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Up to 1872, only a little placer mining by a man named Britton had
been done in the section now known as Deadwood, then Kline, who
was also working placer, discovered the first quartz ledge, and
named it Bismark.
He immediately turned his whole attention to quartz, working with
good success for three or four years. He next discovered the
Montezuma, and still owns both mines. The latter joins the Shafter
mine near the summit. Mr. Balleau made his appearance in 1876 and
discovered the Last Chance and Monte Christo. He took in a partner
named Muncey, and all the winter made from ten to twenty dollars
per day with a spring pole mortar. In the spring, they put up a
horse arastra, and two tons of rock crushed by it yielded twelve
hundred dollars. They then purchased Zein Brown’s water right and
put up a waterpower arastra. Fred Deiner and Trotter then became
interested, and together they built the first road in Deadwood,
one and a half miles long, for hauling the quartz to their arastra.
They took out thirty thousand dollars; Balleau then sold out to
Fred Deiner and went prospecting again. Deiner was taken sick and
to San Francisco for medical treatment, where he died. Trotter
turned over his interest to Morris Griffin and left for Arizona.
Sebastian and Balleau discovered the Brown Bear, also the Little
Vein, now owned by the McDonald brothers. Mr. Lambert then came in
and purchased the Brown Bear for $16,000. He realized nearly one
million dollars, and then thinking he had about worked out the
claims, sold the whole outfit, mill and works to the present
proprietors for ten thousand dollars. They have now struck a big
chute of ore in the Last Chance, by running across and striking
the extension in the McDonald mine, and raised an airshaft into
their shaft. It is expected the chute will last for years, and
proves the richness of both mines.
The next discovery was the Black Bear, by R. Killin, who, after
working a little time with a mortar, sold to Frick & Davis for
$5,000. They worked it between two and three years, and realized
sixty thousand dollars clear of all expenses; then suspecting it
was running out, sold to Gibson for $5,000. Gibson discovered the
Brunswick on the Shasta side of the summit. Tom McDonald was
working for him, and prospecting for himself at intervals. Gibson
gave him permission to prospect a location on his Donnelly Gulch,
and, if he struck anything, come in as a full partner. In passing
through the gulch, becoming tired, he sat down to rest. Looking
around he observed some croppings and, upon examining them,
discovered they were lousy with gold.
He immediately sent for his brother, Luke, and together they sank
on the vein, which proved very rich and what they took out yielded
five hundred dollars to the ton. Frick & Davis became excited, and
were hungry to buy, which they did at last, by giving the Gibson
brothers $12,000 each, and the McDonald brothers $7,000 each. The
McDonald brothers then bought the Little Vein of Sebastian for
$11,000, and, taking Knox Franck in as a partner, have worked it
ever since. It paid from the word go, and the ore left by
Sebastian on the dump paid the purchase money.
The fluctuations of fortune in the life of a prospector were well
displayed in that of Mr. Shafter. In 1873 or ’74 he came into
Deadwood tired and footsore, with blankets on his back. He had
then been prospecting the Igo and Bullychoop country for four or
five years without meeting any with success. Halting at the Monte
Christo shaft, he inquired of Balleau if there was any chance of
getting work or any good place to prospect. After making him
comfortable, he was directed to Kline for work. He gave him a job
to haul rock downhill on a hand sled for the liberal sum of $1.50
per day. As soon as he had made enough for grub and tools he
started prospecting. Balleau and Muncey told him that he might
make what he could get out of a location they owned above Kline’s.
He soon discovered the rich deposit now known as the Shafter Mine,
and hired Dutchmen at $15 per month to run a hand arastra, and in
two or three years cleared between thirty to forty thousand
dollars; sold out for sixteen thousand dollars and retired from
mining life with a handsome competence.
Brown Bear Mine
This mine has the largest production record of the quartz mines of
Trinity County, and is located in sections 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 and
24, T33N, R8W, MDM about six miles east of Lewiston. It has been
intermittently operated between its discovery in 1875 until 1950.
The period of greatest activity ended in 1912, but parts of the
mine were worked briefly in 1939, and during the years between
1946 and 1950. Only very recently has it been reopened again,
possibly on a long-term basis.
