Lost mine in Oakland?

[Lucky Baldwin]

this was in the May 20, 1876 Sacramento Union

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

What good would it do even if that clipping is true ? And what good would it do if you found the exact spot ?

In the 139 yrs. since that clipping date, the entire state has been mapped out for soil types, prospect potentials, mineral surveys, etc..... I mean, in general as per vicinity, ranges, etc.... So to whatever extent those low-lying hills east of Oakland have any mining potential, that is long since assayed/surveyed out. There's not an area of CA that you can't already avail yourself of the govt. surveys, that were done/mapped ages ago.

And sure, gold got discovered at lots of hills besides the more optimum Sierra nevada motherlode. Heck, there's even gold in the sands along the seashore at certain river outlets, where folks have gotten varying amounts by simply running it through mercury (d/t it came down geologically/historically in the waters, and is now in the black-sands along the beach.) But by no means in any sort of commercially viable form to extract.

Same for the low lying hills around Santa Cruz, and south of Monterey (Los Burros, etc...). Gold was found there too. But it was not viable for commercial ventures, hence the eventual failures of such efforts.

So too is something in the hills east of Oakland gonna be: So what ? And as for anything habitation related (ie.: the miner's house, cabin, or whatever, if relics/coins were what you had in mind), I also say: "so what?". There is SCORES of locations around Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, SF, etc... where you can avail yourself of terra firma that had people-traffic as far back as 1876. And no doubt homestead (or even, gasp, mine attempts) back in the hills there. And you can already detect there and hope for a coin or relic of that era. Urban demolition in Oakland will often reveal those stratas, capped from modern garbage intrustion, since they've been covered with a building, or street, or sidewalk etc.... for the last 100+ yrs.

Thus I'm not too sure why md'rs eyes "wax romantic" at the thought of "lost mines" all the time.

 

[Lucky Baldwin]

i'm sorry my post upset you soo much. i'll keep my 100+ year old newspaper finds to myself from now on...

 

[Tom_in_CA]

lucky baldwin, no, don't stop floating clips. It didn't "upset" me. I was just adding balanced comment for whether or not there's md'ing potential in such clippings. Sorry to come across as a kill-joy. I could have chosen my words better, so as not to sound like a "why'd you even post?" attitude. Sorry 'bout that.

 

[Mackaydon]

Lucky Baldwin,
With only nine posts, I'll still say: Welcome to Treasure Net !! (though you've been here for a couple of years).
You keep posting articles like you did above; it's all about history. I also appreciate you taking the time in doing the research to find the article.

No doubt you are aware of another great source of Sacto area (Mother Lode) information; the Sacramento Bee, formally The Daily Bee, going back to 1857.
Happy Hunting,
Don......

 

[Lucky Baldwin]

thanks for the welcome Mackaydon!

it's all good Tom. sorry i misread your post. i've read many of your posts and i respect your opinion. some people i couldn't care less how they think. you aren't one of those people. your post did get me thinking tho...

Fruitvale is an Oakland hood now. PLEASE DON'T anyone take their metal detector in there. that's because there's a high probability you'll come outa there with a bump on the head and no metal detector. i would hate to think one of my posts lead to that kind of outcome... i just thought it was interesting there may be a gold mine, or at least a prospect in what's now urban Oakland.

there's a creek that flows thru Fruitvale called Peralta creek. 20 years ago (last and only time i was ever there) i recall a bunch of homeless guys camped on that creek. if that's still a homeless camp, i bet a guy could hire a hot dog cart, bring it in + a keg of beer and a bunch of cheap plastic gold pans, teach them how to pan, and send them out. then just hang out at the keg and see what they've found each time they come back for a beer. 2 or 3 days of that and i bet they could prospect the whole creek. i would find it hard to believe that $1800 a ton ore @$18.94/oz (http://www.nma.org/pdf/gold/his_gold_prices.pdf) wouldn't at least leave some flakes in the creek gravels

my personal feeling is N. Reichert was pulling a scam and just trying to bilk investors outa their $$$ but, then again.... if there is a 95oz/ ton vein under the hood, the house sitting on top of it could be bought dirt cheap i bet

 

[Tom_in_CA]

lucky baldwin, are you near Oakland area? I did a lot of hunting around Alameda 15 to 20 yrs ago. Did ok on some of the yards of those old victorians. And got some silver and IH's in the parks there.

And in Oakland, there's been a few old town demolition sites (in the not-so-safe neighborhoods sometimes!) that we did good on years ago. I remember one where some turf got ripped out a teensy park near the bart station . A lot of barbers and such came out of that.

Another time a buddy and I were working an demolition site, and started finding trade tokens. Naturally, we got excited about the tokens (since they can be more valuable than coins at times!). But occasionally a "pesky wheatie" would get found. We'd casually stop to look at the dates on those nuisance wheaties, but didn't much care for them . On one such wheatie, my friend took a quick look at the date, but it wasn't immediately visible. So he just threw it in his apron with the others, and figured he'd look at his stuff later.

That night, he gave me an excited call and said "I'm sorting through the junk now, and looked at the wheaties. Turns out one of them is a 1909 S VDB". He floated that on ebay and got a good $300 or $400 for that, as I recall

 

[Lucky Baldwin]

wow! that was a lucky find! i'm not too far from Oakland, i'm in stockton. lousy town, but great location. there's usually a nice cool breeze coming off the delta that keeps the temps here more civilized than the rest of the central valley. worst part about stockton is, the people here are slobs. they throw all their crap on the ground, even if a garbage can is only 20 feet away.

used to live on my land (9 acres) in calaveras county. got tired of dealing with all the thieving methamphetamine dope fiends tho. so i rescued the best of my stuff that they hadn't stolen yet, and got outa there. the stupid pieces of sh*t stole my mountain bike but left my dredge engine and pump, which could buy 3 or 4 bikes....

i'd sell the land except i discovered a small (12' diameter) tertiary channel running underneath it. a little gold shows up after every rainy season in the intermittent creek between me and my neighbor. he has an old excavator and dug down 60' on his side looking for the source and never found it. that's because it's on my side! lol. he's lived there for 40 years and knows nothing of that channel. i wouldn't either if i hadn't checked out my spring in the dead of winter one year. most of that canyon bottom is heavily covered in blackberry and poison oak vines and you can't even see the ground. except for a month each winter when they've lost enough leaves to expose the ground beneath the vines.

one winter years ago, morning after a good rainstorm, i went to check my spring to see how much it was flowing, and it just happened to be during that 'month of no leaves'. the rain had washed all the dead leaves away and there it was! a nearly round, 12' diameter patch of greenish aluvium sticking outa the slate hillside above the spring. in fact the spring is from the groundwater running along the ancient creek-bed and where it emerges from the hillside, viola! a spring. maybe one of these days the dope fiends will be gone and i can work it.

P.S. after i discovered it, i sieved up a bunch of coarse sand and filled in the spring so it's flow to the creek is underground now. i figure i don't need someone else making the same discovery i did. another 'lost' mine is born! lol