Tuolumne County Water Company.

History

Tuolumne County Water Company, a private corporation, was formed in 1851 in Columbia with the intent of supplying water for placer mining in and around Columbia. It turned the water of Five Mile Creek into Columbia in May, 1852 and in August, 1852 completed a ditch to the South Fork of the Stanislaus River.

The Columbia and Stanislaus River Water Company was formed in 1854, partly because of the outrageous charges for water made by the Tuolumne County Water Company. In March, 1855, there was a miners' strike against the Tuolumne County Water Company, which was forced to come to terms. It addressed a letter to the miners stating that if they would enlarge their ditch the company would pay for labor by issuing script for which water could be received and would lower its rates as demanded by the miners.

From the guide to the Tuolumne County Water Company Records, 1855-1856, (California State Library)

Organizational History

Emigrants who rushed to California after the discovery of gold in 1848 discovered an environment whose climate and geography were sharply different from home. The California climate, with its periods of wet and dry, drought and flood emphasized the importance of resource management, espcially water management. As well as its domestic importance, large quantities of water were essential to large scale mining operations and the control of water became one of the biggest and most complex struggles facing the settlers and argonauts.

The Hildreth party has been given the credit for discovering gold in the Columbia area around 1850, although there is some evidence that a small settlement of Mexican miners may predate their arrival. The summer of 1850 was typically hot and dry; the creeks dried up and most miners moved either down to the river valleys or up to higher elevations. Winter brought miners back to the Columbia area following the rains and the return of the seasonal creek. Those merchants who managed to survive the summer realized that maintaining a market in the area relied on a steady supply of water, and local miners realized that a reliable supply of water was needed to make mining feasible year-round. Together, they established to Tuolumne County Water Company (TCWC) in June of 1851.

The TCWC was created as an employee owned and controlled company. The founders went to surrounding areas raising investors. By the end of June, 1851, 160 shares of stock had been sold and the route had been surveyed, but the company was forced to borrow money to finance the construction costs of sawmills, roads and equipment. Among the financiers who soon gained control of the company was D.O. Mills, the pioneer banker in Columbia. The TCWC incorporated in September, 1852, with a new issuance of shares initially valued at $275.

The availability of water and its price strongly influenced the fortune of the town. A struggle for control of the water, between owners of the TCWC and the miners who depended on reasonable rates and abundant supply, resulted in the formation of the Columbia and Stanislaus River Water Company in 1855. For a brief period competition lowered rates, but the new miner-operated company soon ran into financial problems and was sold; first to repay debts and later resold to the same financiers who controlled the TCWC. Disgruntled miners protested this perceived monopoly, which eventually led to the destruction of ditches and flumes and personal threats against employees and officers of the corporation. In 1858 many miners left Columbia after a boycott of the TCWC's water did not succeed in lowering rates.

In the following decades the water company continued to expand, taking over ditches, flumes and reservoirs and lakes constructed by other water and fluming companies in the county, but as gold production declined, so too did the population, resulting in less demand for water and less income for the company. By the 1880s many ditches were in disrepair and dams and reservoirs reflected a lack of maintenance. The demand for electricity resulted in the company going into the hydroelectric field, but even this could not sustain the fortunes of the company. By 1903 the remains of the company was being offered for sale, valued at $500,000 with an impressive list of ditches, flumes, dams, lakes and reservoirs all over the county.

From the guide to the Tuolumne County Water Company Records, 1853-1909, (California. Department of Parks and Recreation)