What is in those hills over there? Copper

Mountain Moments

By Dwight Barnes

(Updated: Wednesday, April 09, 2008, 6:53 PM)

Although historically it is gold that has captured the imagination of people recalling the early days of the West, copper had a brief run as well. It was during the Civil War that copper was mined heavily in the counties of California's Mother Lode.

The first claims for mining copper in Madera County were filed in the summer of 1863, back in the days when Millerton was the Fresno County seat. These were on deposits near where the town of Buchanan was to appear, a town whose name was preserved in the name of the flood control dam that created Eastman Lake on the Chowchilla River.

Buchanan obviously wasn't a boom town, for it took a decade until it was big enough to warrant a post office. The first post office was opened Sept. 19, 1873. It operated until June 15, 1904. Madera Historian Charles Clough estimates that the population of the town was somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 at its peak, which probably came within a year or two of the time the post office was established.

In a well-researched Sierra Historic Sites Association essay written in 1984, Susie Deming, a student at the Raymond Knowles School, reports that at its peak population, Buchanan never had more than two saloons, a few shops and stores and a boarding house for miners.

It wasn't long after the start of the copper mines that a school was needed. One was opened in 1865, benefiting not only miners' families but also those of long-term ranchers of the region, the Daultons and the Reas, for whose children the closest school was in Millerton some 20 miles away on the San Joaquin River.

A total of 39 children attended the school, which operated for only four months of the year, May through August. Five years later, school enrollment was about the same. Susie Deming's research revealed that the first teacher was Virginia Green, who was paid $40 a month.

It appears from SHSA's Nathan Sweet Memorial Essay, that when a new school was built in the area on the river, Buchanan School became known as Chowchilla School. In 1869-70 there again were 39 pupils between the ages of 5 and 15.

Deming adds some additional information of interest about Madera County schools in general when she reports:

"The 1870 census for Fresno County indicates there were 295 school children at the ages of 10 years or over who could not read and 323 who could not write. These could have been Native Americans or white children living in such a remote part of the country that they could not get regular schooling."

The school served as a social center for the town also, the essayist reported, quoting the following from the Fresno Expositor:

"Festival and Dancing Party. The good citizens of Buchanan School District are going to have a party on Friday evening, Dec. 23, 1870, in aid of their school.

"The object is good and we hope it will be an immense success."

In 1885, the Chowchilla School had 12 pupils. Two other nearby schools had significantly more -- Daulton 32 and Dennis 21. By 1889, Chowchilla School had closed.

After the Civil War, the copper boom began to fade, partly because of a decline in copper prices and partly, as far as the California mines were concerned, because of the cost of shipping. In her essay, Susie Deming estimated that the Buchanan mine was shipping 100 tons of ore per month, only 17 percent of which was copper. The $5,000 in revenue was used development, freighting, labor and equipment.

As she wrote, "This operation did not work out too well and didn't last too long because they weren't getting enough money."

Although there are indications that the mine did not close completely until World War I days, historian Clough says that most businesses in Buchanan had closed by 1880 as ranching did not fill the gap left by declining mining operations.