Historic Resource Evaluation Project - Tuolumne Utilities District

No longer in operation, but originally one of the more important segments of the system
was the Main or Columbia Gulch flume, race, and waterway from Columbia via
Springfield to the Slum Dam on Mormon Creek, as well as a branch to Shaw’s Flat. Both
were depicted on Wallace’s 1853 and 1862 maps of the TCWC system. The Columbia
Gulch Fluming Company was incorporated December 18, 1854, for the purpose of
constructing a flume from San Diego Gulch through Columbia Gulch to Tim’s Springs
Gulch (Articles of Incorporation No. 17½), and increased its capital stock the following
year (Articles of Incorporation No. 18).
Evidently intending to acquire all the water rights in the area, on November 21, 1857 the
Columbia Gulch Fluming Company (incorporated in 1854 and 1855) purchased the 120-
rod long flume of the Mormon Creek Fluming Company, located in a gulch near the
Columbia Gulch Fluming Company’s flume, for $2000 (Deed Book 7:84).
In debt to the TCWC in the amount of $9,000, on August 29, 1864, the Columbia Gulch
Fluming Company deeded their flume, described as extending from Columbia Gulch to a
short distance east of Columbia to a point in the gulch a short distance southwesterly of
Springfield, satisfying the debt plus $100 in court costs; the flume was valued at $15,000
(Deed Book 13:436). On January 9, 1867, the Columbia Gulch Flume was conveyed by
Sheriff John L. Bourland to George Wight, and by Wight to the TCWC for $7,159.72 on
January 31. It was again described as being on Columbia Gulch and coursing through
Springfield to 400 yards below (Deed Book 14:725). In 1870, it was identified as the
Columbia Gulch Tailrace Flume and depicted on the GLO Plat for T2N, R14E, in
approximately the same location.
The Slum Dam on Mormon Creek was apparently constructed ca. 1853, as on May 30 of
that year Loretta Arrows deeded a right-of-way for a ditch or flume on Mormon Creek
one-half mile below Springfield to the TCWC for their use and benefit for the
“construction, excavation, or repair of said ditch” (Deed Book 7:184). The Slum Dam
was built to “slum out” the tailings carried down from the Columbia placers and was
rebuilt in stone in 1900 (Rhodin 1916). It has been used as a diversion dam for the Table
Mountain Ditch since that time.
The other important system was the Table Mountain system that took water from the
Columbia Ditch through a series of reservoirs and the Union, or High Flume, and the
Springfield Weir to the mining regions on and near Table Mountain, including the
Rawhide Ranch, Peppermint Creek, Montezuma, Chinese Camp, Peoria Flat, and French
Flat. Those systems are described below in the histories of the Montezuma and Table
Mountain ditches.
As noted in the 1910s, however, at times, water was turned through the “Main Gulch
Flume” to the Springfield Weir (the weir was apparently located near the present
Springfield Trout Farm at the headwaters of Mormon Creek) of the Table Mountain
system. This means was not preferable, as it had to flow across the Columbia Basin
where seepage was great, and the water supplying the Table Mountain system through the
Foothill Resources, Ltd. 4.19 TUD Ditch Sustainability Project
Francis Heritage, LLC
Historic Resource Evaluation Report