The placers in the Fresno region were almost at the extremity of the Southern Mines. The accepted dividing line between the Northern and Southern Mines was the ridge on the north side of the north fork of the Mokelumne. All the rivers of the Southern Mines were tributaries of the San Joaquin. In extent of territory, population and yield, the Southern were almost the equal of the Northern mines in the early period, but they "petered out" more rapidly, and in a few years were comparatively exhausted, except for quartz outcroppings, and were favored by the Chinese and Indians more.
The rivers of this southern mining region were the Mokelumne, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced and the San Joaquin (in the foothills and mountains), with their forks. Spots in favorable locations along the creeks as far south as the San Joaquin, where it comes down in a westerly direction from the Sierras, repaid the miners with good returns, but neither the placers nor the quartz veins were comparable with those further north. The fact is the mines in this locality gave out at the San Joaquin, as they did in the north where the Pitt River, tributary of the Sacramento, came from the same mountain chain, and yet according to general tradition Millerton on the San Joaquin in its palmy days of 1853 of the mining period was as lively a miner's village with as many saloons and as much drinking, as much gambling and as much roistering as any, isolated as it was in a pocket of the foothills out of the line of travel.
The gathered gold in gravels and sands was not of uniform value, size or shape. The variance was so great that an expert could readily distinguish them. The poorest usually came from the Kern River, much mixed with silver. It improved in Fresno County, and even here the gold varied much. It was better in Mariposa, and had a high standard in Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Calaveras. The main original deposits were in quartz or limestone veins on the western slope of the Sierras at elevations of 1,000 to 4,000 or 5,000 feet above sea level, and the chief of these was the Mother Lode, traceable at or near the surface, from Mariposa to Amador County with frequent branch veins. The Merced, Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Mokelumne Rivers, with some of their tributaries, cut the lode at points where it branched, eroding the quartz veins and depositing the gold downstream far or near.
REMEMBERED EARLIEST CAMPS
Among the best remembered earliest mining camps in the northeastern Fresno County region were Coarse Gold Gulch, discovered in the summer of 1850, Texas Flat, Grub Gulch, Hildreth, Fine Gold Gulch, Temperance Flat, Rootville the immediate predecessor of Millerton on the San Joaquin and one mile below the fort, "Soldier Bar" and "Cassady's Bar" on the bend of the river above the fort. The channel of the river with its small tributaries from the bridge at Hamptonville, below Millerton, was worked for forty miles up into the mountains. The Kings, which contributes to the wealth of the county as the provider of the water for irrigation and has its rise as high in the Sierras as the San Joaquin, has never witnessed any mining operations, though some placer mining was once upon a time conducted at or near what is now known as Piedra where the magnesite mine in an entire mountain is located. Quartz locations on its banks have been made many times, though no notable mine has been developed.
It is conceded that during the early mining period, as well as in subsequent years and as late as the 70's and up to the 80's the gold placers and the surface outcroppings were well worked over and exhausted. No portion of the county but has been prospected by the grub-stake miner. Discoveries are being made to this day and quartz mine locations are frequent occurrences. Even the old mining district boundary lines are adhered to as a reminder of the past. These locations prove to be little more than chance discoveries of pockets or vein outcroppings, raising great expectations with no realization save in a few exceptions. No systematic development of the mineral deposits has followed for self-evident reasons in the too great risk of investment, cost of or lack of transportation and remoteness of the locations.
A marked map of the county would show it peppered in spots as remote and inaccessible as the upper precipitous gulches of the Kings River forks with mining locations and punctured with prospects holes and developing tunnel openings with their dumps. Late in the 70's there was sporadic effort at a development of quartz mines, but no rich or lasting ones resulted from the labor and money investments. Even the picturesque and extravagant names of the most notable of these have passed from memory. On the Madera side of the river in the drift gold gulches districts of earliest days several mills were erected, but the life of the enterprises was evanescent. In the end they were all money losers, encouraging though the first prospects. The names of them if recalled are reminders of wasted effort and misspent money. Not all were absolute failures, though all were abandoned and are only memories now. The number of them spells legion.
In Grub Gulch district was the Josephine, owned by an English syndicate, fourteen miles northeast from Raymond, located in 1880; also Les Mines d'Or de Quartz Mountain, a Belgian corporation that sank, without any returns, a fortune of the stockholders in erecting and locating a costly plant that has been idle for many years in charge of a watchman and given over to the bats and owls. The Raymond quarries have furnished granite for the state buildings at Sacramento, for miles upon miles of street curbing in San Francisco and after a period of comparative inactivity were drawn heavily upon for the rebuilding of the San Francisco public and other buildings after the great disaster, and the later Panama Exposition. The quarries at Academy in this county have and are furnishing granite rock for ornamental architecture and grave stones and monuments. In the inaccessible Minarets section, north of the San Joaquin there are said to be on the southern slope inexhaustible iron deposits in practically a mountain of almost pure metal, one of the known largest and richest iron ore deposits in the world.
The Kniepper copper mine, in the Big Dry Creek district, was later developed as the Fresno, and a first successful development of a copper ledge was that of the Ne Plus Ultra, on the Daulton ranch on the Madera side and it actually for a time sent mats to Swansea, Eng., for refining. It paid for a time but in the end petered out and another costly experiment was charged up to experience and corresponding loss. It was never resuscitated, evidence, however promising its fair prospects, that the jig was up. The Copper King and the Fresno copper mines near Clovis swallowed up small fortunes in exploitation and extravagant management.
The Copper King, originally the Heiskell mine, cost the British shareholders $400,000 in the exploitation. Under the spectacular regime of Manager Daley, an F. F. V., there was a move to erect smelter works, but neighboring fruit growers blocked it by injunction. Expensive tractors were operated to convey ore to the railroad station, and were abandoned after arousing the opposition of the county supervisors because of the damage in cutting up the roads. Luxurious quarters were fitted up for the manager, provided with electric lights, porcelain baths and other costly appurtenances. The story is also authenticated that at the Palace Hotel grill in San Francisco the manager would order three canvas-back ducks, and enriching the third with the sanguinary juices of two of them as extracted in the grilling, feast solely on the breast meat of that costly third bird, with a five-dollar bottle of champagne as accompanying beverage. The high priced machinery and tractors were "after the burst up" sold for old junk, and years later a nice profit was made by speculators, who bought up the ore on the neglected dump-pile when copper jumped up to twenty-six cents a pound with the demands on account of the war in Europe. The Copper King property has been taken over by a Texas corporation, organized in 1917, which having transferred its interest to California incorporators, the latter will operate it under a lease and royalty arrangement with option to buy after a given time for a stipulated price. It resumed operations in January, 1918, after long years of inactivity.
As late as 1865 gold dust was the medium of circulation in Fresno, rather than coin, as the Civil War had created a scarcity in circulated metallic coin and paper money being a curiosity and practically unknown in California even for many years thereafter.
Property values were estimated in ounces of pure gold rather than in dollars and