THE GANIM MINE OF NEW YORK GULCH

Joseph Solomon Ganim was born on December 25, 1877, to Solomon Ganim and his wife, Annie (Jabul) Ganim. He was a Lebanese immigrant, well-educated, and he arrived and settled at Whiskeytown in 1906. Ganim was a traveling merchandise seller by trade and later he became interested in mining. In 1912, Ganim located the quartz vein of the Hard Luck Gold mining claim which was situated at New York Gulch two miles northwest of Whiskeytown, and inside the boundaries of the Whiskeytown mining district. New York Gulch received it's name from the early settlers who settled upon the flat of this gulch who were natives of New York, since that time, the area has retained it's name.

At this location, Ganim struck a lucrative chunk of high grade ore and then he employed a small crew of miners to assist him in probing and developing this mining claim. By December of that year, labor improvements to this mining property consisted of the following: “sinking a shaft upon said claim at 50 feet, at an average cost of $6.00 per foot, and running a drift on said ledge for a distance of 34 feet, and an average of $7.00 per foot.” After it transitioned from it's placer mining form into a hard rock mine, it was then called the Hard Luck Gold quartz mine, and it became the first mining claim of the Jerusalem Consolidated mine which is better known as the Ganim mine.

Joseph S. Ganim and his miners extended the drift of the shaft, while following the vein to tap into the ore body. Then, on the surface of the mining property Ganim and his men drove an adit into a hillside which became the main haulage tunnel of this mine and they extended it to 900 feet where it faced-out at that point. After that, they laid down a narrow gauge ore car system on the mining property to help them transfer their ore to a ten-stamp mill which was installed by them to crush their rock to obtain their gold they sought after. By 1921, several additional crosscut adits were opened which contained drifts between 50 to 400 feet in length on the mining property. Most of the probing and exploratory work up-to-this point dealt with gold, however, that soon changed when a large body of Talc was located inside the main 900 foot haulage tunnel.

Above: this is one of three adits that I located at the Ganim mine. Present-day topography maps show that their are three remaining adits on this former mining property, and I only found one of them due to roads that no longer exist on the property. It is gated off by the park service and the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. A sign is posted on the gate which states, "DANGER! Abandoned mine hazards - unsafe mine openings and highwalls, deadly gas and lack of oxygen, cave-ins and decayed timbers, unsafe ladders and rotten structures, unstable explosives. STAY OUT - STAY ALIVE!" This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on February 27, 2021.

Two years later, in August of 1923, Joseph S. Ganim established the Ganim Gold Mines Company in San Francisco, and transferred this mining property to his newly established mining company. Ganim also brought on additional stockholders who controlled sixty percent of the mining company’s stock. The following people were the additional stockholders: Joseph Merciari, F.F. Freitas, J.P. Brennan, Charles Walters, and Doctor Charles A. Mueller, all prominent residents of Redding.

Then on, September 4, 1924, a media outlet from Big Pine, California, heralded the following news about the Ganim mine in Shasta County: 

“Stockholders of the Ganim Gold Mines Company have voted to bond the Ganim group of mines near Whiskeytown, Shasta County, for $1,250,000 to Carl Oding. One hundred thousand dollars must be paid within ninety days. The rest of the purchase price is to be paid in royalties at the rate of $115,000 a year. The Ganim mines was first located as gold mines, while running through a ledge of a good ore drift  they cut through an immense body of high grade talc. The mines are really valued at present more for the talc than gold.” 

Apparently, Oding failed to pay off the remainder of the above lease because the mining property reverted back to the full ownership of the Ganim Gold Mines Company. In January of 1925, the Ganim Gold Mines Company reorganized and they relocated from San Francisco to Redding. They also voted to downsize their stockholders. The stockholders became the new directors of the company, that month, consisting of: Joseph S. Ganim, president and owner, F.F. Freitas, J.P. Brennan, Joseph Merciari, and Charles Walters.

A year later, in 1926, the Ganim Gold Mines Company erected an electric light plant, and a sack house to store their ore, and a concentrator to treat their ore, on the Jerusalem Consolidated mining property for $15,000. During June of that year, work progressed upon the Pheonix mine and the Pheonix No. 2 mine at Whiskeytown which was a separate mining site also owned by Joseph S. Ganim. $100 of improvements were made on these mining claims by Joseph S. Ganim and a man by the name of John Haggblum, at that time. Haggblum also contributed money to Ganim for labor and improvements at the Jerusalem Consolidated minining property as well.

