Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts on Folsom Lake, American River, Granite Bay, history of the area. Gold Rush, Railroad, People, Hiking.
It was the folklore, with no documented evidence, that this old weather-worn structure was determined to be historic. The structure, used for decades as an elevated barn and packing shed for local fruit harvests, was unambiguously believed to be part of the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad. The belief in the historic nature of the structure was the result of oral attribution of its provenance.
Few people outside of the North Fork Ditch Company knew or understood how much work Loring K. Jordan put into the water system. He took over a fragile water canal, and in the face of increasing water demand, was able to keep the water flowing.
The mining industry was dominated by Chinse men. Of the 2,655 men claiming to be miners, 48 percent were from China. Men who came from a European country comprised 29 percent of the miners and 21 percent were born in the United States. Of the European miners, 304 listed a birth as Ireland, 141 from the United Kingdom, 99 from Portugal, 81 from regions within Germany, and 79 men of French birth.
The mining industry was dominated by foreign born men. Of the 665 men listing their occupation as miner, 37 percent were of European birth and almost 28 percent were from China. Of course, it was primarily U.S. born men who comprised the gold rush of 1849. The initial gold rush wave of miners scoured the river beds of placer gold. The majority of mining in 1860 was the washing of high and dry ground for placer gold with water supplied by the Natoma ditch system.
1860 Census data confirms the prominence of Chinese immigrants along the North Fork Ditch in Placer County. U. S. born residents were a minority.
In 1843, John Bidwell rode over the potential grant property with John Sinclair. The two men were examining the property for Nathan Spear who was considering petitioning the Mexican government for a land grant. William Alexander Leidesdorff would petition for the property and in 1844 was awarded a land grant named the rancho Rio de Los Americanos by the Mexican government. John A. Sutter subsequently rode over the property with Leidesdorff and would give him juridical possession of the property 4 leagues in width east to west, 2 leagues in length to the south, encompassing 8 leagues of land.
Even though the miners paid for the water on a daily basis, it was assumed that the mining day was 10 hours long, after which the water was shut down. If a miner continued using water during the night, it was understood they were trying to steal extra water.[26] During his tenure as superintendent, Amos estimated the North Fork Ditch was carrying 2200 to 2300 inches of water as measured under 6 inches of head pressure.[27]
The description within the receipt also provided information on the wage rate. For white laborers, the daily rate was $2.50. Chinese labor was paid at $1.50 per man per day. I created a spreadsheet to compare the Chinese labor costs to that of white labor employed by the American River Water and Mining Company. Where the number of men and daily rate was not specifically mentioned, I imputed the daily rate by the total dollar amount. For example, Ah Sune was paid $13.50 for nine days work on cleaning out the Fox’s Ravine ditch in the Rose Springs district. Nine days times $1.50 per day comes out to $13.50.
From the drainage area and mean flow events, the Army Corp of Engineers, based on the time frame of 1903 – 1952, calculated the mean runoff to be 2,840,000 acre feet of water. The final holding capacity of Folsom Lake is 977,000 acre feet of water. The minimum amount of water is 88,000 acre feet*. That makes the holding capacity of Folsom Lake 889,000 acre feet of water. This means that in a normal or average year, enough water flows into Folsom Lake to fill it from dead pool to full capacity 3.19 times.
“Amos P. Catlin, The Whig Who Put Sacramento On The Map,” chronicles Amos’ life from his arrival in California in 1849 to his death in 1900 in Sacramento. Particular attention is paid to Amos’ work on organizing and building the Natoma water ditch in the early 1850s. It was during the ditch construction that Amos was elected to the California Senate. He wrote the bill to relocate the state’s capital to Sacramento. However, Amos did not consider the water projects or the state capital his most significant accomplishments in life.
