Excerpts from Thompson and West, 1882 History of Placer
County, page 55
NOTE: this is an interesting aspect of the gold rush that isn’t usually
told.
In April , 1848, Mr. Jones Spect, an enterprising pioneer gave the following
interesting account of gold discoveries:---
“Up to this time there had been little excitement about the gold diggings;
but at Knight’s Landing we were overtaken by Spaniards, who were on their
way to Sutter”s Mill to dig gold, and they reported stories of fabulously
rich diggings. After discussing the matter, we changed our course to the
gold mines and hurried on arriving at the mill on the thirtieth day of
April. It was true that several rich strikes had been made, but the miners
then at work did not average two and a half dollars per day. Marshall and
Sutter claimed the land and rented the mines. Every one supposed gold was
confined to that particular locality. We did not journey across the plains.
On our return trip, we learned that gold had been found on Mormon Island.
But we took no further notice of gold, and on the 12th of May arrived at
Johnson’s ranch. . . .We waited until about the 25th , when we learned that
there was another rush to the mines . . .My partner left for the American
River and I proposed to Johnson that we prospect for gold on Bear River. We
went some distance on the stream and spent three days in the search, without
any satisfactory results. I then suggested to Johnson that he send his
Indian with me, and I would prospect the Yuba River as that stream was about
the size of the South Fork of the American River. We prepared the outfit and
on the 1st of June, we struck the Yuba near Long Bar. After a good deal of
prospecting, I succeeded in “raising” color. That night I camped in
Timbuctoo ravine, a little above where we first found the gold. The next
day, June 2nd I continued prospecting up the stream finding a little gold,
but not enough to pay. The Indian was well acquainted and he piloted me up
the location of Rose’s Bar, where we met a large number of Indians, all
entirely nude and eating clover. I prospected on the bar and found some
gold, but not enough to be remunerative. Greatly discourage, I started on my
way home. . .I sent the Indian home on the night of June 2nd . In about a
week, I moved down the creek and on Nov. 20th I left the mines forever.”
THE NARROW GAUGE RAILROAD
According to railroad historian Ken Yeo, the Nevada City Narrow Gauge, on
which construction was begun in 1874, used 6 cords of wood to go to Nevada
City and 5 cords to get back to Colfax. As a result, in the early 1900's
there were not many trees left in the are., so most of the engines were
converted to oil.
Early pictures of the Narrow Gauge Railroad had to be posed, because the
cameras of that time couldn’t take any moving objects.
Due to large shipments of Bartlett pears going forward to eastern
markets, growers in Placer County were requested
to and took a thirty-six hour holiday, starting at noon last Saturday.
During that period no pears were picked.
The holiday was requested by the state and federal authorities. Picking was
resumed Monday morning.
Plum shipments continued steadily during last week, bringing the county's
deciduous fruit shipment for the season to 750 cars.
Only a small percentage of the county's Elberta peach crop will be shipped
to eastern markets as most growers have disposed of their 1941 first grade
peaches to the canners at prices approximating $27.00 a ton.
From an interview with Billy Ebbert for which Ebbert Ranch Road was named
In one, I was pertinear killed myself--another man got killed right alongside of me and two others got pretty badly crippled. The lava on the top, a big slab of it came down in the Consolidated. There were five or six of us working in the side breast with the main gangway. There was one fella down in the gangway he didn't get hurt. That was the most serious accident I saw. That was along about 1901, something like that. Several got killed in other mines. One of my father's partners got killed the same way, that was when I was only a little kid, before I got big enough to work in the mines. If you didn't keep the tunnel timbered up real good, you had to look out. Two got killed up in the Blue Eye Mine--they went into the mine and one dynamite shot didn't go off. They didn't know there was still a little fire going through that fuse, it was going so slow, anyway it went off and killed them both. I knew the people.
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