The Jerusalem Consolidated mine consisted of 14 mining claims as of June 30, 1926, which included the following: the Jerusalem No. 1, the Jerusalem No. 2, the Jerusalem No. 3, the Jerusalem No. 4, the Jerusalem No. 5, the Jersualem No. 6, the Jerusalem No. 7, the Admiral Oak mine, the Gold Nugget No. 1, the Gold Nugget No. 2, the Blackstone mine, the Hard Luck Gold quartz mine, the Phillips No. 1, and the Phillips No. 2 mining locations. Up-to-this date, the Jerusalem Consolidated mine were yielding the Ganim Gold Mines Company $15 per ton in gold through the extraction and crushing of quartz.

This video was filmed on location February 21, 2021.

Then, on September 27, 1927, an estimated $10,000 fire was ignited by unknown causes on this mining property which destroyed the bunkers, hoisting works, sack house, the ten-stamp mill, and all of the machinery of the Jerusalem Consolidated mine. No insurance was carried on this mining property. The fire was discovered by their superintendent, J.C. Hess, who was working on their compressor at that time. Two other mine employees were with Hess as well who were mining for talc and filling up an ore car load of it, eventually, the three men put the fire out before it turned into a ravaging forest fire. 

The Ganim Gold Mines Company decided to begin the work of rehabilitation at once. An assessment of five cents a share was levied which produced $9,000. The company re-estimated the damages of that fire and they decided it totaled $7,000 instead. Then they focused their attention on reconstructing the buildings they lost and to purchase brand-new machinery. Their Talc production resumed as well.

During the decade of the 1930s, the mining company’s attention turned to extracting gold from a number of crosscut tunnels on the mining property. The gold yielded the Ganim Gold Mines Company a lucrative amount which assayed from $1.50 to $50.00 per ton. Over the next few years occasional mining occurred at this location until May of 1941, when the Pomona Tile Company, of Pomona, California, secured it’s lease from the Ganim Gold Mines Company, and they began mining it’s talc ore body from a stope six hundred feet away from the adit of it’s main haulage tunnel.

Mining operations continued by the Pomona Tile Company, which produced a successful run of talc, yet after their lease was up on the mining property, the Ganim Gold Mines Company then bonded it to Paul E. Littel, of Redding, in October of 1941. Littel produced a carload of talc which assayed well, and he continued to operate the mining property until 1946. The Jerusalem Consolidated mine also known as the Ganim mine is the only producer of talc in Shasta County. The Ganim mine was last mined of it’s ore deposits in 1959, when the owners bonded the mine again, that year. Since then it has been owned by the Ganim Gold Mines Company.

Joseph Solomon Ganim died in Redding on November 12, 1960, at the age of eighty-two years old, and he was buried at the Saint Joseph Cemetery in Redding. In 1974, the Ganim mine was owned by Joseph S. Ganim’s son Joe Ganim. Later, this mining property became part of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, just opposite of the weigh station on Highway 299 West at New York Gulch.  

This C-Block marker is located off the main road to the Jerusalem Consolidated mine which is better known as the Ganim mine. Highway 299 West is seen in the background of this photograph. This C-Block marker was placed by the California Division Of Highways. This picture was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on May 6, 2021.

RESOURCES:

Proofs Of Labor Book 3 - Hard Luck quartz mine, December 26, 1912

Ganim Mining Company Is To Be Reorganized - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, January 4, 1926

Ganim Mining Co’s Head Office To Be Moved To Redding - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, January 5, 1926

Grinding Mill Will Be Built Near Schilling - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, January 6, 1926

Shasta Mine Makes Third Talc Shipment - Blue Lake Advocate newspaper of Blue Lake, May 1, 1926

Proofs Of Labor Book 5 - The Pheonix Mine, June 30, 1926, page 348

Proofs Of Labor Book 5 - The Pheonix No. 2 Mine, June 30, 1926, page 349

Proofs Of Labor Book 5 - The Jerusalem Consolidated Mines, June 30, 1926, page 350

Proofs Of Labor Book 5 - The Pheonix Mine and the Pheonix No. 2 Mine, July 29, 1927, page

Proofs Of Labor Book 6 - The Pheonix Mine and the Pheonix No. 2 Mine, June 25, 1928, page 381

Proofs Of Labor Book 6 - The Jerusalem Consolidated Mines, June 30, 1928, page 383

