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Natoma Water & Mining Company - Folsom, Sacramento California 1897
  Beautifully lithographed certificate (#139) from the Natoma Water & Mining Company issued
in 1897. This historic document was printed by the Schmidt Label & Lithograph Company and has an
ornate border around it with a vignette of men and animals at work on a farm with a waterfall and river. This item is hand signed by the Company's President ( Chas Webb Howard ) and Secretary ( D. Henshaw Ward ) and is
over 107 years old. This is the only example of this company's certificate we have seen.
Certificate Vignette
In 1851 the Natoma Water Company was formed by local miners for the purpose of supplying a reliable water supply to the various mining operations in the area. The company was a successful concern through the years and acquired much of the land situated around the present site of Mather Air Field. By the early 1900s, after many mergers and acquisitions, the company became known as the Natomas Company. The company subdivided and sold much of its land in the area of present-day Mather Air Field.
The Natoma Water and Mining Company was one of the largest owners of water rights in
Sacramento County. That same year the company began work
on a twenty-mile-long main canal commencing from a point two miles above Salmon Falls on the South Fork of the American River to bring water for mining and agriculture in the Folsom area. As the canal exited the American River canyon, it split with a branch leading to the Mormon Island Diggings.
By 1853 the main canal reached as far as Prairie City; it was finished to Granite City (Folsom) the following year. The total cost of the main canal and associated reservoirs and irrigation branches amounted to $175,000. The canal ran through country that, without the water it furnished, would have been completely worthless for mining (Thompson and West 1960:226).
In 1862, Horatio G. Livermore acquired the Natoma Water and Mining Company and 9000 acres of the Leidsdorff Grant, a 1844 Mexican land grant south of the American River and east of the modern
city of Sacramento, which included the present-day town of Folsom; the grant is properly called the Rancho Rio de los Americanos. Livermore's intention was to promote water-powered manufacturing at Folsom by building a dam and harnessing the energy of the American River. In addition t o
generating power, the dam he envisioned would also create a still-water basin for logs floated down
river from the rich sugar pine stands higher up in El Dorado County. The dam was completed in
1893.
Prior to the dam's completion, however, the water development and lumbering interests in the
Natoma Water and Mining Company became separate entities. The new Folsom Water and Power
Company promoted water- powered industry, and the American River Land and Lumber Company
invested in timber- related activities. To compensate for the loss of mining contracts as the gold
deposits gave out, the Natoma Water and Mining Company began investing in agriculture. By 1890
the company was reorganized as the Natoma Vineyards Company; around the turn of the century,
all of the separate companies were absorbed into Natomas Consolidated of California which, in turn,
became the Natoma Company. In 1912, to support dredging operations, the company revamped the
dam at Salmon Falls and lined over 13,000 feet of ditch with concrete (Plimpton n.d.). In 1953 much of the South Fork holdings were sold to the U.S. government for the Folsom Reservoir project.
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