San Gabriel Valley - East Fork River vs. Cattle Canyon

[MrGneissGuy]

I went back up to the East Fork San Gabriel River this weekend, and I ended up wandering up Cattle Canyon. Cattle Canyon was far less crowded, and looked exactly the same as the East Fork did. Cattle Canyon comes directly from Mt. San Antonio which is home to gold nugget mine and plenty of others. The East Fork River runs up to Allison mine and also many others, so I'm wondering why people mine the East Fork but not really the Cattle Canyon River? Nugget Alley is the term given to the stretch of river from Cow Canyon Bridge to Camp Williams, so I would assume at Cattle Canyon would also have gold in it. Anyways, let me know what you guys think.

 

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[rodoconnor]

Cattle Cyn is locally famous for just not having much gold. I know , I know the minute I post this someone will have a 2 oince day !

 

[Hamfist]

I've never found much in Cattle Canyon. There's a tungsten mine operating there so be careful not to cross claim boundaries.

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

I would love to set up a dry washer up there .

 

[SPARTANOC]

I did some metal detecting this last weekend in Cattle Canyon. I've been down this area a lot this last year - and in searching the area, found that - there are some old diggings back there. To what was being dug up is anyone's guess.

There is some history of mining activity back there, some time in the late 1800's when the old Eldorado town existed before the flood. A story of an unknown Indian who apparently lived back there at the time of Eldorado. The story is, that at times, an Indian would come out of the Canyon with a pan full of flour gold (placer gold). There really isn't much detail beyond what I've written and when you go back there - there's not much that would elude to any gold mining in said Canyon. That being said; there is some evidence of some diggings and possible mining cabin ruins further up the Canyon. In an area that, looked to have a stone base (such as a miners cabin), so I decided to metal detect the surrounding area. To my surprise, I found an old 9mm bullet shell which was manufactured by PCM - an American company, which manufactures ammo in S. Korea. The bullet shell looks to be very old, as the brass has darkened - eluding to some degree, that the shell is somewhere around 20 to 50 years old. PCM started up as a company in the year of 1968. The strange thing is, that was the ONLY bullet to be found - and it was about 2 feet deep. So, if I was to deduct a guess, I would guess there was someone who could have been a veteran of sorts who decided to dig back there. There's absolutely no trash out there and no other bullet shell to be found during the day - which killed the idea that someone was just target practicing.

The area in general does have some material that could be gold conductive, but the quantity of said material is low - compared to other areas known to be conductive to gold or silver. The only other material I was able to detect (not with the metal detector), was Micah and its abundant in the surrounding area.

Anyone else get the opportunity to metal detect out there recently?

-SpartanOC

 

[russau]

You just watch..... NOW that you mentioned this area , there will be lot's of people show up and crowd you out !

 

[SPARTANOC]

You just watch..... NOW that you mentioned this area , there will be lot's of people show up and crowd you out !

Russau

🤣 Good luck in getting in, for the next few weeks. There must be about 3000 people right now, camping along the East Fork Road - getting ready to enjoy the 4th of July. I believe the Forest Rangers/Police Dept will be closing the area off on Tuesday of this week, to prevent others from coming in and trying to park.

I never said I found gold, just a bullet - but hey, to each his own. Generally speaking, there isn't gold conductive material that would get anyone excited. That being said; you never know...

One thing though that I WILL mention, is that - there's a bear currently down that canyon and he's a big boy, aside from all the rattlesnakes that are in every bush out there. The rattling is so prevalent - its like walking through a nursery.
Good luck to all and be safe
-SpartanOC