|
Mining Laws Many Jackson County mining and
other records have been discarded or
dispersed into private hands; some have found their way into archives.
Many
are still unaccounted for.
GRAVE CREEK MINING DISTRICT.
WHEREAS,
We, the miners of Grave Creek, in Josephine County, believe that there
are valuable lodes of quartz, containing gold, silver and other
valuable metals, and also much ground that would be valuable for placer
mines, situated on Grave Creek and in its vicinity, and PREAMBLE AND BY-LAWS ADOPTED FEB. 15, 1875. WHEREAS, We are without any local organization and believe it necessary for the successful development of the mines, therefore be it Resolved, That we form a new mining district in conformity to the laws of the United States and the local laws of Oregon, bounded as follows: On the south by the Galice Creek Mining District; on the east by Jackson County; on the north by Douglas County, and on the west by a line running north from the northwest corner of Galice Creek Mining District to intersect the south line of Douglas County. Also to elect a local Recorder, adopt a set of by-laws and attend to any other business for the benefit of the miners in the district. BY-LAWS.
ART.
1. This district shall include that portion of territory situated in
Josephine County, State of Oregon, as follows: Beginning at the
northwest corner of Galice Creek Mining District and running north to
the Douglas County line; thence east along said line to the northeast
corner of Josephine County; thence south along the line of Jackson and
Josephine counties to where it intersects the north line of the Galice
Creek Mining District; thence along said line to the place of
beginning. The same to be known as Grave Creek Mining District.ART. 2. The extent of a claim on any mineral vein shall be 1500 lineal feet along the lode and 300 feet from the center on each side of the lode. ART. 3. No person shall hold more than one claim by location on any one vein. By purchase, any number of claims may be held. ART. 4. All claims shall be measured on a horizontal line and numbered 1, 2, 3, &c., from the original discovery on the direction of the lode both ways. ART. 5. Any person or persons holding claims in this district shall do or cause to be done $33⅓ worth of work on each claim held by them within the first four months after the claim is recorded and continue the same every four months until the amount of $5.00 worth of work is done; and where more than one person hold a claim together, each one shall do or cause to be done his or her pro rata amount of said $33⅓ worth of work; and upon a failure of anyone to perform their proportion of the work, their interest in the claim shall be subject to relocation by the party or parties having put on the required amount of labor. ART. 6. No person shall be entitled to a vote at any meeting held for the regulation of mining interests in this district, unless they are owners or part owners of claims of either quartz or placer mines within this district. ART. 7. All claims recorded in other districts and located within the limits of this district shall be transferred to the record book of this district by the Recorder. ART. 8. All meetings for the purpose of electing officers and changing of these laws must be called by posting written notices in at least three public places in the district, or by publishing the same in some newspaper printed in the county or some adjoining county, such publication to be made by the Recorder in each case during at least twenty days previous to such meeting, stating the object thereof. ART. 9. The Recorder shall be elected by a majority of the claimholders present at the annual meetings to be held in May of each year. ART. 10. He shall record all claims presented for the purpose and be entitled to receive therefor a sum not exceeding $2.00 for the first name and fifty cents for each additional name thereafter; Provided, That it shall not be lawful for him to record any claim in conflict with any prior location. He shall endorse on all notices placed on file in his office the exact time of presentation for record. It shall be his duty, if required by the locator, to furnish each shareholder with a certificate of his claim, attested by the seal of his office, for each of which he shall receive the sum of 50 cents. Before recording any claim, he shall satisfy himself that no rights are infringed, and in all cases priority of location shall deter mine ownership. ART. 11. It shall be the duty of the Recorder to make a transfer of all claims in his book to the County Clerk once in every twenty days from Feb. 15, 1875. ART. 12. All transfer of claims or parts of claims made in this District shall be recorded in a book by the Recorder kept for the purpose, and he shall be entitled to receive a fee of not more than $1.00 in each case, and all such record shall be legal evidence of such transfer. ART. 13. It shall be required of the local Recorder to give bonds in the sum of $500.00 for the faithful performance of his duty. ART. 14. It shall be the duty of the Recorder to act as clerk of all meetings held in the district by the miners. ART. 15. All examinations of the records shall be made in the presence of the Recorder or his deputy. When relieved, the Recorder shall turn over to his successor all books, papers, etc. pertaining to his office. Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 5, 1875, page 1 The mines in Northern California were being rapidly developed, and by the spring of 1850 all the opened sections were in full operation in the primitive modes then in general use. When a new camp was found, and a sufficient number of miners, say forty or fifty, had located claims, a mass meeting was called and a code of laws established to govern the miners of that particular camp, but only in relation to their claims. The camp usually received some nondescript name. Sometimes a name would be applied to a camp that, as time moved on and brought to the country a more fastidious population, delicacy required the substitution of a more euphonious appellation. The boundaries of the camp would be defined as clearly as their knowledge of the surroundings would allow. The civil law then in force, administered by alcaldes, who were expected to be, but seldom were, elected by the people, was insufficient to cover all contingencies, so the custom of making mining laws for each camp came into use and was subsequently ratified by legislative enactment. The size of claims, manner of location, of working them, only as regarded the rights of others, the length of time a claim could be abandoned and the title remain valid, of settling disputes about claims by arbitration, and the manner of conducting them, and any other regulations which experience had shown to be necessary to properly govern mining camps, were written out in full and placed in the hands of a recorder, who was elected at the first meeting and at stated periods thereafter. It was the duty of the recorder to record in a book kept for that purpose the names of miners holding claims, their location, boundaries, time of location and other things necessary to a clear understanding, in case of possible litigation. For this service he was to receive a specified fee from the party owning the claim to be recorded. Until a claim owner had made application to the recorder to record his claim, and had paid the stated fee, the title to his claim in a litigation was not always considered valid. Laws, as before stated, for the government of the people in their intercourse with each other, outside of those in regard to mining claims, were few and weak for over two years after the first discovery of gold, except such as were administered by Judge Lynch. But be it understood that this much-censured legal light was at all times careful, good-natured, merciful, yet prompt in his administration of the laws. No one was condemned to be punished, or punished, without a fair and careful trial by as impartial a jury as could be selected. Crime was less frequent than it is today; the prosecutions cost nothing, and complaints of injustice were never heard. Injustice was seldom if ever done in those primitive courts, for honor, justice, humanity were not clouded by politics or party strife, nor obscured by religious bigotry, but bloomed and flourished wherever the American miners pitched their tents, in the spreading valleys or amid the undulating hills, on the mountainside or along the rocky banks of foaming streams. The man who was known to be unjust in his intercourse with others, or even with one person, was shunned and made to feel the contempt of those around him. No truckling was there, no kissing the feet of those on the ladder above while kicking those below. Every man was a man in his own right, and was so respected, if, indeed, he could lay a just claim to a fair share of intelligence, industry and honor. The application of the mining laws may have been very crude, but, still, that which was sanctioned by custom was obeyed by all with alacrity. "Captain Benjamin Wright," O. W. Olney, Sunday Oregonian, Portland, September 20, 1885, page 2 Know all men by these presents, that the miners in council assembled on this the 1st day of April AD 1852 do ordain and adopt the following rules and regulations to govern this camp. Resolved, first that 50 yards shall constitute a claim in the bed of the creek extending to hip-high water on each side. Resolved, second that 40 feet shall constitute a bank or bar claim on the face extending back to the hill or mountain. Resolved, third, that all claims to be worked when workable, after five days be forfeited or jumpable. Resolved, fourth, that all disputes arising from mining claims shall be settled by arbitration and the decision shall be final. E. J. Northcutt, chairman. attest:
Christian August Spreen, "A
History of Placer Gold Mining in Oregon 1850-1870; A Thesis,"
University of Oregon, Dept of History, 1939. Quoted in Linda Davis,
Seven Basins Watershed Council, "History of Seven Basins Watershed," undated circa 2015Philip Althouse, clerk July 1856--We found Wm. D. Wasson in the hospital at Jackson. I had left him to take care of my mining Claims but he had got sick and some men jumped my mountain Claims so I had arbitration before I could get them to leave. This cost me twenty-five dollars to treat the crowd. Diary of John Murray Mickey Mining Laws of Humbug Creek. Article
1st
Each man shall hold a claim one hundred yards square by preemption and
as much by purchase as he represents.
