Calaveras Heritage Council

The histories of Angels Camp and Altaville are typical of many other towns in the California foothills, with their booms and busts, colorful characters, and almost century-long dependence on mining. The prosperity of the communities was first based upon the rich placer gold found in Angels Creek and its tributaries of China Gulch, Six Mile Creek, Cherokee Creek, Greenhorn Creek, and their drainages. It wasn’t long, however, before both communities had become trading centers for the neighboring mines. Angels Camp had a population of over 300 by the spring of 1849 (Wood 1955:9). Altaville, also known as Forks-in-the Road and Cherokee Diggings, took its present name at a town meeting in 1857 (Gudde 1969:8).

It was not until 1854 that the first important quartz locations were made, all on the Davis-Winters Lode where the Winter Brothers and Davis & Co. were ground-sluicing. This lode roughly paralleled present Highway 49, running southeasterly from Altaville down to Angels Creek. Over the next few years the vein was developed all the way to the creek, but the low grade of the ore, coupled with the difficulty of processing the sulphurets bound up in it, ended the boom.

There was intermittent activity through the 1860s, and another small boom in the 1870s, but little sustained mining industry until the late 1880s (Leonard 1968:1) when advanced mining and milling technologies and the availability of foreign capital combined to warrant large-scale underground mining. Although not a consistent employer, the industry experienced several significant revivals, particular in the late nineteenth century and again in the early twentieth, and provided the lifeblood of the Angels Camp area (Marvin and Costello et al. 1994:15-18).

All the mines in the town of Angels Camp closed during World War I, never to reopen. On the western fringes, the Gold Cliff Mine struggled on for a few more years, as did the smaller family-operated mines in the area. Only the Melones Mine at Carson Hill provided steady employment until it, too, closed during World War II.

The preeminence of mining, however, ensured that all other local industries would be its auxiliaries. Transportation, lumbering, water, power generation, and ranching have all been directed and influenced by the mining industry (Davis-King and Marvin-Cunningham 1990).

The City of Angels, the only incorporated town in Calaveras County, was formed by joining Altaville and Angels Camp in 1924, reflecting the hopes of that era for increased prosperity. Although slumbering for several decades, the Angels area, like the rest of the foothills, has recently experienced a rapid growth in population; the economy is presently dependent upon employment by units of government, service industries, manufacturing, construction, tourism, and agriculture (Marvin and Costello et al. 1994:17-20).

Location(s)

Water for placer mining was first brought into Angels Camp in 1853 by the Union Water Company. Completed to Murphys in 1853, the system was extended to Washington Flat and Angels Camp that same year by utilizing the bed of Angels Creek. Over the ensuing years the system was improved numerous times, especially after its acquisition by the Utica Gold Mining Company in the late 1880s. Taken over by PG&E in 1946, it has recently been acquired by the Utica Power Authority, a consortium of local water agencies.

Location(s)

The earliest routes into the gold regions followed long-established Indian trails. The first route into Angels Camp and the Stanislaus Diggings followed the Antelope Trail, also known as the “Old Stockton Trail,” and “Marshall’s Trail.” The most direct route from Stockton to Angels Camp, Murphys, and the Stanislaus River ferries, it was promoted by Ben Marshall, one of Calaveras County’s earliest sheriffs. By 1854 it had been improved to accommodate wagon traffic. Soon known as the Angels Road, it crossed Salt Spring Valley and went up the newly constructed Carmen Grade and over Antelope Pass to Angels, Murphys, and other higher camps (Fuller, Marvin, and Costello 1996:9-11).

The main route into Murphys in those early years was known as the Hawkeye to Murphys Road. Established in 1854, this road ran from Hawkeye (on present Highway 49) to Murphys, intersecting Dogtown Road, through Torrey’s Ranch and on to French Gulch Road. At that point it forked to French Gulch, and, via Washington Flat, to Vallecito and Murphys (Calaveras County Road Records Book:261-264; Minutes of the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors 1856:143).

The route of the present Murphys Grade Road was not established until 1865, when the Murphys and Altaville Road Company constructed a toll road along this more direct route. It remained a private toll road until declared a free public road by the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors in 1911 (Wood 1955:141).

Location(s)

The Matteson shaft, also on the western slopes of Bald Hill, was reportedly sunk in 1866 by James Matteson, a blacksmith from Illinois. Although never reaching paydirt in its earlier years, the Matteson shaft is famous in history as the location of the "Calaveras Skull" hoax. According to one account, the skull was discovered in the Calaveras Central (Victor/Reiner) shaft 1, but as that shaft was not sunk until 1895, that appears unlikely. Boutwell 2 agreed with this theory, while others, including historian R. Coke Wood, placed its discovery in the Matteson. As only the McElroy and Matteson shafts were depicted on the 1872 map, and neither near the later Victor/Reiner, it couldn't have been in that shaft.

A recently published account, however, places the discovery in the McElroy shaft. In a reminiscensce by George Stickle of Angels Camp (who was there at the time) and told to Edna Bryan Buckbee, Jim Matteson placed the skull in McElroy's mine. The subject of continuing scientific arguments, the Calaveras Skull was "discovered" in 1866 by Matteson in the Pliocene geological formation. Prominent geologists and anthropologists from several universities examined the skull and determined it to be that of an early man. After further study it was discovered to be not more than 50 years of age and a major hoax perpetrated upon State Geologis J.C. Whitney and others.

The skull had been removed from a Native American bureial site at Dead Man's Spring in Salt Spring Valley by Dr. William Kelly and given to Philip Scribner, an Angels Camp druggist, who planned to send it to Dr. Jones of Murphys as a joke. Meanwhile, Ross Coon, a local prankster, heard of the skull and cooked up the hoax. As recalled:

Professor Whitney and Dr. Jones rode to Angels Camp one evening, paying a visit to Jim McElroy's deep diggings. They found themselves descending a shaft in a large iron bucket. The shaft was dripping water, down under in a drift they found Jim Matteson digging in a "pay" streak and while the professor and the doctor stood by watching, Jim's pick brought to light a badly discolored old skull. At once, the professor evincing surprise and pleasure froze, whild Doctor Jones, overjoyed, commented knowingly on the rareness of the specimen. Fitting, thought Dr. Jones, that is should be found in the bed of an archaic river 3.

Believing in its antiquity, Professor Whitney took the skull to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it was eventually discovered to be of recent age. It was so well publicized, however, that Bret Harte composed his poem, An Ode to the Pliocens Skull, about the discovery. The skull now resides at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1. Mineral Insustries Survey of the United States. Mines of the Southern Mother Lode Region, Calaveras County,
   Julihn, C.E.; F.W. Horton
   , Washington, D.C., (1938)
2. The Tertiary Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California,
   Lindgren, Waldemar
   , Washington, D.C., (1911)
3. Calaveras County Gold Rush Stories,
   Buckbee, Edna Bryan
   , San Andreas, Ca, (2005)

Location(s)

ANGELS HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT
(FERC PROJECT NO. 2699)
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
EVALUATIONS

1. PROJECT OVERVIEW AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Angels Hydroelectric Project (FERC 2699) area consists of five historical ditches and the Angels diversion dam, canals, and forebay/Pipe Reservoir complex. They are located in Township 3 North, Range 14 East, Section 7; and Township 3 North, Range 14 East, sections 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 28, MDBM (Figures 1, 2). The Angels Hydroelectric system is the western, lower, portion of the historic Union/Utica Water Company system of dams, canals, and ditches. The upper, eastern portion, was previously addressed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which issued a new license to the Utica Power Authority (UPA), a joint powers agency, on 3 September 2003 for the continued operation and maintenance of the Utica Hydroelectric Project (FERC 2019) in Calaveras County, California.
The FERC license to UPA was an undertaking subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, among other laws. Consultation for Section 106 was completed with the 29 October 2002 execution of a Programmatic Agreement (Utica PA) among FERC, the Forest Service, BLM, and the State Office of Historic Preservation (SHPO), with concurrence by UPA. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (Advisory Council), the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, the Calaveras Band of Mi-Wuk Indians, and the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada (collectively, the Tribes) were consulted and invited to participate in the PA, but did not sign the agreement.
FERC and the signatory parties to the PA agreed that ongoing operation and maintenance of the project under the new license has the potential to affect properties eligible or considered eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
A contextual history of the project region, hydroelectric facilities, and Native American history and prehistory was provided in Volumes I and II of Waterscapes in the Sierra: Cultural Resources Investigations for the Angels Project (FERC 2699; Davis-King et al. 1992). The report also provided environmental and research background material, described the inventory and laboratory methods, summarized the results of the study, and presented evaluations of some of the resources as well as assessments of potential effects. A similar report addressed the Utica portion of the system (Davis-King et al. 1993).
Conditions were added by FERC and the Forest Service upon issuing the new license for the Utica Project. Of primary concern for cultural resources was Condition Number 34 of Forest Service 4(e) conditions (6 December 2002) that required UPA (the Licensee) to file a “Final Cultural Resources Management Plan” for FERC approval. A Final Historic Properties Management Plan (HPMP), was submitted in March 2008, describing how historic properties will be managed in the Project's Area of Potential Effects (APE), as defined in 36 CFR Section §800.16(d), during the term of the license.
Another condition, affecting the Angels portion of the system, as required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in a letter dated October 18, 2007, as well as a letter dated 14 April 2006 from the State Office of Historic Preservation (SHPO),
NRHP Evaluations 1 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

Figure 1. Project vicinity (from Davis-King et al. 1992).

NRHP Evaluations Foothill Resources, Ltd.

2

Angels Hydroelectric Project FERC Project No.2699

Figure 2. Project location (Davis-King et al. 1992).

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3

Angels Hydroelectric Project FERC Project No.2699

required a National Register of Historic Places reevaluation of eligibility and recommendations for the following properties:
1. Upper and Lower Angels Canal, Angels Forebay (Pipe Reservoir Complex), and Angels Diversion Dam, CA-CAL-1277H,
2. McElroy/Union Ditch, CA-CAL-1369H
3. Jupiter Ditch, CA-CAL-1372H
4. Gold Cliff Ditch, CA-CAL-1374 Ditch
5. Torrey Ditch, CA-CL-1375H
6. Ditch Segment, CA-CL-1377H
In March of 2009, Foothill Resources, Ltd., was contracted by the UPA to prepare the reevaluations and recommendations.
The reevaluations included the following:
1. Research in the previously conducted surveys and reports for the Angels Hydroelectric Project.
2. Research in the Calaveras County Archives, Calaveras County Historical Society, and office of the Calaveras County Surveyor, as required.
3. Pedestrian reconnaissance survey of selected segments of the canals and ditches to ascertain any alterations in the system since the 1992 report and evaluation.
4. Preparation of updated DPR 523 Record forms for the six resources.
5. Preparation of a report detailing the survey and research methods, overview history of the resources, findings and conclusions, an evaluation of the resources’ eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places, and mitigation recommendations, if required.
6. Production of a map of the system and its ditches and canals and their origins and points of distribution.
7. Report with recommendations provided to SHPO, with request for concurrence.
Natural and Cultural Setting
The ditches, canals, and flumes of the Angels Hydroelectric Project lie at elevations ranging from approximately 1350 to 2000 feet above mean sea level (amsl). This location is within the Foothill Belt environmental zone, also referred to as the Sonoran life zone (Storer and Usinger 1963:27). The systems are located on both sides of Angels Creek, through the community of Angels Camp, and to its north and east. The landscape consists of steep hillsides, knolls, and gently sloping meadows. Stands of chaparral are found on the hillsides, interspersed with stands of oak and pine, with grasslands in the meadows.
NRHP Evaluations 4 Angels Hydroelectric Project
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Geologically, the area begins east of the Mother Lode belt of the Central Sierra Nevada foothills, and continues through and along the belt in Angels Camp. It lies within the Angels Camp/Altaville district, both a lode and placer district, but the lode mines have been more productive. East of the district, and within the project area, the Tertiary gravels of the Central Hill Channel, a tributary of the ancestral Calaveras River, and the placer deposits along Angels Creek provided the sources of gold. The latter were mined chiefly by the sluice box, Long Tom, and ground sluicing in the early years, and by hydraulicking in the 1880s and 1890s. The channel gravels are cemented, contain abundant quartz, and are overlain by rhyolite tuff and andesite. They are underlain by a series of beds of amphibolite and chlorite schist, phyllite, greenstone, and quartz and feldspar porphyry (Clark 1962:76-82; Plate A, Geologic Map of Calaveras County; 1970:25, 27).
Current Project
At the request of Vern Pyle, General Manager of the UPA, in June and July of 2009, Foothill Resources, Ltd., conducted a reevaluation of the six identified resources. The work was carried out under the direction of Judith Marvin, project manager, historian, architectural historian, and principal author (Registered Professional Historian #525). Linda Thorpe, archaeological technician, prepared the updated archaeological site records, while Terry Brejla prepared the maps and edited the document.
NRHP Evaluations 5 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

