A most singular and erroneous impressron seems to have gained some foothold in certain parts of our country to the effect that gold mining in California upon which the foundation of the State was laid has been prac tically abandoned for other and more profitable pursuits. Nothing could be farther from the fact Notwithstanding the fact that the surface placers that yielded so prodigiously from 1850 to 1860 have become in large part exhausted notwithstanding the severe blow received by the hydraulic branch of the gold mining industry at the hands of the Federal Courts in 1884 and notwithstanding the marvelous growth and development of California in farming fruit growing and manufacturing gold mining is still a leading industry of the State and bids fair once more to assume the magnificent proportions of its earlier years when its annual output arose tmover $50,000,000 per annum.
Following the exhaustion of the surface placers and the adverse decisions of the Federal Courts above referred to the production of gold in California steadily declined until it reached low water mark in 1890 with an annual yield of only $10,000,000 in the meantime however attention was being directed to deep channel mining and the more scientific and methodical development of quartz properties. As a result the gold product of the State began once more to increase until it reached an output in 1895 of nearly $16,000,000 while the data at hand point to a still larger increase for the present year of 1896 in addition to the renewed activity in quartz and drift mining there is now much ground for the hope that a few more years will see hydraulic mining in California restored to its rightful condition whence will come an additional yield of not less than $10,000,000 per annum.
The law both judicial and legislative that has been woven ab0ut this latter branch of the mining industry forms an interesting chapter in the legal annals of California. Never was an industry at once so vast in its proportions and so closely allied to the necessities of commerce so suddenly stricken down by the silent decree of a judicial tribunal Never was a people so brave and so law abiding in the face of such business disaster and financial ruin as came to the hydraulic miners through the official utterance of a Federal Judge By the application of an ancient rule of the English common law a hundred millions of invested capital were destroyed and thousands of homes were rendered desolate. Whole districts were depopulated and a general gloom settled over the mining camps of California.
The Board of Government Engineers appointed under the Act of October rst 1888 to investigate the mining debris question in California stated in their report that it is estimated that ovar roo ooo ooo were invested in this branch of mining previous to the restriction of the Courts referring of course to hydraulic mining. They stated further that On the large hydraulic mines operations have been suspended and many costly works incident to the industry have been allowed to go to decay the mining camps have been deserted and large districts depopulated Exzcutr zre Document No 267 Fifty in Cvngrtn second session
By their courageous conduct however and their faithful observance of the law under circumstances the most trying the miners soon gained the admiration and sympathy of the thinking public and what was of equal if not greater importance the commerce of a great State began to yearn for the gold that lay hidden in the gravel beds of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
In response to a public sentiment that had been gradually crystallizing in favor of the rehabilitation of hydraulic mining Congress authorized an investigation of the matter by a Board of Government Engineers to be detailed by the Secretary of War for that purpose This Board of Engineers composed of members of the Engineer Corps of the United States Army after a thorough investigation of the subject reported the result of their labors and pointed out the methods whereby the business of hydraulic mining might be resumed without material injury to other interests.