Article
2nd
The oldest
claim shall have the first
right to the
water but shall run no water by unnecessarily to keep others from using
it.Article
3rd
No claim
shall be considered forfeited
if worked one
day in every five during the time there is a good ground sluice head in
the creek.Article
4th
No person
or company shall put a dam,
reservoir or
any obstruction in the creek, provided it is a damage to those above
said obstructions.Article
5th
Any person
or company putting in a
reservoir shall
have a flood gate five feet in breadth and three feet [in] height which
shall be kept open as long as there is a good sluice head in the creek
for washing up.Article
6th
There
shall be a recorder elected, and
he shall be allowed one dollar per claim for recording.Any person leaving the creek to be gone two months shall have their claim recorded. Article
7
Any person
or persons violating any of
these
resolutions or bylaws shall abide [by] the decision of a miner's
meeting.Article
8th
No
Chinamen shall be allowed to purchase
or hold any mining claim on this creek.Article
9th
Resolved
the foregoing articles shall
come in act as
laws of the creek on or after & from the twentieth day of March
A.D. 1860.Chairman J. F. Headrick Committee on Resolutions V. P. Comstock Jas. W. Mee E. Thompson Secretary Francis Sackett Recorder John Goff Filed & recorded March 24th, 1860 at 5 o'clock p.m. Wm. Hoffman Recorder, J.C. Ogn. Library of Congress, Collection MSS62455, Shelving No. MMC-1189 Mining regulations of Jackass Creek Diggings. Resolutions & bylaws of Jackass Creek [since renamed Forest Creek] from its head to the junction with Poorman Creek March 17th, 1860. The foregoing [sic] resolutions shall take effect from the 19th of March 1860. Article
1
Each man shall hold a claim one hundred yards square by preemption and
as much by purchase as he represents.Article
2nd
The oldest claim shall
have the first right to the water but shall run no water by
unnecessarily to keep others from using it.Article
3rd
No claim shall be
considered forfeited if worked one day in every five during the time
there is a good ground sluice head in the creek.Article
4th
No person shall put a
dam, reservoir or any obstruction in the creek, provided it is a damage
to those above said obstructions.Article
5th
Any person or company
putting in a reservoir shall have a flood gate five feet in breadth and
three feet in height, which shall be kept open as long as there is a
good sluice head in the creek for washing up.Article
6th
There shall be a
recorder elected, and he shall be allowed one dollar per claim for
recording; any person leaving the creek to be gone two months shall
have their claim recorded.Article
7th
Any person or persons
violating any of these resolutions or bylaws shall abide by the
decision of a miner's meeting.After due considerations the foregoing resolutions have been unanimously adopted. Samuel Hinkley, chairman John D. Buckley, secretary Committee Wm. McNew Francis Logg Recorder Francis Logg Filed for recorded [sic] March 20th, 1860 at 9 o'clock a.m. Recorded April 12th, 1860. Wm. Hoffman Recorder, Jackson Co., Oregon. Library of Congress, Collection MSS62455, Shelving No. MMC-1189 Mining Laws of Lower Jackass
Creek
Pursuant to notice, the miners met at the house of Bryce & Co.
for
the purpose of enacting laws for the Lower Jackass [Creek] and adopted
the following.Article 1st. This creek from the forks of Jackass & Poorman Creek near Logtown to its junction with Applegate shall be called Lower Jackass. Article 2nd. Creek claims shall consist of one hundred yards, running up and down the stream, and two hundred yards wide. Article 3rd. Any person or persons may be entitled to only one claim by locations and one or more by purchase. Said claims may be attached together and represented as one claim. Article 4th. A claim shall not be considered jumpable if worked one day in ten from the first November to the first of April, and shall not be considered jumpable the balance of the year if not so presented. Article 5th. Each company shall have the right to a drain run through next claim or claims below. Article 6th. All miners shall have the right of any partial flume or sluices through the next claim or claims below, provided it does not interfere with the working of said claims. Article 7th. No miner or company of miners shall have the right to put in a dam or other obstruction on the creek. Article 8th. All miners when leaving their claims shall be required to post a notice on their claims stating the boundaries of said claims. Article 9th. Motion that the President appoint a Recorder for this mining district which he proceeded to do by appointing Wm. Ray as Recorder. Article 10th. All former laws for this creek are hereby repealed. Resolved that these laws to be [in] effect from and after the 20th day of February 1863. J.
B. Irvine
Filed and recorded February 28th 1863Chairman D. T. Henderson Secretary Wm.
Hoffman Recorder
Blossom Family Papers Mss
746, Mining Claims
1861-64, Oregon Historical Society Research LibraryJackson County Ogn. per A. E. Rogers Deputy "Mining Laws of Coyote Creek" Coyote
Creek March 13th 1869
At a
meeting held by the miners of Coyote CreekArticle 1st Be it resolved that the mining law in regard to gulch, hill and bench claims be represented from the first of December until the fifteenth of March. Article 2nd Be it resolved further that all laws in relation to laying aside gulch, hill and bench claims be and they are hereby repealed. Article 3rd On motion the foregoing laws were made a part of the mining laws of Coyote Creek, passed on the tenth day of August 1867. On motion meeting adjourned. C.
Benson
Filed and recorded April 19th 1869Wm. C. Holmes W.
H. S. Hyde County Clerk
Blossom Family Papers Mss
746, Mining Claims
1861-64, Oregon Historical Society Research LibraryJackson County Ogn. Mining Laws Steamboat Mining District At a miner's meeting held Steamboat City, Jackson Co. Oregon April 3rd 1869, M. F. Alcorn was elected president and H. W. Tuttle secretary. The following mining laws was adopted. Art. 1st This district, to be known as the "Steamboat Mining District," comprises the following territory, to wit: Beginning at the head of the cañon on Carberry fork of Applegate River about two and a half (2½) miles below the mouth of Brush Creek, including all of said Carberry fork and its tributaries from said cañon to its head. Art. 2nd A mining claim to comprise one hundred (100) yards in length up and down the stream, flat or channel, river or creek claim to consist of the present bed, low bars and low channels, flat or high bar claim (in width) from the high bedrock out of the river or creek to the raising bedrock of the mountain, or hill, gulch claims, the bed bars and banks, hill claim all the channel or wash. Art. 3rd A person is entitled to three (3) claims by preemption as follows: One (1) in the bed of a river or creek, one (1) on a flat, one (1) in a gulch or hill, as many by purchase as he wishes. Art. 4th All claim or claims shall be taken up by notices & recording. There shall be two (2) notices, one at each end of the claim or claims placed as conspicuous as possible, with the date and name or names of the preemptor or preemptors thereon, said notices & recording to hold good for ten (10) days of the ground is workable at the time of preempting, if not workable until it is workable and ten (10) days thereafter. Art. 5 Each claim to be represented by one day's labor in ten (10) days if workable, unless said claim or claims have been opened and worked with sluices or other machinery by leaving the sluices or machinery on the claim or claims holds them good for three (3) months, provided the owner or owners are not working a similar class of claims or claims elsewhere by preemption. Any person or person having river claim or claims have a right to remove their sluices and to work the same during low water, but shall state the case by a written notice in the vacated works. When two or more claims lay together and are owned by the same owner or owners, work on any one of said claims is equivalent to working on all. All claim or claims when water is to be brought on by damming, ditching or by other artificial means for their working to be considered workable at all times. All ditching or other preparatory works towards mining to be considered the same as working on the claim or claims. "Art. 6th" No person or persons have a right to put in dam or dams, dump or obstruct any claim or claims in any manner whatever, if it be possible, without too much expense, to work their claim or claims in any other way with equal facility and profit. Where any person or persons owning claim or claims and are dumping, or have in dams or other works necessary for the working of their claim or claims, such ground as such dams or other works obstruct to be considered not vacant. "Art. 7th" The oldest claim to have prior right to water, dumping, damming &c. Art 8th. All disputes arising in regard to the title or the working of claim or claims to be left to referees, each party choosing one, a miner, the two chosen ones to choose a third, all of said referees shall reside and have a claim in this mining district. The duty of said referees shall be to hear the evidence and statements bearing upon the case before them and to decide the question or questions involved. If either party feel aggrieved at the decision rendered, have a right and can appeal to a general miners meeting of this district. It shall be the duty of the Recorder to write out three notices calling said meeting, giving at least two days' notice. Art. 9 No deed or sale of a claim to be considered valid unless the claim or claims have been preempted in accordance with the laws and customs of this mining district and further said preemptor or preemptors shall have worked or caused to have been worked to the amount of twenty (20) dollars on said claim or claims. Art. 10th Any person or persons discovering new diggings in any river, creek, gulch, flat or hill in this district shall be entitled to an extra claim of one hundred (100) yards. Art. 11th All mining laws or customs heretofore existing in this mining district not in accordance with the above laws are hereby repealed and are now and henceforth null & void. Steamboat City, April 3rd / 69 M.
F. Alcorn, Prest.
H. W.
Tuttle was elected Recorder for one year.H. W. Tuttle, Sec. Filed for record Apl. 20th 1869 at 9 o'clk. a.m. Recorded same day W.
H. S. Hyde County Clerk
Blossom Family Papers Mss 746,
Mining Claims
1861-64, Oregon Historical Society Research LibraryJackson Co. Ogn. 64. Mining laws of Uniontown. Uniontown, Jackson
County, Oregon
Agreeable
to a call issued through
notices duly posted, on the 19th ultimo a miners meeting organized at
T. Cameron's store and elected J. W. Burrell chairman and W. A. A.
Hamilton clerk. A motion was made and carried that a new mining
district be organized and named and known as the Uniontown Mining
District.July 2nd, 1870 It was moved and carried that said mining district will be bounded on the north by the Jackass Mining District, on the east by the Lower Sterlingville District, on the south by the Comstock Ditch dam, and on the west by the summit of the mountains bordering on the main stream of Applegate. A motion was made and carried that a Recorder be elected for said mining district in conformity with the above. F. M. Smith was put in nomination and duly elected. It was moved and carried that the following Articles be, and are, adopted, as the bylaws of said Uniontown Mining District, viz-- Article
1st
That hill
or gravel lead claims shall
consist of two hundred yards in length and to comprise the entire width
of the channels or gravel lead.Article
2nd
That bar
claims bordering on the main
stream shall consist of two hundred yards in length and comprise the
entire width of said bars.Article
3rd
That creek
claims shall consist of two
hundred yards in length and comprise the width of the bed of the creek.Article
4th
That gulch
claims shall consist of two
hundred yards in length and fifty yards in width on each side from the
center of said gulch.Article
5th
That all
miners shall be entitled to
hold one hill claim, one creek claim, one bar claim and one gulch
claim, and that any miner shall be entitled to hold by location one
claim (in addition to those that the above articles allow him) for
discovery of new mines.Article
6th
That
miners shall hold their claims of
all classes by posting up one notice on said claims in a conspicuous
place, and by having said claims recorded in [sic] the Recorder
of the said mining district office and that a renewal of said notices
at said Recorder's office once in every six months will hold said
claims, and that neglect to comply with said requirements will show by
the Recorder's books that claims so neglected are abandoned.Article
7
That the
Recorder of said mining
district shall be entitled to receive as fees fifty cents for recording
each claim of two hundred yards in length and twenty-five cents for
each renewal.Filed July 13th and recorded July 14th, 1870. Silas J. Day, Co. Clerk Library of Congress, Collection MSS62455, Shelving No. MMC-1189 An Old Mining Law.