2. RESEARCH METHODS
Research methods included visits to local archives, county offices, museums, and the historical society; interviews with knowledgeable local informants; and checking the earlier site records at the Central California Information Center (CCIC) of the California Historical Resources Information System (CCIC File #7439J).
Documentary Research
Archival and oral-history research for the project overview and specific site history was conducted by Judith Marvin, historian and architectural historian.
As part of the research phase of the project, research was conducted at a number of repositories to identify known historic land uses and the locations of research materials pertinent to the project area. Research focused on examining historical maps, written histories, mining publications, federal census records, and the official records of Calaveras County in an attempt to determine ownership and dates of construction for the project area ditches, as well as histories of identified features. These included the published and unpublished documents housed at the Calaveras County Archives, Calaveras County Surveyor’s Office, and the Calaveras County Historical Society, San Andreas; the Angels Camp Museum, Angels Camp; the files of Foothill Resources, Ltd., Murphys; and the mining publications archived at the Calaveras County Historical Society. Other major sources of information consulted included:
1. Review of listings in the National Register of Historic Places and current updates (Directory of Determinations of Eligibility, California Office of Historic Preservation, Volumes I and II, 1990; and Historic Property Data File (Office of Historic Preservation current computer list);
2. California Inventory of Historic Resources (1976), and updates;
3. California Historical Landmarks (1990), and updates;
4. California Points of Historical Interest (May 1992 and updates);
5. Miscellaneous local inventories and histories of historic resources (see References Cited and Consulted).
In addition, persons with information regarding the history of the ditch systems were contacted (several of them many years previously):
Loren Whittle, Hydro Manager for PG&E for many years;
Jack Voitich, former Utica Mining Company ditch system employee;
Raulin Lagomarsino, formerly with Calaveras Water Users Association;
Guy Castle, former employee of the Calaveras Central Mine;
Oliver Garcia, retired Hydro Superintendent, PG&E Mother Lode District;
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Bob Schmauder, neighboring landowner and miner;
Willard P. Fuller, Jr., mining geologist;
Lew Warner, Dogtown Ditch Users Association;
Vern Pyle, UPA General Manager, and
Cort Martz, Angels Powerhouse operator.
Of particular assistance in determining the location of specific ditches were the official records of Calaveras County, particularly the Assessor’s Roll Books, Deed Books, and Water Right Books. General Land Office Plats (GLO) and the Surveyor’s Field Notes provided site specific locations of ditches, as did early maps of Angels Camp, Altaville, and the Mother Lode Region (USGS 1900). Published histories and newspaper accounts were helpful in providing a background of information on the changes of land and ditch use in the area, as well as the histories of the various ditches. Of great assistance were the previous studies of the Union/Utica Water Company systems (Davis-King et al. 1992, 1993); the Angels Bypass (Marvin and Costello 1994); the Poffenroth Project (Marvin et al. 2002); Oakview Heights, Richards Ranch, Washington Flat, Calaveras County, California (Marvin, Andolina, and Costello et al. 2006); Angels Camp Bypass Project HABS/HAER Mitigation for the McElroy/Union Ditch (CA-CAL-1369H) and Gold Cliff Ditch (CA-CAL-1374H), with photographs and report, Calaveras County California (Marvin et al. 1994); Historical Resources Survey Report, Angels Bypass Disposal Site, Calaveras County, California (Davis-King and Marvin 2008a), and various other reports completed by Foothill Resources.
The most important resources, however, were the vast amounts of materials collected by Frances Bishop, including her early manuscript (Bishop 1983), another entitled “Gold Rush Water, The M. and A. Union Water Company of Murphys” (Bishop 1986), as well as maps, notes, interviews, and documentary materials compiled over many years of research on the Union and Utica systems. Mrs. Bishop’s collections are filed with the Calaveras County Archives, San Andreas, and with the author, Murphys.
Many sections of this report were taken verbatim or abstracted from Waterscapes in the Sierra (Davis-King et al. 1992), including the descriptions of the various components of the active Angels Hydroelectric Project written by Duncan Hay.
Vern Pyle, general manager of the UPA, graciously provided information and a tour of the current hydroelectric systems and facilities, while Cort Martz, Angels Powerhouse operator, whose father and grandfather worked on the system for the Utica Mining Company, provided invaluable information on the historical ditch systems and their relation to current operations.
Field Methods
Archaeological and historical studies and field surveys of various segments of the Union/Utica system have been conducted over a period of many years beginning in the early 1990s, and included studies for PG&E, Calaveras Central Mine, the Caltrans Angels Bypass Project, Angels Bypass Laydown Project, and private development
NRHP Evaluations 7 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

projects. A survey of the entire active system was completed in the early 1990s (Davis-King et al. 1992), in which Judith Marvin participated.
For the purposes of the present study, only specific sites and features were revisited. These included the Pipe Reservoir Complex, Ross Reservoir Complex, Tryon Siphon, Angels Diversion Dam, and other points along the Upper and Lower Angels Canal (CA-CAL-1277H). In addition, points along the other systems were revisited, in order to ascertain their integrity, and GPS readings were taken in order to map their locations.
NRHP Evaluations 8 Angels Hydroelectric Project
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3. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
(Note: much of the following has been quoted verbatim or abstracted from Davis-King and others [1992,1993], in which the history of the entire system was presented, with updated and site-specific information compiled during the present study.).
As were most of the original ditch systems in the Mother Lode, the Union Water Company ditches and flumes were constructed to provide water for the miners working the rich gravels in the California gold diggings. From a small ditch to serve only Murphys, the Union Water Company system was expanded, enlarged, and improved to provide water to the entire area between San Antonio Creek and the Stanislaus River. The system extended from the Big Trees in the east to Carson Hill, Angels Camp, Altaville, Dogtown, and Fourth Crossing in the west, with hundreds of miles of main or branch ditches serving mining, agricultural, and residential users (Figure 3).
From its organization in 1852, to its purchase by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in 1946, the Union, and later Utica, Company constructed dams, ditches, flumes, and watercourses, purchasing virtually every other ditch and flume company which tried to operate within its sphere of operations. Over the ensuing years, the usage of water controlled by the company was to shift from placer mining to hydraulic mining, then to hard rock mining, on to agriculture, and, finally, to domestic use, thus reflecting the changing economic pattern of not only Calaveras County, but the entire foothill region.
The chronicle below discusses modifications to the hydraulic and hydroelectric components built by the Union or the Utica companies, purchased by PG&E, and subsequently purchased by the Utica Power Authority in 1997. Today these are two distinct undertakings, the Utica Project and the Angels Project. Although now separate projects, the annals of their pasts are combined in this presentation, as they have been connected throughout their history. All of the ditch systems studied and evaluated for this project, however, are located within the Angels Hydroelectric Project (FERC Project No. 2699), reaching from about one mile below Murphys to Angels Camp and Altaville.
1850s: Early Water Control
The development of hydroelectric power from the Stanislaus River was made possible by the extensive water conveyance and storage facilities constructed to deliver water to mining operations. Gold was discovered on the flat below what soon became the town of Murphys Camp as early as 1848. Except during the rainy season and spring, the diggings were often dry, with too little water available to wash gold from the gravels. A few springs provided enough water for eating and bathing purposes, and when dammed, a small pond for panning the gold (Wood 1952:15), but by 1850 the horde of miners who had poured into the area began to look for additional sources to provide a year-round supply of water. Plausible sources were the creeks and rivers higher in the foothills, principally Angels Creek and its tributaries and the North Fork Stanislaus River. One of the earliest companies to bring water to the rich gravels on Murphys Flat was the Union Water company, was organized in Murphys in January 1852.
NRHP Evaluations 9 Angels Hydroelectric Project
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Figure 3. Angels Hydroelectric System components (Davis-King et al. 1992).

Organization of the Union Water Company
The Union Water Company was formed as a combined effort of two rival companies that had begun construction of water systems in 1851 to bring water to the miners. One group planned to tap the waters of Angels Creek (Murphys Creek) about two miles above Murphys, and convey water along the hillsides to Owlsborough and Murphys Flat. Another group planned to bring water from Love Creek, 14 miles above Murphys, and convey it through flumes and ditches to Angels Creek, delivering it to the diggings on Murphys Flat (Bishop 1980:7).
Members of both companies soon saw that combining their efforts would be more profitable if they consolidated as the Union Water Company, assigning Captain William H. Hanford as Chief Engineer and William F. Griffith as Superintendent. T.J. Matteson, a Murphys stage line operator, was hired to survey the route of the ditch (Wood 1952:15). Twenty-three men were the company’s founders: William H. Hanford, G.W.H. Parker, Charles Deidrich, William Robinson, Dr. William Jones, Riley Senter, Peter McKeown, William Coddington, Daniel H. Dickenson, Peter Cameron, D.S. Hensly, Edward Thomas, N.L. Fidler, J.C. Lawrence, Albert Bliss, Philip Flickinger, Charles A. Curtis, Elias C. Stone, Volney Shearer, Leslie Stein, Patrick Birmingham, Michael Silerman, and one other. Chosen unanimously to serve for one year were the following officers: William H. Hanford, president; Elias C. Stone, vice-president; G.W.H. Parker, secretary; William Jones, Treasurer; and Albert Bliss, Volney Shearer, and Charles Curtis, directors. Each founder contributed $80.00, for a total of about $1850. This money was used to send agents to San Francisco to negotiate a loan of $10,000 to begin construction of the system (Noyes n.d.:82).
Early Construction
The first fountainhead of the Union Water Company Ditch was located at the junction of Union (later called Love) and Sawmill (later called Moran Creek, feeding Mill Creek) creeks, about 10 miles above Murphys (NE ¼ of the NE ¼ of Section 7, Township 4 North, Range 15 East), where a small dam and reservoir were built (Bishop 1980:5). Sawmills, blacksmiths, construction camps, and tender houses were built adjacent to the watercourse to provide lodging for the workers who built and maintained the ditches, flumes, and reservoirs.
A short distance from the flume head, a water-powered sawmill was built to produce lumber for the flume. The mill straddled Sawmill (now Mill) Creek so that the sawdust could be easily disposed and lumber could float down the ditch and flumes to the construction sites. With picks, shovels, and an occasional mule-drawn plow, the crews constructed a series of ditches and flumes as far as the headwaters of Angels Creek, where a reservoir was built. The headwaters of Angels Creek, adjacent to Highway 4, were located just below Hanford Hill and about a mile west of Darby Knob. Near Love Creek the ditch diggers had to blast through 1000 feet of granite, a job superintended by Judge A.H. Putney of Murphys (San Joaquin Republican, December 3, 1851).
NRHP Evaluations 11 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

