SIERRA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

LOCATION

COUNTY:Sierra County

STATE:California

Lode gold mines in Sierra County produced most of the total recorded 2,161,000 ounces of gold, with an unrecorded production prior to 1880 probably boosting the total well above 3,000,000 ounces.

Allegheny and Downieville districts in southwest part of county about 10 miles apart, with total placer production of 194,000 gold ounces and drift mine total from Tertiary gravels of 485,000 ounces, total production recorded as 2,173,000 gold ounces. All regional stream gravels and bench deposits have panning colors and nuggets, The 16 to 1 Mine, principal producer of 100,000 ounces of lode gold located on Kanaka Creek. The Kenton Mine, also on Kanaka Creek was also a large producer.

In Sierra City you will find The Sierra Buttes Mine and district, producer of 825,000 ounces of lode gold.

INDIAN HILL

Indian Hill is in western Sierra County about 10 miles west of Downieville and just south of the Brandy City District. Much of the Production here has come from the Indian Hill and Depot Hill hydraulic mines. These mines were heavily worked from the 1850s until the 1880s, and intermittent development work and mining continued through the 1930s. Both mines used long flumes filled with copper plates coated with mercury to amalgamate the gold. Several nuggets over a pound were found at the Depot Hill mine. The Depot Hill mine has been prospected recently. The deposits are on the LaPorte-Brandy City Tertiary Channel. The lower gravels contain abundant quartz and are as much as 100 feet thick. They are overlain in places by inner volcanic gravels and andesite. Bedrock is granite with amphibolite to the west and slate, schists and serpentine to the east. There are also a few gold quartz veins in the Indian Hill district./P>

KANAKA CREEK

I have personally dredged this creek with a 3" and 5" dredge below the Kenton Mine. This is one of the richest creeks in the Mother Lode as far as I am concerned. I found some good gold on Kanaka creek below the Kenton mine. Nice Nuggets with quartz attached.

OREGON CREEK

Jim Labuz and I dredged this creek with a 3" dredge on the Trios Mine Claim, owned by Harry Deter. We did real good for the time we were there. We found some real nice nuggets. This was an excellent place to dredge.

SLATE CREEK

Report from John Cline

I have mined several areas on the Slate Creek. The Slate Creek was filled with white quartz cobble from the many hydraulic mines. As a recreational, weekender miner, I'll recover about an ounce or so in a week, working by myself. It's common to find quartz with gold in it or on it. This last summer, I found several pieces that weighted from 7 gains to 17 pennyweight.

YUBA RIVER

I have dredged this river in many places and always done well when I hit virgin dirt. This river replenishes every year. I saw a 22 pound nugget that came out of this river above Downieville. The nugget was name "The Lure".

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