1852 prospecting map of Vallecito CA during the gold rush

[firebird]

Found this interesting map in a book about the gold rush, they really dug the hell out of the place. Shows just how thorough they really were back then, now those areas are under the town's houses. Anyone have any other similar maps like this that shows what the gold was like during that era?

 

[OreCart]

Found this interesting map in a book about the gold rush, they really dug the hell out of the place. Shows just how thorough they really were back then, now those areas are under the town's houses. Anyone have any other similar maps like this that shows what the gold was like during that era?

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No, nothing like that! Great find.

But I did note something about the hand drawn map; it puts to bed the notion that, "the old timers did not dig [in a certain location] for no reason." Your map clearly shows that they dug mine shafts some 50 to 80 feet and found "nothing".

After seeing your map, it is apparent that out of desperation, they did just dig all that dirt for nothing.

The real question is, "what constitutes 'nothing'.

 

[dave wiseman]

Vallecito is just two miles up the road from my house in Calaveras County Ca...This was mainly a placer mining area with many miles of tertiary channels of different time periods.In sone places the gravel was/is 4-5 hundred feet thickl.You can read about the gravels in the old tertiary river report by Lundgren which can be downloaded on the web.In one mine on the channel called the golden river nuggets the size of chicken eggs were common.Some of my late friends and mining partners worked in these mines in the 1930's.Some mines has four or five different channels on top of one another from different time periods..all are not gold bearing.Some shafts mever reached bedrock and others were flooded and cvouldn't be worked.Surface gravels are visable in some spots along state highway 4 east and one table mountain which wasn't a rich channel......https://theminingalliance.com/resea...ravels of the Sierra Nevada_Lindgren_1911.pdf