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

THE BUCKEYE PIONEER CEMETERY FORMERLY BOOT HILL CEMETERY, ESTABLISHED 1850.

The Buckeye Pioneer Cemetery is one of the last remaining relics and landmarks of the 1849 California Gold Rush community of Buckeye, which was located three miles from Churntown and one mile from Newtown. In 1850, the Boot Hill Cemetery was established at Buckeye. Today, this historic site is the resting place of some of Shasta County’s earliest pioneers. This cemetery is located on the outskirts of Redding off Irish Road off of Lake Boulevard. This is an overview of the cemetery, and not a history of the town site. Enjoy, the video!

The historic Headtower at Shasta Dam is starting to show.

The historic Headtower which was built in 1940 to deliver concrete to the construction workers on Shasta Dam is showing at Shasta Dam. The lake level is currently about 89 - 90 feet below the crest. It was last seen during the drought season of 2014. It is hardly ever seen except in drought seasons. This Headtower stood over a towering 460-feet.

Filmed on location on 4-21-2021.

Newtown and the Newtown Cemetery

The Newtown Cemetery retains the name of a gold mining community called, Newtown, which dates back to 1849 and was located a mile north of the town of Buckeye. The nearby Newtown Road also preserves the name as well. People still live in the area and this community was located in the Buckeye Mining District. The cemetery was established in the 1850’s. The first interments were members of the Cahow family. 

This video was filmed on location by Jeremy Tuggle on April 16, 2021.

Pioneer Baby's Grave, California Historical Landmark No. 377

Filmed on location on April 14, 2021 by Jeremy Tuggle.

 

The Sky Blue mine

Above: an advertisement for the Sky Blue mine by the Original Sky Blue Ledge Mining Company, from the Shasta Courier newspaper edition of July 23, 1864

In 1863 Colonel William Magee, a noted surveyor, miner, prospector, and resident of Shasta, California, located the quartz vein of the Original Sky Blue mine of the Middle Creek mining district.

After an examination of this vein, gold was extracted from it which yielded some lucrative high-grade gold that assayed well. After that Magee called it the Sky Blue and he began transitioning it into a quartz mine with a main haulage tunnel, winzes, raises, and drifts. This mine was situated on the east bank of the Sacramento River, just below Waugh’s Ferry. One of the best featured uncovered was an imposing ledge of gold & copper ore.

On April 8, 1863, Magee established the Sky Blue Ledge Company, of which he was the sole owner. Two years later, articles of incorporation were filed at Shasta for the Original Sky Blue Ledge Company by Colonel William Magee.

This company held its business meetings at Shasta. J. Van Schaik, another Shasta resident, was hired by Magee as superintendent at this mining property, and soon additional miners were employed to assist with the work. The first orders given by Magee were the existing haulage tunnel he had previously created. Later, additional extractions of gold and copper were made within the mine once they ran a drift back sixty feet and struck the main quartz vein.

The nearest stamp mill to the Sky Blue mine was the Pioneer Mill which was located on Spring Creek. The original Sky Blue Ledge Company negotiated a contract with the Pioneer Mill for the purpose of crushing their rock. Over 200 tons of rock at the Sky Blue mine was ready to be crushed by the powerful stamps. This rock contained excellent deposits of gold. The original Sky Blue Ledge Company and the Pioneer Mill finalized the contract that month for future shipments which were hauled to their mill by teams.

Other equipment that the Pioneer Mill owned was a small, crude quartz crusher and a ball mill from which it obtained particles from crushed quartz.

During the 1870’s ownership of the Sky Blue mine passed into the hands of Joseph Waugh, a resident of Middle Creek, who was the owner of Waugh’s Ferry.

In May of 1875 there is a record of this claim in the Index To Mining Claims Book I, It appears there were two additional Sky Blue mines in Shasta County at that time as well which were recorded as being near the town of Buckeye, in the Old Diggings mining district.

