Odd, Old News: The Great Rio Dell Gold Strike of 1878
![Man with gold pan and hand tools in Trinity County. [Image from Humboldt State Library]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/gold-miner.png)
Man with gold pan and hand tools in Trinity County. [Image from Humboldt State Library]
Far from the better known gold bearing regions of Humboldt County, gold fever ran through the Rio Dell area in the summer of 1878 when the river bar on a local river showed color.
Humboldt Times — June 15, 1878
New Gold Diggings.—Our correspondent “Jolly” has been out to the new gold diggings on Eel River, and thus descries the place: In company with a few citizens from Springville we started last Sunday for the gold diggings which were discovered a few days ago by Bryant and Lockwood. After reaching the new El Dorado, we found some twenty men and a few ladies prospecting and staking off claims. I prospected several pans of dirt. After washing I obtained from some of them from twenty to four hundred colors, but the gold is very fine. I think a man with an ordinary sluice can make wages. The mines are located two miles above Eagle Prairie, on the south side of Eel River. The bar which is now being prospected is about two miles long, the front being covered with gravel. As the bar extends back from the river it gets deeper and is covered with a heavy growth of redwood and fir. The gold that has been discovered and washed out is thin and light, and has the appearance of being float gold. If such is the case there must be a ledge father up the river or in some canyon and the loose gold was brought down and lodged by the high waters of last winter.
The river bar was quickly all claimed leaving one editor resigned to his profession of ‘driving the quill’ though still hopeful of riches….
Ferndale Enterprise, June 21, 1878
“The gold mines discovered on Eel River still cause excited gold seekers to rush in that direction. The bar along and in the river for three miles is staked out, and everyone is confident that he will strike a bonanza on his claim. The gold found lies on top of the bed rock and consists of the very finest particles. The washing shows from 40 to 200 colors to the pan. The largest piece yet found was valued at 10 cents. The work of tunneling has been commenced by Mr. Bryant and the prospect is good as far as he gone. We went up and looked round upon the diggins, but being a poor “digger”, though very gold hungry, as all editors are, and as all out doors was staked off, we concluded to try to be satisfied with tripod and to drive the quill a little longer, hoping the some of the gold will float down this way and flood our sanctum.”
In news accounts further from the gold discovery the size of the flakes grew substantially, and the description of the location changed…
…Ukiah City Press July 1878 It is reported that a rich gold find has been made on Eel River, just below Garberville, one piece weighing $75 being picked up. Great excitement! Gold pans picks and shovels in demand. (note: gold was worth $20.69/ounce in 1878)
No follow up articles were located, and it is thought that the strike was a one season phenomena. Four decades would pass before the next big gold find on the lower Eel River…. In a location where few would think to look!
Humboldt Times January 22, 1922
METAL IN TREE MAY BE VALUABLE
Ferndale—A chunk of metal, weighing two & a quarter pounds & believed to be gold nuggets melted into a bar, was found embedded in a tree on the ranch of Theodore Thomsen on Eel River Island near here yesterday. Examination by local jewelers strengthened the belief the metal was gold although containing a large percentage of foreign substances & it has been sent to the San Francisco mint for definite determination. The metal was found by Thomsen’s son who was sawing up the tree.
Earlier Odd and Old News:
- Odd, Old News: A Cave in Bear Buttes
- Odd, Old News: Biggest Rattlesnake Ever?
- Odd, Old News: The Legend of Humboldt’s Loch Ness Monster
- Odd, Old News: Return Of The Man Eating Snake Of The South Fork (First ‘Viral’ Story From SoHum)
- Odd, Old News: Schumacher’s Snake as Caught by the Press
- Odd, Old News: A Curious Cave in the Eel River Valley
- Odd, Old News: Séance Shortened by Spirited Spirit
- Odd, Old News: A Cave in Bear Buttes (Parts One and Two)
- Odd, Old News: A Wondrous Cave Continued…(Part Three)
- Odd, Old News: In Which a Major Wants to See the Wondrous Cave in Bear Buttes
- Odd, Old News: Trinidad’s Enormous Serpent
- Odd, Old News: The Blue Lakes Monster
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Fun read, thanks. Now I’m gonna refer to what Kym does everyday as “driving the quill”
It looks more like “driving the keyboard” from where I sit.
