Inventory of the Davis Motor Mine Collection D-701

Liz Phillips
University of California, Davis Library, Dept. of Special Collections
2021
1st Floor, Shields Library, University of California
100 North West Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292
speccoll@ucdavis.edu


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.

History

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.

Scope and Contents

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]

Access

Collection is open for research.

Processing Information

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.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Davis Motor Mine Collection, D-701, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

Publication Rights

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

 

Placer Claim Deed June 16, 1966

Physical Description: 1 item 8.5 x 13.5 inches
Physical Description: Folio, typewritten within the form, signed by all 6 family members. Soiling, edgewear, rust marks.
 

Manuscript and Location Directions

Physical Description: 1 item
Physical Description: In pen and pencil in hand of William Barquist
 

Letter from William Barquist to Alfred Columbine

Physical Description: 1 item
Physical Description: in pencil and ink. Tall octavo.

Scope and Contents

Includes original typed envelope
 

Letter from Forest Sheehan to William Barquist

Physical Description: 1 item
Physical Description: In ink. Tall octavo.
 

Maps

Physical Description: 19 items

Scope and Contents

19 maps, including 9 printed in color issued by USDA, and Dept. of Geology, sized from 18 x 22 in. to 22 x 28 in., 10 blueprint maps, oblong and portrait sized from 17 x 10.5 in., to 13 x 14.5 in., and 19 x 21 in. Many with pencil and ink annotations or, surveying directions.
 

Photographs and Color Slides

Physical Description: 120 items

Scope and Contents

67 original photos (40 black and white from 3.5 x 3.5 inches up to 4 x 5 inches with 27 color photos sized 3.5 x 3.5 inches), many with annotations on versos, 53 color photos printed from 53 color slides (preserving original slide cases, 2 with manuscript annotations), sized 4 x 6 inches.
 

American Gold News

Physical Description: 3 items

Scope and Contents

Three American Gold News issues, fold out into 4 page folios, with photo illustrations, text illustrations (some toning).
 

Legal Guide for California Prospectors & Miners 1965-1973

Physical Description: 3 items
 

Averill's Placer Mining for Gold in California

Physical Description: 1 book Octavo. 377, [1] pp. with 1 large folding diagram, photo illustrations

Scope and Contents

Includes three large folding maps in rear pocket.