CALIFORNIA.
Isolated
diamonds continue to be found in Cherokee Flat, Butte County. Placer
miners washing for gold in the old diggings on ground owned by the
United States Diamond Mining Co. found 9 stones in 1915, according to
M. J. Cooney, manager of the Forbestown Consolidated Gold Mines, at
Forbestown, Cal. Three of the stones averaged 1 carat each and were
white and of first quality. The Cherokee ground owned by the United
States Development Co. has been left open by the company for all comers
to prospect. William Fliedner reports the respective weights of 2
stones found here to be eleven-sixteenths of a carat and one-fourth of
a carat.
About
50 diamonds have been found in the Tertiary gravels of the old river
channels in and about Smiths Flat, Eldorado County, and Burr Evans, of
Placerville, Cal., has furnished a record of these diamonds. Judge W.
P. Carpender, an old-time miner and justice of the peace at
Placerville, who arrived there in 1854, kept an accurate record of all
the diamonds found in Eldorado County, and from his list, supplemented
by Mr. Evans's own contribution, the following notes have been taken.
The weights given have been changed to metric carats.
In 1859 John Bradshaw found one small white stone in the Buchanan mine, Smiths Flat.
In 1865 John Lyford found one white stone weighing 0.97 metric carat at Smiths Flat, which was set rough in a ring.
In 1866 A. Brooks found one white flawed stone at Spanish Ravine which weighed 0.65 metric carat.
In 1867 Ward Bros, found three small stones near White Rock Canyon, the largest of which was valued at $50 in San Francisco.
In
1868 Thos. Ward & Co. found three stones in the Live Oak mine,
Reservoir Hill, two white of medium size and one yellow. One, set in a
ring is the possession of Mr. Ashcroft, of Oakland, Cal.
In
1868 Thomas Potts, sr., found near White Rock Canyon one light-yellow
stone weighing 0.65 metric carat which was sold to A. W. Goodyear,
first mineralogist of the State of California, when he visited the
mines at Smiths Flat in 1871.
J. Jeffry found one yellow stone at Webber Hill, weighing 0.97 metric carat. No date given.
In 1868 Mrs. S. Henderson found one white stone of medium size in the Wisconsin Flat Mine.
In 1868 Cruson & Olmstead found four stones in the Wisconsin Flat mine.
In
1869 Henry Olmstead found one stone, 9/32-inch maximum diameter,
weighing 1.82 metric carats, with a white coating on the surface. It
sold for $280 in San Francisco.
In
1870 McConnell & Reed found one canary-colored stone the size of a
small white bean in a mine on the south side of Webber Hills and the
east side of Texas Hill. Mrs. Caleb Reed, of Placerville, now has this
stone set in a ring.
Nathaniel
O. Ames found one stone weighing 1.30 metric carats in a mine on Webber
Hill. No date given. It was set in a ring and worn by Shelly Inch,
postmaster at Placerville, for many years. It is now in the possession
of L. P. Inch, at 444 California Street, San Francisco.