E. J. Northcutt of Melrose, this county, hands the Teller a
copy of the first mining laws ever enacted north of the California
line. He says the meeting was held on Canyon Creek, a tributary of
Josephine Creek in Oregon, on the 1st day of April, 1852. Forty miners
assembled under a big fir tree and organized by electing Mr. Northcutt
chairman and Philip Althouse clerk. This meeting laid the foundation
not only for the laws that now govern all the camps in this district
then included within the Territory of Oregon, but the whole United
States. These simple but comprehensive rules are surely historical
items for the consideration of not only miners and prospectors, but the
legal fraternity, as well, may study them with profit. Following is the
copy:
"Know all men by these presents, That the miners in council assembled on this the first day of April, A.D. 1852, do ordain and adopt the following rules and regulations to govern this camp: "Resolved, first, That 50 yards shall constitute a claim in the bed of the creek extending to high water on each side. "Resolved, second, That 40 feet shall constitute a bank or bar claim on the face extending back to the hill or mountain. "Resolved, third, That all claims not worked when workable, after five days, be forfeited or jumpable. "Resolved, fourth, That all disputes arising from mining claims shall be settled by arbitration, and the decision shall be final "E.
J. Northcutt,
Daily Teller, Lewiston,
Idaho, July 6, 1900, page 3"Chairman." EARLY MINING LAW.
E. J. Northcutt, of Melrose, hands the Teller
a copy of the first mining laws ever enacted north of the California:
line. He says the meeting was held on Canyon Creek, a tributary of
Josephine Creek, on the first day of April, 1852. Forty miners
assembled under a big fir tree, and organized by electing Mr. Northcutt
chairman and Philip Althouse clerk. This meeting laid the foundation
not only for the laws that now govern all the camps in this district,
then included within the Territory of Oregon, but the whole United
States. These simple but comprehensive rules are surely historical
items for the consideration of not only miners and prospectors, but the
legal fraternity, as well, may study them with profit. Following is the
copy:Local Rules of a Southern Oregon Camp in 1852. Lewiston (Idaho) Teller. "Know all men by these presents, that the miners in council assembled, on this the first day of April, A.D., 1852, do ordain and adopt the following rules and regulations to govern this camp: "Resolved, First, that 50 yards shall constitute a claim in the bed of the creek, extending to high water on each side. "Resolved, Second, that 40 feet shall constitute a bank or bar claim on the face extending back to the hill or mountain. "Resolved, Third, that all claims not worked when workable, after five days, be forfeited or jumpable. "Resolved, Fourth, that all disputes arising from mining claims shall be settled by arbitration, and the decision shall be final. "E. J. NORTHCUTT,
"Attest: Philip Althouse, Clerk.""Chairman. Mr. Northcutt adds by way of identification the following personal history: "I claim the honor of being one of the earliest pioneers, having landed in Portland, Or., on the 17th day of September, 1851, having made the journey across the plains from Springfield, Ill. with ox teams that year. After a rest of four days at the Skidmore House, in company with three others, I started to the gold mines. We went in a boat up the Willamette River, through Umpqua Valley, to the gold mines of Northern California; met Aaron Rose and stayed with him overnight at the first camp that he made, where Roseburg now stands; fell in with a pack train going to the mines, and landed on Josephine Creek the 10th of October, 1851. This was the only mining camp in Oregon Territory at that time, which included all the country from the southern line of Oregon to the British line, and east to the Rocky Mountains, where there are thousands of mining camps today. I was a partner with A. G. Walling, the printer, in 1852, on Althouse Creek; was with General Lane at the Indian fight on Evans Creek, where he was wounded in the arm, in 1853; was with General A. J. Smith (then Captain) at the battle of Hungry Hill, in 1855; was with the Oregon Cavalry in 1863-4, in this country; and in 1867 with the First United States Cavalry, under General Crook. I have been in 18 Indian fights--twice wounded. I am a well and hearty man today; never have been sick an hour on this Coast, and I am now 70 years of age. "Yours truly, E. J. NORTHCUTT."
Oregonian, Portland, July 17, 1900, page 8MINING LAWS OF 1852.
During the early mining days on the Pacific Coast, there was no law
governing the location and operation of mining ground. This was always
regulated by local rules agreed upon by the miners of each camp. The Eagle
has been handed a copy of the mining rules adopted by the miners of
Southern Oregon, which we understand are similar to the rules that
governed mining in Grant County in the early '60s. Following is the
copy:Some Resolutions Adopted in Southern Oregon at That Time. "Resolved, first, that 50 yards shall constitute a claim in the bed of the creek, extending to high water on each side. "Resolved, second, that 40 feet shall constitute a bank or bar claim on the face extending back to the hill or mountain. "Resolved, third, that all claims not worked when workable, after five days, be forfeited or jumpable. "Resolved, fourth, that all disputes arising from mining claims shall be settled by arbitration, and the decision shall be final."--Canyon City Eagle. Sumpter Miner, Sumpter, Oregon, August 22, 1900, page 2 BARRETT'S MINING LAW.
The bill passed by the recent legislature known as the Barrett law is
now in full force and effect, and for the benefit of prospectors and
others it is published in full as follows:Section l. Any person, a citizen of the United States, or one who has declared his intention to become such, who discovers a vein or lode of mineral-bearing rock in place upon the unappropriated public domain of the United States within this state, may locate a claim upon such vein or lode discovered, by posting thereon a notice of such discovery and location, which said notice shall contain: First, the name of the lode or claim; second, the same or names of the locator or locators; third, the date of the location; fourth, the number of linear feet claimed along the vein or lode each way from the point of discovery, with the width of each side of the said lode or vein; fifth, the general course or strike of the vein or lode as nearly as may be had by defining it from some prominent monument, mound or landmark, and by defining the boundaries upon the surface of each claim so that the same may be readily traced. Such boundaries shall be marked within thirty days after posting of such notice, by six substantial posts, projecting not less than three feet above the surface of the ground, and not less than four inches square or in diameter, or by substantial mounds of stone, or earth and stone, at least two feet in height, to wit: One such post or mound of rock at each corner and at the center of such claims. Sec. 2. Each locator shall, within 60 days from and after the posting of the location notice by him upon the lode or claim, file or record with the recorder of conveyances, if there be one, who shall be the custodian of mining records and miners' liens, otherwise with the clerk of the county wherein the claim is situated, a copy of the notice so posted by him upon the lode or claim, having attached thereto an affidavit showing that the work required to be done by section 3 of this act has been done and performed, and shall pay to the recorder or clerk a fee of $1 for such record thereof, which sum the recorder or clerk shall immediately pay over to the treasurer of such county and shall take his receipt therefor, as in the case of other county funds coming into possession of such officer. Such recorder or clerk shall immediately record such location notice and the affidavit annexed thereto. No location notice shall be entitled to record or [be] recorded until the work required by section 3 of this act has been done and the affidavit in proof thereof is attached to the notice to be recorded. Sec. 3. Before the expiration of 60 days from the date of the posting of the notice of discovery upon his claim as aforesaid, and before recording the notice of location, as required by section 2 of this act, the locator must sink a shaft upon the claim located to a depth of at least 10 feet from the lowest part of the rim of such shaft at the surface, or deeper if necessary, to show by such work a lode or vein of mineral deposits in place. A cut or crosscut or tunnel which cuts the lode at a depth of 10 feet or an open cut at least six feet deep, four feet wide and 10 feet in length, along the lode in any manner discovered, is equivalent to such discovery shaft. Such work shall not be deemed a part of the assessment work required by the Revised Statutes of the United States. The locator, or someone for him who did work upon and has knowledge of the facts relating to the sinking of the discovery shaft, shall make and attach to the copy of the notice of location to be recorded an affidavit showing the compliance by the locator with the provisions of this section, which affidavit shall be recorded with such copy of the location notice. Democratic Times, Jacksonville, April 11, 1901, page 1 SYNOPSIS OF OREGON MINING LAWS
A mining claim must not exceed 1600 feet in length along the vein or
lode, by 600 feet in width, 300 feet on each side of center of vein at
surface. Valuable Information for Prospectors Given in a Brief Form Within thirty days after posting notice the boundaries must be marked by six substantial posts, projecting not less than three feet above the ground, and not less than four inches square [or] in diameter, or by substantial mounds of stone, or earth and stone, at least two feet in height at each corner and at center ends of such claims. The location notice must be filed with the county recorder or county clerk within sixty days after posting the same upon the claims. Attached to the notice must be an affidavit showing that the work required by the state law has been performed. Before the expiration of sixty days from the date of posting said notice of discovery upon his claim aforesaid, and before recording the notice of location the locator must sink a discovery shaft upon the claim located to a depth of at least ten feet from the lowest part of the rim of such shaft at the surface, or deeper if necessary to show by such work a lode or vein of mineral deposit in place. A cut, or crosscut, or tunnel which cuts the lode at a depth of ten feet, or an open cut at least six feet deep by four feet wide and ten feet in length along the lode from the point where the same may be in any manner discovered, is equivalent to such discovery shaft. Such work shall not be deemed a part of the assessment work required by the revised statutes of the United States. Lake County Examiner, Lakeview, August 8, 1912, page 3 MINING LAWS OF JACKSON COUNTY,
1860-1876
One
example of the interesting subjects
for research that county archives offer is the mining records in those
counties where mineral wealth has been an important or controlling
factor in their civilization. Nowhere in the state [Oregon] is this more
apparent than in Jackson County. It found its origin in the gold mining
camps of the early fifties, a county government being erected in [1853].