Big Pine Citizen newspaper of Big Pine, September 4, 1926

$10,000 Fire At The Ganim Mine; Loss Complete - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 27, 1927

Ganim Mine To Running Again In Two Weeks - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, October 4, 1927

1940 U.S. Census

1963 The Covered Wagon published annually by Shasta Historical Society

Mines and Mineral Resources of Shasta County, California – County Report 6 – by Philip A. Lydon and J.C. O’ Brien ©1974 by California Division of Mines and Geology

Historic Resource Study Whiskeytown National Recreation Area by Anna Coxe Toogood, May 1978, Denver Service Center, Historic Preservation Team, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior

THE FRIDAY-LOWDEN MINE

Above: the Friday-Lowden mine as it appeared in 1900 with an unidentified man standing inside the wooden portico of the adit of the main haulage tunnel. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

In 1894, while prospecting in the boundaries of the Backbone mining district of Shasta County, Walter Friday, a native of Switzerland, and a resident of Flat Creek, located the lucrative quartz vein of the Friday lode mine. After that, Friday drove an adit into the hillside. Then, he began operating this mine as a hard rock mine. Later, an abundance of copper was discovered solidifying its place on the Shasta County copper belt. Between December 31, 1897 to January 1, 1899, records for this mining property indicate that Friday extended the tunnels inside the adit he was working. 

Over $600 of labor and improvements were made to this mining property at that time. Eventually, Friday brought on John R. Lowdon, a native of Pennsylvania, and a Redding resident, who once held public office as a Shasta County Recorder to become a partner and owner of this mine. The name of the mine eventually evolved into the Friday-Lowden mine, and it's name is also recorded as the Friday-Louden mine. However, Lowdon is the correct spelling of John's surname.

Then, Friday & Lowdon brought on Lowdon’s brother-in-law, local lumberman Thomas H. Benton, a resident of Shingletown, as a co-owner of this lucrative mining property. Up to 1906, $25,000 worth of labor and improvements were done by these men, and several lucrative ore bodies were exposed by them on this mining site. Then, on July 1, 1906, the Mammoth Copper Company, of Kennett, bonded the Friday-Lowden mine for eighteen months for the sum of $200,000. The ore from this mine was smelted at the Mammoth Copper Company's smelter in Kennett.

The Mammoth Copper Company took control of this mineral land and placed a small mining crew at work that month to do exploratory, development, and surface work. Diamond drilling and taking core samples were a major part of the exploration on this mining site at that time. This mining property consisted of the following mining claims: the Badger, the Canyon, the Cleveland, the Comstock, the Last Chance, the Friday-Lowden, the McKinley Quartz mine, the Primrose, the Quartz Hill, the Scott Lode, the South Front, the Stanto Lode, the Washo, the White Lodge, and the Wild Bear Lode, which were on the north side of Squaw Creek. Through-out it's existence the Friday-Lowden mine has been plagued by critical closures of mining operations due to smelter closures and low grade ore assessments.

This video was filmed on location by Jeremy Tuggle on April 21, 2021.

Overtime the Mammoth Copper Company continued leasing the mine from its owner's. Eventually, the Mammoth Copper Company purchased the mine from it’s owners. On December 15, 1915, the Sacramento Union newspaper, of Sacramento, heralded the following article regarding the Friday-Lowden mine:

"Mammoth Company Will Bore Tunnel

Work Will Cost About $100,000 And Take Eighteen Months To Complete

(Special To The Union.)

Kennett (Shasta Co.) Dec., 17. - The Mammoth Copper Company has started a crew of thirty-five men under the superintendency of John Mackey, to run a 5,000 foot tunnel in the Friday-Lowden copper mine. This tunnel will start 400 feet below the old workings and will run through immense bodies of copper  ore, which will eventually connect with workings of the Mammoth mine by upraises and a few crosscuts. It is estimated that this project will cost $100,000 and take a year and a half to complete." (SIC)

Over the next eighteen months the Mammoth Copper Company hustled to get the above work completed. In July of 1917, a lucrative copper strike was made inside the Friday-Lowden mine while the Mammoth Copper Company's mining activities pressed-on until the following month when an alarming strike occurred at Kennett on the smelter site of the Mammoth Copper Company over a dollar raise of employee wages which the mining company was not willing to increase. Miners began protesting and riots occurred consisting of several fist fights. This made people feel unsafe and some went home to get their guns for their personal protection. Eventually, a Sheriff's posse was called in from Redding to control the crowd at Kennett and they stayed through most of the strike.

