Southwest Sierra #15 Historical Accounts & Personal Stories

RUBY MINE Last week I shared that my family moved from Southern California to Grass Valley in 1974. Today I will share how we ended up at the Mott Cabin.

Dad was a journeyman bricklayer, in the bricklayer’s Union in Southern California. Ours was a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. Dad was a recreational miner. Grandma and Grandpa Bell had moved to Oakhurst, Calif. and when we visited them, dad could be found in the creeks with his gold pan looking for “color”. His ambition with the move north was to become a full-time gold miner. Dad bought a big 1950s flat-bed truck for the move. The stipulation was that we could take only what would fit on that truck.

While living in Grass Valley, my brother Steven and I rode the bus to Hennessy School. Jason, the youngest, hadn’t started school yet. On the bus ride home from school one day, two girls about my age got off the bus at a house across the street from our house. Steven and I had to ride all around town before being the last kids to get off at our house on the opposite side of East Main St.

There were no other kids living close by. I lingered in the front yard that afternoon, looking across the street, hoping to see the girls. The darker-haired of the two finally wandered into the yard and saw me. She got within shouting distance and yelled across the street: “Hey girl, get your ass over here!” That is how the Hall family met the Bell family. The Halls had recently moved from San Diego. The little girl was Donyale age 7. Her sister Dena was the same age as me, one year older.

Not too long after that, an old man stopped by the house. He had spotted the big flat-bed truck out front and wanted to know if dad might sell it. The two got to talkin’ and wheelin’ and dealin’ and the next thing we knew, dad and Tom Hall had been offered a job at the Ruby Mine near Alleghany where the old man had a lease. There were two cabins that our families could move into, but the road was closed by snow. The plan was to move after school let out for the summer. School got out at the end of June in those days and when it did, the road was still closed. Tom and dad hand shoveled through eight-foot-deep snow drifts on the lower elevation “back road” off Mountain House Rd for weeks before we could finally drive in.

I don’t know how the parents decided who would get which cabin. Ours was the Mott Cabin and the Halls got a little cabin about a mile away next to the Golden Bear Mine Bunkhouse. The bunkhouse was nothing but a shell at that time. We quickly established a trail between the two cabins along an old water ditch that became a well-beaten path.

The postmaster in Alleghany at that time was Rachel (Wiley) Kuhfeld. Her assistant was Fred Wilson. Many of us assumed that he was the Postmaster, and she was his assistant, but I was corrected a few years ago by a person who worked with them.

Rachel was born in Forest City (early 1900s, I’ll have to track down the year). Her father was Judge Wiley. I got to know her towards the end of her long life. She told me that the Mott Cabin was named after her Uncle Mott who was very kind and who was a not very good violinist. She laughed as she said it. She would get annoyed whenever I tried to get more details from her, so I learned to accept what she offered without asking a lot of questions.

The Mott Cabin is on Ruby Mine ground. During the time that we lived there, we referred to the nearby mine shaft as the “Mott Shaft”. Years later, dad and my brothers learned that the shaft is named “The Lawry Shaft”. According to the writings of the late Bill Fuller (aka Wm Pickiepoche) a Walter Lawry was the superintendent of the Bald Mountain Extension mine in the early 1880s. It seems likely that the shaft was named for him. My dad and brothers worked at the Ruby in the early 1990s under Brush Creek Mining and Development Company. The metal head frame over the Lawry Shaft was built during that time. I understand that some of the underground workings from the 1990s are now named the “Bell Workings” on the mine maps.

The Ruby Mine’s history goes back to the 1860s, with substantial production through the late 1800s. According to Fuller, by 1895 total production was estimated to be between 30,000 and 50,000 ounces. The mine is well known for producing large gold nuggets.

My understanding is that the Ruby was shut down for a period until Best Mines reopened it in the 1930s under Supervisor Lewis Huelsdonk. A GIANT bunkhouse was built there that dwarfed the Golden Bear Bunkhouse. It also was only a shell by the 1970s and has since been torn down. The mines had to house and feed the workers, especially in the winter to keep a crew working. Best Mine’s main office was in Downieville, where the Pizza Parlor is now.

Ruby Mine probably late 1920s bunkhouse in center back. The roof was extended later. This is a view of the narrower side of the building. Photo courtesy of Cory Peterman.

A collection of Ruby Mine gold nuggets mined in the 1930s is owned by Sierra County. It consists of 159 nuggets weighing a total of 1,000 ounces troy.  The largest nugget weighs 52.177 ounces and is approximately 2 x 5 inches in diameter! Due to security and insurance issues, the collection is on display at the LA Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles. A replica of the collection can be seen at the Downieville courthouse.

Sierra County Nugget Collection with Sheriff Badge.

Article by Rae Bell Arbogast, published in The Mountain Messenger in June of 2023. Shared with permission. The Mountain Messenger