One of the earliest ditches to be constructed in the Flowers Ranch area was “Truett’s” or the “Buckskin Ditch,” which took water from Littlejohns and Clover creeks (north of present State Route 4) and conveyed it “southerly in a serpentine manner” to the diggings in Scorpion Gulch and Six Mile Bar on the Stanislaus River. The ditch was claimed as a water privilege on March 14, 1858, by Henry B. Truett, who noted that it was to appropriate the waters of Littlejohns Creek “above the dam we have already built on said Creek and in the month of January last posted Notices to that effect.” The water was claimed for ditch purposes for the extension of the Buckskin Ditch and for erecting dams in the creek and taking the water to Salt Spring Valley and for extending the ditch to any one of their dams to be built on the creek 1. That same year the ditch was assessed at a value of $600.
A newspaper account later that same year noted:
Truett & Co. have a large reservoir and very extensive works below Hanford’s reservoir (Salt Spring Reservoir).—Their works are said to be the most solid and elaborate in the county. Their dam is 560 feet long. 2.
Truett, a resident of San Francisco, had a preemption claim of more than 24 acres on Ramsey Flat, where his 20-year-old brother, Meyers, was living and mining in 1860 3. Truett evidently was using the water to operate his six-stamp Howland portable quartz mill, located near his residence 4, as well as selling water to others. His assessment record for that year mentioned the ditch, as well as all flumes and reservoirs. Truett’s Reservoir was located on Littlejohns and Clover Creeks, north of present State Route 4, in Sections 5 and 6, Township 1 North, Range 12 East, MDBM. Another may have been the predecessor of the Alto Mine reservoir, located one-half mile northwest of the mine.
In April 1862, Truett sold his preemption claim to his brother Meyers, and in August his ditch was sold at public auction for $462 to W. J. Gatewood, by order of sale in Calaveras County Court on November 13, 1861. At that time, it was described as being 12 miles long and conveying the waters from Littlejohns and Willow Creeks to Six Mile Bar; another of Truett’s ditches was noted as a dam and ditch 6 miles long on Littlejohns Creek, “assessed in the year 1858 at a value of $4,000” 5.
That same day, Gatewood sold the ditch to Daniel Spicer for $600 6. Daniel’s father, Thomas Spicer, was assessed for the ditch in 1866, at which time it was noted as conveying water from Truett’s Reservoir to the county line at Stanislaus County.
In 1867, Daniel Spicer deeded the ditch, along with other property, to his mother, Elizabeth 7. It was still depicted as “Truett’s Ditch” in 1870 by the General Land Office Surveyor, however. Thomas and Elizabeth’s daughter, Mary Anne (Spicer) Flower deeded the Spicer lands, along with the ditch, to her husband, Nathan M. Flower, in 1883. The deed noted that the ditch “commences at a dam or reservoir on the left bank of Littlejohns Creek ½ mile north of the Copperopolis and Telegraph Turnpike, and then ran southerly in a serpentine course via Ramsey’s Flat and Scorpion Gulch to near Six Mile Bar between the Stanislaus River and Table Mountain on the Grant” 8.
Portions of Truett’s early dam and ditch system were acquired and operated by the Alto Mine during its tenure on Scorpion gulch. In 1902, George S. Wright, part owner of the Alto Mine, was assessed for “Truett’s Old Reservoir,” noting that it was “flowing 77 ½ acres of land” and included an unfinished reservoir; both were valued at $775. By 1903, the assessment noted a pipeline leading to the Alto Mine. The name of Truett’s Reservoir was changed to Lane’s Reservoir about the same time, in honor of the mine’s co-owner, and the name of the ditch changed to the Alto Mine Ditch. Although originating at the same location as Truett’s Ditch, the pipeline crossed the drainages instead of following the original ditch line around the contours to its destination. The Alto Mine was shut down in 1907, and the dam washed out circa 1908. The water line then was purchased by Nathan Flower and was replaced after Rollie (Roswell) Flower died in the early 1950s. The dam was rebuilt by Charles Hiatt after that time 9.
- Calaveras County Mining Claim Book C:120
- San Andreas Independent, November 27, 1858
- U.S. Federal Census
- Calaveras County Assessment Rolls 1860
- Calaveras County Deed Book G:579
- Calaveras County Deed Book G:580
- Calaveras County Deed Book 57:343
- Calaveras County Deed Book 9:138
- Charles Stone, pers. comm. 1994
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