3190

Horse Shoe Bar,CA - Placer County - September 20, 1857 - American River Water and Mining Company Acc

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Documents Start Price:75.00 USD Estimated At:150.00 - 300.00 USD
Horse Shoe Bar,CA - Placer County - September 20, 1857 - American River Water and Mining Company Acc
An early account sheet listing the Water Collector’s Weekly Returns of accounts paid. On blue paper, measuring 8 x 12.” Signed by John Sherdain, Collector. Horse Shoe Bar was located near present day Loomis, California in the Auburn area, along the American River. The company was formed to provide water to the miners for use in sluice boxes, placer mining, and hydraulic mining techniques, as well as for irrigation and drinking water. In order to transport the much-needed water from the American River to the mines and miners, the company had the North Fork Ditch constructed in a mere 15 months, from September 1854-January 1856, at a cost of $180,000. The 33-mile ditch—constructed solely by manual laborers with picks and shovels—was gravity fed and was designed to carry 3,000 “miner’s inches” of water at a low and steady volume, from the intake dam at Tamaroo Bar (near Poverty Bar) to the placer mines at Rattlesnake Bar and Mississippi Bar in Orangevale. It worked for 68 years, although under constant assault by erosion and leaks in its gravel and rock lined sides. About 1925 it was partially lined with cement to combat the leaking. By 1898 times had begun to change. New masonry upgrades were made to the original wooden timbered intake dam, which became Birdsall Dam, and in 1909 the by-now privately owned North Fork ditch was sold to American Canon Water Co, and then eventually to the San Juan Water District public utility. With the creation of Folsom Lake, new water treatment facilities, and modern life moving on, there was no further need for the ditch. Parts of the ditch are still visible today by hiking or horseback. [Ref: “The Historic North Fork Ditch,” by Robert H. Sydnor, Member-AERC and Loomis Basin Horsemen’s Association, October 2008 newsletter. www.garlic.com].