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PIONEERS
H I S T O R Y
Telephones Come To The Gold Rush
By Don Baumgart
French Corral Today
ANDREW WRIGHT / LIGHTHAWKPHOTO
I
T WAS THE FIRST LONG DISTANCE
telephone line, and it came to be
because of the Gold Rush. Built in
1877, less than three years after Alexander
Graham Bell invented the telephone, it was
a time when most messages in this country
were still being sent over longer distances
by telegraph.
Running about 60 miles from French
Corral to French Lake, the line was put up
by three mining companies that formed the
Ridge Telephone Company. It was created
in the days of hydraulic mining, when they
used powerful streams of water to blast
gold and gravel out of hillsides.
The larger mining companies working on
the San Juan Ridge needed fast communication to regulate water in the ditches
feeding the giant nozzles. The new long
distance line allowed the companies to
quickly communicate with the higher ditch
124 N E V A D A
COUNTY
GOLD
camps, conserving water and prolonging
the mining season.
The Ridge Telephone Company opened
with connection to 30 phones. The one
used for the first communication is in the
Smithsonian Institute. The Western Union
Telegraph Company, until then the primary
long distance message carrier, recognized
the development for what it was and
would become. They became part of the
new system connecting North San Juan
with Nevada City, and from there by telegraph with the rest of the United States.
At French Corral, the telegraph office
charged for calls, which patrons wrote out
just as they did telegrams. A member of
the office staff then placed the call, delivering the message. One of the rules was the
line was not to be used for “idle talking”
because that exhausted the batteries that
powered the system.
In 1884, when legal action put a halt to
hydraulic mining, the Ridge Telephone Line
became useful in warning miners who
were still doing business telling them that
government agents were on the way.
As the agents, called “slickers,” passed
through French Corral, local residents
called ahead to the mines, sending a
simple message: “The slickers are coming.”
The water was turned off, workers
returned home, and mines appeared to
be dead.
Located on Pleasant Valley Road, three
miles from historic Bridgeport near Penn
Valley, virtually nothing is left of French
Corral but an old Wells Fargo Building. The
townsite, which at one time included 70
houses, hotels and stores, is also 17 miles
from Nevada City. Take Hwy. 49 heading
for North San Juan and turn left on
Pleasant Valley Road which is past Tyler
Foote Crossing Road.
Don Baumgart is a magazine journalist
living in Nevada City. He has written articles
for national publications taking readers to
such diverse experiences as dining aboard a
wine train and a Nevada burger stop for
outer space aliens.
WAYDE CARROLL
Malakoff Diggins State Historic
Park. Site of a major hydraulic
mine on the San Juan Ridge.