An interesting account of the construction of that first dam and ditch was left by prospector Richard Augustus Keen (Keen n.d.), who, failing to achieve success in his mining ventures, hired on with Captain Hanford in the spring of 1852 to work on construction of the Union Canal at $100.00 per month. Traveling to the mill with Riley Senter, one of the founders, Keen was immersed with the development of the ditch system. They visited an abandoned log cabin at Camp Lion (named for the mountain lions which howled nightly) used by workers during construction of the ditch, and another at Wolf Hollow. Arriving at “Union Camp on the Mill” (on Love and Mill Creeks), the men were fed supper by the mulatto cook, Valentine. The next morning, after spending a cold night in his assigned bunk, Keen commenced work in the mill, carrying green pine boards 16 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 1 inch thick. After passing this test, he was assigned to the tail block in the mill, a much easier job.
A blacksmith by trade, Keen was soon promoted by Hanford to do the smithing at the sawmill on the “west fork of the Stanislaus” (Love Creek, at its junction with Mill Creek) at $5.00 per day. Keen described this first system as one-third flume, four feet wide and two feet deep, and two-thirds ditch, ranging from two to 20 feet deep, with two tunnels a hundred yards long. The system varied from ground level in places to 75 feet above ground in others (Keen n.d.:102,103).
The company of men working at the sawmill consisted of founder Volney Shearer of Harlem, New York, the foreman who was also known as Black Hawk; Ichabod Benson of Rochester, New York; Nathan Fidler of Dayton, Ohio; Leonidas Ames of Maine; Michael Mooney of Ireland; Dick Shongo and Isaac White of New York; and Isaac Dow (sic Augustus T. Dowd), their hunter from the eastern states. Keen described all of these men as “the first class of Californians” (Keen n.d.:104, 105). Another account mentions that most of the elevation work on the ditches was done by Chinese work crews, willing to work for lower wages (Bishop 1980:3).
Isolated by necessity, the men at the camp grew their own vegetables, including potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, and onions (San Andreas Independent, May 22, 1858). Their hunter, Augustus T. Dowd, hired to provide meat for the workers, was noted for discovering the Calaveras Big Tree in 1852, spotted during a hunting expedition for the company, although there had been other accounts about the sequoias as early as 1849 (Costello 1988:7). This was the same Dowd who lent his misspelled name to Doud’s Landing and Doud Hill, located northeast of Hunter Reservoir.
In addition to the reservoir on Sawmill (Mill) Creek, two others were constructed: one about seven miles above Murphys (probably at the present Red Apple, SW ¼ of the SE ¼ of Section 24, Township 4 North, Range 4 East), and another about nine miles above on Mill (Moran) Creek (SW ¼ of the NW ¼ of Section 7, Township 4 North, Range 15 East). Water was released from the main reservoir to the dam at the head of Angels Creek and then into the bed of the creek, following the natural channel to Murphys. The conveyance system branched near the foot of the canyon: one branch continued down the creek to the diggings on Murphys Flat, then on to Red Hill; the other swung out through
NRHP Evaluations 12 Angels Hydroelectric Project
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Owlsborough (the mining area which stretched from the present Masonic Hall in Murphys northerly to the Oro y Plata mine) before reaching Murphys Flat (Bishop 1980:9; Figure 4).
Hydraulic and Financial Expansion and Difficulties
Numerous troubles beset the company and crew, not the least of which were storms which destroyed many flumes. The main problem, however, was the lack of enough financing to complete the water system. Work came to a halt for awhile, but the system was finally completed, bringing water to Murphys in 1853 (Noyes n.d.:82). That same year, utilizing the bed of Angels Creek southwest of Murphys, the ditch was extended to Washington Flat and Angels Camp. One of the branches, the North Ditch, coursed westerly from the fountainhead on Angels Creek near the old Utica Powerhouse to the Oro Y Plata mine, and, via suspension flume to the Central Hill Mine (present Murphys sewer ponds), and, after the suspension flume collapsed, by siphon (Figure 5). By the James Williams/Kelly Ditch, it also continued southerly into the territory on the ridge between Angels and Six Mile creeks, and eventually to the ranches east of Angels Camp (see above). Shortly thereafter, water was furnished to Douglas Flat through the South Ditch, which branched southerly from the fountainhead (Bishop 1980:10).

Figure 4. Union Ditch near Murphys, ca. 1900, constructed by the Union Water Company (photo courtesy of Calaveras County Historical Society).
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Figure 5. Suspension flume carrying the waters of the North Ditch to the Central Hill Mine, ca. 1858 (lithograph courtesy of Murphys Old Timers Museum).
The company was not thriving yet, though, for construction costs amounted to more than $150,000.00. The Union Water Company found itself deeply in debt, even though it was bringing in $12,000 to $15,000 a month in revenues (Bishop 1980:7). The last of these debts were not paid off until December of 1857 (San Andreas Independent, December 10, 1857). Leonard W. Noyes stated that the company was not always well-managed and company officers found it necessary more than once to water their stock.
Even before the debts were paid, the company was unable to provide water to those environs beyond Murphys. The founders resolved to obtain additional sources of money and therefore decided to incorporate and sell stock in the company. Under an act approved April 4, 1853, the company was incorporated May 3, 1854, for:
the purpose of conveying water by a ditch and flume from the Stanislaus River and its northern tributaries above the head of the Murphys and Angels Creek. The object of the company was to use the water so conveyed for mining, mechanical, agriculture and other purposes on the ravines, rivers, gulches, flats, and hills adjacent to Murphys, Douglas Flat, Vallecito, Carsons, Albany Flat, Angels Camp, Cherokee Flat, Hawkeye Ranch, Foreman’s Ranch, and intermediate points in Calaveras County (Cutting 1884:1).
The company was to be in existence for 50 years, issuing capital stock of 400 shares worth a total of $200,000 and its principal place of business at Murphys (Cutting 1959:1). The first five trustees of the newly incorporated company were John Scribner, William Coddington, William Jones, Joseph Carley, and Volney Shearer (Calaveras County Agreements [Agreements] Book A:35). With new capital in hand, the company resolved to extend its system of ditches and flumes to the North Fork Stanislaus River, 14 miles
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above the Big Tree Grove at the “Big Slide,” about one-half mile above Sourgrass. Here they constructed a log crib dam to divert water into a flume (Marvin 1991).
Four canted timbers of the 1854 dam still project from the river bottom, held in place by large granite boulders. They are the remnants of a timber frame dam, constructed at an angle so that the weight of the water would press it into the riverbed; dams built of vertical boards were apt to skid downstream or be pushed over with the weight and force of the water. The upstream face of the dam was probably once faced with plank sheathing and would have had a strut at its upper end (Marvin 1991:15). Until torrential rains in the late 1990s, the granite blocks which once supported the flume were visible on the shoreline, while the metal I-bolts and other structural supports are extant.
This extra source of water from the North Fork Stanislaus River was channeled an additional 14 miles to the former fountainhead on Love Creek, passing through some of the roughest terrain in the area (Bishop 1980:7). Deep gorges were flumed, channels blasted in the granite, and flumes suspended from rock cliffs, marked today by remnant bolts in the bedrock. The system carried 21 square feet of water at a current of four miles per hour through ditches eight feet wide at top, five feet at bottom, and three feet deep.
It wasn’t long before the company again found itself in financial difficulties and was forced to increase its stock to $260,000.00 on January 5, 1855 (Agreements Book A:50). The following August the Board of Supervisors raised the assessed value of the company from $100,000.00 to $120,000.00, a raise that was short-lived, as it was returned to $100,000.00 the following year (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls [Assessment Rolls] 1856. The additional funds, however, enabled the company to construct a new steam sawmill on Mill Creek (a different Mill Creek; this one begins about 1.5 miles west of Cottage Springs and beneath Summit Level Ridge and flows about two miles before entering the North Fork Stanislaus River near Board’s Crossing), about three miles above Woodruff’s Upper Ranch (present Dorrington). The Mohawk Mill, as it was named, was capable of producing 1000 feet of lumber per hour, much needed for the new 14-mile extension (Powers 1855). Lumber for the flume was cut at the Mohawk Mill, and transported to the end of the ditch where the construction occurred.
The travel writer James M. Hutchings described his impression of the Union system in 1859:
At different distances upon the route [to the Mammoth Tree Grove], the canal of the Union Water Company winds its sinuous way on the top or around the sides of the ridge; or its sparkling contents rush impetuously down the water-furrowed center of a ravine. Here and there an aqueduct, or cabin, or saw-mill, gives variety to an ever changing landscape [Hutchings 1962:208].
The first fountainhead of the Union Ditch system was dug from Angels Creek near present La Honda along the hillside to supply water to Altaville (Cherokee Flat) and Angels Camp to run several quartz mills. The original ditch conveyed water to the
NRHP Evaluations 15 Angels Hydroelectric Project
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Wooster Reservoir, located west of the Wooster/Demarest/California Electric Steel Foundry (now Angels Towne Shopping Center), where a branch ditch ran down the ridge to Angels Camp to supply the overshot wheels at the mills. Another branch (CA-CAL-1374H) coursed southerly to the Gold Cliff Mine and others along its route.
Gold Cliff Ditch (CA-CAL-1374H)
From the Wooster Reservoir one branch ran southerly to the Gold Cliff mine and another to Smith’s Flat (present Osborn Ranch on Highway 4). The Gold Cliff Ditch, a branch of the Union system that carried water west of Angels Camp for mining purposes to the Gold Cliff, Madison, North Star/Dolling, Lindsay and other mines, as well as the Selkirk and McCauley ranches (Greenhorn Creek), was evidently constructed in the 1850s. It was undoubtedly improved in the 1890s-early 1900s when the Utica Company was operating the Gold Cliff Mill, and continued to provide water to the Selkirk and Osborn ranches through the 1940s. The ditch coursed through the present Greenhorn Creek Golf Course development, and its bed has been utilized for the Angels Camp sewer pipeline since the 1950s.
1850s, 1860s, and 1870s: Acquisition and Change
While Union Water Company directors were concerned about the financial health of the company, they also had concerns about water rights, acquisition, and expansion, the focus of the late 1850s and 1860s (Figure 6). When the Union Canal was extended to Angels Camp to supply placer and hard rock mines in that burgeoning area, miners along the canal route purchased water from the company. Some of the miners constructed branch ditches, while other miners built their own water systems. Two of these, the Torrey Ditch and the Sawyer Ditch (on Washington Flat), were the subject of extensive lawsuits between the miners and the water company in the mid-1850s.
Torrey Ditch (CA-CAL-1375H)
The Torrey, or Montezuma, Ditch was constructed about 1853 to take water to the placer diggings in French Gulch, Dogtown, and Altaville, as well as the ranch of Charles and Mark Torrey (Lewis, Howard, Bacigalupi, Holmes, Tryon ranch) on the Hawkeye to Murphys Road. Water was conveyed from a diversion in Angels Creek (near the present Angels Diversion Dam, about one and one-half miles below Murphys) to Washington Flat and Altaville (Figure 7). When it reached the saddle near Ross Reservoir, it ran by ditch and flume across the Ross Ranch and along French Gulch Road, then along the ridge to Johnson Reservoir (Pipe Reservoir) where one one fork conveyed water down the drainage to Torrey Gulch and the Jackrabbit Mine; the ditch was assessed to the Jack Rabbit mine in 1891 (Calaveras County Assessor’s Roll 1891, Utica Mining Company 1929). The other branch continued down the main stem to Altaville (GLO 1871). The Torrey Reservoir was improved and enlarged in 1954.
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Figure 6. Timeline of ownership and expansion of Angels Hydroelectric System ditches (Davis-King et al. 1992).