The mine area includes 35 separate parcels of patented land, lode
claims, placer claims, and some timber land, all presently
assessed to Mr. E. E. Erich, of French Gulch. He estimates the
past gross production at 8 to 10 million dollars, three of the
individual ore bodies have produced as much as $1,000,000 each.
The gold occurs in veins and fissures within the body of
sedimentary Bragdon slate formation, which is of two distinct
types- one hard, siliceous, and blocky, and the other soft, black
and graphitic. These have been intruded and cut by igneous
materials, diorite-porphyry and soda-granitic-porphyry, all of
which have been fissured and fractured extensively. The veins
strike in various directions, but with a general east-west trend.
There is a tendency to a reversal of dip in the lower levels,
making the average dip nearly vertical. The gold-bearing veins
vary widely in size, direction, and values, ranging from $10 to
$100 per ton. The ore is primarily white quartz carrying 1-4%
sulfides; pyrite and sphalerite, a little galena and arsenopyrite;
and free gold.
Baseball was a favorite pastime; lacking flat ground for a ball
diamond in Deadwood, the young men played in the field behind
Scott’s barn at Lewiston. Nellie (Scott) Pattison, when a child,
with her brothers, would wait for the players to leave. Then they
would gather the empty whiskey flasks left around the back stop
and turn them in at Paulsen’s store for money.
Drilling contests were held during celebrations and Joe Siligo
held the world’s record. Drillers worked in teams of two, one man
striking the drill, the other holding and quickly inserting a new
longer, slightly smaller in diameter, drill into the hole as
needed. Billy Richards was “holding” for Joe at one time- they
were drilling overhead in what was known as an “upper”. The
six-pound hammer glanced off the drill and hit Billy in the middle
of his forehead, breaking a hole in his skull. Miraculously, both
survived- Richards from the injury and Siligo from the horror of
having almost “done in” his good friend.
Even after the motor driven jackhammers were in use at lower
Deadwood, it was necessary to hand drill the side drifts, Stanford
Scott remembers Joe siligo drilling thirty inches into hard rock
in twenty minutes. Enormous charges of dynamite were used- fifty,
seventy-five and sometimes one hundred pounds. Fuses were lit that
were hopefully long enough to give the men time to get out of the
tunnel before the charge went off.
Many of the young men became members of the Odd Fellows Lodge in
Weaverville. They were so faithful in attending meetings, that, if
they had no horse transportation, they walked the six miles to
Lewiston. Then they walked another nine miles from Lewiston to
Weaverville over the old trail that takes off near the mouth of
Rush Creek.
Activity in Deadwood touched almost everyone in Lewiston and the
surrounding area. Herbert Blakemore remembers when he was a boy,
delivering quantities of berries and vegetables to the Lappin mine
from his parent’s (the Jeff Blakemores) place. This attractive
little ranch is now under the upper end of Lewiston Lake. “Herb”
added that his cousin, Lee Blakemore, made more money gambling at
Deadwood than he ever did at mining. My uncle, Edwin Scott,
remembers helping his aunt Ursula Blakemore pick huge quantities
of berries to be sent to Deadwood. He also remembers hearing of
the good times his sisters and brothers at the box social suppers
held at the dances in the Deadwood school. George Anderlini
remembers helping his uncle Frank haul hay and garden produce up
to Deadwood. The anderlini Ranch is now the Santos place at Rush
Creek.
Nellie Scott Pattison, now 88, was ten when she made her first
trip to Deadwood. The Scotts then lived at the upper end of
Clayton’s field, just north of Mary Smith Campground- under
Lewiston Lake. She went with Mr. Clayton in his wagon when he was
delivering fresh vegetables and Nellie delivered butter to her
mother’s Deadwood customers.
First hand information about Deadwood is becoming hard to come by.
It was my good fortune to have made my home with the Richards
after they left Eastman to live in Lewiston while uncle Billy
filled out his working years with the Trinity dredge. Later, their
retirement home was built next to us in Weaverville. They are both
gone now, but left many notes and pictures to help fill in a
portion of the Deadwood story. Thinking back, I remember how many
former Deadwood friends visited their home. In the future, in or
between the mile after mile of honeycomb network of underground
tunnels, will new strikes be made- to prove that Deadwood has only
been sleeping or is Deadwood really dead?
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