Salmon River — Siskiyou County

Source: Tom Ashworth's Prospectors Cache (tomashworth.com / Mike Higbee / 49erMike). Author: Tom Ashworth. Original page: siskiyou_ca.shtml. State index: https://web.archive.org/web/20040830075749/http://www.tomashworth.com/goldloc.shtml Area: SALMON RIVER. Map coordinates are an approximate county centroid — not a precise claim site. Along every mile of the Salmon River in Siskiyou County placer gold is found. Almost every type of placer mining has been used on the river. Both the north and south forks were productive and one stretch between Forks of Salmon and Sawyers Bar is estimated to have produced over 1,000,000 ounces. This is one of the richest rivers in Siskiyou County. Cecilville Cecilville is located 30 miles southwest of Callahan on the South Fork of the Salmon River. The Salmon River produced considerable gold on both the east and south forks, near the point where they join in southwestern Siskiyou County. After the placers had been worked a for several years, lode veins were found and mined until 1940. The lodes had both massive bodies and stringers which ran to high grade pockets. If you go north of Cecilville by steep USFS road to the summit, the Black Bear Mine, now private property, but was a producer of 150,000 ounces of lode gold. Many area mines in regional canyons produced lode gold. The East fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River you will find placer gold, with platinum nuggets. Forks of the Salmon The Forks of the Salmon was the center of large gold mining operations and all regional stream and bench gravels had very rich placers. There were huge hydraulic operations on the major streams which produced 1,000's of ounces of placer gold. If you go southeast of this area, about 10 mi., you will find The King Solomon Mine which can be reached by Matthew's creek jeep road. This mine was a major producer of lode gold with over 50,000 ounces recorded. Liberty The Liberty district is about 10 miles east of Forks of Salmon. The placers were discovered here in the 1850's. The area was active until the start of World War I and although some prospecting has taken place since. Many lode mines in the area. Sawyers Bar Sawyers Bar is located in the Salmon River district and contains roughly 800 square miles of extremely mountainous country between the Marble Mountains and Salmon and Trinity Wilderness areas. This area had a total production between 1855-1965 estimated at 16,000 ounces of placer gold and 20,000 ounces of lode gold. In all regional stream gravels you can find placer gold and platinum. There were very many huge hydraulic operations and Chinese diggings, accessible from the east on Sawyers Bar road. The North Fork of the Salmon River in all gravel and slope wash deposits you will find placer gold. In the South Fork gravel bars, especially near mouth of Black Gulch there are rich placer gold deposits. The Whites Gulch Mine was a hydraulic operation worked until 1970 for its placer gold. If you go east 10 mile to Idlewild which was the site of an old sawmill and USFS campground, the gravels of South Russian River have rich placer gold and platinum deposits on bedrock. It is reported that on the North Fork of the Salmon there were very many mines, The Hickey Mine, The Gallia Mine, The Red Hill Mine all of which were substantial producers. Also it should be noted that gold in this area is said to be fine to flour and you should have recovery systems that will handle that type of gold.