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Figure 7. General Land Office Plat of Township 3 North, Range 13 East (1871) depicting Torrey’s ditches (highlighted in blue).
The Torreys had constructed their ditch, as well as a dam, just above the Union Company’s dam and ditch on Angels Creek below Murphys Camp. The Union Company, unhappy with this preemptive taking of water, sued. Chronicles about the Union Water Company vs. Torrey and Co. have been preserved; they involve tales of

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barrooms, tents crowded with miners, swearing, drinking, a billiards-playing constable, and much laughter (Noyes n.d.:82, 83).
Noyes failed to mention the outcome of the trial, however the case was apparently won by Torrey and Co., as after a quick transaction, John Scribner (an Angels Camp merchant and Union Water Company trustee) purchased and resold the Torrey system to the Union Water Company on April 21, 1855, for $1800.00. The sale included the water ditch “made and used to convey the water from ‘Angels Creek’ and ‘French Creek’ or ‘Gulch’ for mining purposes to ‘Cherokee Flat’ [Altaville] and other places.” The main ditch took 300 square inches from Angels Creek, and the branch ditch took the same amount from French Creek. The deed also included the dams and reservoirs constructed by Torrey and Company (Calaveras County Deed Book [Deed Book] B:12).
Another dispute occurred at Hockman’s Ranch on Washington Flat in 1869. An argument arose between William Coddington, superintendent of the Union company’s ditch, and two members of the Sawyer family, a father and son. The Sawyers had constructed a reservoir (NE ¼ of SE ¼ of Section 28, Township 3 North, Range 13 East) at the head of the same gulch through which the Union Water Company ditch ran, and the dispute became somewhat violent when the younger Sawyer struck Coddington with a shovel, injuring him severely. This event was followed by a gunfight between Dr. Jones and Sawyer at the Justice’s office in Angels, with no serious damage to either party (Bishop 1986:15).
South Ditch
In 1858 the South Ditch was extended from the Milk Ranch southwest of Douglas Flat through the area north of Vallecito (Figure 8). The company then purchased the “Know Nothing Ditch and Reservoirs” and the Kelly Gulch Ditch north of Vallecito (Bishop 1980:12). These systems were used to convey the waters of the extension of the South Ditch to the head of Quartz Gulch and then dropped to Angels Creek on Washington Flat. By the early 1860s the company had also acquired the Albany Flat and Carson’s Ditch, extending the line another eight miles to Carson Hill and vicinity (Assessment Rolls 1860).
Union Reservoir
The company’s problems were not yet over. The new dam and ditch from the “Big Slide” on the North Fork Stanislaus River was only able to store water for the miners through September. More water was needed to provide for the period between September and the annual rains. After considerable study and numerous meetings, the company resolved to construct a new dam high in the Sierra Nevada in order to capture the headwaters of the North Fork Stanislaus River and contain the melting snow. They selected a site 35 miles east of the Big Tree Grove, at the present Union Reservoir (San Andreas Independent, July 31, August 21, October 2, November 6, and November 20, 1858).
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Figure 8. Flume of the South Ditch near Vallecito, ca. 1890 (photo courtesy of Murphys Old Timers Museum).
Construction on the log crib dam was started in October 1858 and completed by the last of the month. According to Bishop (1980:14), Union Reservoir:
was 1¾ miles long and ¾ miles wide, and was the largest in the state. When filled, it covered fifteen hundred acres with an average depth of twenty feet and contained eight hundred inches of water for the three months when most needed: August, September and October.
A construction camp to the west of the reservoir and a log cabin which housed two dam watchmen have been reported. Three more dams were constructed that same summer, forming Elephant Rock Lake, Summit Lake, and Duck Lake, all draining into Union Reservoir (San Andreas Independent, February 24, September 11, and November 20, 1858; June 24, 25, and October 29, 1859). It is unknown when and why these three lakes were removed from the system operations.
More than one hundred years later, remnants of a small earthen dam, a square wooden culvert for delivering water, and pieces of a wooden sluice gate were found at Elephant Rock Lake. At Duck Lake, parts of the ditch built to drain the lake are still visible (Bishop 1980:16, 17).
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Figure 9. Flume of the Union Water Company, as sketched by Edward Vischer in 1859.
Union Reservoir was completed none too soon, for 1859 proved to be a year of drought and the water was sorely needed for mining operations, which required 450 inches of water night and day (Bishop 1980:14, 17). By this time the main Union canal was 80 miles long, extending to Murphys, Angels, Altaville, and Forman’s (or Fourth) Crossing (Assessment Rolls 1859) and the company had awesome responsibilities for delivery of water to expectant customers. Edward Vischer, traveling through the area in 1859, described the system:
The aqueduct of the Union Water Company [Figure 9] runs along a gorge which leads to the giant trees, through ditches and conduits, then in box conduits or flumes, across gorges and depressions and in some places even above the tree tops. Ditches and flumes are from four-five feet wide and carry enough water for a middle-sized stream. Reservoirs were made by damming up low places until recently, when, overcoming all obstacles, Captain Hanford completed a wooden reservoir between one and one-half to two miles in area (Vischer 1932).
He went on to mention the company’s success:
The aqueduct of the Union Water Company is perhaps the only one in the regions which has proved to be a good investment financially. The original capital was $200,000 which was increased later to $250,000 [sic], so that by making a side canal the highest springs of the Stanislaus could also be used. This was done after several monthly dividends of 4% had been paid (Vischer 1932).

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Prices for water, which had, of necessity, been high during the first years of operation ($5.00 a day in 1855, $8.00 a day in 1856) had dropped to $3.00 a day by the early 1860s for miners who used a twenty-inch stream at $.15 an inch (Bishop 1980:18).
With system construction complete, the company set about building itself a fine new brick and stone office building on Main Street in Murphys. Accounts in the local newspapers refer to the erection of a building in November of 1859 and a further note to say that one wall collapsed during the heavy rains in December (San Andreas Independent, November 26 and December 3, 1859). The building was soon completed, however, and used as the office of the Union Water Company until sold to Adam Keilbar in 1887 (Deed Book 14:84); it still stands in Murphys.
The winter of 1861-1862 was a devastating one in the state of California generally and specifically for the Union Water Company. The “winter of the floods,” as it came to be called, wrought havoc on the dams and flumes of the Union system, and destroyed all of the bridges in Calaveras County (Bishop 1980:19). The dam on Mill Creek was washed out, along with several hundred feet of flume and many of the ditch banks. Repairs were quickly made, however, and soon the system was in operation again.
Murphys Flat Fluming Company
Continuing to enlarge the system, in 1863 the Union Company purchased the bankrupt Murphys Flat Fluming Company, which constructed the “Deep Cut” below Murphys in 1857-1859 to drain the flat during the wet season (Figure 10; Deed Book O:288). By 1863, the Union Company supplied water to Douglas Flat, Vallecito, French Gulch, Washington Flat, Fourth Crossing, and all the country between San Antonio Creek and Coyote Creek, with more than 250 miles of ditches in operation (Bishop 1980:19).
Calaveras County Water Company
For the future of the company, the acquisition of the Calaveras County Water Company (CCWC) in October 1866, from Morris Cohen and Isaac Levy of Vallecito for $20,000.00, was to prove consequential (Calaveras County Judgment Rolls, Civil Cases, August 9, 1865). The water canal route of the present UPA system was acquired with this sale, originally surveyed and constructed by the CCWC.
Incorporated on November 1, 1856, with its principal place of business at Vallecito, the CCWC was formed for:
the purpose of conveying water from Griswold Creek, Beaver Creek, North Fork of the Stanislaus River, and Mill Creek by flume or ditch through the divide at the head of Coyote Creek and the Stanislaus River to such extensions, branches, and reservoirs as “the company shall see fit to construct” (Cutting 1959:2).
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Figure 10. The Murphys Flat Fluming Company’s Deep Cut, 37 feet deep and 4,000 feet long, purchased by the Union Water Company in 1863 (lithograph courtesy of Murphys Old Timers Museum).
In 1858 the CCWC built the dam for the Salt Spring Reservoir and the connecting ditch that delivered water to South Gulch, Brushville, Whiskey Hill, and areas outside the Angels Hydroelectric Area on the south side of the Calaveras River near Jenny Lind (Bishop Notes n.d.:15).
By the time of the sale to Cohen and Levy in 1865, in addition to the original CCWC system, Cohen and Levy had obtained the Hall Ditch that conveyed water from Douglas Flat to Vallecito, and the Mull or Indian Gulch Ditch that took water from Vallecito through Captain John’s Tunnel to Indian Springs (on Wade’s Flat, across from Moaning Cave).
The CCWC system took waters from the North Fork Stanislaus River below McKays Point and conveyed it to the present Hunter Reservoir, where a small dam had been constructed. Then, by a series of ditches, flumes, and creekbeds, water was delivered to Coyote Creek, Vallecito, and Carson Hill. This system was an improvement over the original Union system, paralleling the Union ditch in some places, but accessing additional sources of water. The CCWC System, at a lower elevation than the Union system, was enlarged and improved by the Union Water Company, which then abandoned its original upper flume and ditch systems by 1875:
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From that time on, water was conveyed from the High Reservoir (Union Reservoir) down the Stanislaus River thirty miles to the main flume across the river from Kimball and Cutting’s “Modoc Mill” [in Tuolumne County] to which point the waters of Beaver Creek were also brought. From the sawmill the water followed the route built by the old Calaveras County Water Company [Bishop 1980:21].
Other Ditch Companies
Several other ditches took water from Angels Creek in the 1850s, providing water for mining and agricultural purposes. Some were later acquired by the Union Water Company, others were abandoned when the placers played out, while a few were acquired by ranchers for agricultural use. From east to west these included the Sebastopol and Eureka/Andrew Lee ditches to Washington Flat (1852), the Richards Ranch (1853) and Massoni Brothers (1888) ditches to their ranches on Washington Flat, the Gibson Ditch (1878) to the present Rolleri Ranch, E.W. Johnson’s Ditch to the Johnson Placer Mine, the Croker/Peirano Ditch to a gulch opposite Chinatown in Angels Camp, as well as many smaller placer mining ditches (California Department of Water Resources 1919, 1922). One of the most ambitious of these early ditches was the Kelly Gulch or James Williams Ditch, which took water from the North Ditch, conveyed by siphon to the south side of the Murphys Grade Road, and then by a circuitous route to Williams’ ranch and mines on the ridge between Angels and Six Mile creeks (SW ¼ of Section 13, T3N. R13E). A branch of this ditch continued southwesterly to the mining regions of Quartz Gulch above Washington Flat, and the Ozark, Kentucky, and other mines west of Six Mile Road (Martz 2009).
Ditches on the Six Mile Creek side of the system included the Jennings/Updegraft Ditch, which took water from the Union Ditch at Murphys and carried it into Six Mile Creek at the J.D. Garland Ranch (now Ironstone Vineyard), the Taylor/Bacigalupi Ditch (1885) from Six Mile Creek to the Taylor Ranch (present Rolleri Ranch) and mines in Quartz Gulch, and other small ditches (California Department of Water Resources 1919, 1922). All of these ditches have been abandoned.
1870s and 1880s: Expansion and Sale of the Union Water Company
In 1859, John Kimball and Ephraim Cutting, residents of Murphys, purchased the reservoir rights and a steam sawmill built in 1855 at the present Hunter Reservoir. The assets and physical property included lumber yards in Murphys, Vallecito, and Angels, and land at Hanford Hill and the present Red Apple, thus assuring them of a steady supply of lumber for flume construction and repair (Deed Book D:389). Kimball and Cutting became the major stockholders of the Union Water Company in the 1870s and the system was greatly expanded under their leadership.
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McElroy Ditch (CA-CAL-1369H)
Kimball died in January, 1878, and the majority of the stock passed to his partner, Cutting, who continued improving and expanding the system for the company. One of his first purchases that next year was the McElroy Ditch, which took water from Angels Creek 1½ miles below Murphys and conveyed it to the McElroy mine on Bald Hill near Altaville. Depicted on early 1870s maps, it provided water to McElroy’s Bald Hill Gravel Mine and its shafts (`; Beauvais 1872, 1873). Incorporated in 1872 and patented in 1876, in 1875 the mine was assessed for the ditch, which was sold to the Union Company on February 3, 1879, for $5 (Deed Book 4:483). After its purchase by the Union Company, the McElroy ditch became known as the Union Ditch. The ditch was depicted as active as late as 1929 (Utica Mining Company 1929), and used as an ancillary system to the Utica Ditch (Loren Whittle 2008).

Figure 11. Plat of the Bald Hill Gravel Mine showing the McElroy Ditch (Beauvais 1872).
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Agriculture was also gaining in importance in the 1870s and 1880s. Water rights were sold to farmers and ranchers along the mining ditch routes and even more extensive ditch systems were constructed to take water to fields and gardens. From Wooster Reservoir in Altaville, Know-Nothing Reservoir above Vallecito, and from numerous smaller reservoirs, branch ditches were taken to agricultural operations in French Gulch, Douglas Flat, Vallecito, Carson Hill, Albany Flat, Angels Camp, Altaville, Dogtown, Hawkeye, Fourth Crossing, and locations in between, feeding many of the stock and irrigation ponds.

