THE GRAVEL: IN SIERRA COUNTY, 



213 



least, have purchased extensive claims on the channel of the creek, with the 

 intention of washing over this enormous mass of material, which is thought 

 by many to contain a very large amount of gold. 



The other great channel, which has already been mentioned as running 

 almost due south through the county, forms the central one of the three sys- 

 tems indicated, and is next in importance to the one following the course of 

 Slate Creek, as just described. It is at a very high elevation, Forest City, 

 about six miles north of the Middle Yuba, and near its southern terminus, 

 being, it is said, 4,350 feet above the sea-level. This channel has been traced 

 from Plumas the entire distance through Sierra County to Minnesota on the 

 Middle Yuba. Being for most of the distance deeply covered by volcanic 

 materials, it has been chiefly worked by tunnels and drifts ; which in places 

 have been run for long distances in a connecting line, as between Forest City 

 and Alleghany. It is difficult to make out from the published statements 

 what the width of the channel and the character of the gravel are. Indeed, 

 the explorations seem, thus far, to have been quite insufficient to settle the 

 important points of the exact position of the main channel and of its branches. 

 One of the most extensive workings on this line of gravel was that of the 

 Live Yankee Company, at Forest City. This claim was opened in 1855 and 

 worked until 1863, at which time the whole length of the channel in the 

 claim, 2,600 feet, had been nearly drifted out. The yield during this time 

 is said * to have been $ 698,534, of which $ 328,368 was profit. 



For 



period of seven consecutive years after the opening of this mine the dividends 



averaged nearly $ 50,000 a year. 



The Bald Mountain Company commenced operations about the time of the 

 stoppage of the Live Yankee, on ground near that of this company, but to 

 the cast of what was popularly supposed to be the course of the channel. A 

 shaft was sunk to the bed-rock at the depth of 269 feet and pay gravel struck 

 at 2G0. The prospecting of this gravel having proved satisfactory, it was 

 opened by a tunnel begun in June, 1870, and completed in twenty-two 

 months. This tunnel was 1,800 feet in length, 400 of the distance being in 

 serpentine, and the cost of the work (including that of the prospecting shaft) 

 was $ 20,000. According to Mr. Skidmore's published statement, the books 

 of this company show a remarkably successful career from the time of the 

 completion of the tunnel up to July, 1874. At this time 292,200 square feet 

 of ground had been worked on the channel, which had paid at the average 



* Seventh Report of the Commissioner of Mining Statistics, p. 152. 



