Gold was discovered in southwest Oregon in the early 1850s and the inevitable hoard of fortune seekers arrived soon after. Early mining activity focused on easily accessible placer deposits, unconsolidated sand, gravel, and minerals that could be exploited by panning. Once the bulk of these were exhausted, most of the hoard moved on to the next “strike” (…and on and on). Those miners that remained needed the wherewithal to upgrade to hydraulic mining, which required capital, expensive equipment, and an organized workforce. It also required a lot of water and a lot of ditches to move said water from where it was naturally (in a creek) to where it was needed (at the mine). The Sterling Mine Ditch is probably the best known such ditch around here mainly because much of its 26.5 mile (42.6 km) length has been repurposed as a great and popular hiking/biking/riding trail.
At about the same time as the Sterling Mine Ditch was being dug (in the late 1870s, by hand) another was being dug (by Chinese laborers, again largely by hand) for the not far away Layton Mine. This upper ditch (a lower one had been dug in the 1860s) conveyed water some 21 miles (33.8 km) from Pipe Fork on the East Fork of Williams Creek to mines in Bamboo and Ferris Gulches. About half of its length has succumbed to the ravages of time but the Williams Community Forest Project has worked for the last few years to restore what remains for hiking, biking, and riding. We first hiked the section of this trail north from Panther Gulch on a gloomy, wet day in March, 2017. I returned in 2018 to explore the section south from Panther Gulch to Pipe Fork and also to look for the ditch’s headworks along Pipe Fork. Today (thanks to the Big V keeping us local for the moment 🙄 ) we reprised our hike on the northern section. Unlike our 2017 hike there, today’s was in bright sunshine on a cool, clear day. 🙂
About 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the trailhead, we came to the remains of a failed marijuana farm. It was a wreck when we were here in 2017 and it’s even more of a wreck today. Soon after Oregon legalized marijuana, some business people came from Georgia to make their fortune in green gold. They gave it a go, failed, and moved on – leaving us with a huge pile of trash. 😥 Not unlike the early miners who came here, dug up our creeks and rivers looking for gold, didn’t find any (or enough) and moved on to the next strike. These structures sit on private land, so the current (or any new) owners will have to take the lead if this is ever to be cleaned-up. Update: As of 2021, this site is apparently back in business and has put up a lot of “no trespassing” signs to prove it. Despite these signs, the re-routed trail keeps you on public land.
Since our first visit, a new trail has been built down across Cherry Gulch that allows you to bypass these eyesores. We followed it going out.
The trail eventually reaches a historical feature known as the Chinese Wall. Here a rocky outcrop prevented the relatively simple digging of a ditch in dirt. The Chinese laborers blasted a channel through the outcrop and used the resulting rocks to construct walls to support the ditch. The ditch is no longer working but these walls are still holding strong after 140+ years. 🙂
After poking around the Chinese Wall, we continued along the trail – now unrestored and harder going – for a few hundred feet until stopped by a fallen tree. According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the trail continues up to the boundary between Sections 35 and 36, past which it has been ravaged by a clearcut. So we turned around and headed back.
Our out-and-back hike came to 6.4 miles (10.2 km) with just 125 feet (38 m) of gain – and all of that is climbing out of Cherry Gulch. Four years on and this is still a pleasant walk through a mixed oak-madrone-pine woodland. The botanical high point of the day were the fiery red Indian Warriors (P. densiflora) that were bursting out of the ground along the start of the trail. We couldn’t recall seeing so many in one place at one time. 🙂
The portions of the ditch that we’ve hiked – from Pipe Fork to the Chinese Wall – come to only about 10 miles (16 km) total. But what about the remainder of the ditch from the Chinese Wall to the former site of the Layton Mine? We haven’t been out on the ground to look but you can trace most of the ditch’s path thanks to LIDAR imagery, where it shows as a thin white line on a gray-black background. Although the Chinese Wall is only 3 miles (4.8 km) or so from the mine as the crow flies, the ditch had to wind in and out of gullies at a steady gradient for an additional 9+ miles (14.4+ km) to keep the water flowing at just the right rate. Had this section survived, it would have made a great trail.
BOOTS on the TRAIL 
We hadn’t seen them before either, even though they are native to this area. Amazingly intensely red.
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Those red flowers are gorgeous! Never heard of them before.
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I see. That north/south ridge road shows on the 2016 USFS map but not on the older USGS map included in this post. The NAIP aerial imagery shows several unmapped roads in that area associated with that clearcut whose debris you crawled through. And we did notice the trail maintenance – much appreciated! 🙂
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Point 3507 is 1/2 mile SE of where we were. We hiked up a road to the right just past the second marijuana grow site. That took us to a ridge and road junction. From there down a north/south ridge road not shown on your map to the ditch.
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The Layton Mine was located farther north in Ferris Gulch than where it is shown on the USGS map. It’s closer to 3 miles, in a straight line, from the Chinese Wall. The ditch was, in fact, built by Layton in 1878 to bring water to his mines in Bamboo Gulch and Ferris Gulch. In order to convey water properly, the ditch needed to maintain a slight downhill grade. That’s why it has to follow near the 2,200 foot contour for about 10 miles past the Chinese Wall to reach the mine. This took it on a sinuous route through gullies and around ridges until it could cross the ridge into Ferris Gulch at about 2,200 feet. Then it had to come around the gulch so it could get above the mine on the east side of the gulch. Here Layton had built a large reservoir to hold the water before it descended some 300 feet to feed the water nozzles (giants). All told, it was a pretty impressive piece of civil engineering for its place and time. I’ll attach a map to this post showing the approximate route of the ditch based on LIDAR imagery.
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A bit confusing. The TH is called Panther Gulch TH. According to my map the closest the ditch gets to Layton Mine is over a mile and that is up and over a ridge. I guess the mine ditch was just named after the Laytons but has nothing to do with their mine.
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I know that route if it’s the one that goes over Point 3507 – part road, part motorcycle track. We came across it when we hiked around Ferris Gulch. The part of the ditch you crawled through is on private land – which I think is owned by the same people who abandoned the greenhouses. This private land issue may be what’s standing in the way of restoring the ditch trail much past the Chinese Wall.
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Just wanted to let you know, We recently hiked an old logging road on a ridge top above the ditch. It kept going down until we reached the Layton Ditch. rather than hike back up the ridge we set out on the Layton Ditch towards the chinese wall. You are correct about the clearcut affecting the trail. We crawled over a lot of logs and debris, but finally made it to the maintained part of the trail. We traversed about 0.8 miles of unmaintained ditch. Mostly the ditch width was there, but a lot to crawl over in many places. Would be great if the trail was opened up for more hiking. Did you notice the recent trail maintenance done on the trail? we met the crew, mostly women about six of them with weed eaters and hazel hoes. Thanks for the update.
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