In 1883, improvements were made to the Union or High Reservoir, which was rebuilt that year with granitic boulders lined with concrete at a cost of $13,927.00 (Cutting 1959:3-4), storing more water for the now-booming hydraulic mining industry, especially along the Central Hill Channel east of Altaville.
The new Union Company flume, built in 1875 with a grade of 25 feet to the mile, measured 2½ by 4 feet and was made of 1½-inch lumber, carrying 2000 inches of water. The ditches were 4 to 5 feet wide and 2½ feet deep (Cutting 1959:4, 5). From Hunter Reservoir the system water was taken to the head of Coyote Creek and then in three directions by ditch and creek to supply Murphys, Angels Camp, Smith’s Flat, Dogtown, Hawkeye Ranch, and intermediate points. Douglas Flat, Vallecito, and Carson Hill were also supplied by a branch of the ditch (Cutting 1959:6). The ditch followed the course of the North Ditch and the present UPA system (Angels Canal) from the fork at the headwaters of Peppermint Creek (where a new ditch had been constructed to connect the CCWC canal to the original Union system) to the present Murphys Forebay area.
A writer, touting the wonders of Calaveras County in 1884, described the system:
The Murphy Canal, or Union Ditch, receiving its water supply from the North [North Fork] Stanislaus River, is nearly as important [as the Mokelumne Hill and Seco Canal]. Its waters are extremely fresh and pure, formed as they are from the melting snows of the mountains drained by the Stanislaus; and its banks nearly the whole distance are embowered by alders, poplars, and vines, making the roadway between Murphy’s and Big Trees, which is built upon its banks and between giant-wooded hills, one of the most picturesque and beautiful in the State (Elliott 1885:25).
It was in 1884 that Windsor A. Keefer attempted to gain control of the Union Water Company, purchasing stock and forming the Union Water, Lumber, Mill & Mining Company to act in conjunction. Keefer, the owner of the Jupiter Deep Blue Gravel mine near Dogtown (Figure 12), was a successful entrepreneur with a penchant for obtaining money from rich widows. Unable to procure enough water from either the earlier ditch systems or from San Domingo Creek, Keefer began construction of a system of ditches to supply the vast hydraulic monitors at his mine. As a director of the Union company, he was able to have the older Torrey and Union systems improved, as well as constructing new ditches and connections, to supply not only his mines, but others on the Central Hill Channel (Bishop 1983:28-34).
The machinations of Keefer’s many mining and water companies, including the Jupiter Deep Blue Gravel Mining Company (JDBGMC), incorporated in 1879; the Jupiter Gravel Mining and Water Company (JGMWC), incorporated in May of 1888 to supply water to Murphys, Douglas Flat, Vallecito, Carson Hill, Angels Camp, Altaville, and the Jack Rabbit and Monarch Mines on Dogtown Road, as well as the JDBGMC (Book of Leases and Agreements C:254); and the San Domingo Gold Mining Company under the direction of A. Beach Thompson in 1897 (Deed Book 35:154), are the source of legends. By this time the Jupiter Company was operating the Bully Boy, Hammerschmidt,
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Figure 12. Jupiter Deep Blue hydraulic mine, near Dogtown (photo courtesy of the Calaveras County Historical Society).
Garibaldi, Lundt and Drallmeyer, Jack Rabbit, Monarch, and other placer mines in the Dogtown District.
Sometime in the late 1890s A. Beach Thompson, president of the Sierra and San Francisco Power Company, who built the Camp Nine Powerhouse, took control of the Jupiter/San Domingo Company. Lacking sufficient water to power the hydraulic nozzles on a regular basis, he filed for the abandoned water rights of the old Union Water Company, as well as others, intending to construct a ditch from the Stanislaus River, through a tunnel in Table Mountain, another into Six Mile Creek, and eventually reach the Jupiter country. The tunnels were completed, and a few miles of ditch, but the project was abandoned after the disappearance of Windsor Keefer, leaving the stockholders holding the bag. Keefer turned up in Paris a few years later.
The history of the ditches and water rights claimed by Keefer would form the basis for a major thesis, and it is impossible to ascertain the exact location of all of the earlier ditch systems, Keefer’s, and the later Beach Thompson’s, ditches, water rights, mining claims, etc. Keefer, like the Union Company, purchased abandoned ditches, took over some operating ditches, constructed new ditches, and connected and rerouted others. The Jupiter Ditch depicted on current maps (USGS 1962), is but one of many ditches which originally provided water to the Jupiter and other mines in the Dogtown District. The ditches have also been known by various names over their long histories, including San Domingo Ditch and the present Dogtown Ditch, also confusing their identities.
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Jupiter Ditch (CA-CAL-1372H)
Keefer’s Jupiter Ditch (Dogtown, San Domingo Ditch) had its origins in the Carley and Hammerschmidt Ditch (Jackrabbit Ditch), which took water from the Union Ditch about two miles below French Gulch on the Hawkeye Road (probably near present Ross Reservoir) and conveyed it to the Carley and Hammerschmidt gravel claims (Bully, Garabaldi, Buckeye, etc) near the Jupiter mine. The ditch was assessed as early as 1860, and undoubtedly served miners along its route. Six miles long, it continued to be assessed to Hammerschmidt, with a reservoir, as late as the 1880s. In June of 1881 Windsor Keefer filed a water right to 3000 miner’s inches of water from French Gulch Creek near the Ross House “on the right bank of the creek, going up,” which included the “old abandoned Hammerschmidt Ditch.” The ditch was to be 5 feet wide on the bottom, the sides on a natural slope, and 30 to 36 inches deep (Mining Claim Book G:282). Sometime in the late 1880s, however, one-half of the ditch was assessed to the Jack Rabbit mine, and continued to be assessed to the mine at least through the 1910s (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls, various).
In March of 1880 Keefer had filed a water right to “3000 miner’s inches to the waters of Angels Creek, about ½ to ¾ mile above where the McElroy Ditch crossed the McNeese’s Toll Road (Murphys Grade Road), down the ridge above the McElroy Ditch, to the Jupiter # 1 Ditch near the tunnel through Bald Hill” (Mining Claim Book F:493). Four years later Keefer purchased a right-of-way for a ditch commencing at the Hammerschmidt waste gate, north along the Monarch mine on Dogtown Road (Deed Book 21:38). This appears to be the Jupiter/Dogtown Ditch that is visible along Dogtown Road that carried water northerly to the Jupiter mine and to irrigation users today.
It was in the mid-1880s that Keefer began taking over the Union Water Company. In March of 1884, he filed the Articles of Incorporation of the Union Water, Lumber, Mill, and Mining Company. Stock in the amount of $15,000,000.00, 150,000 shares of $100 each, was issued, with Keefer the major stockholder with over $140,000,000.00 in stock. On March 25 he sold his water rights to San Domingo Creek to the Union Company
In 1885 the Union Water Company filed a water right to 3000 feet of the “old French Gulch Ditch,” constructed in 1855, to intersect with the main Union Ditch from the Stanislaus River, to clean out and enlarge the ditch. This ditch was noted as taking water from the upper side of French Gulch, about one-half mile from the community of that name, and meandering west, south, and easterly to French Gulch to be picked up in the ditches leading to the Jupiter mine, thence westerly meandering north, then easterly to the Fair Play Mill Pipe where it intersected the Fair Play Ditch from San Domingo Creek, thence 400 feet easterly to the Oro Y Plata mine (North Ditch) ditch above Murphys. From there it intersected Long Gulch and coursed down the gulch to San Domingo Creek. From there it was picked up on the Gardella Ranch (Macaroni Flat, SE ¼ of SE ¼ of Section 36 T4N, R13E) and carried through an 18-mile long ditch (dropping 10 feet to the mile) to connect to the earlier ditch to the Jupiter Mine. This appears to be the ditch depicted on the Mother Lode Folio, surveyed in 1898 (Figure 13; USGS 1900). The
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Figure 13. Portion of the USGS Mother Lode folio (1900), showing the extensive Jupiter Ditch system.
location of the “14-mile ditch to a point in French Gulch” may be the same ditch (Deed Book 35:154).
In June of 1888 Keefer began taking water from the Union system for his Jupiter Ditch from the north side of San Domingo Creek in San Joaquin Gulch, noting that it was for 3000 miner’s inches of water from a diversion “on the right bank going up where the

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Jupiter Ditch crosses the gulch” (Mining Claim Book C:429). Sometime during this period he also built a ditch from the Union system at Wylie/Barn/Tryon Siphon to connect with the Jupiter Ditch from San Domingo Creek and then into the Jupiter Dogtown Ditch (USGS 1900).
Requiring even more water, in 1895 Keefer began purchasing land for his dam and reservoir on San Domingo Creek in French Gulch (Keefer/Kiefer Reservoir, Section 15, T3N, R13E) and a right-of-way for a ditch and pipe to provide water to the Jupiter mine to augment the waters of the earlier Union systems. This ditch was to be 6 feet wide on the bottom, with sides of natural slope, and 30 to 36 inches deep (Deed Book 27:83; 32:1, 304). Due to his influence, Keefer Dam was completed by the water company in 1896, but, as there was not enough water for the mine, the ditch was augmented with water from the ditch from San Domingo Creek (USGS 1900, Voitich 1987). This ditch provided water from a point in French Gulch “above the Union Company lower ditch, about 800 or 1000 feet below the reservoir site,” noted as Jupiter’s Lower Branch Ditch” (Deed Book 31:644).
The point of diversion (Section 3, T3N, R13E) for another water right to San Domingo Creek was filed in 1897 and was described as located about 1½ miles below where Sheep Ranch Road crossed San Domingo Creek, about 2½ or 3 miles below Quartz Gulch/Creek (south side of present Stevenot Vineyard). The ditch was thence to “mingle with the water from French Gulch Creek and by ditch and pipe to the Jupiter Mine.” The ditch was described as being 12 feet wide and 5 feet deep (Water Right Book A:52). It is unknown if it was ever constructed.
Keefer also purchased land for ditches, dams, and debris dams on the Maloney and Snow ranches at Hawkeye (Tone Airola and Warner ranches on Highway 49), using the “old Union Diversion.” The augmented Jupiter Ditch also fed the Malespina reservoirs on their ranch west of Dogtown Road, as well as others. Known alternately as the Jupiter or Dogtown Ditch in later years, this system became part of the Utica system and had various branches which crossed and re-crossed Dogtown Road, providing water not only to the miners, but to the ranchers along its route (Lagomarsino 1987).
It is unknown how Keefer lost control of the Union Water Company, but it had reverted to the Union Company before August 1884, when the aging Ephraim Cutting sold the Union Water Company for $26,250.00 to George W. Grayson and Archibald Borland, San Francisco financiers, who had acquired controlling interest in the Melones Consolidated Mining Company in 1883 (Deed Book 43:589). Hard rock mining had come to preeminence, and as owners of the Melones Mine, Grayson and Borland saw great potential for using the waters of the Stanislaus River in their mining and milling operations. In 1888, however, they inexplicably sold water, including water rights in dry years, to the powerful and rich Utica Gold Mining Company (Utica Company), located in Angels Camp (Leases and Agreements Book C:254). Two years later the stock of the Union Water Company was purchased by the Utica Mining Company, acquiring the water rights as well as the physical properties of the company. The system was forever modified to serve the needs of its owners rather than its consumers (PG&E n.d.).
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Utica Gold Mining Company
The Utica Mine (Figure 14) was first worked in the 1850s, but was consolidated with other Angels Camp mines by Walter S. Hobart, Alvinza Hayward, and Charles Lane in the early 1880s. The Utica Company became by far the most powerful entity in Calaveras County, with its extensive holding of other mining operations (the Madison, Gold Cliff, Stickles, and others), its purchase of the Union Water Company, which supplied most of Calaveras County with water and early electricity, and with its ore reserves.
It was during Utica ownership that most of the major expansion of, and improvements to, the flumes, ditches, and reservoirs were made (Figure 15). Two major reservoirs still in the Utica system (FERC 2019), Silver Valley (Alpine) and Utica, were added during this time and early experimentation in hydroelectric power generation was begun.
System Changes
The Utica Company, requiring ever more water, dammed the waters of Silver Creek to create Silver Valley Reservoir in 1889-1892 (Figure 16). The area had been named Silver Lake Valley at least as early as 1850, when a local newspaper account reported on the frosty Sierran conditions that summer (San Andreas Independent, September 17, 1850). The name was reportedly derived from the discovery of a silver lode somewhere in the valley, but many of the supposed silver strikes in the vicinity turned out to be nothing but plumbago (Wood 1968:46).
Just east of the ruins of the Osborn Hotel there, the Utica Company constructed the “Stone House.” Built as a supply cabin for use during construction of the dam, the building still stands on the west end of Lake Alpine. Granitic blocks, blasted and shaped, were used to form the cabin walls; iron shutters are found both on doors and windows (Figure 17). A large granitic stone chimney facing the cabin is located about three feet south and apparently served a log or frame portion of the structure. A log barn was located up the hill behind the Stone House and appears to have dated from the Utica period, although some accounts mention that it was built by Osborn (Bishop n.d.).
The Utica Gold Mining Company, still capitalizing on the name Union Water Company at times, continued improving their investments by enlarging Union Reservoir in 1901-1902 and raising the Silver Valley (Alpine) Dam in 1903-1906 (Hobart Estate Company et al. 1933:1). They also constructed a new dam, the Utica, in 1905, enlarging it in 1908-1910. Cement used to build Utica Dam was shipped by railroad to Angels Camp, then hauled by four- and six-horse teams to the Stone House at Silver Valley for storage. The old road (Slick Rock Road) that runs by the Stone House was used to haul supplies into the Utica work site (Bishop 1980, Joe Land, personal communication 1965), and continued to be PG&E’s maintenance access road until the North Fork Project (FERC 2409) improved 7N01 a few years ago.
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Figure 14. Shaft of the Utica Gold Mining Company, Angels Camp, (photo courtesy of Wally Motloch).

