(Printable PDF linked below)
Preserving History an Iota at a Time
Thirty Years and Counting!
On February 16, 2025, Underground Gold Miners of California Museum will be 30-years old.
MISSION STATEMENT
To preserve and share:
The stories & culture of California's underground gold miners, the history of the towns and mines of the Alleghany area.
To explain the unique geology of the Alleghany Mining District.
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Fulfilling this mission has been accomplished in several ways over the years.
In the early 2000s Geologist Raymond Wittkopp developed a Boy Scout Geology Merrit Badge Program. Several troops came to Alleghany to earn their badge.
The 16 to 1 mine tours helped the museum financially and the tours were the best tool for showing off Alleghany’s amazing underground geology! Due to various circumstances the museum currently does not have access to the mine.
Preserving and sharing history is our strong suit. The website, newsletters and publications such as our annual calendar help accomplish this. The continued contributions of folks with roots in the area and/or an interest in mining history keeps the collection growing. Every iota counts.
UGMM Acquires PastPerfect Software
The same anonymous donor who sponsored the website upgrade last year, stepped up in big way this year! The museum’s “wish-list” has had collection management software listed for many years. Thanks to a generous donation we can check it off the list! The name of the chosen program is PastPerfect.
We are most excited at the prospect of being able to cross-reference items, photos and people. Various search-tools (queries) can be used to pull up specific areas of interest.
From PastPerfect: “The registration system is the museum’s memory. Some would argue that the records are as important as the objects themselves. Keeping good records is a primary function of a good museum.”
Thirty-years of collection data still needs to be entered into the program. (The records are on paper.) This is a huge task, and the donor included funds to pay staff for accomplishing this.
PastPerfect also has a contact management feature for tracking memberships, donations (of both time and money), and pretty much any other information desired. The museum’s extensive contact list of 1,500 individuals and entities was converted and imported into the program. Thank you letters and other correspondence may now be generated directly from the program. Your patience while we work through the learning curve is appreciated.
The same donor also contributed funds for increasing the number of items in UGMM’s gift-shop. A new selection of books, minerals and other items is now available in the giftshop. Many of these items will be added to the online giftshop at undergroundgold.org/shop as time allows.
Thank you once again anonymous!
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Miner Carl “Bud” Munck
Ten years ago, Bud Munck showed up in Alleghany with several items to donate to UGMM. Two of those items are among the museum’s most prized possessions. One is a hand-cancel stamp (think postmark) from Langton’s Pioneer Express in Chip’s Flat. It is one of only two that are known to exist!
The other item is a set of balance beam scales that belonged to Morning Glory Mine Owner Martin Rohrig. Bud also donated several priceless historical photographs from the Plumbago Mine and Chips Flat.
This year, Bud generously donated a garage full of mining equipment and supplies to UGMM. The list of items is quite long, but a few of the favorite things include: Bud’s 1940s Horse Hide Jacket used for working underground, three cast iron ingot molds, a rare tiny air drill complete with a 6 inch drill steel made of iron pipe with a carbide tip welded on, a few other drills with many accessories, including a carbide bit sharpener and a vintage box of unused carbide bits.
UGMM Director Chris T. Smith with Carl "Bud" Munck Summer 2024
This is a lot more than an “iota” as mentioned above. UGMM sincerely thanks Mr. Munck for his continued support!
Bud’s Mining Jacket made of “Genuine Front Quarter Horse Hide” circa 1940. On display in the museum.
The Brooks/Kuhfeld Clan
Alleghany Native Wayne Brooks, (he was born here in 1937). Has very deep roots in the area. His mother Fern was a granddaughter of Fred Kuhfeld Jr. His maternal grandmother Mabel (Kuhfeld) Davies was the eldest of Fred’s six children. Mabel’s mother died when she was only 12 and the youngest sibling Alberta was less than two years old.
After starting the Kuhfeld Family research earlier this year, Wayne Brooks shared the following: “John Van Doren who lives in Woodland called this evening. He gets the Messenger & has been reading your stories. He mentioned that we all called Lester, "Shelly". Shelly Kuhfeld. He was John's & my boss one summer when he had us cutting brush, manzanita & poison oak from 16 to 1 property going down the road to the Tightner Mine. All the work done on the hillsides. Shelly worked in the [mine’s] timber carpentry dept. The funny thing about this is that all the time I lived up there, I didn't know I was related to him. Weird.”
Wayne’s niece Kasey (Brooks) Holwerda has become the family historian and happily she is in possession of a box of family photos. She shared many late 1800s and early 1900s photos with the museum earlier this year. There are several phenomenal pictures of Forest City, Forest City mine crews and families. Several of these images are featured in UGMM’s 2025 Historical Photo Calendar. Some have been saved for future editions.
