were found in the known mining regions, and prospecting was carried on to a considerable extent early in 1850. In June two hundred miners were at work in the Umpqua Valley.[1] But little gold was found at this time, and the movement was southward, to Rogue River and Klamath. According to the best authorities the first discovery on any of the tributaries of the Klamath was in the spring of 1850 at Salmon Creek. In July discoveries were made on the main Klamath, ten miles above the mouth of Trinity River, and in September on Scott River. In the spring of 1851 gold was found in the Shasta Valley,[2] at various places,
- ↑ S. F. Courier, July 10, 1850.
- ↑ In the early summer of 1850 Gen. Lane, with a small party of Oregonians, viz. John Kelly, Thomas Brown, Martin Angell, Samuel and John Simondson, and Lane's Indian servant, made a discovery on the Shasta river near where the town of Yreka was afterward built. The Indians proving troublesome the party removed to the diggings on the upper Sacramento, but not finding gold as plentiful as expected set out to prospect on Pit River, from which place they were driven by the Indians back to the Sacramento where they wintered, going in February 1851 to Scott River, from which locality Lane was recalled to the Willamette Valley to run for the office of delegate to congress. Speaking of the Pit river tribe, Lane says: 'The Pit River Indians were great thieves and murderers. They actually stole the blankets off the men in our camp, though I kept one man on guard all the time. They stole our best horse, tied at the head of my bed, which consisted of a blanket spread on the ground, with my saddle for a pillow. They sent an arrow into a miner because he happened to be rolled in his blanket so that they could not pull it from him. They caught Driscoll when out prospecting, and were hurrying him off into the mountains when my Indian boy gave the alarm and I went to his rescue. He was so frightened he could neither move nor speak, which condition of their captive impeded their progress. When I appeared he fell down in a swoon. I pointed my gun, which rested on my six-shooter, and ordered the Indians to leave. While they hesitated and were trying to flank me my Indian boy brought the canoe alongside the shore, on seeing
been received from the surveying party under T. P. Robinson, county surveyor, who was commissioned by the governor to survey the boundary line between California and Oregon. The party were met on the mountains by several gentlemen of this city, whose statement can be relied on, when they were informed by some of the gentlemen attached to the expedition, that the disputed territory belonged to Oregon, and not California, as was generally supposed. This territory includes two of the finest districts in the country, Sailor's Diggings and Althouse Creek, besides some other minor places not of much importance to either. The announcement has caused some excitement in that neighborhood, as the miners do not like to be so suddenly transported from California to Oregon. They have heretofore voted both in California and Oregon, although in the former state it has caused several contested election cases, and refused to pay taxes to either. It is also rumored around the city, for which we will not vouch, that Yreka is in Oregon. But we hardly think it possible, from the observations heretofore taken by scientific men, which brings Yreka 15 miles within the line. Cresent City Herald, in D. Alta Cala., June 28, 1854.