This strike caused the Friday-Lowden mine to be closed again as the miners from this mine went to Kennett to protest with their colleagues. Many mines were closed down in the area because of this strike. Then, on August 30th, in the chambers of Judge, Harry Donnelly, Justice of the Peace, at Kennett, the Mammoth Copper Company met with the representatives of their strikers and refused to raise the wages from $4 to $5. 

By September 4, 1917 the strikers increased to twelve hundred miners. On that day, the representatives of these strikers met with the officials of the local mining companies in the chambers of Judge, Donnelly. During this meeting the Mammoth Copper Company offered arbitration for the strikers, but they still held out for $5 a day. As the day progressed it was clear that the strike would continue. However, a deadline of September 13th, was demanded by the Mammoth Copper Company for their miners to resume work, or else, they would be terminated. Nine days later on September 13, 1917, the twelve hundred miners returned to mining the copper belt by a threat of being terminated without a raise of their salary. The Mammoth Copper Company won that battle, and mining continued on most of their mining properties.

Yet, it slowed down the progress of work at the Friday-Lowden mine and after that brief periods of mining occurred here. Of it’s original owners, it was Thomas H. Benton who died first on January 19, 1919, followed by John R. Lowdon on August 22, 1923, and finally, Walter Friday on January 25, 1926. 

Years later in 1974 the Friday-Lowden mine was owned and by the U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company, of Salt Lake City, Utah. Gold was found in the oxide ore, and additional ore bodies of copper, chalcopyrite and barite gangue were discovered according to reports. 

A selfie. Jeremy in front of the pad-locked adit of the historic Friday-Lowden mine. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on April 21, 2021.

Resources:

1888 California, U.S., Voter Registers for Walter Friday

1900 U.S. Census

Affidavit Of Labor Performed and Improvements Made - Proofs Of Labor Book 1, pages 34-35, recorded January 19, 1899.

The Friday-Lowdon Mines Bonded To The Mammoth Company - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, July 9, 1905

Group Of Copper Mines Bonded For Over $200,000 - The San Francisco Call newspaper of San Francisco, July 10, 1906

Copper, Silver and Gold - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, July 11, 1906

Mammoth Runs Great Tunnel - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, April 3, 1916

Mammoth Running Tunnel Of 4,000 Feet - The Sacramento Union newspaper of Sacramento, May 1, 1916

An Official Plat of the Map of the Mammoth Copper Mining Company claims known as the Badger, Cleveland, Comstock, Lowden, Primrose, Quartz Hill, South Front, Washo and Wild Bear Lodes, Surveyed November 17, 1916 - June 14, 1917 by Charles T. Dozier, Mineral Survey No.5298

Mammoth Makes Big Copper Strike - The Sacramento Union newspaper of Sacramento, July 23, 1917

Four Mines Tied Up By Strikes Of Miners; Mass Meeting Tonight - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 27, 1917

1,200 Copper Miners Strike; Industry Completely Tied Up - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 28, 1917

Copper Mines In Shasta Are Closed By Strikes - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, August 29, 1917

Strike Situation Is Unchanged No Prspect of Settlement Now - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 29, 1917

Mammoth Denies Men Dollar Raise; Strikers Meeting - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 30, 1917

Strike Is Deadlock; Both Sides Stand Firm - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 31, 1917

Mine Operators Ask Arbitration  - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 2, 1917

Arbitration Turned Down By Strikers - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 4, 1917

Strikers Repudiate Representatives; Refuse To Work - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 13, 1917

Thos. H. Benton’s Busy Life Ended - The Seerchlight newspaper of Redding, January 21, 1919

John Lowden Old Timer Is Called Beyond - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 22, 1923

John R. Lowden Dies In Berkeley- The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, August 23, 1923

Searching Party From Kennett Find Their Man Dead; Hold An Inquest And Bury Him On Spot - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, January 26, 1926

Market Street Steam Whistle Inauguration Block Party

The Redding Chamber, Viva Downtown, and K2 Development Companies would like to invite the public to witness the inauguration of the Downtown Redding Steam Whistle on Friday, May 21, 2021!

 

Experiencing the 1896 Old Railroad Grade In Keswick, California.

On this episode of Exploring Shasta County History, Jeremy takes you on an adventure over different parts of the 1896 Old Railroad Grade in Keswick, California. Filmed on location May 12, 2021.

THE ADVENTURE:

THE BURIAL SITE OF KATE CAMDEN.