Another donation that is more than an “iota”!
Thank you to Wayne and Kasey for sharing. We barely scratched the surface of their family connections.
GROWING UP IN ALLEGHANY
Houses and Forts by Wayne Brooks
When I was eight years old, my cousin Kenny Bruning, my brother Richard and I liked to build forts and play “house”. Next door, the McDougall residence was vacant. There were many plum trees growing around the home and it was there that we built our “playhouses”.
Kenny had the best house, completely surrounded by plum trees, and he had plenty of plums to eat. My house was near the fence with only a few trees in front of me. My brother had his house on the other side of the yard.
The kitchen utensils we used were real. Our moms wouldn’t give us any so we would find our own. Some days would be spent hiking the hills scrounging from old fallen shacks where we would find rusty pots, pans, and eating utensils. The dump was our best source of household items. My fort was the General Store. I had the only strainer so when Ken and Rich wanted to make mud pies they had to get their strained dirt from me.
Richard and Wayne Brooks approximately 1945 in the Plaza Alleghany. Great-grandsons of Fred Kuhfeld Jr. pictured below.
The Clemens kids up on the hill played house also. They had a real house. They would come down during the night and wreck our playhouses. We were afraid to go up there because they were bigger than we were. They told us that they had bear traps all around their cabin, so we didn’t try to wreck theirs. One day, full of courage we went up the hill by Pete Flowers’ place where their cabin was. With great caution we walked into their house. It was much better than our playhouse and it was now time to get even. We started wrecking their playhouse. We broke glasses, bent pots and pans and trashed anything we could get our little hands on.
A few days later there was a fire at Forest. Kenny and I decided to hike over the mountain to see it. It was under control when we got there. The buildings across the street from the bar and dance hall had burned down. When it cooled off we started gathering up burnt pots and pans, and loaded to gills, we lugged gunnysacks full of goodies over the mountain to Alleghany.
We never did make friends with the Clemens up on the hill. We were always getting into fights with them over who wrecked whose playhouse.
About a year later Denny Hughes, John and Richard Van Doren, brother Richard and I, built the fort of a lifetime. It was built on the hill above the Hunley’s and was made of fir boughs cut from tall fir trees. We would climb high into the trees to get the smaller limbs, bend them, cut them with our pocketknives, and send them down to start construction. They were woven in and out of four large fir trees until a large room was enclosed. Of course it was outfitted with neat kitchen stuff.
A new day would replace our fort building with a new adventure.
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The photos below are from the Kuhfeld Forest City Collection. Can any readers identify the mystery man and woman? They both appear in more than one picture. Regarding the man, Kasey says: “The best possibilities are Frederick Kuhfeld Sr. 1832-1899 or William Davies 1855-1912. The individual photos I have of this man were taken at a photo studio in operation in Marysville from 1883-1900). He resembles Frederick Kuhfeld Jr.
Unidentified Man
Frederick Kuhfeld Jr. Is the man above his father?
About the Unidentified Woman below, Kasey says: “There is an older woman in both group photos [plus one individual photo]. Could she be Kate Hardy (1847-1890) the wife of Francis Hamilton Campbell?
Unidentified Woman
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Chris Smith and Wayne Babros kept the museum’s doors open for another summer season. No small feat. Thank you guys!
_________________________________________________________________________Thanks to Director Gwen Fissel for creating an Underground Gold Miners Musuem display for the Nevada County Gem & Mineral Club’s annual show. Photo Below.
Speaking of Iotas
The definition of an iota is an extremely small amount. Extremely small amounts add up over time. A single item, such as a photograph might contain the key to unlocking a question about the past.
Many people contact the museum and say that they have pictures to send along, but most never do. We all know how it is, with our busy lives, but if you can find the time to pull out your phone and snap a picture of your photo(s) they can be texted to 530-902-4422 or emailed to the museum (address in header). Prints are even better, but if this is all that you can manage, the picture is preserved. Original prints are stored in a fireproof file cabinet and are not used for display.
Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to send what you have. You are exceptional!
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Christmas Shop in Alleghany!
The museum giftshop will be open on November 29th (Black Friday) from 10 am to 4 pm for a rare local shopping opportunity! If it is stormy we may cancel, in that case call or email to confirm hours. Individual appointments may also be available. 530-287-3330 (museum) 530-287-3454 (Rae Bell) or email undergroundgold33@gmail.com
Come browse our expanded book collection! Topics include Mining, Geology, Natural History and Calif. History. We also have crystals, gold nuggets, stickers and locally themed post cards.
Link to online Giftshop Store | Underground Gold Miners Museum
Paper order form linked below.
PDF of entire newsletter linked below and at top of page.
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