An Abstract Of The Title To The Properties Owned Or Claimed By THE VOLCANO GOLD GRAVEL MINING COMPANY In Township No. Three, Amador County, California

Compiled by George I. Wright & Sons and Fontenrose & Fontenrose, Jackson, Amador County, California, March 21, 1907. Hardbound in textured brown cloth two prong binder with red cloth corners, metal clasp, and patterned pastedowns, title handwritten in black and red pen on the front cover, 11.75" x 9", 290 pages of photostatic prints (an early photomechanical process similar to blueprints but printed on a blackground on white paper). VERY GOOD CONDITION: complete as issued, just some light edgewear, toning to page edges, otherwise tight, bright, clean and unmarked. A scarce mining record, I could not find another copy. From the Winship Estate, a pioneering Marin County family.

The Volcano Gold Gravel Mining Company was a San Francisco company established for the purpose of running a tunnel from Sutter Creek into Volcano Flat, and mining for gold, to separate the gold from the gravel, to acquire mineral lands by purchase or otherwise in Amador County, and to mine such lands, sell and dispose of the same; to dig and acquire ditches and water rights, build viaducts, and sell and dispose of the same, and of water. The records are from 1854 to 1907. They reveal a chronological overview of the historical legal documentation associated with the properties including titles to real property, mining claims, transfers and ownership records. One of the principals in the firm was Isaac Bluxome, noted and notorious San Francisco pioneer who founded of the California National Guard and the Committee of Safety of 1856, better known as the Vigilance Committee.

The Volcano Gold Gravel Mining Company was one of the most extensive gravel mines during the Gold Rush, and hundreds of acres of valuable mining lands were emptied by its enterprises. In the heart of the Motherlode, Amador County's landscape changed considerably from when gold seekers first began to dig into the banks along its rivers and streams in 1848. As the excitement of the California Gold Rush got underway, it didn't take long for miners to discover that gold could be found away from the natural rivers and streambeds. By 1850 miners began to dig into earth and rock to uncover gold imprisoned in deep veins of the quartz rock, mining in dry diggings. Washing the gold required that they dig ditches and build flumes to bring the water to the dry diggings. Within a year, hardrock mining was underway and in 1852 hydraulic mining began. Until the passage of the anti-hydraulic mining laws, one of the first environmental laws to protect the environment .