Red Dog (also known as Brooklyn or Brooklin) was a
California gold rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...
mining town located in the
Gold Country
The Gold Country (also known as Mother Lode Country) is a historic region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, that is primarily on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines ...
in south-central
Nevada County,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, United States, northeast of
Chicago Park. Red Dog Hill, a mine and campsite, was founded by three men all under the age of 22, and was named by their youngest, a 15-year-old prospector. As mining operations grew, the campsite became a settlement, and then a town with a population of 2,000 residents,
before it was eventually abandoned. Still considered important today, Red Dog Townsite is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
History
While prospecting in 1850, three young men, all aged 21 or younger, discovered gold on a hill on the east side of Greenhorn ridge. The two from Arkansas, Henry Jacob Stehr and the Irishman Joseph Chew (or Chow),
named the ravine after their home state of Arkansas. Charles ("Charlie") Wilson of Illinois, the youngest of the three at age 15, named the hill "Red Dog" after a
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
mine.
Mining campsites began to form in Red Dog as well as other places nearby such as
Chalk Bluff ( away),
Hunt's Hill,
Little York and
You Bet ( away).
Their existence was tied to ongoing mining operations. Red Dog Mining Company's Mine was situated at an elevation of
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
and expanded over . It used water powered through Old Chalk Bluff ditch from the head of Deer Creek.
Red Dog evolved from a campsite into a settlement by 1851. During the next four years, it became an active and progressive mining town,
replete with a
department store, hotel, restaurant, professional buildings, lodges, and homes.
Eventually, the miners of Chalk Bluff moved to Red Dog, and the town decided to rename itself "Brooklyn" (sometimes spelled "Brooklin"). When a post office was established in 1855, it was the post office's decision to stick with the name Red Dog, as
Brooklyn, California
Brooklyn is a former city in Alameda County, California, now annexed to Oakland, California.
Brooklyn first formed from the amalgamation in 1856 of two settlements, the sites of which are both now within the city limits of Oakland: San Antonio ...
already existed in
Alameda County.
Several times, the town was devastated by fire; each time, it was rebuilt. The fire of January 1859 resulted in an $8,600 loss. The fire of August 1862 destroyed most of the town's business district, resulting in a $50,000 loss.
An
Odd Fellows Lodge preceded the building of a
Masonic Lodge, which opened on the east side of Main Street in 1862.
In 1863, Main Street and Plumb Street had two general variety stores, a hardware and tin shop, a shoemaker's shop, butcher's shop,
blacksmith's shop, dressmaker's shop, two hotels, three
saloons, and stands for fruit and liquor.
Macy & Martin of Red Dog are credited with inventing a rifled nozzle for
hydraulic mining
Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.Paul W. Thrush, ''A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'', US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560. In the placer mining of ...
in 1863, an improvement subsequently used by all hydraulic nozzles.
Red Dog was on
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
's 1866 lecture tour that started and ended in
San Francisco, October 1 to December 10. Twain lectured in Red Dog on October 24, which marked the first time he was introduced as Mark Twain rather than Samuel Clemens. An old miner who introduced Twain in Red Dog said he only knew two things about him—that he'd never been in a penitentiary and that, "I can't imagine why." The lecture focused on Twain's travels to the
Sandwich Islands.
By 1867, the town had four cement
Stamp mill
A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operatio ...
s,
including Wright & Company, and Cozzens, Garber & Company.
But the continuous rains of 1867–68 washed away the mine's hydraulic ditches and
flumes destroying much of the town. Many of the approximately 300 residents left, and many of the buildings, including the Odd Fellows Lodge, were moved to
You Bet.
The post office remained until 1869. While three cement mills were operating in Red Dog in 1873, including Wier & Garber, Williams & Riggs, and Wright & Company,
the Mason's Lodge closed.
Red Dog Cemetery is the only part of the
town that remains today.
It is located on You Bet Road near Red Dog Road in what is now
Nevada City.
Stehr (died 1881), Stehr's son, Chew (died 1900) and three of Chew's brothers are buried there.
Landmark
Red Dog was designated by the state as a
California Point of Historical Interest (No. N2143) on May 9, 1975.
On September 14, 2001, the Red Dog Townsite was designated a landmark (No. 01000968) by the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. Owned by the Federal government, and address restricted, the townsite was honored for its 1850–99 information potential in community planning, development, commerce, settlement and exploration; as well as the social history of those who emigrated to the town, such as the Chinese.
Nevada County also designated Red Dog as a Historical Point of Interest (No. 25).
See also
*
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Nevada County, California
References
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Former settlements in Nevada County, California
Mining communities of the California Gold Rush
Ghost towns in California
California Historical Landmarks
National Register of Historic Places in Nevada County, California
Populated places established in 1850
1850 establishments in California
Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in California