Plumas County, CA History

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta Jul 2009

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Illustrated History of PLUMAS, LASSEN & SIERRA Counties
with CALIFORNIA from 1513 to 1850, Farriss & Smith , 1882, San Francisco.



QUARTZ TOWNSHIP 

  
          This is one of the two original townships into which the Plumas 
section of Butte county was divided in 1851, but at that time embraced territory 
largely in excess of its present dimensions. [See the official history on a 
previous page]. The name was derived from the remarkable quartz discoveries made 
that summer on Gold mountain, now known as the Plumas Eureka mine. On the 
twenty-third of May, 1851, a party of nine prospectors camped near Gold 
mountain, or Eureka peak. Two members of the party, named Merethew and Peck, 
having gone to the top of the peak to take observations of the surrounding 
country, came upon the bold croppings of a ledge that showed rich quartz to be 
plentiful. The "original nine", as they called themselves, or the "nine 
originals", as they were called by others, gathered in friends to the number of 
thirty-six in all, and on the fifth of June, 1851, organized a company. 
Satisfied that they had indeed "found it", they named their ledge and company 
Eureka. The news soon spread, and miners began to pour in from the Middle 
Feather, and from Nelson creek and vicinity. The Eureka company claimed thirty 
feet square for each of its members; but the newcomers being in a majority, a 
meeting was called, which cut the size of the claims down to twenty feet. The 
Eureka company then staked off their ground, took possession of the lake near by 
for a water supply, erected some arrastras, and began to work in a modest way. 
The outsiders then organized a company, and because of the fact that they 
numbered just seventy-six souls, they bestowed the name of Washington upon their 
location. They were not content with the slow work of arrastras, but wanted a 
mill at once. They went down to the flat on Jamison creek, located a mill-site, 
and laid out a town, which was called the City of 76. A mill with sixteen stamps 
was erected, and ran but a short time, when the company made a complete failure, 
having spent about $100,000. Another company with forty members located some 
croppings on the south-east side of the mountain, calling themselves the Rough 
and Ready company. Still another company of about eighty men made the Mammoth 
location, north-east of the Eureka claim. They were satisfied with what could be 
done by arrastras till the spring of 1856, when they were enabled to erect a 
twelve-stamp mill. The Rough and Ready company erected a mill with twelve stamps 
at once, and so crippled themselves that work had to be suspended in 1854. It 
was resumed in 1857 for a time, and again suspended. The Eureka company worked 
with arrastras for a while, then used Chili wheels. In 1855 they put up a 
twelve-stamp mill, followed a few years later by one with sixteen-stamps, to 
which eight more were added in 1870. In 1867 an injunction was secured by John 
Parrott of San Francisco to restrain Nane, Elwell, & Co., who had been working 
the Washington ledge with arrastras for several years. In 1870 Parrott secured 
title to both Washington and Rough and Ready locations, having previously become 
possessed of the Eureka claim. The following year he disposed of the whole 
property to the Sierra Buttes Company, of London, England, the present owners. 
The new company erected a large mill the next year, and have since been working 
the claim on a magnificent scale. They also purchased the old Mammoth location, 
thus acquiring complete possession of the quartz locations on the mountain. 
Plumas Eureka Mine is the name given to the telegraph office, and Eureka Mills 
the designation of the post-office. They are both located at the little 
settlement on the mountain-side, where the first mill was built, and where the 
office of the company now is. There are also a store and a hotel kept on the 
hill. Four companies of Italians pay the company a monthly rental for the 
privileges of working tailings from the mill, in doing which they are running 
about forty arrestras very profitably. 
         

      {Biographies have already been transcribed.}