Early mentions of Moody Ridge found via Google Books

Report of the Chief Engineer Upon Recent Surveys ... of the Central Pacific Railroad of California - October 8 1864

Returning to Towle's mill, near Dutch Flat, and using a grade of one hundred and five feet per mile, we followed our former line to a point about one-half mile below Herbert's ranch, where we crossed Canon Creek, and with a very good line, were enabled to reach a low depression in the divide between Canon Creek and the North Fork of the American River, known as the Hog's Back. The line here passes near Bradley & Co.'s large reservoir, and turning sharply to the left, attains a comparatively uniform bench upon the American River slope.

Statistics of Mines and Mining in the States and Territories West of the Rocky Mountains - Eigth Annual Report - 1877

Canon Creek, which heads about ten miles northeast of Gold Run, flows down a steep canon just to the east of the Gold Run gravel district and is the natural outlet for its mines. Col. Jonathan Moody and W. H. Kinder own about two miles each of this canon. They are both valuable tailing-claims. Colonel Moody has two 8-foot flumes, side by side, 8 feet deep, and three-fourths of a mile long, and four undercurrents, from three of which he has taken this season, in three weeks' time, the sum of $1,200. His claim has averaged a yield of $14,000 per year for the last eight years. The Kinder claim is provided with eight under-currents, and does equally well, if not better. The Canon Creek claim and the system of gold-saving in this class of ground are fully described in my report of 1875.

John B. Finch: His Life and Work - 1888

His impression of the State are outlined in the following extracts from letters written to Mrs. Finch during his sojourn.

From Auburn, Cal., under date of November 27th 1885, Mr. Finch writes:

The climate of California at this season, which is the 'rainy season,' is not one to impress an eastern visitor favorably.

It rained steadily from last Friday to Thursday of this week. Oh, such rain! It was a horridly 'wet' rain.

Yesterday I went with a gentelman to the top of Moody Ridge, to see the great canon of the North Fork of the American River. I wish you could have been with me, as it is impossible to describe the wonderful scene. Imagine, if you can, standing on a rock and looking down two thousand feet into a boiling, foaming river! The view was grand. The only thing to mar the pleaseure was your absence, but I promised Mrs. Frost to come again and bring you.

Report of the State Mineralogist by California State Mining Bureau - 1896

Moody Ridge Mine (Drift) - It is 2 miles E. of Gold Run, at 3,650' elevation, and comprises 120 acres of patented ground. A bedrock tunnel is being run, through diabase, to tap a channel supposed to have a N.E. course; it is now 45' in length, and will have to be extended 60' to cut through the rim. R. Brown and J. J. Speikel, of San Francisco, are working under a bond. Moody Bros., of Gold Run, owners.

The Reader - July 1906

The Country God Made by Arthur Colton
I climbed the still climbing hills, and crossed the track of the Southern Pacific Railway where Dutch Flat's Chinatown lay hard below the track, a huddle of gray roofs, and its inhabitants walked leisurely in the sunlit road, little, fleshless men in loose black jackets and cloth shoes, carrying about with them the moral of an old racial experience. Beyond the track a trail went upward still, through scrub and evergreen, and dipped to a small canon, and climbed again, and came at length to the crest of a great hill, called Moody Hill, which almost from its crest dropped two thousand headlong feet to the bed of a river. The farther wall of the canon rose nearly to the same height. It was the canon of the North Fork of the American River, a famous river in the annals of gold. It seemed at that distance but a slim yellow thread to divide such sliding forests and "mighty opposites." In reality it is a strong, turbid and turbulent stream.

Moody Hill was possibly named after a man and not a mood; still it had looked down on sorrow enough for the purpose.

"Theory is gray, but life is green," according to a certain German poet. It seemed more like a turbid and turbulent stream that had bedded itself deep in the green world.

Moody Hill had the better claim to be called "Buena Vista," for its fair outlook over the placer country, a singular country to walk in from day to day, among its drifting populations and memories of the fiery life that once was lived there.

Report by California State Board of Forestry - 1912

Forest fires destroyed at least $75,000 worth of property in Placer County this year. Had it not been for the employment of a paid county firewarden by the Board of Supervisors, and the organization of twenty-one fire-fighting companies through his efforts and those of Farm Adviser Amundsen, the loss would have been much greater. On several fires members of the State Forester's office rendered assistance, notably, a fire on Moody Ridge, which covered 3,000 acres and destroyed timber and range to the value of $60,000.

And finally, not an early mention, not from Google Books, but relevant. My brother Russell Towle said the following in his blog entry titled: "Visit to Canyon Creek" on April 28 2005

The upper mile of sluices were owned by J.A. Moody, for whom Moody Ridge is named. The lower mile were owned by W.H. Kinder, and later by the GRD&M.

Russell wrote the following for the 1997 reunion of the Pacific High School.
The Seances of Dutch Flat, or, How Lovers Leap Got its Name

... but I will tell you one thing. It really doesn't matter whether you moved to Dutch Flat ten years or a hundred years ago, you have all failed your town and failed your children. You took one of the prettiest places in this world and did your best to wreck it. You have one of the most awesome canyons in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and not one of you modern Dutch Flatters has lifted a finger to protect it. Now, a few egomaniacs are running around on Moody Ridge with bulldozers and building their big houses with big views right on the edge of the canyon. ... you modern folk are too stupid to protect that beautiful canyon from the greed of a few developers. You should have made Moody Ridge into a park 30 years ago when you had a chance, now your children and your children's children will never know what they lost. What goes around comes around.
... while you're squabbling about who has lived here long enough to have an opinion, the fact of the matter is, you've already let the prize escape. That man who thinks he at least has lived here long enough to have a say in things is just as guilty as the rest of you idiots, for not realizing that some places are just too rare and too beautiful to be `developed.' It's as true of Giant Gap and Moody Ridge as it is of Yosemite Valley, but you Placer County people are blind as bats I think. You have divided the earth into a bunch of `parcels,' and now it only remains to develop those `parcels.' And, for the record, none of you has lived here long enough to have an opinion!