Historic Resource Evaluation Project - Tuolumne Utilities District

and is historic in its own right, or affects but small segments of the whole. In other cases
pipelines have been laid in the historic ditch beds, not adversely impacting the
archaeological ditch. In addition, it appears that the presence of the dual systems—the
archaeological ditches and the active canals—may increase the overall significance of the
systems, as they may answer questions important in the history of ditch engineering.
As noted in an earlier survey:
Based upon initial inspection….while it is commonly held that the ditch
system is over 150 years of age, it appears that the majority of the ditches
are late 19 th or early 20 th century re-engineered conveyances, and that few
areas actually date to the 1850s. This is very evident along portions of the
Columbia, Shaw’s Flat, Phoenix, Algerine, and San Diego systems where
long-abandoned earth bermed ditches parallel the existing ditches.
Archival records that survive are scarce, but suggest that when Pacific Gas
and Electric Company (and Sierra and San Francisco Power) reworked the
ditches they abandoned some of the earlier segments for newer, better
engineered canals (Davis-King 2003).
This survey also identified parallel ditches along the Eureka, Roach’s Camp, Matelot, and
Montezuma ditches. While many were no doubt altered or realigned in the 20 th century,
it appears likely that others were altered in the 1860s and 1870s by the Tuolumne
Hydraulic Mining Company (THMC), taking water to their various claims, and the
TCWC during the late 1880s-1890s hard-rock mining boom. Their evaluation under
Criterion A, therefore, assumes that their eligibility dates to the earliest period of their
operation, as changes over time are important in their own right.
Historically, the ditch system was directly associated with Sierra Nevada mining and
hydroelectric power industries, land settlement, community development, and logging,
and played a substantial part in the economic and corporate development of the region.
The landscape is strongly evocative of the accomplishment of the early ditch and flume
builders and the challenges they faced, particularly in the unchanged higher elevations
and in cutting through the limestone belt in the lower, as they meander around hillsides,
drop down steep slopes, or course across the landscape.
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION
Under the NRHP a resource is considered to be “historically significant” if it meets the
following criteria for listing on the NRHP:
The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archeology,
and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects of
State and local importance that possess integrity, and:
A. That are associated with events that have made a significant
contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or
Foothill Resources, Ltd. 4.5 TUD Ditch Sustainability Project
Francis Heritage, LLC
Historic Resource Evaluation Report