Dennis Sybill, county road crew foreman, uncovered an old water pipe, halted operations and had to ask me (Phil Alberts) about the old system to make sure that it was no longer in use.
Water in town was hard to find so the old timers brought it in from many directions. The pipe that they uncovered on Blacksmith Ave. came to Mtn. Ranch from Ave. “A”. That spring is located on the Reynolds property. The water serviced the Dughi Building and the DeVoto Building (now the Lutheran Church), also the Hatch gas station (now Stark Realty).
The water for most of the people living here in the 1850‘s was from a hand dug well located behind the present Senders Market. It was called the Town Well. This was on Ave. “B”, and
no longer exists.
In the early days the Domenghini family acquired the water rights to 40 acres of BLM property on Corral Gulch east of town and laid over a mile of pipe to town. This system serviced the Domenghini store and homes plus it was piped to the Town Hall which in 1938 was used by the Community Club until 1982 when the new well was dug at the park.
Water for the west end of town was brought down from the spring and pond located on the present Senders ranch. Old redwood pipes have been found which is believed to have been used to transport the water to town.
The old timers could always solve a problem. Water came to old El Dorado from three different directions. The early attempt at well drilling was unsuccessful because of the many caverns hit after they had drilled only 40 to 80 feet deep. Those rigs were what they called Shambang, not the powerful drilling done today.
Mountain Ranch sits on a limestone belt that runs all the way to Cave City. There are many limestone caves in the area with the big one at Cave City.
Today with the new modern well drilling equipment there are more than a dozen good wells in town serving the businesses and homes, including the two fire hydrants we now have, supplied by wells.
Did you know that Mountain Ranch is the only town in the Motherlode that does not have domestic water? They host from Dirty Gulch.
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