Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Records MSS.315

Finding aid prepared by Leilani Silver, Pamela Nett Kruger

Processing of this collection was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program.

California State University, Chico, Special Collections, Meriam Library

400 West First Street

Chico, CA, 95929-0295

(530) 898-6342

SpecialCollections@csuchico.edu

5/2/2011

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.

Alternate Form of Material: No other forms of material.

Language of Materials note: English

creator: Hammon, Wendell P., 1854-1939

creator: Western Water Company.

creator: Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields.

Arrangement note

Arrangement of materials kept in original order.

Box 1: Organizational Records

Box 2: Reports

Biographical/Historical note

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.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research without restriction.

Usage Restrictions

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.

Scope and Contents note

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.

Publication Rights

The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary property.

Preferred Citation note

Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields Records, MSS 315, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.

Processing Information note

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

Box 1

Organizational Records

Physical Description: (56 Folders)

Folder 1: Deed, W. P. Hammon to Boston & Oroville Mining Company. January 3, 1901

Folder 2: Quitclaim-Exhibit A (James O’Brien). December 6, 1901

Folder 3: Statement of Prospecting, Boston & Oroville Mining Company. December 31, 1901

Folder 4: Letter of Acknowledgement to James O’Brien, E. A. Forbes, and R. D. Evans from the Office of San Francisco Savings Union. January 16, 1902

Folder 5: Deed, E. A. Forbes to United States of America (includes hand drawn map of Yuba Consolidated Dredging Claims). January 22, 1902

Folder 6: Agreement (E. A. Forbes with W. P. Hammon). July 31, 1902

Folder 7: Statement of Disbursements, Oroville Gold Dredging Exploration (calculations of payments from February 1901 through March 1902). March 1902

Folder 8: Deed, James O’Brien & E. A. Forbes to R. D. Evans. January 15, 1902

Folder 9: Agreement, E. A. Forbes with W. P. Hammon. July 31, 1902

Folder 10: Option, Byron Divver, et al., to L. H. Mitchell, Assigned to W. P. Hammon. (Recorded on February 16, 1904) November 10, 1902

Folder 11: Holes Running North and South (identifies holes, number on map, depth, weight of gold, value per c/y and c/f) December 1902

Folder 12: Statement of Prospecting, Boston and California Dredging Company. January 1903

Folder 13: Agreement, August Eymard, et al., to L. H. Mitchell, Assigned to W. P. Hammon. January 21, 1903

Folder 14: Letter (file copy) to the California Debris Commission. April 20, 1903

Folder 15: Yuba Options and Payments (calculations of payments from January 1902 through September, 1904). September 1903

Folder 16: Yuba Options (formal version of payments from April 1903 through October 1904). October 1903

Folder 17: Yuba Payments (payments and interest from January 1902 through October 1904). December 15, 1903

Folder 18: Statement of Prospecting, Yuba River Tract. Winter 1903-1904

Folder 19: Table Showing the Per Cent of Coarse and Fine Gold (taken from Boston & California Dredge No. 1, No. 2, and Boston and Oroville Dredge No. 1, No. 2, and Continental. January-February 1904

Folder 20: Deed and Instructions, R. D. Evans to Mary Olympia Divver, Frank V. George, Lucien George, Byron B. Divver and Daniel Shay. February 29, 1904

Folder 21: Letter from W. P. Hammon, General Manager to R. E. Paine, Treasurer (regarding revised statement of payments). April 14, 1904

Folder 22: Statement of Payments on Yuba Options) April 1, 1904

Folder 23: Agreement Sale and Transfer of Rights, E. A. Forbes to W. P. Hammon. (sale refers to the property known as the Forbestown Ditch, together with all the distributing ditches, water rights, reservoirs, head dams, and rights of way). July 1, 1904

Folder 24: Statement by the Clerk of the Superior Court, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Francis A. Campbell (verifies signature of Notary William H. Codlidge, document identified as “Evans to Yuba-last page”, probably of deed). March 2, 1905

Folder 25: Letter from W. P. Hammon, General Manager to R. E. Paine, Treasurer (regarding Deed from W. P. Hammon to R. D. Evans, Ayers Tract) March 4, 1905

Folder 26: Agreement, Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields and William Pomeroy (Dissolution of Dredging to W. P. Hammon). August 26, 1910

Folder 27: Extension of Time Under Option, Keystone Dredging Company to W. P. Hammon. May 26, 1910

Folder 28: Certificate of Recording Deed of Trust, Yuba Construction Company to Mercantile Trust Company of San Francisco. December 17, 1910

Folder 29: Proposal, Hammon Engineering Company to Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields. June 30, 1911

Folder 30: Power of Attorney, Major Edward Sidney Herbert and Capt. George Gillett Hunter, Executors of the Will of Sir John Eldon Gorst the Younger to Mr. Edmund M. Awdry and Mr. Richard B. Wood. December 30, 1911

Folder 31: Option, Mary R. Meek to Lyman E. Akins (stamped “copy”). May 7, 1913

Folder 32: Option, Alice M. Rice to Lyman E. Akins (stamped “copy”) June 2, 1913

Folder 33: Agreement, Antonio Muzzio, Giovanni Muzzio and Peter Mondada with Lyman E. Akins (stamped “copy”). June 11, 1913

