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Davis Motor Mine
Collection
D-701
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Davis Library,
Dept. of Special Collections
Title: Davis Motor Mine Collection
Creator:
Barquist, William
Identifier/Call Number: D-701
Physical Description:
0.4 linear
feet
Date (inclusive):
1965-1973
Abstract: Photographs, color
slides, documents, letters, maps, and mining publications
surrounding the efforts of a California mining engineer and his
family reopening and mining the Davis Motor Mine, a
hydraulic/underground mining claim located in Sierra County,
California, between the ghost town of Port Wine, and Queen City,
near present day La Porte in the late 1960s.
Physical Location: Researchers should
contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections,
as many are stored offsite.
The Davis Motor Mine was a hydraulic/underground gold mining
operation 35 miles from the California Ghost town of Port Wine,
and was originally filed on Nov. 11, 1909, by unknown owners on
the Sierra County, CA Assessor's Map. The Placer Claim Deed form
here in the archive notes that all the interested parties,
including Isabel Barquist's mother and brothers, are all listed
on the form as owners.
William Barquist (1893-1979) was originally a Seattle, WA area
fisherman who served in the US Navy during World War I, and after
the War became a certified mining engineer after graduating from
the University of Washington. He later worked for McKinney
Associates, C.P. Albansco, Kennecott Copper, and the New Black
Diamond Mine Coal Mining Co. in Bellingham, WA before relocating
to San Jose after World War II. His wife Isabel (1907-1997)
donated his collection of historic mining photos to the Alaska
State Library.
This collection documents the gold mining efforts of William
Barquist, a mining engineer, his wife Isabel, and their daughter
and grandson as they surveyed and carried out the assessment work
and mined and expanded the Davis Motor gold mine in Sierra
County, California, beginning in 1966.
The earliest letter, dated July 6, 1967, notes that Forest
Sheehan has been having problems, as well as refers to a "mishap"
of Barquist's slowing down the mining work. The second letter, to
investor Albert Columbine in September 1968, notes that Barquist
intended on "making an airplane trip over the Port Wine property
some time this next week. . . following this trip I want to go to
the placer property & check what geological data I may have
seen from the air. While there I will try to get some of the
assessment work done. . . expenses to not exceed $250.00 plus
airplane trips." and the amount was approved.
The many photographs document the ghost town of Port Wine, and
the surviving surrounding structures in the late 1960s, shoring
timbers on hillsides, an old hoist system rusting on the ground,
the group's campsite and camp trailers, the Kleckner Brothers
Stone store still standing, mining trenches, and assessment work
carried out at Davis Motor and the "Davis Motor Extension Mine."
The color slides show aerial views above Sierra & Plumas
Counties while Barquist made geological observations from above,
as well as photos of surviving structures, the Davis Motor Claim,
Port Wine Mine, and another gold mine as well.
The Assessor's maps included locate the mine at the NW corner
of Quartz Hill, Placer Property, Sierra County, and the
unidentified blueprint aerial topographic maps show elevations
demarcated at Port Wine, Wine Ravine, Queen City, West Coast
Mine, Morris, and others, with ink manuscript survey lines
showing flight paths, over the area from the aerial prospecting.
In addition, to Averill's Placer Mining guide issued by
California, as well as the Gilmore & Stewart, Legal Guides
for California Prospectors at the time, the scarce issues of Ross
& Segerstrom, American Gold News provide excellent historical
notes on California gold mining, and historic photos. The cover
photos of the three issues include the town of Coulterville in
Mariposa, County, CA at its height, along with the Mary Harrison
Mine, and the 40-stamp mill in Black Creek Canyon built in
1894.
The Davis Motor Mine is still listed as a gold producing mine,
but no current ownership. As one of the many mines classified as
part of the North Yuba Watershed, which was one of the first
mining regions during the California Gold Rush of 1849, hydraulic
mining operated until World War II. A 2003 California report on
the Davis Motor Mine shows fairly high levels of arsenic,
mercury, and lead, and that the mine had about 250 cubic yards of
tailings.
Sources: Mary Nichols & Darryl Young, Abandoned Mine
Lands: Assessment of the North Yuba Watershed, Prepared for the
California Bay-Delta Authority, [Sacramento]: Office of Mine
Reclamation, Abandoned Mine Lands Unit, May, 2003
Summary of Gold Mining Techniques in Western United States,
1842-1996; Justin Ames, California Ghost Towns: Port Wine,
"Normal" Places We Go, The Velvet Rocket, July 13, 2010.
[Description provided by Zephyr Used and Rare Books]
Collection is open for research.
Liz Phillips created this finding aid with information
supplied by Zephyr Used and Rare Books.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Zephyr Used and Rare Books, 2020.
[Identification of item], Davis Motor Mine Collection, D-701,
Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of
California, Davis.
All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected
under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted
in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University
of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not
intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which must also be obtained by the researcher.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Gold mines and mining -- California --
Sierra County (Calif.)
Mines and mineral resources --
California
Michael and Margaret B. Harrison
Western Research Center