About this Item
First, a little background. The company in 1896: "The California Water and Mining Company owns and controls a system of canals, comprising over 240 miles in length, covering every portion of the Georgetown Divide from Loon Lake, 40 miles east of Georgetown by wagon road, to Wild Goose Flat, a point on the American River nearly opposite Loomis, Placer County, and from Chile Bar, on the South Fork of the American, distant only 3 miles from Placerville, to Spanish Dry Diggings, on the Middle Fork. The principal source of water supply is a series of groups of lakes lying on the summit of the Sierra, at an altitude of 6,000 feet, fed by melting snows.This county (El Dorado), generally, may claim to be among the best irrigated in the State." (Biennial Report of the State Board of Horticulture, State of California, 1896, p.102). In 1904: "The extensive water supply system of the California Water & Mining Co., together with its mining and other properties in El Dorado County, was sold at Placerville on September 23 under foreclosure proceedings, to satisfy a judgment of $153,702 in favor of the Mutual Trust Co. of New York." (Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 78, p.561, 1904). This lot contains seven items. Three typed letters, signed, one in 1898 and two in 1903, discussing the financial condition of the California Water & Mining Co., The first, in April of 1898, from a New York law firm, to a stockholder in the California Water and Mining Co., asking for authority to vote as proxy to select a new board of directors for the struggling company. "It is proposed to elect a board of directors who will endeavor to obtain something out of this enterprise for those who have embarked in it, and to take the affairs out of the hands of the dummies who have managed the company for the last ten years." The second and third letters are regarding an attempt to evaluate the health of the company in 1903. From a San Francisco mechanical engineer, former State Mineralogist, J.J. Crawford, to the American Exchange National Bank, New York: "I think I could give you better information (about the company) if you should send someone up here to interview me or ask me questions on those points.I know the property generally, and that their water rights and franchises are valuable, and that they have a good class of customers, but as to their status, that is, whether they are in debt or not, I do not know.I regard their manager, Mr. Fitzgerald, as being a very level headed and good business man." Then, a letter from the Bank of California reporting to the New York bank: One of our officers interviewed Mr. Crawford but without very satisfactory results. He has promised to endeavor to obtain fuller information of which he will advise us later." The fourth and fifth items are carbon copies of letters two and three. The sixth item is a penciled list of six stockholders. The seventh and last item is a clipping from an unknown newspaper, undated (but 1896), reporting that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled California's Wright Irrigation Act to be constitutional. All papers with folds, creases and handling wear, some toning, but in Very Good condition. Seller Inventory # 273818de2035a9af5b8cf1f0534785db
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