Figure 15. “Three-Quarter Mile Flume” of the Utica Gold Mining Company, pictured in the early 1900s (photo courtesy of the Calaveras County Historical Society).

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Figure 16. Water flows over Alpine Dam, constructed in 1889 (photo courtesy of Murphys Old Timers Museum).

Figure 17. The Utica Company’s “Stone House,” built in 1889 as a supply cabin for construction of the dam at Alpine Lake (photo courtesy of the Huberty family).

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Angels Forebay, Pipe Reservoir Complex, Angels Diversion Dam (CA-CAL-1277H)
Earlier and closer to the mines, other dams were constructed at lower elevations to form new reservoirs: Ross Reservoir on the Ross Ranch (French Gulch Road ) in 1893-1896 (Figure 18); Pipe Reservoir, Angels Forebay, and Angels Diversion Dam in 1894-1895; and Lane Reservoir above Altaville in 1894-1895 (Hobart Estate Company et al. 1933:4). In 1893 the company purchased the Updegraft Ditch, which ran from Murphys to Douglas Flat, with a branch continuing through a tunnel to the Garland Ranch (Ironstone Vineyards) on Six Mile Road. This branch became a section of the South Ditch until it was replaced by a pipeline.

Figure 18. Ross Reservoir, constructed at the Ross Ranch on French Gulch Road 1893-1896 (photo courtesy of the author).

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Hydroelectric Power Plants
Besides providing water to the Utica Gold Mining Company, the water of the Utica neẻ Union Canal powered a hydro plant to supply the mine with the first electricity produced in Calaveras County. By the mid-1890s the Utica Mine, under the ownership of Lane, Hayward, and Hobart, had become one of the most successful mines in the United States. In order to become fully industrialized, however, they needed electric power, and the promoters saw a way to obtain that with their vast ditch and flume system.
A powerhouse, built as an experiment on Angels Creek in Angels Camp, delivered the first electricity to the Utica Mine (The Journal of Electricity 1896; Gurney 1900). That same year, another powerhouse was built above Murphys, supplying the mines, mills, and residences of Angels Camp and Calaveras County with their first electricity. This powerhouse was the fourth to be built in California and the eighth west of the Rocky Mountains. This was apparently the Union Powerhouse, identified today by a stone foundation in Angels Creek.
At least two other powerhouses were built by the end of the 19th century, one near the 1895 powerhouse on Angels Creek (or perhaps just a modification of that facility) and the stone Utica Powerhouse (Figure 19), built above Murphys in 1899, its generator powered by water delivered through a penstock from Tank Reservoir on the hill above Angels Creek. A second generator was installed in 1902, providing power to Murphys, and in 1903, to the Royal Mine at Hodson near Copperopolis (Stockton Record, February 28, 1954; Deed Book 7:254). In 1908 Pelton wheels, generators, exiters, marble switchboards, and other improvements were installed. The Angels Powerhouse was upgraded again in 1903 by the Utica Company’s subsidiary, the Stanislaus Electric Power Company.
The Closing Days
The Union Water Company was dissolved May 3, 1904, 50 years from its date of incorporation. At this time the Hobart Estate Company owned one-third of the capital stock and the Utica Gold Mining Company owned two-thirds (Deed Book 47:264). The flumes, but not ditches, were enlarged to their present capacity of 88 cubic feet per second (cfs) in 1912-1913, after the Union Water Company was sold by its trustees to the Hobart Estate Company and the Utica Gold Mining Company for “$10 and valuable considerations” (Deed Book 59:426). Many of the mines in Angels Camp closed during World War I, and the Utica Mine was shut down forever in 1915; only the Gold Cliff ever reopened (Figure 20; Leonard 1968:2-4). The Utica Company, however, continued making improvements to their water system, and installed a hydroelectric power plant in Angels at the site of the old water compressor plant; the plant then paralleled with the Murphys Plant and power was sold in the communities for domestic, industrial, and mining purposes, together with whole power sold to PG&E. In 1918 the private Calaveras County Water Company Users Association (CCWCUA) was organized and served Murphys, Douglas Flat, Vallecito, and Six Mile Village with water from the Utica system.
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Figure 19. Utica Powerhouse, ca. 1901 (photo courtesy of the Calaveras County Historical Society).
In 1923, the Utica Company also constructed a concrete dam at the Utica Intake Diversion (Angels Diversion) to replace the seasonal rock and cement bag dams (Jack Voitich, personal communication 1991), as well as building Spicer Meadow Reservoir on Highland Creek in 1927-1928, and a new Hunter Dam on Mill Creek in 1927 (Figure 21). Spicer Meadow Reservoir, originally meant to contain 9000 acre-feet of water, had an option to build a 62,000 acre-foot reservoir. This latter option was completed in 1990 as part of the North Fork Project (FERC 2409).
By 1931 the North, South, and Gold Cliff ditches were no longer maintained by the company, and with few mine consumers for their water, the Utica Mining Company began negotiating agreements with various water users’ associations for delivery of water for agricultural and domestic purposes. During the 1930s they signed agreements with the Angels Ditch Water Users Association, the Calaveras Water Users Association, and the Bret Harte Sanitarium in Murphys, signaling a shift from the importance of mining to that of agricultural and residential use (Figure 22; Utica Mining Company 1929).
When the water rights from the Stanislaus River via Angels Creek were finally adjudicated in 1929, water from Angels Creek through the Eureka/Andrew Lee Ditch, Richards Ditch, Massoni Brothers Ditch, Gibson/Rolleri Ranch Ditch, and the Taylor/Bacigalupi Ditch was granted to the ranchers at their termination points
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Figure 20. The shaft of the Gold Cliff Mine, west of Angels Camp (photo courtesy of the Calaveras County Historical Society).

Figure 21. A view of Hunter Dam before its 1927 expansion (photo courtesy of the Calaveras County Archives).

