Show romantic romanti c rediscovery redi of an old california call forni a placer BY BURR EVANS the lynch brothers william and frank of hyamson Hy ampon trinity county have encountered some very rich gravel on the trinity hydraulic gold platinum mine which they have been working for the past two years the gravel on some new bedrock mined recently averaged better than 18 to the square yard in coarse gold besides a good amount of platinum the area of the property is a quarter of a mile wide and one and three quarter miles long it is situated at an altitude of about 1400 feet above sea level at the east base of the south fork mountain range on the west bank of the south fork of the trinity river twelve miles down stream from the postoffice post office of hyamson Hy ampon in the west edge of trinity county california in township 4 north range 6 east humboldt base and meridian and about fifty two miles east of eureka harbor on humboldt bay pay gravel is twenty to seventy feet thick the gravel is from twenty to seventy feet in depth to a slate bedrock that has about one quarter quarte pitch there is very little overburden on the gravel besides the rich pay on the bedrock the gravel throughout averages better than 50 cents to the cubic yard the gold is coarse and readily saved A bedrock ground sluice cut in the bedrock three feet deep eleven feet wide and sixty feet long is in washing the gravel by hydraulic ing there is an abundance of water in the region the year round for hydraulic ing and the fall and dump room is ample the california hydraulic debris law does not affect trinity county so profitable hydraulic mining for gold can be carried on in the county the same as in the good old piping days of 49 these diggings were discovered and worked in a small way on the rim for a short time by four prospectors about seventeen years ago they washed out by sluicing over in gold in a very short time so the story goes and then got into a quarrel over the division of the cleanup clean up and one was shot and killed that put an end to the mining 0 romance good luck and bad luck luck interwoven the ground was vas again discovered in the summer of 1914 by F webster jewell now of san francisco who had been through the gold mining boom of the transvaal at the time of and before the boer war he was on a prospecting trip seeking gold recreation and health through the wilds of the western part of trinity county and one morning while meandering up a ravine on consulting mining engineer san francisco calif the west bank of the trinity river he saw an old sluice box and sat on it to eat his lunch noticing that the ground had a rich like red color he washed a of the gravel and was delightfully surprised at the quantity of gold in the pan so he kept panning until he had recovered 35 in gold next day lie he located several claims and proceeded to make preparations to wash the ground by hydraulic ing but it was not to be for his packhorse pack horse fell on him and broke about all of his ribs and all hope of his recovery was abandoned he thought different and made up his mind to get well which he did and got back to san francisco where he met and told the lynch brothers about the good pay placer ground and gave them an interest in it to go on the claims and equip and mine the same |