Von Schmidt Water Works!
The need for water was a big one, anticipating that Hamilton would grow to around 50,000
the need got greater. The problems would be that there was a lot of water in the area, but it all
was 800 to 1000 feet lower in elevation than the town. We spent the whole day, starting here
at the reservoir and following the pipe line down. [ Reservoir above]
In November of 1868, a Col. D. W. Von Schmidt after surveying the Mokomoke Hill side down to
Illipah Springs Acquired the backing of a San Francisco Firm to built a water works for Hamilton.
Up until this time the residents were getting there water from snow, which they often or from springs
at 25 cents a bucket. [ A look at the inside walls]
You can see the reservoir above, below is the first pump station we came to. The pipe line ran down
the draw to Illipah Springs. They pump the water up to the reservoir just below the peak and then they tunneled
through, gravity took care of the rest, all the way down to Hamilton.
As we left the reservoir the road got steeper and narrow. Here are the pipes at the first pump station down Harris
canyon. The pumps were steam powered and you can see the pipe was very large as well. This was one rough
road and its going to get rougher soon.
There were some stone ruins around the pump station, could have had a cabin as well. This had to be a good size job
keeping it running.
As we cleared the station the road started going from bad to worse. We did well past the here, but Brian had to walk away to
make sure we could get through. It was getting to the point where I had no place to turn around.
Above is some of the parts and tools left laying around one of the stone foundations. Below is what we ran into before
we got down to Illipah Springs.
This is what we called the gap, once through we would be close. We could have walked on down to the Springs, but we drove around and came up from below.
Had enough yet? If not go to the "The GAP, and on to Illipah Springs!
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