Mother Lode (Southern)
I have known about the Tuolumne Gold Dredge for years, driven past it, viewed the plaque on the side of the road and even caught a glimpse from…
Hite Cove (aka Hites Cove) is small mining camp tucked along the Merced River. John Hite discovered gold here in 1862 and ran the mine for 17 years.…
Found this one merely by topo. The adit is 1400 feet long with stopes, winzes and drifts galore. We didn’t enter as we were in no way prepared…
What can I say, one of the coolest mining camps around. Only 30 remote minutes from Mariposa. The Sweetwater mining camp has a long and well documented history.…
I found this mine searching USGS Historic Topo maps near La Grange. The maps show two shafts only a few minutes north of La Grange. Mindat.org indicates a…
We have driven by and through Chinese Camp several times over the years on our travels up and down Highway 49 but never stopped. But now with Lake…
The Tarantula Mine can only be seen when Lake Don Pedro is at extremely low levels as it was when we visited in November 2014. Part of the…
Lucky me! I was perusing local USGS Historic Topo’s and came across this awesome find. From Google Earth I could clearly see a mine shaft, a ball mill,…
Founded in 1852 by French miners who struct gold in the nearby Tuolomne River La Grange was a mostly lawless town after mining all but ceased by 1880.…
When I found this on Google Earth I thought the satellite image showed a standing stamp mill. However when we drove by we could see it was…
Mount Gaines is a huge operation with a long history of owners, financial battles and politics that continue to today. Just search google and you will find scattered…
I got excited searching USGS Historical Topo’s when I stumbled upon St Marys Mine. I got even more excited when I saw what looked like a standing stamp mill…
We took off on a warm summer day to look for mines near highway 49 south of Lake McClure and made a pass through Hornitos. I call…
Mariposa is a true California Gold Rush town without a doubt. It started as a mining camp 6 miles away near a small creek called Aqua Fria in…