1856 Kuchel amd Dresel Bird's-Eye View of Scotts Bar and French Bar, California

A remarkable 1856 two-color chromolithograph bird's-eye view of California gold mining boomtowns Scotts Bar and French Bar, Siskiyou County, California. The view reveals these boomtowns on Scotts River - a 60-mile-long tributary of the Klamath River - at the height of the Northern California Gold Rush. Today they are both ghost towns.

Scotts Bar

The lefthand view illustrates Scotts Bar, the first gold strike in California's northern mining area. The town sits on high ground above the Scotts River, where numerous wheels channel water into sluices. Above and to the left of the view are illustrations of local business, ranging from hotels to livery stables, carpenters, saloons, and even a French restaurant and bakery.

Scotts Bar sits on the Scott River. It was named after John W. Scott, who discovered placer gold there in 1850, marking it as the first gold discovery in the Siskiyou Mountains. It was a particularly rich strike and was actively prospected until the mid-20th century. Even so, the town never grew into a city. Today there is a an ecolodge there, as well as a post office, but little else, despite its scenic beauty and the occasional panned nugget.

French Bar / La Grange

This righthand view illustrated French Bar, here in its second iteration after the earlier camp was flooded out. This French Bar sits above the floodplain. In the foreground Scotts River has numerous waterwheels designed to carry water to a sluice for gold extraction. The surrounding hills give ample evidence of lumbering, littered with fallen and stripped trees. When this view was drawn, French Bar had about 100 buildings and a small Chinatown. Above and to the right of the view are illustrations of local businesses, including offices, hotels, express stops, and more.

Mining Scenes

At the base of the view are several fascinating mining scenes illustrating the elaborate sluice works. Each view represents specific claims, with the owners named below.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography, sometimes called oleography, is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired product. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it emerged as the dominant method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography produced made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda imagery.

American Bird's-Eye City Views

The Bird's-Eye view industry emerged in the United States in the middle part of the 19th century and coincided with the commercial development of lithographic printing. Before the rise of lithography, the ability to own and display artwork in the home was largely limited to the extremely wealthy, but the advent of lithographic printing made it possible for everyone to own visually striking artwork. A robust trade developed in portraits of political leaders, allegorical and religious images, and city views.

City views were being produced in the United States as early as the 1830s, but the genre exploded after the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). Bridging the gap between maps and pictures, most 19th century American bird's-eye views presented cities to the public from highpoints. Some were imagined, but others were drawn from hot-air balloons or nearby hills. The presentation, combining high elevation, commercial interest, and new printing technology created a uniquely American artform, as described by historian Donald Karshan,

Some print connoisseurs believe that it was only with the advent of the full-blown city-view lithograph that American printmaking reached its first plateau of originality, making a historical contribution to the graphic arts. They cite the differences between the European city-view prints and the expansive American version that reflects a new land and a new attitude toward the land.

The vogue for bird's-eye city views lasted from about 1845 to 1920, during which period some 2,400 cities were thus portrayed, some multiple times. Although views were produced in many urban centers, the nexus of view production in the United States was Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The major American viewmakers were Stoner, Wellge, Bailey, Fowler, Hill Ruger, Koch, Burleigh, Norris, and Morse, among others.

Publication History and Census

This map was 'drawn from nature' in 1856 by Charles Kuchel and Emil Dresel. It was engraved and printed in San Francisco by Britton and Rey on behalf of John Milton Commodore Jones, then a merchant in Scott's Bar (Scotts River). Rare with only two examples known. We see one at the Amon Carter Museum. This example previously sold at Christies in 2014 but has been in a private collection since that time.