A drive through the hills west of Auburn reveals barbed wire fences, faded outbuildings, rustic ranch houses and genteel country estates. What’s not so obvious is the gold mining history hidden among their ravines and knolls.
Once gold was discovered in 1848 in the South Fork of the American River about 14 miles from Auburn, the foothills became a hive of mining activity. Thousands of prospectors panned the rivers and streams for loose flakes and nuggets that rain and snowmelt flushed into the waterways.
Others chose to seek the hidden lodes of gold still clenched inside the hills. They tunneled into the mountains bound by Bald Hill, Chili Hill and Crater Hill, using blasts of dynamite to burrow in, then using pick axes to uncover ledges of the precious metal. The demolished stone was shoveled into wheelbarrows and ore carts for processing.
But long before the first gold strike in this territory, mountaineers, adventurers, trappers and military scouts were exploring the northwestern slope of the Sierra Nevada. As prospecting took over, wilderness outposts evolved to busy trading posts that served the transient camps sprouting wherever men congregated in hopes of finding their fortunes.
Panning for gold was a one-person job, but hollowing out the earth and shoring up a maze of warrens required additional manpower and cooperative efforts. Mining outfits formed and drew workers together, blasting, picking and hauling raw ore to processing sites. Communities developed to support the needs of the
increasing populace.
One of the earliest settlements in the area was Frytown, where a few rough structures perched over the banks of Auburn Ravine creek. The village took its name from the owner of a general store there. Neighboring Doty’s Flat, Gold Hill and Millertown also grew up as mining camps, with the hamlet of Ophir becoming the largest of the Gold Rush-era villages.
Mining companies often laid down private narrow gauge rail lines to facilitate delivering the ore-rich rock to a water source for panning and sluicing, or to stamp mills for pulverizing the stone to free the gold.
The mills’ wood frames usually were erected on hillsides with rows of thick wood timbers attached to a central spindle cranked by steam-powered engines. Loads of blasted rock were dumped down chutes to a slotted platform.
Heavy mallets at the bottom of the timbers rose and fell on the heaps of ore, crushing the rock to rubble. Slats in the mill floor allowed small bits of rock to drop into hoppers below where it was washed with mercury, making it easier to glean the metal from the pebbles. The non-precious slag was washed aside, leaving tall cones of cobbles behind.
At the height of mining in this region, the mills stamped their massive feet 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thumping a rhythmic beat that shook the ground for miles around. Three of the largest mills in the area were located at the Hathaway mine near Bald Hill, the Gold Blossom on Crater Hill, and the Three Star near Chili Hill. Each was equipped with 20 hammering mallets.
When the Central Pacific Railroad cut a swath up the foothills, it chugged along ridges to the southeast. The old mining camps dwindled as progress routed around them. Farming and ranching took over the land.
Although gold mining in this locale continued well into the middle of the 20th century, the stamp mills now are faded memories. Most mine tunnels have been capped for safety. Today, there is little evidence of the district’s mining activity visible from public thoroughfares.
The hills west of Auburn conceal the role they played in history, but their bucolic beauty and quiet serenity continue to enrich the lives of the people who call them home.