Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Records
MSS.315
MSS.315
No online items
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Records
Identifier/Call Number: MSS.315
Contributing Institution:
California State University, Chico, Special Collections, Meriam Library
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.0 Linear feet
2 Boxes: Box 1; 56 Folders, Box 2; 4 Folders
Date (inclusive): 1901-1929
Abstract: The records in this collection were discovered in the offices of the Western Water Company in 2003, and pertain to Yuba Consolidated
Gold Fields. The records dated 1901-1929, include legal documents, deeds, business records, correspondence, reports, acknowledgements,
proposals, agreements, financial statements, estimates, propositions, resolutions, and a mining claim patent.
creator:
Hammon, Wendell P., 1854-1939
creator:
Western Water Company.
creator:
Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields.
Arrangement of materials kept in original order.
Box 1: Organizational Records
Box 2: Reports
Gold dredging in California began in 1850 when a small river boat was fitted out as a dredge and gravel mining was attempted
above Marysville, California on the Yuba River. The first successful gold dredge in California was built in 1898 by Biggs,
Butte County resident Wendell P. Hammon, the "Dredger King," and his partner, Thomas Couch, a Montana mining businessman.
This first model and those that followed consisted of a floating hull, a digging ladder, an endless chain of buckets, screening
apparatus, gold-saving devices, pumps, and a stacker. The California dredge was developed from models used earlier in New
Zealand and in Montana, proving to be much more efficient than earlier one-bucket attempts.
Hammon was instrumental in founding the Yuba Construction Company in 1906, by purchasing the Western Engineering Company and
merging it with his own steel from a casting foundry in Marysville. Four large machine shops were built near Oroville to maintain
and build the dredgers. Hammon founded the Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields on the Yuba River in 1904. This company became a
large, profitable placer operation, a proving ground for new dredge designs and a training ground for dredge operators and
others in this global industry. As many as 50 dredgers worked in the Feather River/Yuba River drainage at one time.
The Yuba Construction Company changed its name to the Yuba Manufacturing Company and later became a subsidiary of the Yuba
Consolidated Gold Fields. In 1957 these companies merged into Yuba Consolidated Industries. The Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields
was later incorporated into the Western Water Company.
Collection is open for research without restriction.
No restrictions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Western Water Company, July 2003
Related Archival Materials note
A preliminary report on Scott Bar and Quartz Hill mining properties: Siskiyou County, California / For W. P. Hammon, San Francisco
Gassaway, A. D. MSS 043, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
Abstract of title to that certain real property, known as "Nickerson Orchard" Butte County Title Abstract Company 1914, MSS
063 Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
Report on Bald Mountain Consolidated Gold Mining Company placer mines and Plumas Development Company placer mines. Gassaway,
A. D. , MSS 089 Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
Yuba Manufacturing Company Records 1898-1958, MSS 157, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
Yuba River Diversion Project for Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Report, MSS 197, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California
State University, Chico.
W. P. Hammon Prospecting Log Books, MSS 305, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
Wendell P. Hammon (1918-2006) Typescript: Gold Dredger as an Instrument of Conservation, 1955, MSS 306, Special Collections,
Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
Yuba River Diversion Project for Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Report, MSS 197, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California
State University, Chico.
Yuba Consolidated Industries Records, MSS 322, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
The records in this collection were discovered in the offices of the Western Water Company in 2003, and pertain to the Yuba
Consolidated Gold Fields. The records dated 1901-1929, include legal documents, deeds, business records, correspondence, reports,
acknowledgements, proposals, agreements, financial statements, estimates, propositions, resolutions, and a mining claim patent.
There are reports and estimates for development of water power on the middle fork of the Feather River, which include a blueprint
and maps. Some records include materials related to the following companies: Boston & Oroville Mining Company, Boston and
California Dredging Company, Marysville Dredging Company, Marigold Dredging Company, Keystone Dredging Company, Yuba Construction
Company, and the Yukon Gold Company.
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary
property.
Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Records, MSS 315, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
Processing of the Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Records was generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and administered
by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The [ABC repository] was awarded a Cataloging Hidden Special Collections
and Archives grant from 2010-2012, "Uncovering California's Environmental Collections," in collaboration with eight additional
special collections and archival repositories throughout the state and the California Digital Library (CDL). Grant objectives
included processing of over 33 hidden collections related to the state's environment and environmental history. The collections
document an array of important sub-topics such as irrigation, mining, forestry, agriculture, industry, land use, activism,
and research. Together they form a multifaceted picture of the natural world and the way it was probed, altered, exploited
and protected in California over the twentieth century. Finding aids are made available through the Online Archive of California
(OAC).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Hammon Engineering Company.
Western Water Company.
Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields.
Yuba Consolidated Industries. Yuba Mining Division.
Yuba Construction Company.
Yuba Manufacturing Company, San Francisco.
Dredges.
Gold dredging
Gold dredging -- California -- History.
Gold mines and mining -- California -- History.
Uncovering California's Environmental Collections Project