By Tom Ashworth — MARIPOSA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA County

Source: Tom Ashworth's Prospectors Cache (tomashworth.com / Tom Ashworth). Author: Tom Ashworth. Original page: mariposa_ca.shtml. Area: by Tom Ashworth. Map coordinates refined from text (landmark: "Mother, MARIPOSA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA County, California, USA"). Still approximate — verify on the ground. LOCATION COUNTY: Mariposa County STATE: California Mariposa County is southernmost of the Mother Lode counties and has had a long and productive gold mining history, with total production of 2,144,500 ounces of gold recovered from 1880-1959, of which 583,500 ounces came from placer operations. Following the closure of mining during World War II, the annual gold production has been about 1,000 ounces. There were very many important lode gold and placer gold producers. The Copper Queen Mine produced copper with a by product of gold. In sections 9 and 10, of township 4S and range 15E, you will find the Fitch Mine which was a rich lode gold producer. West of Bagby in Quaternary gravels along the Merced range, placers produced 50,000 ounces of gold, between 1860-70. In Bear Valley , area mines, especially the Josephine produced lode gold. In Coulterville, which is located more or less central in the Mother Lode and East Belt areas, a northwest trending zone 3-4 miles wide extending from Mormon Bar into Tuolumne County, had a total production, about 1,009,000 ounces of lode gold. The major mines include the Princeton, Pine Tree, Mt. Ophir, Original and Ferguson, Hite, and Mariposa all which produced rich lode gold deposits.