All interests centered in the mines and if in the passing of seventy
years they have lost their dominance, the mines still remain one of the
important sources of wealth to the county and of livelihood to a large
portion of its people. The early history of the county could be written
from the
records of its mines; they are extremely valuable, usually interesting,
and sometimes curious documents. A short digression describing them
will not be out of place.With Introduction and Notes By Verne Blue They consist of a series of small volumes not uniform in size, bound in board covers. The series is not complete, but it covers about twenty years from 1860 to 1880 with references to earlier dates. Volume one is one of those missing, but a large and essential part of it appears in a later volume of copies of Conveyances of Mining Property made from these general records by an order of the County Court in 1889.1 Two or three volumes appear in the Recorder's office while the rest were dug up, here one and there another, from under the eaves of the attic in the wood shed, mingled with the chaos of other records there found. They contain Locations of Mining Property,2 Water Rights, Tunnel Rights, Claims to River Bed, Bills of Sale, and Laws of Mining Camps. Here is a more informative record as to the population than the early census records give. Americans, French, Chinese, Hawaiians,3 a cosmopolitan throng, individuals and companies, march through the pages of these books. The prices of property and the rise, decline and desertion of camps can be read there. The driving of the foreigners from the mines is an important social and economic change. The first recorded bill of sale4 is dated October 19, 1854. It is for mining property on Foots Creek transferred from A. McNeil and Benjamin Armstrong to E. Magruder for $20. In 1866, Magruder donated the entire property to his three sons. Throughout the sixties and earlier, there were a great many sales to Chinese companies as well as to single Chinamen; for example: Wolf Creek, August 20th, 1859.
Know all men by these presents that I the undersigned have this day
sold one mining claim 150 yards together with 8 sluices, 2 picks, 2
shovels, 2 hatchets, 1 root ax, and one cabin to one Chinaman by the
name of Chick, for the sum of thirty dollars. Ephraim
Allen.
Paid by cash $4.The other $26 to be paid in five days. The expansion of the mines, that is to say, the rush to a new field, can be traced in the sudden increase of notices recorded to hold claims by discovery, attended by a flock of notices claiming holdings adjacent. Into the formal legal phases one can read something of the fever of rivalry in which the golden grounds were sought and held in that frontier time. It is apparent from the records that the main interest in the sixties, particularly at the beginning, was in quartz.5 Some claims were held both for "mining and building purposes." Also others were taken for "mining and agricultural purposes." Along many of the creeks still linger the hillside farms and cabins of those whose grandfathers seized upon the land for mining. Gold was not the only mineral which interested the pioneers. In volume 3, which covers 1860 from June 18, on page 59 is a notice for three claims of iron ore.6 A notice to hold a limestone quarry is dated Sept. 18 of the same year, the claim being somewhere "above the mouth of Dutch Creek." In the same year Sam Newhall took up a soapstone quarry on the "right hand fork of Jackson Creek and running across Kanaka Flat." Then in May and June of 1861 there was a veritable silver boom.7 In 1864 an Act8 was passed by the legislature giving authority to miners to make laws for their districts. Associations of men seem inevitably to tend to become units of government, even though these be ephemeral. There are, moreover, laws recorded or referred to for five years preceding this act of 1864. If volume one of Mining Records could be found, mining laws of the territorial period would probably appear. It is altogether likely that such laws, if sufficient unofficial sources could be uncovered, would be found to antedate county government itself. The first laws which have been found so far begin in volume 2, page 112, and bear the unattractive but suggestive name of Humbug Creek. Some of the laws are drawn with much simplicity; others make an obvious effort to sound technically legal in phrasing, but they all show considerable perspicacity in meeting the needs of the makers. It is plain that there were among these early miners men with the knowledge to construct appropriate and inclusive rules for an existing situation; it would seem that it were a part of American folk genius not to feel at home without the tangible presence of constitution and by-laws. Mining
Laws of Humbug Creek
(Vol. 2, p. 112)
Each
man shall hold a claim 100 yards square by preemption and as much
by purchase as he represents. Article 1st Size of Claims Article
2nd
The oldest claim shall have the first right to the water but
shall run no water by unnecessarily to keep others from using it. Priority of Water Rights Article
3rd
No claim shall be considered forfeited if worked one day in
every five during the time there is a good ground sluice head in the
creek. Necessary Work to Hold Claim Article
4th
No person or company shall put a dam, reservoir or any
obstruction in the creek, provided it is a damage to those above said
obstruction. Restriction on Dams, Etc. Article
5th
Any person or company putting in
a reservoir shall have a flood gate five feet in
breadth and three feet height which shall be kept open
as long as there is a good sluice head in the creek for
washing up. Floodgate for Dams to Be Kept Open Article
6th
There shall be a recorder elected and he shall
be allowed one dollar
per claim for recording. Any person leaving the Creek to be gone two
months shall have their claims recorded. Recorder; Fee; When Claim Must Be Recorded Article
7th
Any
person or persons violating any of these resolutions or by-laws
shall abide the decision of a miners' meeting.Judicial Power Article
8th
No
Chinaman shall be allowed to purchase or hold any claim on this Creek. Chinese Excluded Article
9th
Resolved, the foregoing articles shall come into effect as
Laws of this Creek on or after and from the twentieth day of March A.D. 1860. Adoption of Resolutions J.
F. Headrick, Chairman,
[Filed and recorded with County
Clerk Mar. 24th, 1860]V. P. Comstock, Jas. W. Mee, E. Thompson, Committee on Resolutions Francis Sackett, Secretary John Goff, Recorder. Mining
Regulations of Jackass
Creek Diggings
Resolutions and By-Laws of
Jackass Creek from its head to the junction with Poormans Creek, Mar.
17, 1860. The foregoing [sic]
resolutions shall take effect from the 19th
day of Mar. 1860. (Vol. 2, p. 164) Article
1
Each miner shall hold
a claim one hundred yards square and as much by purchase as he
represents.[Articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are verbatim duplicates of the Humbug Creek laws.] After due consideration the above resolutions have been unanimously adopted. Samuel
Hinkley, Chairman.
[The interesting omission of
Article 8 of the Humbug Creek Laws, that excluding Chinese, should be
noted. Jackass Creek was the cosmopolitan area of Jackson County; its
records (locations,
bills of sale, etc.) are a riot of foreign names. The Chinese and
French element was very large. On December 25, 1861, Baptiste Escudé and B. Dusselin [Bernadine Besrebo in my transcription] of Jackass and Poormans Creek are recorded as
selling their mining claim, "two cabins, chickens, shovels, picks, two
wheelbarrows, pans, flume and sluice boxes, etc." to China Cook
and Co. for $145.]John D. Buckley, Secretary. Recorder, Francis Logg. Mining
Laws of Kanes Creek and
Tributaries
Pursuant to a call of
the miners of Kanes Creek they met at the claim of Theodore Henry,
electing James Lawler President, Theodore Henry Secretary, J. Saffell,
Clerk. (Vol. 3, p. 119) Meeting Article
first
Each miner shall hold one
hundred yards square of the creek for mining purposes,
and that it shall be worked within five days after there is
a sluice head of water in the creek. Creek Claims; Working Period Article
second
A
miner shall hold one claim by location and one by
purchase. Number of Claims to Be Held Article
third
A
gulch claim shall be one hundred yards long and to extend from bank to
bank. Gulch Claims Article
fourth
Each miner shall hold a bar or hill claim fifty yards front and
running back to the summit of the hill. Bar and Hill Claims Article
fifth
Ditch Restriction
No ditch shall be enlarged or dug out of the creek. Article
sixth
No miner shall lose his claim by sickness. Sickness Privilege J.
Saffell, Clerk.
Nov. 15,
1860.Mining
Laws of Foots Creek
Diggings
(Vol. 3, p. 153) Jackson
County, State of Oregon.
A
miners' meeting was called on the right hand fork of
Foots Creek for the purpose of making mining laws.Jan. 21st, 1861. Whereas W. J. Matney was elected President and G. S. Moore Secretary and Clerk. The following resolutions were adopted Size of Claims
1st
That each and
every man shall be entitled to one hundred yards up and down the Creek
and fifty yards on each side up the channel of the Creek. Discovery Claims
2nd
That the
discoverers G. S. Moore, J. C. Ryal and M. O'Hara shall be entitled to
one discovery claim. Necessary Work
3rd
That each man
or company shall hold their claim or claims by renewing their notice or
representing it by work every twenty-fifth day. Claims to Be Recorded
4th
That
each and every man shall have his claim recorded on the day of
which he puts up his first notice, to be recorded by the clerk elected
on the Creek for that purpose. Clerk's Fee
5th
It is the duty
of the Clerk to record all claims for which applications may be made on
said right hand fork of Foots Creek for which service he shall be
entitled to one dollar for each and every claim so recorded by said
Clerk. Change of Laws
6th
That the
above laws shall not be changed except by unanimous consent of all the
miners on said right hand fork of Foots Creek. The above laws passed by unanimous consent of the following named persons H.
