Columbia Gold Mining and Water by Zina Abbott

In the California gold fields, there was one resource that was almost of greater worth than gold: WATER. Without the wet stuff, it was almost impossible to effectively remove the gold from the soil and crushed rock.

 

Stanislaus River with inset (ctsy Google Maps) showing relationship of Columbia and South Fork of the Stanislaus river to the Stanislaus River.

 Columbia in the southern Sierra Nevada Foothills, which today is preserved as a state park, is a mostly dry region with seasonal streams that flowed from the first rains in autumn or early winter until late spring or early summer after the rains ceased. The area very seldom received snowfall. The nearest river that carried snowmelt year around was the Stanislaus, but it was several miles from the gold-rich land of Columbia.

 

Originally known as "Hildreth's Diggings," gold was discovered in Columbia in March of 1850 by a party of miners, most of whom came from the state of Maine. In 1851, the Tuolumne County Water Company (TCWC) was founded to provide the water needs of both Columbia and the surrounding regions. The plan was to divert water from the South Fork of the Stanislaus River by means of flumes, ditches, and reservoirs. These carried water for long disances and were expensive to build. This resulted in high water rates for miners to wash their gold.

 

Water rates table courtesy Columbia State Park Museum

Water rates were quoted in “Miners Inches,” which legally measured the amount of water that flowed through an opening one inch in diameter under twenty pounds of pressure for twenty-four hours. The opening in the guage boxes could be increased or decreased by means of a sliding device. Guage boxes were placed in the water ditches wherever needed and checked by “ditch tenders.”

Disgusted over what they perceived to be unfair water rates, several miners banded together to create their own water company by diverting water from what they considered the more reliable Middle Fork of the Stanislaus River. When the sixty-mile project finished in 1858, it was described by a San Francisco newspaper as “the most stupendous work of the kind in California.” With the predictable supply now available, hydraulic mining using giant “monitors,”or hose nozzles, began operating by directing the powerful water force against the walls of Maine Ditch (The area that is now the parking lot for the state park), digging it deeper and deeper in search of gold.

 

Like the Tuolumne County Water Company, they soon realized the extensive cost in materials and labor that were involved in building flumes. In addition, by the time the water supply was ready to reach Columbia, the easy-to-mine placer gold were almost depleted. In 1859, this company went broke and it was put up for auction. Its network of flumes and ditches were purchased by the TCWC.

 

The transition did not go smoothly. Disgruntled shareholders of the defunct water company blew up flumes and ditches, threatened TCWC company trustees, and, it is believed, were responsible for killing several ditch tenders. It was not until 1861 that a truce was negotiated.

The TCWC continued to expand for several years. It bought several other water companies in the county. It considered expanding into Merced County, but changed their plans when it became apparent that both the population and water demand had dropped, which affected their revenues. After reorganizing and going through name changes several times, it was bought out by Pacific Gas & Electric Company in the 1920s.

Maine Ditch, Columbia, about 1870s

The Tuolumne County Water Company only handled water for commercial use, such as in first, placer mining, and, later, hydraulic mining. Water for domestic use was supplied by the New England Water Company organized in 1854. Why New England, you ask? The founders of Columbia plus many others came from New England. That is also the reason the main ditch south of the main part of town which carried the seasonal stream on which the town relied was named MAINE Gulch, not Main Gulch. This area was torn up during the years of hydraulic mining.

 

Daniel Fraser of New England Water Co., Ctsy Columbia State Park Museum

After the the first big fire in Columbia, the New England Water Company constructed seven cisterns beneath the streets of Columbia to hold water for domestic and fire-fighting use. A square lid to one of these cisterns may be seen today in front of the firehouse on State Street. This early water system remained in use until the 1950s.

 

There were also water ditches build along the edges of several of the streets in Columbia, remnants of which are still visible today. I’m not sure if that was part of the Tuolumne County Water Company, the New England Water Company, or built later to capture water runoff.

 ~o0o~

 In my most recent release, I've included issues surrounding water use both in Columbia and other mining communities in the Mother Lode foothills and how it affected the growing agricultural communities downstream. To find the book description and purchase link for Madeline, please CLICK HERE.

 

 

Sources:

The majority of my information came from the displays in the Columbia museum and the displays around Columbia State Park.

https://inspiredimperfection.com/adventures/columbia-state-historic-park-a-living-gold-rush-town/