Folder 34: Assignment of Agreement, Lyman E. Akins to Hammon Engineering Company, re: Agreement of Antonio Muzzio, Giovanni Muzzio and Peter Mondada with Lyman E. Akins (stamped “copy”). June 30, 1913

Folder 35: Assignment of Agreement, Lyman E. Akins to Hammon Engineering Company, re: Mary R. Meek to Lyman E. Akins (stamped “copy”). June 30, 1913

Folder 36: Assignment of Agreement, Lyman E. Akins to Hammon Engineering Company, re: Alice M. Rice to Lyman E. Akins (stamped “copy”). June 30, 1913

Folder 37: Deed, F. Ayer, et ux, to Hammon Engineering Company (stamped “copy”). July 31, 1913

Folder 38: Understanding of Hammon Engineering Company as to Reservations made by F. Ayer in Sale of Property (concerning (1) the construction of a lateral ditch to main ditch for purpose of watering cattle; (2) access to Yuba River for purpose of watering cattle if ditch runs dry and (3) right of way to cross and re-cross two parcels of land sold to Hammon Engineering). July 31, 1913

Folder 39: Agreement, Andrew J. McCarty with H. G. Hill (stamped “copy”) December 2, 1913

Folder 40: Assignment of Agreement, H. G. Hill to Hammon Engineering Company, re: McCarty Tract (stamped “copy”). December 4, 1913

Folder 41: Deed, H. G. Hill and Wife to Hammon Engineering Company (stamped “copy”). January 17, 1914

Folder 42: Memorandum of Papers Handed to Mr. Hammon January 29, 1914 for Mr. Paine (identifies Deed, Agreement, and Options). January 29, 1914

Folder 43: Topographical Map, Yukon Gold Company, Proposed Regulation of Yuba River showing Dredging Limits (3 copies). May 1915

Folder 44: Dredging Permit, file copy of permit granted to the Yukon Gold Company by California Debris Commission, signed by Henry Breckenridge, acting Secretary of War. July 19, 1915

Folder 45: Release and Discharge of Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields by Marigold Dredging Company and Marysville Dredging Company from Liability Arising Out of Actions Pending in Superior Court of Yuba County, entitled “Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields vs. Marigold Dredging Company, et al”. February 5, 1917

Folder 46: Note from Geo L. Huntress to R. E. Paine (references deed that accompanied note). April 17, 1917

Folder 47: Quitclaim Deed, Yukon Gold Company to Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields (unsigned copy) and Quitclaim Deed, Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields to Yukon Gold Company (signed duplicate with seal). August 1917

Folder 48: Release, Yukon Gold Company to Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields. August 14, 1917

Folder 49: Letter from Charles W. Slack, Attorney at Law to Hon A. E. Boynton (refers to $10,000 paid to Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields, settlement fee). September 12, 1917

Folder 50: Corporate Resolution, A “true copy” of a Resolution passed by the Board of Directors of the Yukon Gold Company. References Deed of Conveyance by Yukon Gold Company and Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields. November 26, 1917

Folder 51: Quitclaim Deed, Yukon Gold Company to Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields (Recorded September 14, 1917). August 30, 1917

Folder 52: Envelope from the Finnell Land Company (cites a Deed dated June 13, 1902, Secretary of War to H. L. Huston, a Deed dated March 22, 1920, H. L. Huston and Wife to Yukon Gold Company and a Resolution, re: Sale of land to Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields by Yukon Gold Company). “Pertaining to Abstract No. 227” c. 1920

Folder 53: Agreement (between Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields and Yukon Gold Company relating to the work at Daguerre Point Cut; letter to R. E. Paine from Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields, dated September 10, 1920 attached; letter to California Debris Commission, dated September 4, 1920 attached). July 27, 1920

Folder 54: Quitclaim Deed, H. L. Huston and ____ Huston to Yukon Gold Company (original signatures and seal, recorded August 26, 1927) includes Correspondence from Charles W. Slack, Attorney at Law to Yuba-Sutter Abstract & Title Company and R. F. Lewis Esq., Attorney at Law, dated September 16, 1927, as well as a statement from W. E. Bennett, Secretary of Yukon Gold Company, dated August 30, 1927. March 22, 1920

Folder 55: Patent, Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields for the Bright Star placer mining claim (Presidential Patent and Seal of General Land Office, Patent Number 1031022). September 29, 1929

Folder 56: Caird Engineering Works, Helena, Montana (equipment description and specs for “Kroll Impact Amalgamator & Concentrator”.

Box 2

Reports

Physical Description: (4 Folders)

Folder 1: Report and Estimates for Development of Water Power on the Middle fork of the Feather River (includes Blueprint Plan and Section of Proposed Pipe Lines and Power House at Bidwell’s Bar, Butte County, California June 1940 and Blueprint Map of Proposed Diversion of the Middle Fork of Feather River from a point near Evan’s Bar to Bidwell’s Bar, Butte County, California, June 1904) c. 1902

Folder 2: Report of H. R. Edwards, Chief Engineer of Hammon Engineering Company on Middle Fork Power Proposition, December 28, 1912. Report of Emery Oliver on Middle Fork Power Proposition, June 16, 1910.

Folder 3: Preliminary Water Utilization Information, Yuba County, California (includes Sketch Map Yuba County, California showing Possible Water Developments). July 1, 1940

Folder 4: Final Report Draft Sacramento River and Delta Recreation Study. Prepared by Carroll E. Bradberry & Associates, Consulting Engineers. October 23, 1961