D. Matney
G. S. Moore J. C. Ryal Isaac Tatom Monroe O'Hara I. D. Osborne Peter S. Enyart James Tatom John Osborn A. Whitser J. M. Matney Mining
Laws of Lower Jackass
Creek
Pursuant to notice the miners
met at the house of Wm. Bryce & Co. for the purpose of enacting
laws for the Lower Jackass and adopted the following.(Vol. 4) Article 1st. This creek from the forks of Jackass & Poormans Creek near Logtown to its junction with Applegate shall be called Lower Jackass. Article 2nd. Creek claims shall consist of one hundred yards running up and down the stream and two hundred yards wide. Article 3rd. Any person or persons may be entitled to only one claim by location and one or more by purchase, said claims may be attached together and held as one claim. Article 4th. A claim shall not be considered jumpable if worked one day in ten from the first December to the first of April, and shall not be considered jumpable the volume of the year if not represented. Article 5th. Each company shall have the right to a drain, run through next claim or claims below. Article 6th. All miners shall have the right of any fantail flume or sluices through the next claim, or claims below, provided it does not interfere with the working of said claims. Article 7th. No miner or company of miners shall have the right to put in a dam or other obstruction in the Creek. Article 8th. All miners when leaving the claims shall be required to post a notice on their claims stating the boundaries of said claims. Article 9th. Motion that the President appoint a Recorder for this Mining District, which he proceeded to do by appointing Wm. Ray as Recorder. Article 10th. All former laws of this Creek are hereby repealed. Resolved that these laws take effect from and after the 20th day of Feb. 1863. J.
B. Irvine,
D. K. Henderson,
Secretary. Chairman. [It would be interesting to know if this represents a secession from the "Jackass Creek Diggings" district. Article 10 could be a "secession ordinance" as much as it could indicate previous laws of a separate district. It is quite certain that by 1864 Jackass Creek seems to have been almost completely given up to Chinamen; almost the only names appearing are such as Lin and Co., Tan and Co., Wong and Co., Lo and Co., Hing Foo and Co. But in that case it is odd that no definite article was made excluding Chinese, if this were an effort to save a portion of the creek to the white men.] Mining
Laws of Wines Camp
Mar. 18, 1867. (Vol. 9, p. 121) Art. 1. Resolved that this camp be called Wines' Camp. Art. 2. Resolved that the boundaries of this Mining Camp shall commence at the mouth of Fall Creek and include all of the upper waters of Jumpoff Jo. Art. 3. Resolved, the size of a claim in the Creek and the Gulch shall be one hundred yards up and down the creek and one hundred yards wide, also the same size in the Gulch, a hill claim shall be one hundred yards front on the Creek or Gulch and run back to the summit of the hill. Art. 4. Resolved, a miner shall be entitled to three claims in this camp, one in the Creek, one in the Gulch and one in the hill. Art. 5. Resolved, [when] a company of two or more persons take claims in this camp, each member shall be present when his notice is put up. Art. 6. Resolved that all bills of sale given prior to the adoption of these mining laws shall be void in this Mining Camp with the exception of the bill of sale passed between M. Osterberg and H. Wines, on the tenth day of December eighteen hundred sixty six. Art. 7. Resolved, All claims in this camp shall not be considered workable until the 15th day of May 1867. Art. 8. All claims when workable shall be held by one day's work in ten being performed on each claim. Art. 9. And all claims shall be considered workable when there is a sluice head of water on them after the fifteenth day of May 1867. Art. 10. And every miner shall be entitled to a drain to his claim through the claim below his if necessary. Art. 11. All tailings thrown upon another miner's ground shall be removed if necessary by the owners of the claim that put them there. Art. 12. Resolved, there shall be a recorder elected for this mining camp, whose duty it shall be to record all bills of sale and claims. Art. 13. And it shall be the duty of every man taking up claim or claims, to have his claim or claims recorded within fifteen days after taking them up, except the claims taken prior to the adoption of these laws which shall be recorded within twenty days after taking up. Art. 14. Resolved that the sale or transfer of a claim in this miners camp shall not be valid unless said claim is first recorded, except the sale of M. Osterberg to H. Wines. Art. 15. Resolved that the Recorder shall receive one dollar for each claim and each bill of sale he shall record. Art. 16. Resolved that Henry Wines, the discoverer of this mining camp, shall be entitled to a discovery claim in the Creek and one in the Gulch. Art. 17. Resolved that these mining laws be recorded on the Records of Jackson County Oregon. President, Nelson McDonald.
[See "Record of meeting to
repeal or revise the Mining Laws of Wines
Diggings."]Secretary, D. H. Sexton. Mining
Laws of Boardman's
Diggings
State of Oregon, Jackson County, (Vol. 9, pp. 154-156) Louse Creek, April the 16, 1867. Pursuant to a public notice a meeting of the miners on Louse Creek was held in the house of Boardman and Van Peer, Apr. the 6, 1867, for the purpose of enacting laws to govern the mining camp, when the following proceedings were had. On motion of Mr. Plymale, J. B. Wrisley was elected President of the meeting and on motion of Mr. Wheeler, Henry Van Peer was elected secretary. Resolved, that this camp be called Boardman's Diggings; Art. 1. The jurisdiction of this mining camp shall extend from the crossing of the old state road of Louse Creek up Louse Creek to its source, including all of its tributaries, gulches, hills, and ravines to the summit of the mountain on each side. Art. 2. All creek claims shall be 100 yards long extending on the Creek and 100 yards wide. Art. 3. Each miner shall be entitled to three claims, a creek claim, a bank claim and a gulch claim. Art. 4. All bank or hill claims shall be 100 yards square. Art. 5. Gulch claims shall be 100 yards long, extending on the gulch and 75 yards wide. Art. 6. Miners or companies owning claims of each class, either of them working on one claim should represent all. Art. 7. All creek claims shall be workable from the first of June until the first of December. All other claims shall be workable when there is water to work the same. Art. 8. Miners owning more than one claim of each class by purchase shall represent all their claims by working on any one of them. Art. 9. All claims shall be recorded in thirty days after it is located, or it shall be void after this date. Art. 10. No person shall put tailings on another's claim without their consent. Art. 11. Each miner shall have the privilege of cutting a drain or race through another's claim. On motion Henry Van Peer was elected Deputy Recorder, whose business it is to record all claims and transmit a copy to the County Clerk. On motion of Mr. Wheeler the meeting adjourned. J.
B. Wrisley, President.
Henry Van Peer, Sec't. Mining
Laws of Lower Sterling
Creek Dist.
At a meeting of the miners of
Lower Sterling Creek District. Met pursuant to previous notice. Met on
the fifteenth day of January 1867. When the laws of Oct. the first 1859
were declared null and void and the following laws were
enacted. (Vol. 9) Sec. 1. The title of this Mining District shall be known as the "Lower Sterling Creek District" and lying from the mouth of Demming Creek to the mouth of Sterling Creek. Sec. 2. Each miner is entitled to hold by preemption one Creek claim one hundred yards long including the flats or bars of said creek on each side of the creek. Sec. 3. Flat or hill claims to be one hundred yards square. Sec. 4. Each miner is entitled to hold by preemption in addition to the said Creek claims, one flat, hill, or gulch claim, the gulch claim to be 100 yards long and 60 yards wide. Sec. 5. Any man holding claims in this district is required to put up notices describing the same and if he does not work them, he is required to renew the notices once a month. Art. 6. Any man can hold claims by purchase by renewing the notices once a month, in addition to his preemption claim. Sec. 7. Any change in the laws of this district must be made by giving ten days notice. Signed
by
Lyman Chappell R. I. Cameron Newton O. Haskins Wm. Haskins Theodric Cameron L. Phillips R. Phillips Record
of Meeting to Repeal or
Revise the Mining Laws of Wines Diggings
Pursuant to notice a miners
meeting was held in Wines Diggings May 1, 1867 for the purpose of
revising or repealing section "8" of the existing laws, at which the
following proceedings were had. (Vol. 9, p. 195) On motion J. P. Blalock was appointed president of the meeting and John M. Roberts secretary. On motion a committee of three was appointed to draft resolutions. Messrs. Manry, Wrisley, and Spaulding (the committee) offered the following Resolutions which were read and adopted--yeas 24, noes 16. Resolved that any persons holding claims in the camp by location and continuously working one claim of either class shall renew their notices on the others every thirty days, counting from the 15 May 1867. The renewal shall be by writing upon said notice "Renewed" with the date of so doing, and it shall be sufficient to hold the same. Parties holding claims by purchase in excess of the number they have a right to locate shall work upon each one day in ten--except when claims so held join--when the working of one shall apply to the others. J.
P. Blalock,
President. John M. Roberts, Secretary. Wines
Camp, Miners' Meeting
At a meeting held in Wines Camp
at Messrs. Plymale and Co. house,
pursuant of notice of the 7th of May 1867 by the miners of said camp,
Geo. T. Sullivan was called to the chair and C. P. Pendleton chosen
secretary to decide
whether this camp is an old or a new one. After hearing the evidence
the meeting passed the following resolutions by voting by ballot. (Vol. 10, p. 20) 1st. Resolved that Henry Wines the reputed discoverer of this camp is not entitled to discovery claims. 2nd. Resolved that a minor under the age of fifteen years is not entitled to hold mining claims in this camp. 3rd. Resolved that article 14 in the present laws of this camp is hereby repealed. There being no further business before the meeting on motion it was adjourned sine die. Wines Camp, Ogn. May 11, 1867 Geo.
