I was recently reminded of a great story about the Bonanza firm in a book called ‘Sierra Stories’ that I borrowed from the Morgan Hill library. One of the companies that the Mackay, Fair, Flood and O’Brien group owned was the Pacific Wood, Lumber and Flume Co. This entity harvested timber in the eastern Sierras near Lake Tahoe and shipped it to the Comstock for use by the Bonanza firms mines. The transport was done via a wood flume which went a little less than 10 miles down the Sierra slope into the Carson Valley where it connected with the Virginia and Truckee RR; the RR moved the produce on to Virginia City. The Flume supposedly cost $300,000 which seems exorbitant for the time; it was set 10-70 feet above grade and had a vertical drop of 1875 feet.
A reporter for the New York Tribune newspaper H J Ramsdell visited in 1875 and as a dare took a ride down the flume with James Fair, James Flood and John Hereford who ran the Pacific Wood, Lumber and Flume Co. They came down in two separate ‘boats’, fabricated to fit into the flume. Fair and Ramsdell in the first and Flood and Hereford in the second. The ride was in turn hair raising, soaking, terrifying and enthralling as it navigated the flume, 60 feet above the rocks, at up to a 45 degree angle at speeds reaching 60 to 100 mph. Ramsdell describes himself as ‘shutting his eyes and saying his prayers’ . Fair was apparently knocked over in the boat and sustained injuries on his back and hand. Both he and Flood said they would never again attempt the risky trek.
The speeds reported were exaggerated as they completed the journey in 30 minutes, which put their average speed at 20 mph. That would still be quite a joyride in cold mountain water and certainly fits the old adage ‘that boys will be boys….and so will middle aged men sometimes!’
The book ‘Sierra Stories’ is by Gary Noy and was published by Sierra College Press in 2017. It has a lot of wonderful stories including one about the visit of the famous Limerick born opera singer Kate Hayes to Grass Valley and Sacramento in 1853 and a shoutout to Senator John Conness for his sponsorship of the designation of Yosemite Valley as a nature preserve in 1864.