Historic Resource Evaluation Project - Tuolumne Utilities District

In the 1855 directory, James Street was noted as a native of New York and the proprietor
of the Tuolumne Ditch, which was to be completed the following spring at a cost of
$200,000 (Heckendorn and Wilson 1856:60). On July 6, 1855, Street filed a second
Water Privilege for the Middle Fork Tuolumne River, claimed all the water in the creeks
and gulches, and forbade anyone trespassing on the right of the ditch, for the purpose of
“leading the water to Sonora and vicinity for mining purposes” (Claims Book 1-7:194).
On February 1, 1856, S.S. Turner deeded his land, located on both sides of Sullivan
Creek, to James Street for $4000 (Deed Book 4:403), evidently protecting Street’s water
right to Sullivan Creek. The Street Ditch Company was incorporated July 1, 1856
(Articles of Incorporation No. 62). Street’s other operation, the Shaw’s Flat & Tuolumne
Canal Company, was incorporated August 9, 1856, with James Street, Charles B. Young,
and George Bower as directors (Articles of Incorporation No. 67). This was evidently to
incorporate Street’s water and canal rights into a joint stock company, which issued 4000
shares at $100 each.
This early system was improved over the years and known at various times as Street’s
Ditch, Sullivan Creek and Tuolumne River Water Company Ditch, Shaw’s Flat Ditch,
and Phoenix Ditch. Its routes have been realigned, shortened, lengthened, and otherwise
altered over the ensuing years since its construction in 1855-1856. Impetus for its
construction was the March 1855 Miners’ Strike held in Columbia over the high costs of
water imposed by the TCWC. By March 19 th , work had commenced on both the
Columbia and Stanislaus River Water Company works and Street’s Ditch, in anticipation
of providing less expensive water to the mines around Columbia and Shaw’s Flat
(Heckendorn and Wilson 1856:8).
Three years later, on April 27, 1859, Street lost his ditch as a result of a suit and
foreclosure of a Mechanics Lien against James Street & Co., alias New Tuolumne River
Water Company, also known as Shaw’s Flat and Tuolumne Canal Company. The ditch
was noted as taking water from the Tuolumne River two miles below the mouth of Sugar
Pine Creek to Shaw’s Flat, and included the Wood’s Creek Diggings’ Ditch from
Peppermint Creek to Coopers Flat, Montezuma, and vicinity (Deed Book 8:372).
On May 11, 1859, the purchasers of Street’s holdings, with their attorney Caleb Dorsey,
formed themselves into the Phoenix Water Company and turned the Street Ditch property
over to the company for $1. All but one of the men were associated with the San
Francisco banking firm of Pioche and Bayerque (Deed Book 8:374). That same day
Sonoran Caleb Dorsey sold the Shaw’s Flat and Tuolumne River Water Company to the
Phoenix Water Company, after acquiring it at a tax sale (Deed Book 8:370). In July of
1859, James and Sarah Street sold their home in Shaw’s Flat to George and Ameritta
Pierce and moved to San Jose (Deed Book 8:454).
Though it is unclear how they came to acquire it, on August 29, 1872, James T. Maclean
and George Clark deeded the ditch “formerly known as the Street or Shaw’s Flat Ditch”
to their Tuolumne Hydraulic Mining Company (THMC) for $1. The deed noted that the
ditch conveyed water from the North Fork Tuolumne River by way of Sullivan and
Foothill Resources, Ltd. 3.22 TUD Ditch Sustainability Project
Francis Heritage, LLC
Historic Resource Evaluation Report