T. Sullivan, Chairman
Chas. P. Pendleton, Sec. Mining
Laws of Coyota [Coyote]
Creek, Oregon
Pursuant to call the miners of
Coyota Creek met at MacWilliams and Co.'s cabin to make laws concerning
said District--Charles Benson in the chair, J. B. Hannum [Hannam?]
Sec.--Joseph Moran, Recorder. (Vol. 10, pp. 97-99) Aug. 10, 1867.
Resolved--That this district be confined to the portion of Coyota Creek in Jackson Co. and its tributaries. Article
1st
Creek claims shall
be one hundred yards long and from bank to bank. Article
2nd
Gulch claims shall
be one hundred yards long and fifty yards from the center of the gulch
on each side. Article
3rd
Bench or flat claims
shall be one hundred yards front and two hundred yards back into the
flat. Article
4th
Hill claims shall be
one hundred yards front running back to the center of the hill. Article
5th
Creek claims shall
be represented from the 1st Dec. to the 1st June. Article
6th
Gulch claims shall
be represented from the 1st Dec. to the 1st April. Article
7
Bench or flat claims
shall be represented from the 1st Dec. to the 1st June. Article
8
One person can hold
two claims by location provided they are not both of the same class of
the above mentioned claims. Article
9
No person or persons
in this dist. shall sell his or their claims unless they have done work
on the same to the amt. of fifty dollars. Article
10
Any person or persons
leaving their claim or claims for the period of ten days, unless in the
case of sickness, when the laws require the claims
to be represented shall thereby forfeit the same. Charles
Benson, President.
Filed
and recorded in Mining Records of Jackson County Oregon at 10 o'clock
A.M. August 13, 1867.John B. Hannam, Secretary. Mining
Laws of Coyote District
1st Resolved each miner can hold
one hundred yards up and down the Creek and one hundred yards from the
center of the flat by preemption. (Vol. 10, p. 161) 2nd Resolved, claims must be worked when water will permit, or if left more than ten days shall be considered deserted unless in case of sickness. 3rd Resolved, all Gulches in this District shall be the same as the Creek claims. 4th Resolved, the discoverer of new Diggings shall be entitled to one Claim Extra. 5th Resolved, all claims bought or preempted previous to the adoption of the above laws shall be considered right and respected. 6th Resolved, each miner can hold a hill claim apart from his Creek claim until it can be worked. Adopted at a miners' meeting held at the store on the 21st April 1860. Henry Smith, Chairman.
At a Miners' Meeting held at the
store May 4th 1861, Mr. Lindskeog in the chair, it was resolved that
claims lay over from June the first until Dec. the first. David Ferguson, Sec't. D.
Ferguson, Sec't.
Filed for record, Aug. 26, 1867,
and recorded the same day. W.
H. Hyde, Co. Clerk.
Mining
Laws of Coyota Creek
Coyota Creek, Mar 13, 1867 (Vol. 11, p. 81) At a meeting held by the miners of Coyota Creek Article
1st
Be it resolved that the mining
law in regard to Gulch, Hill, and Bench claims be represented from the
first of December until the fifteenth of March. Article
2
Be it
resolved further
that all laws in relation to laying aside Gulch,
Hill and Bench claims be, and the same hereby are, repealed.Article
3
On motion the
foregoing laws were made a part of the mining laws of Coyota Creek
passed on the tenth day of August 1867. On motion meeting adjourned. C.
Benson, President.
Wm. C. Holmes. Mining
Laws Steamboat Mining
District
At a miners meeting held
Steamboat City, Jackson County Oregon April 30, 1869, M. F. Alcorn was
elected president and H. W. Tuttle, secretary. (Vol. 11, pp. 82-86) The following mining laws were adopted. Art.
1st
This District to be
known as the "Steamboat Mining District" comprises the following
territory, to wit:--Beginning at the head of the Cañon on
Carberry Fork of Applegate River about two and one-half (2½) miles
below the mouth of Brush Creek including all of said Carberry Fork, and
its tributaries from said cañon to its head. Art.
2
A
mining claim to
comprise one hundred (100) yards in length up and down the stream,
flat, or channel. River or creek claim to consist of the present bed,
low bars, and low channels, flat or high bar claims (in width) from the
high bedrock out of the river or creek to the raising bedrock of the
mountain or hill. Gulch claims, the bed, bars, and banks. Hill claims,
all the channel or wash. Art.
3
A
person is entitled to
three claims by preemption as follows: One (1) in the bed of river or
creek, One (1) on a flat; One (1) in a gulch or hill, as many by
purchase as he wishes. Art.
4
All claim or claims shall
be taken up by notices and recording. There shall be two (2) notices,
one for each end of the claim or claims, placed as conspicuous as
possible with the date and name
or names or the preemptor or preemptors
thereon. Said notice and recording to hold good for ten (10) days if
the ground is workable at the time of preemption. If not workable until
it is workable and ten (10) days thereafter. Art.
5
Each claim to be
represented by one day's labor in ten (10) days if workable unless said
claims have been opened and worked with sluices or other machinery, by
leaving the
sluices or machinery on the claim or claims, holds them good for three
(3) months, provided the owner or
owners are not working a similar class of claim or claims elsewhere by
preemption. Any person or persons having river claim or claims have a
right to remove their sluices and to work the same during low water but
shall state the case by a written notice in the vacated works. When two
or more claims lay together and are owned
by the same owner or owners work on any one of said claims is
equivalent to working on all. All claim or claims when water is to be
brought on by damming, ditching, or by other artificial means for their
working, to be considered workable at all times. All ditching or other
preparatory works toward mining to be considered as working on the
claim or claims. Art.
6
No person or persons have
a right to put in dam or dams, dump or obstruct any claim or claims in
any manner whatsoever if
it be possible without too much expense to work their claim or claims
in any other way with equal facility and profit. Where any person or
persons owning claim or claims and are dumping or have in dams or other
works necessary for the working of their claim or claims such ground as
such dams or other works obstruct to be considered not vacant. Art.
7
The oldest claim to have
prior right to water, dumping, damming, etc. Art.
8
All disputes arising in
regard to title or the working of any claim or claims to be left to
referees, each party choosing one, a miner; the two chosen ones to
choose a third. All of said referees shall reside and have a claim in
this Mining District. The duty of said referee shall be to hear the
evidence and
statements bearing upon the case before them and decide the question or
questions involved. If either party feel aggrieved at the decision
rendered, have a right and can appeal to a general miners' meeting of
the district. It shall be the duty of the Recorder to write out three
notices calling said meeting giving at least two days notice. Art.
9
No deed or sale of a
claim to be considered valid unless the claim or claims have been
preempted in accordance with the
laws and customs of the mining district and further said preemptor or
preemptors shall have worked or cause to be worked to the amount of
Twenty (20) Dollars on said claim or claims. Art.
10
Any person or persons
Discovering New Diggings in any River, Creek, Gulch, Flat, or Hill in
this District shall be entitled to an Extra Claim of One hundred (100)
yards. Art.
11
All mining laws or customs
heretofore existing in this Mining District not in accordance with the
above laws are hereby repealed and are now and henceforth null and
void. Steamboat City April 3, '69. M.
F. Alcorn, Prest.
H. W. Tuttle was elected
Recorder for one year.H. W. Tuttle, Sec. Mining
Laws of Uniontown
Agreeable to a call issued
through the notices duly posted on the 19th ultimo a miners' meeting
organized at T. Cameron's store and elected J. W. Burrill chairman, and
W. A. A. Hamilton, clerk. A motion was made and carried that a new
Mining District be organized and named and known as the Uniontown
Mining District. (Vol. 12, pp. 64.-63) July
2, 1870
It was moved and carried that said Mining District will be bounded on the north by the Jackass Mining District, on the East by the Lower Sterlingville District, on the South by the Comstock Ditch Dam, and on the West by the summit of the mountains bordering on the main stream of the Applegate. A motion was made and carried that a Recorder be elected for said Mining District; in conformity with the above F. M. Smith was put in nomination and duly elected. It was moved and carried that the following articles be and are adopted as the By-Laws of said Uniontown Mining District. Article
1st
The Hill or gravel
lead claims shall consist of two hundred yards in length, and to
comprise the entire width of the channel or gravel lead. Art.
2
That Bar claims bordering
on the main streams shall consist of two hundred yards in length and
comprise the entire width of said Bars. Art.
3
That Creek claims shall
consist of two hundred yards in length and comprise the width of the
bed of the Creek. Art.
4
That Gulch claims shall
consist of two hundred yards in length and fifty yards in width on each
side from the center of said gulches. Art.
5
That all miners shall be
entitled to hold one Hill claim, one Creek claim, one Bar claim, and
one Gulch claim, and that any miner shall be entitled to hold by
location one claim (in addition to those that the above articles allow)
for the discovery of new mines. Art.
6
That miners shall hold
their claims of all classes by posting up one notice on said claims in
a conspicuous place and by having said claims recorded in the Recorder
of the said Mining District office and that a renewal of said notices
at said Recorder's office once in every six months will hold said
claims and that neglect to comply with said requirements will show by
Recorder's books that claims so neglected are abandoned.Art.
7
That the Recorder of said Mining
District shall be entitled to receive as fees fifty cents for recording
each claim of two hundred yards in length and twenty-five cents for
each renewal. [No
signatures.]
Boundaries
of Campbell Mining
District, "Goose Lake Valley"
(Vol. 12, p. 119) Goose
Lake Valley, Oregon
Silas J. Day, Co. Clerk Dec. 25, 1871. Jackson Co., Ore. Sir You are hereby notified that at a miners' meeting held this day at the residence of Joseph Cooksey at which twenty persons were present who are interested in mines--a mining district was formed to be known as the "Campbell Mining District," and bounded as follows, viz. Commencing at the mouth of Drews Creek and running due west to the mountains beyond Sand Creek, thence northerly along said summit to a point due west of the summit between Chewaucan and Goose Lake Valley, thence to said summit and along the same easterly to the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, thence southerly along said summit to Bullard's Canyon; thence westerly down said canyon to the foothills of Goose Lake Valley, thence along said foothills southerly to the south side of Bartin Creek, thence down the south bank westerly to Goose Lake and across said lake to the mouth of Drews Creek [to] the place of commencement, being all in Jackson County, State of Oregon. In witness whereof we have set our hands this 25th Day of December, 1871. Jas.
Smith, President.
Chas. A. Cogswell, Recorder. Goose
Lake Valley, Jan. 8, 1872.
Silas J. Day, Co. Clerk (Vol. 12) Jackson Co., Oregon Sir You are hereby notified that at a miners' meeting held at the residence of Ira Cogswell, Esq., on the 23 inst. [something very odd about dates: Marginal note by County Clerk reads, "Filed for record Jan. 2, A.D. 1872"] a miners district was formed to be known as the Goose Lake Mining District and bounded as follows, viz., commencing at the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the California and Oregon state line and running due west to Goose Lake along the lake westerly to the mouth of Barton Creek, thence along the south branch of said creek to the foothills of Goose Lake valley, thence northerly along said foothills to Bullard's Canyon, thence easterly up said canyon to the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, thence southerly along said summit to the state line to the place of commencement, being all in Jackson County, State of Oregon. In witness whereof we have set our names this 8th day of Jan. A.D. 1872. Chas.
A. Cogswell, President.
M. J. Cogswell, Recorder. Louse
Creek Mining Laws
In pursuance to a call made Feb.
3, 1875 (Vol. 14, pp. 62-63) The miners of Louse Creek and vicinity met at W. Kahler's for the purpose of organizing a Mining District and electing a local Recorder. On motion of E. Dimick, William Kahler was chosen chairman. On motion of H. Van Pier E. Dimick was chosen secretary. It was moved and carried that the boundaries of our District be as follows: Commencing at the mouth of Evans Creek Jackson County, Oregon, running up Evans Creek taking in the west tributaries of Evans Creek to the mouth of Pleasant Creek, thence up Pleasant Creek to the mouth of Ditch Creek, thence up Ditch Creek to its head, taking in the west tributaries of Ditch Creek; thence north to the headwaters of Jumpoff Jo, thence down Jumpoff Jo to the county line, taking in the south tributaries of Jumpoff Jo, thence following the county line to Rogue River, thence up Rogue River to the mouth of Evans Creek, to be called the Louse Creek District. On motion H. Van Pier was elected Recorder. It was moved and carried that the lower ledge be called the Boardman ledge, and the upper ledge be called the Van Pier, the third and lowest ledge be called the Last Chance, all of the above ledges being situated on the northwest side of Elk Mountain. It was the request of the meeting that the County Clerk appoint H. Van Pier Deputy Clerk for this District. Grants Pass, Feb. 11, 1875. Wm. Kahler, Chairman.
E. Dimick, Secretary. Mining
Laws of Jackass and
Poorman's Creek
Miners' Meeting (Vol. 15, p. 165) House of Miller and Savage Jackass Creek, Feby. 21st, 1876. Pursuant to public notice the miners of Jackass and Poormans Creek, Jackson County, Oregon, met at the above named place for the purpose of revising and amending the mining laws of Jackass Mining District and organized by the election of Wm. Miller as chairman and Jesse Titus, secretary. The object of the meeting having been stated, on motion a committee of five consisting of Francis Logg, James McDonnell, John McKee, Daniel Hopkins and Jesse Titus were appointed to draft By-laws and regulations to govern said Mining District, who after a short recess submitted the following report, which was on motion received and the committee discharged. Sec. 1. That the Mining Districts of Poormans Creek and Jackass Creek shall be consolidated and the same shall include these creeks and all the tributaries and gulches from their source in the mountains to their confluence with Applegate. Sec. 2. All the rules and regulations and By-laws of the districts of Jackass and Poormans Creek are hereby repealed and the following passed in lieu thereof: Sec. 3. A mining claim in this district shall be one hundred yards square. Sec. 4. Each person shall be allowed to hold one creek claim and one bank claim by location. Sec. 5. Any eligible miner shall be allowed to hold as many claims by purchase as he will represent and work according to these rules and By-laws. Sec. 6. No Mongolian or alien who has not declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States shall ever hold or work any mining claim in this district. Sec. 7. If any person or company or corporations shall employ Mongolians or aliens until he declare his intention to become a citizen of the United States to work any mining claim for one month it shall be forfeiture of the claim and any citizen of the United States or eligible foreigner who has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States may locate and hold the same at any time before the entry is made at the land office for a patent. Sec. 8. If any person or company or corporation shall employ a Chinaman who was not in Oregon at the time of the adoption of the constitution of Oregon to work any mining claim or claims for ten days before the entry of the same at the land office it shall be a forfeiture of the claim or claims and the same may be located and held by any citizen of the United States or any eligible foreigner who has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States. Sec. 9. Every person or persons owning a mining claim or claims shall do or cause to be done one day's work in each and every week for each and every mining claim he or they claim as long as there is a sluice head of water in the creek, provided the claim or claims are so situated that the water can be got upon them; and provided, if the claims are together the work may be done upon any one of them. Sec. 10. No person shall divert the water of either creek to the injury of the claim or claims of any person below. Sec. 11. No person or company or corporation shall erect a dam or reservoir or other obstruction in the creek which shall work any injury to claimants. Sec. 12. Any person or company or corporation putting in a reservoir shall have a floodgate which shall be five feet in breadth and three feet in height and shall keep the same open as long as there is a ground sluice head of water in the creek. Sec. 13. As there is a dispute in regard to bank claims these rules and regulations shall take effect and be in force from and after their passage. Sec. 14. These rules and regulations shall not be amended or repealed until after notice of the miner's meeting shall be published in the Jacksonville papers for four consecutive weeks and the notices also posted up in three conspicuous places in the district. On motion the rules and By-laws reported by the committee were adopted by a unanimous vote. On motion the proceedings of this meeting were ordered published in the Oregon Sentinel and Democratic Times for four weeks and that copies of the same be posted in the district at three conspicuous places. On motion it was ordered that a copy be furnished the County Clerk to put upon record in his office. On motion the meeting adjourned. W. C. Miller, Chairman.
----------------Jesse Titus, Secretary. Notes: 1 Mining Locations and Water Rights Records, No. 1, page 1. In vault at Recorder's office. County court order for January term, 1889. The county clerk was instructed to copy into "a suitable record book all the records of mining claims and water rights which are now contained in the old volumes of such records and carefully index the same." The copies were made and the files of mining records under the title given at the first of the paragraph are complete to date, but the interest and importance of the old records which were then tossed into the discard and which only chance has preserved from destruction, is in the fact that the Mining District Laws were not copied into the new records. If there were any other important omissions only a careful reading would show, but it would seem that nothing but that for which the title called was copied. 2 The first regular entry of which there is any record is given on page 2, Mining Locations and Water Rights Records, No. 1, and must therefore be a copy from volume one of the original Mining Records which has disappeared. It is dated Oct. 29, 1857. "We, the undersigned, claim six claims of one hundred yards each of the ravine running up from the notice lying southwest from Fort Lane, half way between Haynes and Evans. We intend to work said claim as soon as water will permit." P. BEEDLE,
This entry is important, for it
indicates a gap of five [sic] years after the
organization of the county and of six since the discovery of gold, for
which there are no official records. What might be called a "freak
entry" appears on the
first page of Mining Conveyances and Bills of Sale Records No. 1; this
is the
Magruder purchase of Oct. 19, 1854. The second entry is dated 1866 and
is the first of an
unbroken chronological series. It was a bill of sale from Poy, a
Chinaman, to a
fellow countryman, Bin Hang, for property on Jackson Creek; price,
$150. L. LOINE, H. MARBLE, T. SNYDER, T. BOLTER, W. STARCK. 3 Conveyances and Bills of Sale, Mining Record No. 1, page 29: Bill of Sale from Simon McCalester to Kanaka Jo. Sterlingville, Oregon, Nov. 21, 1862. "This is to certify that I have this day sold and received pay for my six mining claims and my full interest in the water ditch claims known as the Hendricks claims to Kanaka Jo for the sum of Thirty Dollars." Same source, p. 27: To T. H. Gilson from owner of doubtful name, a claim "situated in Negro Flat starting with diggings known as the Negro Flat claim: Also the undivided one-half of the water ditch sold to the Kanakas by William and Simon McCalester in November, 1862." Dated Jacksonville, 1866. In Mining Records (original), volume 2, Oct. 20, 1860: "300 yards of mining claims on Kanaka Flat adjoining the claim of Manuel (Portugese) on the lower side of his claim . . ." Vol. 9, p. 19: "Notice is hereby given that the undersigned claims a mining claim situated on Kanaka Flat and about twenty yards from the house now occupied by us. Said claim being in a gulch and is about two hundred yards in length. Said claim is held by purchase. July 31st, 1866." KELEIKIPI (KANAKA) AND CO.
