Nevada County
History
BEAN'S HISTORY & DIRECTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 1867.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.
Bloomfield township is situated on the "Ridge" between the South and Middle Yuba, having Bridgeport township on the west and Eureka on the east. Its area is about eighty square miles, being ten miles in length, from east to west, and having an average width of eight miles. The township was organized by the Board of Supervisors in 1857, the territory being most carved from Eureka township. We only have space to give some brief sketches of the town.
NORTH BLOOMFIELD
The town of North Bloomfield was originally called Humbug, taking its name from the creek on which it located. In 1851 or '52, a prospecting party, existing of two Irishmen and a Dutchman, discovered a rich deposit of gravel near the creek, from which they took a considerable quantity of gold. Working until their provisions were exhausted, they sent one of the Irishmen to Nevada, with several hundred dollars in dust, for supplies, and with strict injunctions to keep mum in regard to their fortunate strike. The Irishman sold his dust, purchased the needed supplies and a mule to pack them to his camp, and having some money left, he could not resist the temptation to have a convivial time with his friends. Having indulged rather freely in his native whisky, he told his companions of his good fortune, but that the locality was a secret which he had promised his partners not to disclose. The next morning he started for the new diggings, followed by a hundred or more eager and excited adventurers, who succeeded in tracking him to the camp. They prospected for a day or two, up and down the creek, found a little gold, but not the rich deposits they were after, and the disappointed crowd returned to Nevada, and by universal consent the creek was pronounced a "Humbug," a name it has ever since retained. About 1858 the Marlow brothers, Roger McCullough, Dickerson, A. Jacobs, John Newman and others, settled near the present site of the town, and commenced the work of opening the deep hydraulic diggings. They were unable to get to the bottom of the channels, but still some of the companies realized large profits in sluicing off the surface of the drift, and for some years Humbug was one of the liveliest and most prosperous towns in the county. The citizens, however, were dissatisfied with the name which had been so thoughtlessly bestowed, and when they procured a postoffice in 1856, had it changed to North Bloomfield.
There are two ancient channels in North Bloomfield, with a high ridge of bed rock between them, rising nearly to the surface. In 1866 a company of capitalists, consisting of Messrs. Butterworth, Robinson, Pralus and others, purchased the claims covering one of these channels, and are now engaged in running a drain tunnel from the mouth of Virgin ravine, which it is believed will be deep enough to drain them. The company have also located a ditch to bring the waters of the Little Truckee to their ground. The carrying out of the project will require a large outlay, but the company have a large body of claims, much of the ground having been thoroughly prospected and proved to be rich, and when their own claims are worked out, the ditch will still be valuable. It is one of the most important and extensive mining enterprises ever undertaken in the county. The owners of the other channel have been endeavoring to make arrangements to open their ground, and are negotiating with New York capitalists for that purpose.
LAKE CITY.
This place is pleasantly situated on the main road up the "Ridge," being two miles from North Bloomfield and eleven miles from Nevada. A public house had long been kept at the place, for the accommodation of teamsters and travelers, and the town was laid out in 1858, when it was made a local station of the ditch company. The town is not destined to attain any great size, there being no diggings in. the immediate vicinity, but is a pleasant residence, contains two excellent hotels, a saw mill, and a hundred or more inhabitants.
RELIEF HILL
This place is situated on the South Yuba, two and a half miles above North Bloomfield, and was first settled about 1853. Mining operations at one time were carried on quite extensively in the vicinity, and in 1858 the town contained over a hundred voters. Subsequently the population declined and the place was nearly deserted. Of late, however, some enterprising parties have commenced opening new mines, and. the place is improving, containing at present about a hundred inhabitants, including eleven families.
COLUMBIA HILL
This place was first settled by W. L. Tisdale and brothers, who had taken up some mining claims and erected a log cabin on the hill in October, 1853. Subsequently they cut a ditch to convey water to their own and other claims, which has since been sold to the Middle Yuba Consolidated Canal Company. A store was opened at Columbia Hill in 1855 by a man named Fleming. The town, however, never attained much importance, and now contains only about two hundred. inhabitants. The diggings in the vicinity are deep, the bottom never having been reached, but they hare been made to pay by the use of large heads of water and close management. Eventually the diggings will undoubtedly be worked to the bed rock, either by means of powerful romping and hoisting machinery, or by running a drain tunnel from the Yuba. Either enterprise would require a large outlay, but the prospects fully warrant the undertaking. The Eureka quartz ledge, opened by the Hawley brothers, is situated about two miles from Columbia Hill. This ledge at one time exhibited very favorable prospects, and a mill was erected in 1866, to crush the rock. But it proved a failure; and the owners becoming involved, the property was sold at Sheriff's sale in April, 1867. The ledge contains a large amount of very rich rock, and the failure is attributed to a want of knowledge of the proper method of reducing the ore.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler