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Douglas Flat Gold Mining Company - Nevada 1934

 

 

This historic document was printed by Goes Banknote Company

 

 

Douglas Flat

 

The history of Douglas Flat is typical of many other towns in the California foothills, with its booms and busts, colorful characters, and reliance first on mining and then on agriculture. The prosperity of the community was first based on the rich placer gold found in Coyote Creek and its tributaries Wild Goose Gulch, Missouri Gulch, and Pennsylvania Gulch. First the “easy” gold was found in the streambeds and mined with pans, rockers, and long toms. The miners soon traced the gold’s source to the ancient Tertiary Central Hill Channel beneath the Table Mountains. Shafts were sunk (Figure mining), drifts and tunnels were run under the tables and, when water became plentiful, the hillsides were scoured with hydraulic monitors. The town, however, developed slowly. The mines were deep, rich, and extensive, with most of the diggings on the south side of Coyote Creek. In 1857, although the camp was described as having “a permanence”—primarily because of its agricultural facilities and conveniences for irrigation—it was also characterized as dull, with few people in town, and having no post office or express office. Most of the families were Welsh or Italian, with 28 children in school (San Andreas Independent). The post office was at Murphys, which also served many of the other nearby placer-mining communities (Heckendorn & Wilson 1856:105).

 

The name of the first person to mine in the area is unknown, but according to some accounts, it was a man named G. B. Douglass, a member of Stevenson’s Regiment who panned coarse gold there in the summer of 1848 with the Murphy party (Limbaugh and Fuller 2004:19, Black 1988). In 1855 Douglas Flat was described as within one mile of Murphys and an excellent mining district, as well as “the point where the Table Mountain was first tapped and its rich treasures discovered” (Heckendorn & Wilson 1856:97).

 

Most of the long-term settlers in the community came from Wales and Italy. The Welsh included the Roberts, Evans, Williams, Prothero, Thomas, and other families, with the Italians being represented by the Malatestas, Arratas, Malespinas, Copellos, Sanguinettis, Valentes, Lavagninos, Gagliardos, Grenittas, Bertattas, and others. Most of the men mined and farmed, especially the Italians. It was not long before Douglas Camp was transformed into a community. By 1854 the miners had built a small building to serve as a church and town hall, and it soon served as a school as well, as more and more families settled in the area. The following year three merchants, a hotel keeper, a printer, a “ranchero”, and seven miners were listed as residing in Douglas Flat (Heckendorn & Wilson 1856:98) .

 

 

 

  Further details of this company would be welcome