Your Guide Book to the Pacific Railroad, 1879 The Great
Nevada Flume. A
PERILOUS RIDE
(excerpts)
By H. J. Ramsdell, of the N. Y. Tribune,
A 15 mile ride in a flume down the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 35 minutes, was
not one of the things contemplated on my visit to Virginia City, and it is
entirely within reason to say that I shall never make the trip again.
The flume cost, with its appurtenances, between $200,000 and
$300,000. It was built by a company interested in the mines here, principally owners
of the Consolidated Virginia, California, Hale & Norcross, Gould &
Curry, Best & Belcher, and Utah Mines.
The largest stockholders are J. C. Flood, James G. Fair, John
Mackey, and W. S. O'Brien, who compose without doubt, the wealthiest firm in the
United States.... The
Journey
When I was invited to accompany Mr. Flood, and Mr. Fair
to the head of the flume, I did not hesitate to accept their kind offer. We
started at four o'clock in the morning, in two buggies, the two gentlemen named
in one buggy, and Mr. Hereford, the President and Superintendent of the Pacific
Wood, Lumber and Flume Company and myself in the other...
In less than an hour and a half we had accomplished the first
part of our journey, 16 miles. Here we breakfasted and went to the end of the
flume, a quarter of a mile distant.
The men were running timber 16 inches square and 10 feet long
through it. The trestle-work upon which the flume rested was about 20 feet
above the ground. The velocity of the movement of the timber can scarcely be
credited, for it requires only twenty-five minutes for it float the entire
length of the flume, 15 miles. The
Challenge
Mr. Flood and Mr. Fair had arranged for a ride in the
flume, and I was challenged to go with them. Indeed... they dared me to go.
I thought that if men worth $30,000,000 apiece, could afford
to risk their lives, I could afford to risk mine, which was not worth half as
much.
So I accepted the challenge, and two boats were ordered.
These were nothing more than pig-troughs, with one end knocked out. The boat
is built like the flume, 16 feet long, V shaped, and fits into the flume.
The forward end of the boat was left open, the rear end
closed with a board, against which was to come the current of water to propel
us. Two narrow boards were placed in the boat for seats, and everything was made
ready. Mr. Fair and myself were to go in the first boat, with a carpenter from
the mill, and Mr. Flood and Mr.
Hereford in the other.
Two or three stout men held the boat over the flume, and told
us to jump into it the minute it hit the water and to "hang on to our
hats."
The
signal of "all ready" was given.... The
Ride
The boat was launched, and we jumped into it as best we could and away we went
like the wind.
The terrors of that ride can never be blotted from the memory
of one of that party. A flume has no element of safety. You can not go fast or
slow at pleasure; you are wholly at the mercy of the water.
You can not stop; you can not lessen your speed; you have
nothing to hold to; you have only to sit still, shut your eyes, say your
prayers; take all the water that comes, filling your boat, wetting your feet,
drenching you like a plunge through the surf, and wait for eternity... it is all
there is to hope for after you are launched in a flume-boat.
At the start, we went at the rate of about 20 miles an hour, which
is a little less than the speed of a railroad train, then
we picked up to 30 miles an hour... a mile in two minutes.
There I was, perched up in a boat no wider than a chair,
sometimes 20 feet high in the air, and with the varying altitude of the
flume, often 70 feet above the ground... If the truth must be spoken, I was
really scared out of reason.
Mr. Flood and Mr. Hereford, although they started several
minutes later than we, were close upon us. They were not so heavily loaded, (we
had that third man,) and they had the full sweep of the water behind them, while
we had it rather at second hand. Their boat finally struck ours with a terrible
crash.
Mr. Flood was thrown upon his face, and the waters flowed
over him, leaving not a dry thread upon him.
When we reached the terminus of the flume Fair said we went
at least a mile a minute. Flood said we went at the rate of a 100 miles an hour
and would not make the trip again, for the whole Consolidated Virginia Mine.
For myself, I had only strength of enough to say...
"I have had enough of flumes." Reboard
your train at Truckee for San Francisco |