By Tom Ashworth — LANE COUNTY, OREGON County

Source: Tom Ashworth's Prospectors Cache (tomashworth.com / Tom Ashworth). Author: Tom Ashworth. Original page: lane_or.shtml. Area: by Tom Ashworth. Map coordinates refined from text (directional: "Cottage Grove, LANE COUNTY, OREGON County, Oregon, USA", offset southeast 35 mi). Still approximate — verify on the ground. Gold mining begin in Lane County in 1858 and continues today. Gold has not been an important commodity in Lane County and only about 50,00 ounces have been reported. All of this came from two locations. The Blue River District is actually in Lane and Linn Counties, but its only productive mine, the Lucky Boy, was located in Lane County. It produced about 10,000 ounces, all from lode deposits. About 40,000 ounces came from the Bohemia District about 35 miles southeast of Cottage Grove. Mining continues today in Lane County. Most Forestry campgrounds are "Mineral Withdrawal Sites" and may be used for gold panning, nugget hunting with a metal detector. The larger "Mineral Withdrawal Sites" within the Forestry Service have plainly marked boundaries to indicate the "Free Use Sites" where dredging, gold panning, sluicing and nugget sniping can be done. BLUE RIVER Well east of Springfield on U.S. 126, this district overlaps into Linn County. The Total Production between 1887-1959 was 10,200 ounces of lode gold. The Lucky Boy Mine is 14 patented claims lapping into Linn County. See Linn County for more information. COTTAGE GROVE Southeast of Cottage Grove 35 miles on a divide between the Willamette and Umpqua rivers is the Bohemia district. This was the largest and most productive gold district in the West Cascade Mountains. Along Sharps, Martin and Steamboat creeks the gravel bars and benches contain placer gold. There are many lode mines in the area. The Champion (Evening Star) Mine had an 18,000 foot underground tunnel with a by product of gold from copper zinc ores. The Music Mine (14 Claims) along Sharps Creek had a rich history and has produced about $300,000 in gold from 1891-1949. The Crystal (Lizzie Bullock) Mine had a by product of gold from copper ore. The Helena Mine produced $250,000 in gold from 1896-1950. The Mayflower Mine on Horseheaven Creek also had a good history. Other area mines are Star, Capitan, President, Grizzly, Leroy, Shotgun, Carlisle all produced lode gold.