CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

[CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH]. A stock certificate for the Tuolumne County Water Company, 6 1/4 by 9 3/4 inches, Columbia, [California], May 3, 1854. With a fine vignette of miners working a sluice and a cradle.

The one-share certificate is signed by President Wm. H. Clark and Secretary R. H. Robinson. Water was an essential ingredient in mining operations as it was needed to separate rock and sand from the heavier gold. Once the easily-moved placer gold had been taken from river and creek beds and miners began to work "dry diggings" far from streams, much ditchdigging and flume-building was necessary to obtain water. As such expensive undertakings were far beyond any one miner's means, water companies were organized to bring in water and sell it -- often at exorbitant rates. It is estimated that by 1860 over seven hundred companies had built nearly six thousand miles of ditches, canals and flumes. The Tuolumne County Water Company was among the most prominent of these. Incorporated in September, 1852, with a capital stock of $550,000, the company conveyed water from the south fork of the Stanislaus River to various points in the "Southern mines." It was the target of an acrimonious strike in March, 1855.

This item is associated with the following category in our inventory:

• Western Americana