CALAVERAS WATER & MINING Bond 1881. Murphys Whiskey Hill, CA Hydraulic Gold. EF+

Description

The Calaveras Water and Mining Company. Bond issued on June 1, 1881. Incorporated in the State of California.
Embossed company seal lower left. Certificate
No. 297
.
,000 30-Year
6% Debenture Bond. Principal due June 1, 1911. Company capital was
0,000
. Hand signed by company
president H. Marshall
and
secretary J. K. Southwick
.
Coupons No. 4 through 60 remain attached
. Certificate is about 11.5” x 16”. Black print with dark-brown overprint/underprint on beige-colored paper.
The Calaveras Water and Mining Company was organized in 1880 to mine placer gold from sands and gravels along creek and river beds in Calaveras County, California. The property was located about 3.5 miles north of Milton, California and included the Whiskey Hill gravel mine and a series of water ditches over 20 miles in length. The ditches cost approximately ,000 to construct and were supported by a series of reservoirs. Calaveras County is located between the North Fork of the Stanislaus River (to the south) and the North Fork of the Mokelumne River (to the north). Placer gold mining in the Sierra Nevada foothills near the towns of Murphys, Molkumne Hill, Angels Camp, and San Andreas (Calaveras County) was booming at this time, either using sluice boxes or hydraulic methods using pumps and pressure jet hoses.
From the 1850s until the end of the 19th century, this area was one of the richest of California’s Mother Lode Gold Rush. The Calaveras Water and Mining Company was one of many companies in this area that were organized to mine gold by channeling water using ditches, canals, and flumes to various placer gold mining operations in the foothills. Hydraulic placer gold mining requires large volumes of water to separate gold from surface sands and gravels by running through a sluice box or other equipment to recover the gold. The cost to construct the ditches and flumes would come from the sale of the gold, but also from the sale of the channeled water to the nearby towns, which were booming at this time; water needed by local agriculture was also supplied by the mining companies.
The booming Calaveras County mining towns each had numerous business: soda works, breweries, saloons, doctor and dentists' offices, drugstores, billiard and pool halls, hotels and restaurants, carpenters and tinsmiths, bakeries, dry goods and grocery stores, livery stables, meat markets, liquor stores and cigar stores. The population of these small mining towns in the mid to late 1800s was extremely diversified, with French, German, Italian, English, Irish, Spanish, Mexican, Chilean, Chinese, and other immigrants. Calaveras County became famous for its jumping frog contest, which Mark Twain wrote about in his short story “Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”.
Condition:  Extremely Fine
, light folds, no creasing, no tears, very light signs of any wear/handling/toning (see photos),
uncancelled.
Printer:
Franklin Bank Note Company, New York.
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