4 The record of this transaction
is found in a volume entitled "Mining
Conveyances," Vol. 1. This first volume has on its first page the bill
of sale mentioned in the text, dated 1854. On the second page the bill
of sale there
recorded is dated 1866, and from there on the record runs in unbroken
chronological
succession to 1881. Volume 2, being the same title, carries the record
to 1898.This one instance seems to indicate the peculiar things that often appear in these old documents. 5 Vol. 3, Mining Records (original), p. 1. Notice to hold one quartz mining claim by discovery. "Notice is hereby given that the undersigned claims one quartz mining claim of 100 yards by right of discovery situated on a quartz lead known as the Spring lead on the right hand side of the road leading from the Dardanelles, about 250 yards north of the cabin belonging to Michael Moran in the Blackwell diggings commencing on the eastern side of my prospect hole on said lead and running from thence in a westerly direction with said lead 100 yards including all the dips, angles and outcroppings belonging to the same, taken under the provisions of the act of the Legislature regulating quartz mining." June 18, 1860 PATRICK LYNCH.
Filed and recorded June 18,
1860. WM. HOFFMAN, Recorder, Jackson
County.
6 Same source, p. 59: Three
claims of iron ore are described in the
location notice as on the "North side of Bear Creek . . . upon the
trail leading
from Bear Creek to the head of what is called Dry Creek. The general
bearing
of said Iron Ore is S.E. from a certain red oak tree marked J.H. near a fulch."
The claims belonged to James, William and George Hamlin. 7 Pages 221-226 of Volume 3 are a solid silver record. The big silver lead was discovered at the head of California Beaver Creek, by A. G. Hatch, May, 1861. Shortly afterward another was opened "about one mile south of the headwaters of Elliott Creek," and a third "on Siskiyou Mountain on the divide between Elliott Creek and Beaver Creek." These three discoveries were probably the result of effort excited by the filing of a silver claim the preceding February, on Spring Gulch, running along the crest of the mountain toward Applegate Creek. It was to be known as the Emerald Ledge in the Mining District of "Thompson's Creek." In all, 28 silver claims were recorded in May and June. There were more later on in the summer. 8 General Laws of Oregon, 1843-1864 (Deady), page 814, section 6. Law of Oct. 24, 1864 (in part): "Miners shall be empowered to make local laws in relation to the possession of water rights, the possession and working of placer claims and the survey and sale of town lots in mining camps, subject to the laws of the United States." This act was entitled "An Act to establish and regulate quartz mining claims and in relation to placer claims, town sites, and water rights in mining camps." It superseded the Act of Oct. 19, 1860, which had superseded that (the first) of Jan. 21, 1859. Oregon Historical Quarterly, June 1922, pages 138-162 In the years after Verne Blue compiled his research the Jackson County mining and other records were dispersed into private hands; some found their way into archives. Many are still unaccounted for. During the past score of years or more I have run across some very interesting original documents at old farmhouses and in the homes of pioneers. While in Crescent City I visited James McNulty, who showed me the original charter of Crescent City. It was dated at Sailor Diggings, on Illinois Creek, as the town of Waldo, in Josephine County, Oregon, was then called. A group of Oregon miners, who were mining at Sailor Diggings, decided to make their way to the coast and start a city at what was then called Paragon Bay. Among these miners were a number of sailors who had discovered rich ground, giving Waldo its original name of Sailor Diggings. The camp was called Sailor Diggings from 1852 to 1855, when the name was changed to Waldo and it became the first county seat of Josephine County. In the winter of 1852 the miners of Sailor Diggings organized a company and elected D. C. Lewis, whose daughter is one of the pioneer residents of Portland, secretary of the company. The ink on the old charter is somewhat faded, but I was able to make it out. It reads as follows: "We whose names are hereby annexed to the following constitution do hereby, for our mutual interests, form ourselves into a company for the purpose of locating and building up of a town on and near Paragon Bay on the Pacific Coast near the boundary line between the state of California and the Territory of Oregon, and we hereby agree to be governed by the following articles: "Article 1. This company shall be started and known as the Point St. George Exploring Company. "Article 2. The officers of the company shall be a president and secretary. The duty of the president shall be to superintend and regulate the general concerns of the company. He shall, in all cases, submit to the wishes of the majority of the company. A majority of the voters of the company is requisite to elect the officers, whose term of office is to continue for six months from election unless two-thirds of the members thould require a new election. In such case the secretary shall call an election. The duty of the secretary shall be to receive all moneys and pay the same over to the president and to keep a correct record of all proceedings of the company, also a correct account of the receipts and expenditures, ready for inspection at any time. "Article 3. By-laws may, at any time, if not inconsistent with the present constitution, be appended by a vote of the majority of the company. "Article 4. This constitution may be amended by consent of two-thirds of the members of the company. "Sailor Diggings on Illinois Creek, January 31, 1852. "Signed: C. Mathias Smythe, Alexander Coyle,
Fred
Lockley,
"Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, May 3, 1927, page 12Thomas H. McGrew, Michael Martin, John B. Cook, John Picket, FlyMarket Ranger Ward, J. B. Tailor, Phillemore A. Ozimur, H. Kennedy, James McCoy, James Judson, D. C. Lewis." Oregon's First Mining Code
Know all men by these Presents: That we, the miners of Waldo and
Althouse in Oregon Territory, being in convention assembled for the
purpose of making rules to regulate our rights as miners, do hereby on
the first day of April, 1852, ordain and adopt the following rules and
regulations to govern this camp.
Resolved, 1st. That 50 cubic yards shall constitute a claim on the bed of the creek extending to high water on each side. Resolved, 2nd. That forty feet shall constitute a bank or bar claim on the face extending back to the hill or mountain. Resolved, 3rd. That all claims not worked when workable, after five days, be forfeited or jumpable. Resolved, 4th. That all disputes arising from mining claims shall be settled by arbitration, and the decision shall be final. "History of Jacksonville," Gold Rush Jubilee program 1952 At a mass meeting of miners at Orofino on January 5, 1861, a code of rules was adopted providing that each mining claim should consist of 150 feet up or down the gulch or stream and extending from bluff to bluff, but in no case to be more than 500 feet in depth. No claim was to be considered forfeited from December 1 to June 1 on Orofino Creek. Any claim not worked within 15 days from June 1 was considered forfeited. All claims must be worked at least one day in seven. Each miner was to have the privilege of a drain race through his claims and also the privilege of the water to work his claim on any tributary or creek. No person could take water from its natural channel without leaving at least one sluice-head of water running therein. A sluice-head of water was considered 30 square inches of running water. Each miner had the privilege of holding one creek, one hill and one ravine claim. Any miner disabled by sickness could hold his claim without forfeit. Any person who pulled down or destroyed any notice on a mining claim was to be tried by a miners' court of inquiry. No person who held a mining claim should forfeit such claim by reason of being compelled to leave the district for provisions for himself or company, provided he was not gone over 25 days. Oliver H. P. Beagle, quoted by Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, July 14, 1927, page 12 The town of Auburn was started in June, 1862. On June 13 William H. Packwood, one of the members of the state constitutional convention and who lived to be the last surviving member, with Ed Cranston, George Hall and some others, held a meeting and decided to lay out a town and call it Auburn. On June 14, 1862, the first street was located, from Freeze-out Gulch to Blue Canyon. Building lots were measured off, and at once they began putting up log cabins. A week later, or to be exact, on June 20, a miners' meeting was called to elect a recorder for the mining district. A president was elected for the miners' meeting and William H. Packwood and J. E. Brainerd were nominated as candidates for recorder. The president of the meeting said: "Packwood, stand on that log, so we can see you. Brainerd, you stand on that log to the left of Packwood." He then said: "Now boys, all who are in favor of Packwood for recorder, go over and stand near Packwood. Those who want Brainerd for recorder, gather around him." An Oregonian called out, "Come on, you Webfoots; Packwood is our candidate." The Californians called out, "Come on, you Tarheads; gather around our Tarhead candidate." It was found that Brainerd had a slight majority, so he became recorder. Brainerd recorded the first claim on June 23, and between that date and May 6, 1863, he recorded 1291 claims in the Blue Canyon district. Early in September, at a miners' meeting, O. H. Kirkpatrick was appointed a member of the legislature from the proposed new county of Baker. He went to Salem, but his election was so irregular that he was not admitted, but he succeeded in having an act passed incorporating the city of Auburn. Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, December 10, 1927, page 4 Yreka diggings was struck in March, 1851. The news of the discovery was published in the Placer Times, at Sacramento, on April 18, 1851, and resulted in a rush of Californians to the diggings. Silas J. Day of Jacksonville and Abraham Thompson, also of Oregon, were the ones who discovered gold on Yreka Flats. In six weeks this camp of the Oregonians had increased in population to over 2000. While Day and the other members of the party of Oregonians who were on the road to the California mines were camped on Yreka Flats, Thompson washed out three panfuls of dirt on Black Gulch, striking coarse gold. Next day the the Oregonians, who had been headed for Ingalls' Gulch, held a miners' meeting, named the camp Thompson's Dry Diggings, and decided to limit the size of the claims to 30 feet in width. Thompson and his partner, Bell, were allowed to stake one claim each, and were then given one extra claim because of their discovery of the diggings. Later, Thompson's Dry Diggings was renamed Shasta, then Butte City, and still later was named Yreka. Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, October 20, 1933, page 8 Last revised March 14, 2024 |
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