They need to reconnoiter the rim!
There is a major gold/copper/silver deposit down by Island Mountain… but the valuable metals are mixed with sulfides. A valuable deposit… but needs a refinery to separate it. (Sorry, no gold nuggets.)
Company tried to open it up back in the 1970’s… opened the tunnels and thousands of gallons of sulfide waters poured into the Eel. Battened the tunnels back up… deposits are still sitting there today.
– clip from Wickipedia.
A volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposit within Island Mountain was mined after rail service became available. Between 1915 and 1930, 4,100 tons of copper, 140,000 ounces of silver, and 8,600 ounces of gold were mined.[9] Minerals identified within the ore body include chalcanthite, chalcopyrite, copiapite, goslarite, pyrite, and pyrrhotite.
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Fine gold was mined off the beaches… Clam Beach still has the dredge ponds on the east side of the highway… and Gold Bluffs (Northern Humboldt) has dredge ponds. A number of years ago, (50 years I guess) one of the dredges was still sitting out in the dunes.
Old mining camp was situated down on the beach, near Fern Canyon… the ‘museum’
at Prairie Creek has the old safe from the camp.
It was called “Island Mountain Copper Mine”, the whole plan of the owners of the railroad were to open the railroad to Island Mountain to mine the ore and ship it to the Port of Sonoma then smelt it and separate the Ore somewhere in Mexico. Thankfully the Great Redwood Trail is going forward and Bosco and Evergreen who owns Island Mountain Copper Mine and courtnordered NWP cover company will get the boot. How much money has already been pilfered away and spemt on nothing ….. look at the debt this old growth exporting relic of the past railroad has accumulated , look at the damage to the Eel River Canyon, imagine the canyon before the railroad and roads, is is described in Historical Records as incredible with large villages of native americans, Islamd Mountaim was the Home of the Wailaki, there is both jade and copper and gold in those hills. Peace
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~enjoyed this Kym, and Bozo too, TY.
Thanks for adding that info Bozo.
It was news to me that there have been a number of small placer finds in some Southern Humboldt creeks, and an occasional hard rock gold claim. There was a gold strike in Jackson Valley far up the South Fork of the Eel in the 1800’s. Ben Arthur claimed to have found a silver deposit between the Island Mountain mine and Alderpoint, but he claimed that a landslide had buried it and he couldn’t locate it again. In the mid 1880’s a number of Phillip’s Flat (Phillipsville) men claimed to have found a gold ledge in that area. But I think that they were mistaken, as there was no followup article in the press. (ps. thanks to historian Mary Ann Machi for finding the Ukiah newspaper account)
The Tunnel at Island Mountain is an engineerimg marvel at 5,000 feet long!
