DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 9 



ville. Here, having discovered gold in Cash Creek, whose placer deposits 

 are worked even at the present day, they whipsav/ed lumber to make sluices 

 for washing its gravels. A few days after their ai'rival news was brought 

 to them of the discovery of gold in California gulch. Two parties of prospect- 

 ors had, it seems, already preceded them, though their route is unknown. 

 Foremost among their names are those of Slater, Currier, Ike Rafferty, 

 George Stevens, Tom Williams, and Dick Wilson, from the last of whom 

 many of the following facts were obtained : The first hole dug in California 

 gulch was about two hundred feet above the site of the present Jordan tun- 

 nel, the second just below the present town of Oro. Owing to the richness 

 of the ground and the number of the pei'sons present, gold was discovered 

 at an unusual number of points, and 14 discovery claims of 100 feet each 

 were located. Kellogg and Tabor met the prospectors at the mouth of 

 Iowa gulch, as they returned from locating the discovery claims, and 

 agreed to prospect that gulch. They returned to Cash Creek for provis- 

 ions, and went finally to California gulch on the 26th of April, 1860, as 

 Iowa gulch had yielded little fruit to their labors — the geological reasons 

 for which will be explained later. 



In spite of the difficulties of communication in this wild region, the news 

 of the rich discovery of gold spread with amazing rapidity. The day after 

 their arrival 70 persons came into the gulch from the Arkansas Valley; by 

 July it was estimated that there were 10,000 persons in the camp. It is said 

 that $2,000,000 worth of gold was taken out during the first summer. Prob- 

 ably considerable deductions may be made from this estimate for the exag- 

 geration that fills men's minds in moments of such excitement. The record 

 of claims located, however, shows enormous activity in mining during this 

 summer. In California gulch alone, 339 claims, J 00 feet in width, were 

 located. Single individuals are said to have carried away from $80,000 to 

 $100,000 each as the result of their first summer's labor. Tabor and Kel- 

 logg worked their own claims and made about $75, COO in sixty days. The 

 total production of the placer claims is generally stated at from $5,000,000 

 to $10,000,000, but a more conservative estimate places it at from $2,500,000 

 to $3,000,000. The climax was soon reached, and after the first year the 

 population of this new district, whose post-office was then known as Oro 



