THE OVEELAND EOUTE 



TO 



211 



F 



Colfax. 



Elevation 2,422 feet. 

 Population 621, ■ 

 Omatia 1,639 miles. 



Beyond the ravine is Colfax, first known as IlUnoistown but later 

 renamed for Vice President Colfax. The Central Pacific Railway, 



being built up from the Sacramento Valley, reached 

 this place on September 1, 1865. The Nevada County 

 Narrow Gage Railroad runs from Colfax to the impor- 

 tant mining districts of Grass Valley and Nevada 

 City, where there are many lode mines that have 

 long been productive.^ 



After leaving Colfax the train passes through shallow cuts in yellow 

 soil derived from the deep decay of the Jurassic slates. The road 

 continues the descent along a ridge between canyons, although the 

 traveler wtII hardly recognize tliis fact without reference to the map. 

 The upper slopes near the railroad have been largely cleared of tim- 

 ber and are now covered with a dense underbrush, including man- 

 zanita,^ scrub oak, and other slirubs and dwarf trees. The Jurassic 

 rocks in some places carry a few distinctive fossils^ but the numerous 

 outcrops of slate as seen from the train do not look very different 

 from the rocks of Carboniferous age (Calaveras) that occur east of 



Cape Horn. 



About 2 miles below Colfax the tracks separate, the westbound 

 route turninjx off to the north side of the ridge. From this point to 



although 



o 



Rocklin the two lines are in general some distance apart^ 



here and there they run together and at two places even cross each 



other. The older line, used by the westbound trains, affords the 



better views, as the newer, 

 through deep cuts and many tunnels. 

 Lander (elevation 2,282 



more uniformly graded track passes 



feet), New England 



Mills or Weimar 



(2,278 feet), and Applegate are all small settlements along the route. 



^ The Nevada City-Grass Valley dis- 

 trict is second only to the much larger 

 Mother Lode district as a source of vein 

 gold in California, and probably nowhere 

 else in the State has there been so great a 

 concentration of gold in a small area. 

 The veins occur in many kinds of rock, 

 including granodiorite, slates of the Cala- 

 veras formation, altered volcanic rocks 

 (greenstones, amphibolite schist, etc.), 

 and serpentine. They vary much in 

 trend and dip, are generally rather nar- 

 row, and yield ore of higher grade than 

 the Mother Lode veins. The veins are 

 einiilar in general character to those of 

 the Mother Lode, although they show 

 some mineralogic diSerences. A famous 

 laine of the district is the North Star, the 

 moat productive gold mine in California. 



mine 



has yielded gold to the value of over 

 $15,000,000. Its main shaft, an incline, 

 is 5,850 feet long and attains a vertical 



depth of 2,200 feet. 



2 The manzanita {Arctosta phjlos patula) 

 is a shrub having a smooth bark of rich 

 o>inr.r»l.i+o r'r^li^r amnll njile-preen roundisli 



ernes 



I 



utive apples. It is this resemblance that 

 gives the shrub its common name, Spanish 

 for little apple, by wliich it is known 



Bears 



everywhere on the Pacific coast. 



fond of these berries. 



are very 



^«^^o-n;+n n-rx^rc*r^ "mnnv nf the hills 



The 



im 



trable growth. 



wood is i 

 . gnarled 



many a western fireplace. 