On this episode of Exploring Shasta County history, Jeremy takes you on an adventure to the historic burial site of Kate Camden. Learn more about her in the video. Enjoy! This video was filmed on location, April 17, 2021.

THE ADVENTURE:

LEGENDARY MINING LORE: GOLD NUGGETS OF HISTORY

Newcomers Frederic Rochon, a native of New York, and his Canadian partners Levi Longfield, and John Hayett, arrived from lower California and settled at Shasta together in the early months of 1870. After their arrival, they immediately located a placer mining claim on Spring Creek. After that, their mining activities took-off with them earning fair wages from this mining claim prior to making the biggest discovery of their lives. Then, on June 25, 1870, this trio discovered the largest gold nugget ever found along the channel of Spring Creek, about where the present-day town of Keswick is today.

They had successfully removed a large boulder in a bar on the channel of the creek, beside a Cottonwood tree which was growing on the bank above them, with their mining tools, when Rochon immediately picked up a lucrative gold nugget with his hand. This gold nugget contained no quartz, nor any other substance, as it was pure gold. Excitement rang out amongst themselves, and they immediately widen their perimeter before leaving the area in hopes of finding more specimens of gold nuggets. 

Then, they departed their mining claim to return home to Shasta where this gold nugget was placed on a scale at a local business. It weighed in as being fifteen pounds and four and a half ounces in gold. It was then valued at $3,200. Up-to-this-date, the main theory was that the mining claims along Spring Creek had been “worked-out", and this find created a brand-new mining boom to Spring Creek but eventually the excitement died out.

This gold nugget gave Rochon fame and fortune with state wide media coverage. Rochon barely credited his partners with any glory nor profit from this discovery. Some media outlets claimed that this was the largest gold nugget ever found in Shasta County history. 

As for Longfield and Hayett they departed the area and never returned. Rochon trusted the gold nugget to be handled by Doctor Benjamin Shurtleff, of Shasta, and his wife, Mrs. Ann (Griffith) Shurtleff who helped Rochon get it properly assayed, documented and photographed. It was their son George Shurtleff who took it to San Francisco with him for exhibition purposes on behalf of the owner and he immediately returned it to Rochon upon his return to Shasta.

There are two stories of how this gold nugget was sold, one version claims that it was sold to Charles McDonald, of Shasta, for $3,600, and the other version claims that it was sold to Santin & Everett, of San Francisco, for $3,200. Rochon eventually moved from Shasta to Round Mountain after selling this gold nugget, and later on, he relocated from Round Mountain to Bells, in Shasta County. Then, in November of 1873, another miner not affiliated with Rochon found a $300 gold nugget near the location of Rochon’s discovery site, and Rochon was in the news again because of this discovery.

Rochon worked in various careers during his lifetime, he was a laborer, a miner, a lumberman, and a carpenter. Rochon died at the Shasta County Hospital in Redding, on November 25, 1907, at the age of ninety-four years old. Years later, in 1921, Rochon's gold nugget was remembered when local residents Joseph Miller and John Stein found a gold nugget weighing nineteen pounds and two ounces along Motion Creek which was valued between $4,500 and $5,200. However, various reports claimed it weighed more than that, which wasn’t the case, immediately it became the largest gold nugget ever found in Shasta County, up-to-that-time. This gold and lore tale are a few of the legendary mining stories of Shasta County.

Above: gold in a scale being weighed, obviously not as large as the gold nuggets mentioned in this article but it gives you a visual of how gold was weighed. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

Resources: 

1870 U.S. Census

A Big Specimen And How It Was Found - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, July 2, 1870

That Nugget - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, July 7, 1870

Shasta County - The Marysville Daily Appeal of Marysville, November 22, 1870

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, November 29, 1870

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, November 29, 1873

1876 Great Register of Shasta County

1880 U.S. Census

Largest Nugget Of Gold - The Daily Free Press newspaper of Redding, May 26, 1898

That Spring Creek Nugget - The Daily Free Press newspaper of Redding, May 28, 1898

Redding - The Chico Record newspaper of Chico, August 29, 1906

Fredrich Rochon -The Colusa Daily Sun newspaper of Colusa, November 27, 1907

Frederic Rochon in the California, U.S., Death Index, 1905-1939

Gold Nugget Worth About $4,500 Found In Redding Section - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, February 15, 1921

$5,200 Gold Nugget From Shasta County Melted At SF Mint - The San Francisco Call newspaper of San Francisco, February 15, 1921