ISLAND MOUNTAIN WORK OVERCOMES GREAT OBSTACLE
Coast Line Gap Now Reduced to 50 Miles—Expected to Be Built Up Before 1915 Fair
BEST SCENIC LINE ON PACIFIC SHORE
Trains to Enter Hole 549 Feet Above Surface of ‘ Eel River
(Special Dispatch u> The Call) y EUREKA; May . 10.—Island moutain tunnel, 200 miles north of San Francisco on the proposed ecenle coast line of the Northwestern Paclflc Railway company to Eureka, hitherto regarded as one of the big obstacles In the path of construction over a “gap” of what wa,s 100 miles saierril years ago, now reduced 1 f>o miles, has Just been completed and next week will he ‘turned over to the railway company, ready for train service when the northern and southern divisions of the road are built to it. • There is yet to be,constructed to the big tunnel 22 miles of the Northwestern Pacific from Eureka and 27, miles of the southern division. Consequently the Island mountain bore Is destined to a lonely wait in a wilderness of rugged scenery such as will make the entire Northwestern Pacific an attraction for tourists the. world over. CUTS OFF FIVE .MILE DE.\D Although it takes its name from Island mountain, the 4 tunnel passes through an; elevation directly across Eel river from Island – mountain,’, cutting off a five mile bend in the stream by a direct line underground of 4,337 feet, so that, standing at either portal of the tunnel, daylight can be seen at the other. Engineer J. F. Beaman of the Northwestern Pacific, who had in charge the direction of work at Island mountain, ran his lines so accurately that the two ends of the tunnel came together onesixteenth of an Inch from an exact straight line. He also predicted the day the tunnel would be finished to within two daye of the actual date. Heamnn several years ago had charge of the lepair work on the Franklin tunnel. 5,596 feet long, of the Santa Fe company, near Martinez. ■ -_.: ; ; The south portal of the tunnel was bored in the face of an abrupt rocky hillside, dropping almott perpendicularly to the river edge.* Southbound trains will issue from the tunnel directly upon a ; 620 j foot steel and concrete bridge now building. BRIDGES TO CAMPS There being no flats on either side of the tunnel elevation close to \ where the work was done, *it was necessary to establish camps ion the opposite side of the stream, connected with each portal of the tunnel by suspension bridges several hundred feet long and about 60 feet above the river. To get to the south portal from the suspension bridge It was necessary to blast a roadway in the face of the hillside for almost a quarter mile. ■ From an engineering standpoint the boring of the tunnel was comparatively simple, but its isolation* from points of supply provided a handicap of unusual character In the annals of tunnel confetruction. Few tunnels have been built In the United States where the conditions were such. Because It was almost Impossible to bring In modern appliances, the work was done by hand drill, pick and shovel. During the first season It was necessary to haul over poor roads, 60 miles ‘ from Sherwood. In 1911 the railroad company built a 50 mile wagon road from Longvale to the tunnel. WORK BEGAN” MAY, 1811 TV’ork on the tunnel was’ commenced in May, 1911. The headings from the north and south ends, which were hored simultaneously, came together February 1, last, and the benches, that followed the headings 100 feet came together March 17. ,- Three hundred men were engaged In the undertaking, irking three. 8 hour shifts. The actual number of working days pressed was 631. The average daily advance, figuring both ends of the tunnel work, was four feet, – two Inches.” The north end of – the tunnel j was bored;by NelsLJnd & Co., station men, whilo the Utah Construction company ■worked the south end. and the advantages ■wen to well distributed the final work was- , done almost at the exact center of the bore. TUN’XEL. E LEV ATI 540 FEET The elevation of the tunnel is r>49 feet, that of the, hill is 1,615 feet above sea level, ? and . the ; greatest amount of earth above any point of tunnel is 1.066 feet. During; excavation there” were taken out of the tunnel and approaches 93,000 cubic yards of earth, equal; to 6,000 carloads. v Rock In the tunnel was found to run from shale to sandstone. J/ilaml mountain obtains* its name from the fact that it Is almost surrounded by , ; the waters of three streams. Eel river. Bell Springs creek and Chemise creek. There :is one seci’,on of 30 «, feet at the base *of the mountain not touched by water. ■ The tunnel will be but one of about 47 bores – in the 300 mile railroad from San Francisco” to Eureka. v This remarkable- road, the scenic line of the coast, will . afford one of the most attractive side trips for visitors to the Panama-Pacific . exposition at San . cisco in 1915, passing through n rich and beautiful wonderland now virtually unknown.
The coming of the RR was a huge deal at the time. In anticipation of its construction, Mayor Mott of Oakland and group of investors bought up 22,000 acres from Henry Devoy in the Ft. Seward area and began selling small plots with the vision of creating a subdivision that would be easy access from the Bay area via the coming railroad. He reportedly had $1/2 million backing from Humboldt Bay and SF Bay area investors, and had hired a French architect to lay out a townplot with circular streets. The town of Alderpoint was also swept up in the development plan excitement, one newspaper recorded that there was talk of a sizeable opera house to be constructed. These development plans were never realized, it is thought that WWI killed the financial backing, otherwise the area would have established towns.
Thanks for adding that newspaper article M.E.H.!