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(Miscellaneous Book F:491). At the height of the Depression in the 1930s, the Utica cut off the water supply to the North and South ditches. The domestic water users in Murphys and Angels Camp filed a lawsuit, which was won by the Utica Company. PG&E, however, honored the old claims, and several of the Union/Utica systems, including the Jupiter/Dogtown Ditch, McElroy/Union Ditch, Torrey/Utica Ditch, Gold Cliff Ditch, the South Ditch, and others continued in operation through the 1940s and 1950s (Jack Voitich, Bob Schmauder, Loren Whittle, Raulin Lagomarsino, personal communications var.), when segments were abandoned or washed out.
In 1940 the Utica Gold Mining Company’s power and water properties were segregated from its mining properties and operations of the former were continued under the name of the Utica Power Company, a joint venture of the Hobart Estate Company and Emma Rose. The Utica Company served the mines at Melones and Sheep Ranch and the communities of Murphys and Angels Camp, commissioning the new Angels Powerhouse in 1940 during the height of that era’s hard rock mining boom. At that time the four redwood penstocks from the Forebay were replaced by a steel pipe. When the last of the mines closed in 1942, the company lost their major customers and began negotiating with PG&E (Oliver Garcia, personal communication 1991). In 1946 the entire system was purchased by PG&E for $250,000, thus ending almost a century of use by, or expressly for, mining interests (Figure 23; PGE 1947). The first job of the new owner was to sell the mules and build roads along the ditches for maintenance.
In 1952-1954, a new semi-outdoor hydro power generating facility and penstock from Tank Reservoir were installed in Murphys, downstream from the 1890s powerhouses on Angels Creek, and the old fountainheads and ditches were realigned. The old Utica Powerhouse was sold and sat abandoned and vandalized until 2004, when it was restored as a private residence. The publicly owned Union Public Utility District (UPUD) was organized in 1961, assuming all the assets and liabilities of the CCWCUA. It continues to provide water to the Murphys area.
In the mid-1990s, PG&E began divesting itself of many of its rural and mountain water and power systems. In response to this decision, the Calaveras County Water District (CCWD), Union Public Utility District (UPUD), and the City of Angels (COA) formed the Utica Power Authority (UPA), under a joint powers agreement. In 1996, PG&E transferred its holdings to CCWD, who transferred to UPA in 1997. FERC issued Licenses 2019 and 2699 to UPA in 2003, and CCWD exited the UPA in 2004.
Today, the South Ditch is the major user of agricultural water in the system, which is conveyed to Red Hill Road, Albany Flat, and Carson Hill through a pipeline. The Jupiter/Dogtown Ditch, an open system piped at places, is also active, carrying water along Dogtown Road to the Malespina, Sorocco/Lagomarsino, and Hawkeye ranches and other properties along its route from May to November. The Angels Canal (Union/Utica Ditch), with water carried through a series of ditches and flumes, is the sole provider of water for agricultural and domestic purposes to Angels Camp and Murphys, operated through an agreement with the UPA, a joint powers agency made up of the City of Angels and the Union Public Utility District. Power from its powerhouses is sold on the California grid.
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4. DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION OF HISTORICAL
RESOURCES
Water Conveyance Systems
Like roads and trails, water systems, as linear sites, are researched in their entirety to provide a historic context for evaluation. Also, like roads, they are often encountered in segments and are therefore incrementally assessed for integrity. Significance assessments relate water systems with the larger historic context of water development in the western United States, one of the most important influences on this region’s economic development, politics, and settlement patterns.
Caltrans’ publication, Water Conveyance Systems in California: Historic Context Development and Evaluation Procedures (JRP Historical Consulting Services [JRP] and Caltrans 2000), offers a cohesive method for evaluating these resources. Major themes and examples of sub themes are:
• Irrigation: Native American, Spanish and Mexican Period, American Period
• Mining: Gold Rush, hydraulic, quartz, dredge, recent small-scale placer mining
• Hydroelectric: Pioneering developments to 1910, watershed development 1905-presernt,
public development
• Community Reclamation, Major Multi-Purpose: Central Valley Project, State Water
Project
A survey of 22 California water systems determined eligible for the National Register revealed that most were important under Criterion A, and secondly under Criterion C: their association with important events and engineering values (JRP and Caltrans 2000:92). While association with important persons (Criterion B) and information potential (Criterion D) were also represented, they were rare.
Evaluation and interpretation of ditches must include not only their physical identification on the ground (where extant), but the source, route, destination, and use of the water. The historic development of the water system, political motives, financing arrangements, and eventual abandonment all contribute toward understanding the importance of the facility.
In California, ditches range from small stream diversions for ranches and farms, to abandoned mining enterprises, to enormous governmental undertakings. The complex of ditches, canals, tunnels, and weirs that organize the Santa Ana River waters near edlands were determined eligible for National Register listing as part of two district nominations. One included more than 15 irrigation canals and another added power-generation systems to an existing nomination for the powerhouses (Hornbeck and Botts 1988). In 1992, Caltrans recorded the 340-mile long Los Angeles Aqueduct as sites CA-INY-459H, CA-MNO-2753H, and CA-LAN-2105H (trinomials change with county) (Costello and Marvin 1992). Although only a few miles and the features of the systems evaluated for that report were inspected as part of the project, the entire systems were recorded and
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evaluated as eligible for the NRHP under Criteria A and C at the state, and likely the national, level of significance.
Water conveyance features are many in the California gold country, but perhaps none are more intact than those constructed for mining purposes in Calaveras and adjacent Tuolumne County. These features of earth-bermed ditches, take outs, flumes, drainage crossovers, spill gates, cross gates, sandtraps, reservoirs, holding ponds and more are remarkable dendritic remnants of the early development of these foothill counties. Detailed thematic and evaluative reports have been conducted on the ditches in the project area as reported in Davis-King (2006a, 2006b, and 2007), and the ditches have been evaluated for the National Register of Historic Places, as described below.
Since the initial study for the Angels Hydroelectric Project was completed (Davis-King, et al. 1992, 1993), however, intensive studies conducted for the Caltrans Angels Bypass Project, private development projects, and this study, have uncovered additional information, requiring that the names and histories of the ditches and their components be revised. Also, the ditches had different names at different period in time, or for different uses or destinations, further confusing the issue. Since the 1850s, the systems have been reused, connected, enlarged and improved, altered, and abandoned, first by the Union Water Company in the 1850s-1880s, then the Utica Mining Company (1880s-1940s), and thereafter by PG&E. Therefore, the following histories and descriptions have been compiled from the available archival resources and spot checks of individual segments; only the Angels Canal system has been surveyed in its entirety (Figure 24).
The systems and their features are described and evaluated below:
1. CA-CAL-1277H: Upper and Lower Angels Canal, Angels Forebay (Pipe Reservoir Complex), and Angels Diversion Dam
The diversion dam, canals, and reservoirs, components of the Angels Project hydroelectric system, used major portions of other, earlier ditch systems. The Angels Diversion Dam and canals apparently follow the route of the early 1850s Torrey Ditch, a mining and agricultural system constructed by Mark and Charles Torrey and Co. to bring 300 miner’s inches of water from Angels Creek about one and one-half miles below Murphys to the mines in Altaville and along its route, as well as to their ranch in Torrey Gulch.
Unhappy with the presumptive taking of water above its diversion from Angels Creek, the Union Water Company filed a lawsuit, which it evidently lost but then purchased the ditch in 1855. It remains unknown when the Torrey system became the primary system of the Union/Utica system, but certainly by the early 1890s when the Utica Mining Company was improving and enlarging the system and constructing reservoirs, and possibly as early as the 1870s when the Union Company was improving its system. By 1895 it was known as the Utica Ditch, and in 1929 as the Angels Ditch (Utica Mining Company 1929).
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Description
The Upper Angels Canal (CA-CAL-1277H) followed basically the same contours as the early 1850s Torrey Ditch (CA-CAL-1375H). From its diversion on Angels Creek the ditch (Upper Angels Canal) coursed southwesterly along the hillside northwest of the present Murphys Grade Road to the location of the present Ross Reservoir, where it collected another 300 miner’s inches of water from French Gulch Creek, then coursed along the route of the present Lower Angels Canal (Utica Ditch) until arriving at Johnson Reservoir (Pipe Reservoir, constructed in 1895). Johnson Reservoir, named for the Johnson family who owned the land, was abandoned in the 1860s, as it was built primarily to serve the placer mines (Voitich, personal communication 1987).
From that point the ditch branched in two directions, one northwest down Torrey Gulch to the Torrey and DeMartini ranches and then into lower French Gulch along a natural drainage (CA-CAL-1375H) and eventually to the Jackrabbit Mine. The segment of the ditch to the Torrey Ranch continued in use until it was washed out in the 1950s, but is still used as a spillway and for irrigation (Loren Whittle, personal communication 2008). The other branch coursed southwesterly down and around the hillsides to parallel lower Dogtown Road and cross Main Street in Altaville to provide water to the Champion, Prince, and other mines west of town (GLO 1871). This ditch was extended and greatly enlarged in the 1880s and 1890s to serve the placer mining and hydraulicking areas on the Central Hill Channel.
The canals have been subjected to modification and improvements over the years, including reinforcement with Gunite in most sections and benching in others. Siphons have replaced flumes. While materials have been replaced, and in some cases altered completely, the canal for the most part retains integrity of location, setting, association, feeling, design, and, to a certain extent, workmanship.
Angels Diversion Dam
A 5-foot 6-inch high, 64-foot long Gunite-coated rock dam diverts up to 45 cfs from Angels Creek into the upper end of the Angels ditch. A minimum flow of 0.5 cfs is released through a valve in the body of the dam for maintenance of fish habitat. Any excess flow spills over the crest of the dam, whose elevation is 1980 feet. The stone core of the dam was built in 1894-1895 by the Utica Mining Company and rebuilt in 1923. It was coated with Gunite in 1971, and appears to be near the original diversion dam for the Torrey Ditch.
Upper Angels Canal
The Upper Angels Canal flows from the diversion dam to the head of Ross Reservoir through 2.51 miles of canal, interspersed with four sections of timber flume and two concrete bench flumes. Because the Angels system carries only 45 cfs (compared to 88 cfs in the Utica Canal), channel sections are considerably smaller than those in the Utica system. Typical canal sections are 5-6 feet wide at the bottom, 8 feet wide at the top, 4
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feet deep, and are designed to carry water at a depth of 2 feet. The troughs of timber flumes are 4 feet 9 inches wide on the inside and 3 feet 4 inches high.
Immediately above Ross Reservoir, the Upper Angels Canal passes from the Stanislaus watershed into the Calaveras watershed. Some overflow from Ross Reservoir passes into French Gulch and the Calaveras Watershed (formerly to Keefer Reservoir), but most of the water is released into the Lower Angels Canal, and much of that passes through the Angels hydroelectric plant before returning to Angels Creek (in the Stanislaus watershed). Some water is released at Pipe Reservoir into the Jupiter/Dogtown Ditch, and some into Torrey Reservoir and French Gulch. An additional quantity of water is diverted from Pipe Reservoir into the City of Angels domestic water supply system (non-Project). The Upper Angels Canal appears to overlay or utilize the route of the 1853 Torrey Ditch (CA-CAL-1375H).
Lower Angels Canal
From Ross Reservoir, the Lower Angels Canal carries water 3.3 miles to Pipe Reservoir, the Angels Powerhouse forebay. In addition to earthen ditch, the conduit includes one flume and four inverted siphons. The siphons consist of either a single 48-inch diameter steel pipe or two parallel 28-inch steel pipes. Each has a concrete header box fitted with a grizzly and stoplog slots. They are named (in upstream-downstream order): Siphon 1 (replacing Horseshoe Flume); Emerald or Wallace Siphon; Wylie or Barn/Tryon Siphon; and Johnson or Forebay Siphon. The siphons all replace earlier timber flumes that bridged low spots. Emerald, Wylie, and Johnson siphons were installed by the Utica Power Company about 1930 (PG&E 1946c); Horseshoe Flume was replaced by Siphon 1 in 1971 (PG&E GM 467743). The present spillway at Wylie Siphon was originally constructed in the 1890s to connect the Union system with the Jupiter Ditch from San Domingo Creek through French Gulch to the Jupiter Ditch below Pipe Reservoir (Cort Martz, personal communication 2009; USGS 1900).
Pipe Reservoir (Angels Forebay)
Johnson Siphon, at the lower end of the Lower Angels Canal, empties into the northeast side of a forebay called Pipe or Johnson Reservoir. Pipe Reservoir is unusual in that it is located on top of a hill, with a maximum water surface elevation of 1837.7 feet. The forebay measures approximately 230 by 130 feet and 37 feet deep, covering 0.3 acre and giving a usable storage capacity of 2 acre-feet. Johnson Reservoir was built in the 1850s for placer mining purposes and modified in 1894-1895 using the spoils to form a 12-foot-high earth berm with a crest length of 570 feet (PG&E 1946c). The banks were unsupported earth until PG&E coated them with Gunite in 1966 (PG&E Maintenance Records). Pipe Reservoir was dredged to its original depth in 1979 and a concrete bottom was installed the following year (PG&E Maintenance Records). A concrete intake structure, fitted with a grizzly and a 48-inch sliding gate valve, releases water to the Angels Penstock, which replaced the four redwood pipes in 1940. A concrete spillway box at the northwest end of the pond releases water to the Jupiter/Dogtown Ditch (CA-CAL-1375H), while a metal pipe releases water into Torrey Gulch (CA-CAL-1372H).
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The Angels Canal also supplies domestic water to the City of Angels. From the 1890s through the 1950s, the community tapped into the lower end of penstocks next to the Angels Powerhouse. In 1953, PG&E built a water treatment plant and holding pond on top of the hill, next to Pipe Reservoir. PG&E operated the treatment plant and maintained the water mains until the system was transferred to the City of Angels in 1983. The circular concrete clear well was drained and replaced by a covered metal tank in 2005.
Evaluation
As a major contributor to the theme of water development in Calaveras County, as the principal surviving example of the Union Water Company and Utica Mining Company system, and as the “mother” of the distribution system, which contains technological information, the diversion dam, upper and lower canals, and Pipe Reservoir complex appear eligible for listing on the NRHP under Criteria A, C, and D, at the local, and possibly statewide, level of significance.
2. CA-CAL-1369H: McElroy/Union Ditch
The McElroy Ditch was constructed by James McElroy prior to 1872 and took water from Angels Creek 1½ miles below Murphys, conveying it to the McElroy Mine on Bald Hill near Altaville at an elevation of 1650 feet. Depicted on early 1870s maps, it provided water to McElroy’s Bald Hill Gravel Mine and its shafts (Beauvais 1872; GLO 1871), and to the McElroy Reservoir in the saddle north of the Calaveras Central Mine. Incorporated in 1872 and patented in 1876, in 1875 the mine was assessed for the ditch, which was sold to the Union Company on February 3, 1879 for $5 (Deed Book 4:483). After its purchase by the Union Company, the McElroy Ditch became known as the Union Ditch and was used as an ancillary ditch. It was depicted as active in the 1920s (Utica Mining Company 1929), but has been abandoned for many years.
Description
Upon reaching a reservoir in the saddle between Johnson (Pipe) Reservoir and Bald Hill, the ditch continued souhwesterly around the south side of Bald Hill, through the “Chinaman’s Tunnel” on the Banchero property on the Murphys Grade Road, then northerly around Bald Hill to the Matteson and McElroy mines and, later, the Calaveras Central Mine. After it was acquired by the Utica Company, the ditch was continued northerly to Lane’s Reservoir. Viewed as the lower ditch on the hillside northwest of the Murphys Grade Road, the ditch measures about 4 feet wide at the bottom, 3 to 5 feet deep, and 8 feet berm to berm, sloughed in. The Angels Penstock and the Project access road to Pipe Reservoir cross over the McElroy/Union Ditch and portions are within 20 feet of the Angels Canal. The canal has suffered from siltation, erosion, breaching, disuse, and lack of maintenance, and has been washed away in portions by pressure-releases from the Angels Canal siphons. The section around the west and north sides of Bald Hill was recently obliterated by the construction of the Angels Bypass.
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Evaluation
The McElroy Ditch has been associated with the Union/Utica system since the late 1870s and was previously determined eligible for listing on the NRHP, at the state level of significance, as part of the Angels Bypass investigations as a contributor to a potential Union/Utica National Register District (Supernowicz 2008). Under Criterion A, the ditch is associated with the McElroy Mine, one of the early gravel mines on Bald Hill and the shaft in which the Calaveras Skull was “discovered.” Since 1879 it was associated with the Union Water Company, which had brought water to Murphys Flat, Altaville, and Angels Camp in the early years of the Gold Rush, and continued to be used by the Utica Mining Company, the largest and most important entity in Calaveras County, after it acquired the Union system in the late 1880s. Under Criterion C, although dry, the ditch retains its integrity along at least 85% of its length, and embodies the distinctive characteristics of its type, period, and method of construction.
3. CA-CAL-1372H: Jupiter Ditch
The Jupiter Ditch took water from the Union Water Company Ditch about two miles below French Gulch, probably near present Ross Reservoir, and conveyed it along the hillsides below the present Utica Ditch (Lower Angels Canal) to Johnson Reservoir and northwesterly to the Jupiter/San Domingo Mine and others along its route, as well as to Hawkeye and other ranches on Highway 49. The Jupiter Ditch followed segments of the original route of the Carley and Hammerschmidt Ditch, assessed as early as 1860, which conveyed water to these gravel claims on Dogtown Road south of the Jupiter Mine. In the early 1880s the abandoned Hammerschmidt Ditch was improved, enlarged, and extended by Windsor A. Keefer to provide water to his hydraulic mining operations at the Jupiter Mine near Dogtown.
Description
Water for the irrigation ditch is released from Pipe Reservoir through a concrete spillway box to an earthen ditch about 4 feet wide at the bottom and 2-5 feet deep. The ditch is presently connected from Pipe Reservoir through a segment of the mid-1890s Gold Cliff Ditch (CA-CAL-1374H). The ditch courses southwesterly around the hillside to connect with the northwesterly flowing Jupiter/Dogtown Ditch along the east and then west sides of Dogtown Road to serve the ranches and reservoirs along its route (Utica Mining Company 1929). The original connection from Johnson Reservoir carried the water around the hill to the southwest, but was rerouted after the construction of Lane Reservoir to head more directly down the hillside. The upper section of the Jupiter Ditch, between Ross and Pipe reservoirs, is located about 25 feet below the Lower Angels Canal and has been abandoned. It measures 5 feet wide at the bottom, 2 to 4 feet deep, and 10 feet berm to berm, sloughed in. Largely due to abandonment, the this section of the ditch has suffered from siltation, erosion, exposure, and has been altered in places by breaching, but overall the integrity of the ditch appears to be excellent.
NRHP Evaluations 48 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

