GRAVE CREEK MINING DISTRICT.
PREAMBLE AND BY-LAWS ADOPTED FEB. 15, 1875.

BY-LAWS.

E. J. Northcutt, chairman. attest:
Philip Althouse, clerk

Article 1st

    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.
    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:
   
    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.
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.
        Each man shall hold a claim 100 yards square by preemption and as much by purchase as he represents.
    The oldest claim shall have the first right to the water but shall run no water by unnecessarily to keep others from using it.
    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.
    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.
    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. 
    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.
    Any person or persons violating any of these resolutions or by-laws shall abide the decision of a miners' meeting.
    No Chinaman shall be allowed to purchase or hold any claim on this Creek.
    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.
[Filed and recorded with County Clerk Mar. 24th, 1860]
        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.
    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.
    [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.]
        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.
    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.
    A miner shall hold one claim by location and one by purchase.
    A gulch claim shall be one hundred yards long and to extend from bank to bank.
    Each miner shall hold a bar or hill claim fifty yards front and running back to the summit of the hill.
    No ditch shall be enlarged or dug out of the creek.
    No miner shall lose his claim by sickness.
Nov. 15, 1860.
        A miners' meeting was called on the right hand fork of Foots Creek for the purpose of making mining laws.
    Whereas W. J. Matney was elected President and G. S. Moore Secretary and Clerk.
    The following resolutions were adopted
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.
2nd    That the discoverers G. S. Moore, J. C. Ryal and M. O'Hara shall be entitled to one discovery claim.
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.
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.
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.
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
    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.
    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.
D. K. Henderson, Secretary.
    [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.]
    Mar. 18, 1867.
    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.
    [See "Record of meeting to repeal or revise the Mining Laws of Wines Diggings."]
    State of Oregon, Jackson County,
    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.
     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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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
    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.
    Resolved--That this district be confined to the portion of Coyota Creek in Jackson Co. and its tributaries.
    Creek claims shall be one hundred yards long and from bank to bank.
    Gulch claims shall be one hundred yards long and fifty yards from the center of the gulch on each side.
    Bench or flat claims shall be one hundred yards front and two hundred yards back into the flat.
    Hill claims shall be one hundred yards front running back to the center of the hill.
    Creek claims shall be represented from the 1st Dec. to the 1st June.
    Gulch claims shall be represented from the 1st Dec. to the 1st April.
    Bench or flat claims shall be represented from the 1st Dec. to the 1st June.
    One person can hold two claims by location provided they are not both of the same class of the above mentioned claims.
    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.
    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.
    Filed and recorded in Mining Records of Jackson County Oregon at 10 o'clock A.M. August 13, 1867.
        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.
    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.
    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.
    Filed for record, Aug. 26, 1867, and recorded the same day.
Coyota Creek, Mar 13, 1867
    At a meeting held by the miners of Coyota Creek
    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.
    Be it resolved further that all laws in relation to laying aside Gulch, Hill and Bench claims be, and the same hereby are, repealed.
    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.
    At a miners meeting held Steamboat City, Jackson County Oregon April 30, 1869, M. F. Alcorn was elected president and H. W. Tuttle, secretary.
    The following mining laws were adopted.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    The oldest claim to have prior right to water, dumping, damming, etc.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    H. W. Tuttle was elected Recorder for one year.
        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.
    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.
    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.
    That Bar claims bordering on the main streams shall consist of two hundred yards in length and comprise the entire width of said Bars.
    That Creek claims shall consist of two hundred yards in length and comprise the width of the bed of the Creek.
    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.
    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.
    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.
     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.
Silas J. Day, Co. Clerk
    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.
Silas J. Day, Co. Clerk
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.
In pursuance to a call made Feb. 3, 1875
    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.
Miners' Meeting
    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.
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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."
    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.
    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."
    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
Filed and recorded June 18, 1860.
    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,
Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, May 3, 1927, page 12




     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