“Little town of Sonora, Tuolomne County, has grown into a city.” No chance of me “settling down with a Wife” at present. Doing moderately well working in the mines (5-6 dollars a day); working at own company brings no cash, so must hire self out as ordinary miner during slow season; cannot “stand idle in California.” San Francisco had fire on 4th of May “destroying nearly the whole City;” last year Stockton also burned down, “but such is the magical influence of Gold that both Cities are now nearly the same as before.” About a thousand miners live and work in this vicinity.

Has left nearest town “to be a sojourner in the wilderness.” Speculating on an immense construction project; joined 160 miners to build a canal or flume made of wood 20 miles long in steep rocky mountainous wilderness inhabited only by grisley [sic] bears, deer, and coyotes. It will convey water from Stanislaus River to Columbia region, which is rich in gold but requires water to extract it. Labor is furnished by unpaid miners, who also pay for equipment in exchange for shares in the Company; when system is operating, they will pay for use of the water to work their claims. As the only Surveyor here, it fell to me to engineer, design, and lay out the whole project. “There is no place like California for freedom of action and scope for enterprise.” Longs to hear more of the Great Exhibition and the Chrysal [sic] Palace in England “as every American paper is full of it.”

One of a set of letters providing in-depth descriptions John Wallace's life in the gold mining town of Columbia, California, building a system to bring water to gold mining operations in the town.

Not being able to work mines in rainy season “exploded as a fallacy.” Most miners depend on working during rainy season to make up for losses during dry months. Ditches are cut in mountain streams when rain is scarce to supply running water; we’ve been doing that for six months. Our water will supply well over 20 miles of mines. Now chief surveyor for the Company, working on alterations with new steam-driven saw mill, and has supervised design and building of 15-mile road, using ox teams and wagons. All 150 workers toil without pay for future shares of company, expecting big payoff at completion. None of us were aware of the great magnitude of project at beginning; it “will be one of the greatest works yet attempted in this country.”