The lower section of the Jupiter/Dogtown Ditch, which parallels Dogtown Road northerly, turns northwesterly near the Malespina Reservoir (SW ¼ Section 17, T3N, R13E) and continues on to the Snow/Warner Ranch and Maloney/Donovan/Airola Ranch at Hawkeye on Highway 49. The ditch is presently operated and maintained by the Dogtown Ditch Users Association, composed of seven agriculturalists, and in service from May to November (Lew Warner, personal communication 2009). The segment that continued northerly to the Jupiter and other mines has been abandoned for many years.
Evaluation
The Jupiter Ditch appears to be eligible for listing on the NRHP at the local level of significance under Criteria A and C, as a contributing property to a potential Union/Utica National Register District. Under Criterion A, the Jupiter Ditch has been associated with important placer mining activities in the Dogtown Mining District since at least 1860, and from 1884 through the early 1900s with Windsor A. Keefer and his Jupiter Mine, important events in the history of Calaveras County. Under Criterion C, the ditch retains its integrity along at least 95% of its length, and embodies the distinctive characteristics of its type, period, and method of construction. It is still in use seasonally, and conveys water in the same manner as when it was first constructed.
4. CA-CAL-1374H: Gold Cliff Ditch/Union Ditch
The ditch identified as the Gold Cliff Ditch in the 1992 study (Davis-King et al.) is historically a segment of the Union Ditch, which flowed westerly from Johnson Reservoir to a point ca. 1,400 feet north of the Murphys Grade Road and 150 feet east of Main Street (Block 2, Lot 5 of Altaville Townsite), where it branched in two directions (Beauvais 1873). One branch continued southerly along the east and then the west of Main Street to the mills in Angels Camp; the other branch, which became known as the Gold Cliff Ditch, turned westerly to Wooster Reservoir (behind present-day Angels Towne Center) to convey water first to the placer mines, and, later, the Gold Cliff and other hard rock mines west of Angels Camp (Union Water Company 1929). After the mines closed, the ditch was used for agricultural purposes on the Selkirk and McCauley ranches until the 1940s. As it was of no use to PG&E, the system was abandoned and the bed of its lower canal has been used to convey the pipeline for the Angels Wastewater system since the 1950s. Historically, the site (CA-CAL-1374H) began as a spill of Johnson Reservoir (Pipe) Reservoir; currently it begins as a spillway of Pipe Reservoir, passes through the forebay complex, crosses the PG&E access road, and then continues out of the APE to Lane Reservoir and the Jupiter/Dogtown Ditch (CA-CAL-1372H). It is depicted on historical maps of the area (Beauvais 1873; GLO 1871; USGS 1900, 1962).
Description
Within the APE, this segment of the original Gold Cliff Ditch consists of a spillgate, crossgate, and spillway, Gunite-lined channel, flow gauge, metal pipe from Pipe Reservoir, and the open earthen-bermed channel of the ditch, measuring about 4 feet wide, 2-5 feet deep. This portion of the system was evidently constructed in the mid-
NRHP Evaluations 49 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

1890s to convey water directly to Lane’s Reservoir, replacing the earlier Union distribution system into Angels Camp and Altaville. Since the abandonment of the Gold Cliff system, the ditch has been used to bring water directly down the hillside to the old Jupiter Ditch, now known as the Dogtown Ditch (CA-CAL-1372H), which carries water to various ranches from May to December (Cort Martz, personal communication 2009; Lew Warner, personal communication 2009).
Evaluation
The segment of the ditch located within the APE has been Gunited but is a small segment of a much larger system that has been determined eligible for listing on the NRHP at the state level as a result of investigations for the Angels Bypass Project (Supernowicz 2008). The Gold Cliff/Union Ditch is eligible under Criterion A, for its associations with early placer and hard rock mining activities in Angels Camp and Altaville, important events in history. Under Criterion C, most of its features have been obliterated by the construction of roads, and residential and commercial development below Lane’s Reservoir. The segment within the APE, however, appears to retain its integrity to its period of significance.
5. CA-CAL-1375H: Torrey/Montezuma/Jackrabbit Ditch
This branch of the Torrey Ditch, the upper sections of which have been subsumed within the Upper and Lower Angels canals (CA-CAL-1277H), conveyed water from the historical Johnson Reservoir northwesterly down Torrey Gulch to the Torrey and DeMartini ranches to eventually discharge into the Jupiter Ditch and lower French Gulch. This branch was used for mining and agricultural purposes on the Torrey and other ranches, as well as for the Jackrabbit mine, and presently as a discharge spillway from Pipe Reservoir to Torrey Reservoir in the PG&E years until the present (PG&E 1949).
Description
The ditch begins as a discharge from Pipe Reservoir into a Gunite-lined channel, then into an earthen-bermed ditch, and continues down Torrey Gulch outside the APE. The spillway trends northwest, crossing beneath the road via a culvert, and enters a steep-sided, partially Gunited gully. It continues to the base of the slope where the spillway makes a bend north, then extends approximately 250 feet to a point where the stream skirts an abandoned earth-berm section of the Torrey Ditch. The segment is approximately 100 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 4-6 feet deep. The spillway stream cuts through the west end of this segment of ditch and continues northwest down the natural drainage. Another segment of abandoned earthen ditch is located approximately 50 feet downstream on the east side of the drainage which, according to archival research, carried water to Torrey Gulch and Reservoir, approximately 0.6 mile northwest. Modifications to the original location of the ditch from Johnson Reservoir have undoubtedly occurred, and the initial portion within the Project has been sprayed with Gunite. Erosion from the spilling of the reservoir is occurring, necessitating repairs. The Project access road has breached a portion of the ditch/spillway.
NRHP Evaluations 50 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

The segment of the ditch that ran from Ross Reservoir to the bend at Emerald Siphon is visible as an abandoned ditch along the south side of French Gulch Road; the ditch was evidently later enlarged and extended in the 1880s and 1890s after Windsor A. Keefer gained control of the Union Water Company for his Jupiter Ditch system (Ernie Wallace, personal communication 1991; Cort Martz, personal communication 2009). At Emerald/Wallace Siphon, it has been obliterated by road construction, but is visible on the hillside in the Johnson/Tryon Ranch. Another early branch coursed southwesterly down Reservoir Gulch (present French Gulch Road) near the Emerald/Wallace Siphon to a reservoir, crossed the Murphys Grade Road, followed along its south side to a ravine in the Hockman/Sawyer Ranch and down to China Gulch to Angels Camp (San Andreas Independent, April 11, 1859). Another branch apparently ran along the north side of the Murphys Grade Road from Reservoir Gulch, crossing it above the Rolleri Bypass Road, and then continued along the hillside to Bald Hill (GLO 1871).
Although abandoned as a major part of the system after Ross Reservoir was constructed in the mid-1890s, it was used by Bill Emerald for irrigation purposes after that time (Bruce Child, personal communication 1991). The ditch is depicted on an early 1870s map of the area (GLO 1871) and described by the surveyor as “a cut for a water ditch” located 42 chains north of the line between sections 14 and 15, T3N, R14E (Beauvais 1871)
Evaluation
This segment of the Torrey Ditch appears to be eligible for listing on the NRHP under Criteria A and C, as a contributing property to a potential Union/Utica National Register District. Under Criterion A, the Torrey Ditch has been associated with important placer mining and ranching activities in Altaville/Angels Camp since the early 1850s, and from the 1880s with the Utica Mining Company, important events in the history of Calaveras County. Under Criterion C, overall integrity within the APE is fair, and outside of the APE appears to be excellent, embodying the distinctive characteristics of its type, period, and method of construction. It is still in use seasonally, and conveys water in the same manner as when it was first constructed.
6. CA-CAL-1377H: Mining Ditch
This is a segment of an abandoned earthen-berm ditch that begins within the Ross Reservoir complex, parallels the Angels Canal about 5-15 feet upslope, and has been obliterated near Horseshoe Siphon. The site has been impacted by erosion, by removal of the Horseshoe Flume and construction of the Horseshoe Siphon, by cattle grazing (trampling and leveling of the berm), by siltation, and by general exposure. It is a very old ditch which disappears above a southeasterly facing drainage that has been heavily placer mined. It appears to have taken water from French Gulch Creek, or one of the early ditch systems from Angels Creek.
NRHP Evaluations 51 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

Evaluation
Although this ditch is associated with early-day placer mining on French Gulch, it does not appear eligible for listing on the National Register. The ditch is a typical example of a common resource type found along all rivers, creeks, streams, and drainages in the Mother Lode region of California. Constructed initially for placer mining purposes, many were reused in the later period to provide irrigation water to fields and farms when the placers played out and the lands were used for agriculture. The ditch has been recorded and its information potential thereby preserved. It does not require additional study or preservation.
NRHP Evaluations 52 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

5. PROJECT IMPACTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Six previously recorded ditch and canal segments and their associated features were evaluated as a result of this study. Five of these resources have been evaluated as significant according to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) criteria: the Upper and Lower Angels Canal, Angels Forebay, and Angels Diversion Dam (CA-CAL-1277H), the McElroy Ditch (CA-CAL-1369H), Jupiter Ditch (CA-CAL-1372H), Gold Cliff Ditch (CA-CAL-1374H), and the Torrey Ditch (CA-CAL-1375H). Two of these, the McElroy and Gold Cliff ditches, were previously evaluated as eligible by Caltrans as a result of investigations for the Angels Bypass Project. CA-CAL-1377H, a mining ditch, has been evaluated as ineligible. Project impacts on these resources, and proposed mitigation measures, are presented below.
It is recognized that the Angels Canal (CA-CAL-1277H) is a working system and that preservation is better insured by continued repair and maintenance rather than by inhibition of change. Continuity of use is the key to the significance of this site and therefore ongoing use of the open canal, with maintenance, is considered essential for the site’s integrity. Use and maintenance shall follow the guidelines of the Historic Properties Management Plan for the Utica Project (FERC 2019), Calaveras County, California (Davis-King and Marvin 2008b) (HPMP).
It is also recognized that the majority of the McElroy Ditch (CA-CAL-1369H), Jupiter Ditch (CA-CAL-1372H), Gold Cliff Ditch (CA-CAL-1374H), and Torrey Ditch (CA-CAL-1375H) systems are located outside the APE for the Angels Hydroelectric Project, and that only those portions within its boundaries can be managed by the UPA. Those segments within the APE should be maintained as defined in the guidelines of the Historic Properties Management Plan, however.
As the history of the Union/Utica ditches is inextricably entwined with that of the Angels Canal system and the Angels Hydroelectric Project, the overview history of the Union/Utica system ditches presented in this report shall be submitted to the Calaveras Heritage Council to be presented on their website (www.calaverashistory.org) in order to provide the public with information about these resources. The documentation will include maps and detailed descriptions of the various ditches.
NRHP Evaluations 53 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

NRHP Evaluations 58 Angels Hydroelectric Project
Foothill Resources, Ltd. FERC Project No.2699

Location(s)