
In 1853 the Jamison claim, near where the town is located, was worth $14,000 per interest, with the largest days work at 240 ounces! That same year the town of Iowa City (later Iowa Hill) sprang up from what was one tent provision store and three log cabins. It was called “Magic Town” due to its almost overnight growth, with a population of between 1400 to 1600 people. The town with its usual array of saloons and gambling houses, hotels, butcher shops, dry good and clothing stores, also had a bowling alley, large theater, skating rink, shooting gallery, and ice cream parlor. There were two churches, and numerous fraternal lodges, including a Masonic Hall and an I.O.O.F. Hall. In the early years, it was a roaring, raucous mining camp with bull and bear fights, held at the top of Sugarloaf, (the mountain overlooking Iowa City) gambling, and one lynching. In an effort to bring stability, one of the first State regulated militias in Placer County was formed there in July 1855, called the Mountain Blues.
Though the majority of occupations stemmed from the mines, and the people supplying that industry, many residents engaged in farming. Fruit trees and vineyards were planted, wine produced for sale, and the fruit sent to market. Many of these trees can still be seen today surviving after 140 years. Due to the road conditions and high rate of freight, Iowa Hill could not be competitive with other farming areas in the County, and the industry died out.
Approximately 600 tunnels were dug into the mountain sides, and the Divide became so honey combed with tunnels that the town itself was in danger of sinking away. Hydraulic mining washed the Ancient River Bed into the American River and Indian Creek. Many of the mountains were washed entirely away during the 30 years of hydraulic mining. By the 1860's the rush was over, newer methods of mining were taking place which were less labor intensive. The population , though more stable and family oriented, started to decline. In the 1870 Federal Census only about 720 individuals were enumerated on the Iowa Hill divide. The legal decisions on hydraulic mining in the 1880s adversely impacted the Community by virtually shutting down the major mining industries.
Two teacher’s from Iowa City were among a group of volunteers from Iowa Hill, who enlisted in the Union Cavalry in 1863, to fight at the “seat” of the Civil War. Among the battles they engaged in was the battle of Winchester at Cedar Creek, where they fought along side George Armstrong Custer, under General Sheridan. One of the teachers, Joseph Varnum was killed by Mosby’s gorillas, near Virginia and buried on the battle field there . Wesley C. Howe, who was also a Principal of the school, was wounded, taken prisoner, and held in the Confederate prison at Richmond, Virginia. He was later exchanged, rejoined his command, and stayed until the end of the war.
The extremely dangerous nature of mining is graphically told by the many miners graves on Banjo Hill, where at least 50 miners were buried in the area due to mining accidents. One early miner, Peter James, was killed in the Morning Star mine and his wife Elizabeth was left to raise their six children by herself. Their boys Thomas 18, and William 16 worked in the mines, to help support the family, and remained in Iowa Hill until the late 1890's. William married, and his son William (Bill) played baseball in the hydraulic fields near town. The family moved to away when the mining declined, and “Big Bill James” went on to play for the Boston Braves. He pitched and won two games in the1914 World Series, allowing only two hits Boston won all four games to become the Series champs! Newspapers of the time called him “the greatest pitcher in baseballdom”. The past time of baseball in Iowa Hill also produced “Wiz” (Julius) Papa, who went on to play for the Pittsburgh organization.
Like many mining towns, Iowa Hill suffered the scourge of fire. The first in 1857 entirely destroyed the town. It was rebuilt and the streets widened in hopes of preventing further devastations, but they were to face four more horrific blazes. With intrepid pioneer spirit the town was rebuilt each time, until the last in 1920, when just over 100 people remained on the Divide. Mining still continues there on a very small scale.
In 1990, Bob and Sharon Balmain began a project of researching and documenting the names and stories of those pioneers who were buried on the Iowa Hill Divide. The two Cemeteries on Banjo Hill had fallen into a state of disrepair. By repairing fences, cleaning up brush that had overgrown the grave sites, and listing those pioneers buried at the Cemetery, restoration is well underway to honor the spirit of those pioneers who came to this country. They built a life of culture, excitement, hardship and love - ever searching deeper and deeper into the hillsides for the thing they came for... And then they died here, and buried on Banjo Hill, became eternally one with the mountain they loved and sometimes cursed. The list is posted at the Placer County Genweb site: www. Rootsweb.com/caplacer.