During October of 1878, assessments claimed that the rock from Waugh’s mine would pay him $300 per ton. Waugh became rich off this lucrative mining property. Years later, E.P. Connor, a local miner and prospector, acquired the Sky Blue mine, and on June 21, 1890, the Free Press newspaper of Redding reported the following:

“The Sky Blue mine above Middle Creek, owned by E.P. Connor promises to be one of the choice mining properties of the county. He has a shaft down 25 feet on a rich pay chute of rotten quartz, and rusty gold very rich. He proposes to run the old Sky Blue tunnel some 400 feet and tap this chute at a depth of 260 feet. The nature of the country is such that the mine can be opened up at a comparatively small expense.“

In 1902, the Sky Blue mine was purchased by the Redding Gold & Copper Mining Company for $20,000. The owner and president of this mining company was Thomas Gilbert. Other mines in Shasta County were included in this transaction and they were La Plant and Bedford Group near Keswick; Stabler group near Centerville, White Group near Igo.

Gilbert and his mining company began making plans to build a reduction-works on the Sky Blue mining property. The group still had ownership of the mine in 1906 and they held onto it until 1910 when the Redding Gold & Copper Mining Company sold it to W. Oberlin and R.F. Lind – natives of Ohio. The total amount of the purchase price was not released. After this time the Sky Blue mine became idle.

RESOURCES:

Sky Blue Ledge Company - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, April 11, 1863

Organized - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, April 11, 1863

Leg Broken - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, May 21, 1864

Delinquent Notice - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, June 18, 1864 

Spring Creek Mill - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, June 18, 1864

Spring Creek Mill - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, June 25, 1864

Original Sky Blue Quartz Mining Company (advertisement) - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, July 23, 1864

Original Sky Blue Quartz Mining Company (advertisement) - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, February 18, 1865

Incorporated - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, February 25, 1865

Index to Mining Claims Book 1 - page 238, Sky Blue mine, dated May 7, 1875

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, October 26, 1878

Joe Waugh - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, November 9, 1878

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, November 23, 1878.

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, December 7, 1878 

Joseph Waugh’s Quartz ledge - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, December 21, 1878

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, January 18, 1879 

Mining Notes - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, June 21, 1890

Crossed Over the River (Joseph Waugh obituary) - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, March 12, 1892

Mining and Scientific Press Volume 85, 1902, page 226 

Mines Register: Successor to the Mines Handbook and the Copper, 1906, Volumes 6-7 by Horace J. Stevens, page 851

The Engineering and Minining Journal Vol. LXXXIX, January to June 1910. Published by Hill Publishing, New York

Short Talks With Busy And Women - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, May 23, 1912

COTTONWOOD IN 1899

Above: these structures were erected in the 1870s and 1880s, and they remain standing in Cottonwood today on the east side of Front Street. Date unknown. From the collection of Jeremy Tuggle.

In 1899, Cottonwood was located eighteen miles south of Redding and seventeen miles north of Red Bluff. It was located on the county line between Shasta and Tehama Counties, and on the California and Oregon railroad which included a busy railroad depot that made it a major shipping location. The town also featured a hostelry owned and operated by A.M. Dunham, a bakery owned and operated by a man with the surname of Moore, a church, livery and feed stables, and a general merchandise store owned and operated by John Pfeifer and W.F. Price. 

T.R. McClabe was the post master at the Cottonwood post office, and he delivered the mail to a town site with a population of 450 people, that year. Cottonwood was also home to the Thatcher Lumber Company which was managed by W.F. Smith, at that time. Local resident, A.B. Gilliland was the physician and surgeon in town as well. Cottonwood continued to thrive into the 20th century  

COTTONWOOD BEFORE 1899:

This community has a long history which dates back to 1846, when Captain John C. Fremont named the nearby creek for the abundance of Cottonwood trees in the area. The town site eventually took it’s name from Cottonwood Creek. During 1850, all of the townsite was located in Shasta County. 

Cottonwood was established on the south side of the creek, the settlement stretched from Ludwig Gulch west of the Red Bluff-Shasta Road to nearly the same distance on the east side. The town’s first post office was established in 1852. When Tehama County was created in 1856, Cottonwood Creek was selected as the towns northern boundary which made Cottonwood a two-county town.

Above: the same row of historic structures located on the east side of Front Street on September 6, 2020. This photo was taken by Jeremy Tuggle.

RESOURCES:

1899 City Of Redding Directory

1900 U.S. Census

Shasta County, California A History by Rosena Giles, published by Biobooks, ©1949.

U.S., Appointments of U.S. Postmasters, 1832-1971