Maps showing old mines in CA?

[CA Gold Hunter]

I'm currently purchasing a property and there's a large pit in the back 40. I had thought it might be an old mine but wasn't to sure and only got to see it for a few minutes when we were looking at the house. In the disclosures it says the house is a 1/4 mile away from sites identified by the U.S. Geologic Survey as a gold placer mine. I'm just trying to see if I can find any info on it or where its at or if that's even an old mine at all. I used to have a bookmark to a site that had an interactive map you could see where old mines were located and a small bit of info on them. I don't have the link anymore and can't seem to find it anywhere. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Bodfish Mike]

I like https://caltopo.com
It might show the old mines on the topo -- then you can change it to google earth view (mouse over box top right side then drop down one box
and click what you want.)
Land matters has the info Land Matters California Mining Claims
Great site with a boat load of info.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

I like https://caltopo.com
It might show the old mines on the topo -- then you can change it to google earth view (mouse over box top right side then drop down one box
and click what you want.)
Land matters has the info Land Matters California Mining Claims
Great site with a boat load of info.

Thanks! I ended up finding it, the marker for the mine is on another property but I think the pit I saw that will be on my property is part of the mine. Looking forward to exploring it in a month

 

[Sosinski]

thediggings.com has interactive maps with a little information on current and historical mines and claims.

 

[minerrick]

MRDS also shows old mines (Mineral Recording Database System), I think

 

[minerrick]

I'm currently purchasing a property and there's a large pit in the back 40. I had thought it might be an old mine but wasn't to sure and only got to see it for a few minutes when we were looking at the house. In the disclosures it says the house is a 1/4 mile away from sites identified by the U.S. Geologic Survey as a gold placer mine. I'm just trying to see if I can find any info on it or where its at or if that's even an old mine at all. I used to have a bookmark to a site that had an interactive map you could see where old mines were located and a small bit of info on them. I don't have the link anymore and can't seem to find it anywhere. Any help would be much appreciated.

Is the old mine on BLM land or private? What county? Reason I am asking is I have done a bunch of historical research (thousands of hours at the recorders office and plotting info) and have mapped the original footprint of just about all the mining claims on BLM land dating back to pre-1900's in Nevada, Sierra, and Plumas Counties in CA. If it is in any of those counties, I may be able to help you by referring to my map data.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

Is the old mine on BLM land or private? What county? Reason I am asking is I have done a bunch of historical research (thousands of hours at the recorders office and plotting info) and have mapped the original footprint of just about all the mining claims on BLM land dating back to pre-1900's in Nevada, Sierra, and Plumas Counties in CA. If it is in any of those counties, I may be able to help you by referring to my map data.

It's on private land in butte county. The mine itself is on the neighbors property, or at least the coordinates show it being on their property. It was an open pit mine though and the pit extends a couple hundred feet into my property. We get the keys this week so if I got time between moving I'm gonna go check it out a bit. I only got to see it once when we walked the property and haven't gotten down there since.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

Well been here for 3 months but between moving and dealing with the camp fire I havent had much time to get out and prospect. But I finally managed to get out with my brother in law yesterday for an hour between cooking and panned a spot on the property. All the rain filled the pit up pretty good and theres a seasonal stream that was running enough to pan in.

 

[AllenJ]

Nice looking pan, how much material did you do for that amount?

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

I'd say it was about 15 pans between the 2 of us. Where I was digging I was getting a lot of small stuff and a few bigger flakes and my bother in law was digging a few feet further down from me and kept getting pans with 3-5 of those larger flakes and tons of black sand. I went down there the other day with my boys and explored the pit a bit, that chunk next to my foot was hard as a rock. Once the rain came though it softened up and was pretty easy to dig into.

 

[arizau]

Time to break out one of those bazookas if the creek flow is sufficient.

Good luck

 

[mytimetoshine]

Eureka!!!

 

[mike(swWash)]

1st thing you need to do is see if the mineral rights are part of your property deed, if not find out how to file for them quick.

A placer in my literal backyard would mean I need a small wash plant and a good used backhoe and water, even if I had to have a well drilled to fill a pond....I'm so jealous

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

Time to break out one of those bazookas if the creek flow is sufficient.[emoji106]

Good luck

Haha that's exactly what I was thinking. I was also thinking a dredge might be usable here, its not in a waterway so I'm guessing it's legal, they have a setup like that down at roaring camp.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

1st thing you need to do is see if the mineral rights are part of your property deed, if not find out how to file for them quick.

A placer in my literal backyard would mean I need a small wash plant and a good used backhoe and water, even if I had to have a well drilled to fill a pond....I'm so jealous

I didn't know that was possible, what's the process to obtain that?

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Contact the title company that handled your purchase. They should be able to help you figure out if you own the mineral estate. Because they don’t typically insure title ti the mineral estate, you will likely have to pay them for their services.

That’s the first step.