Western Mining History Update

DD,

If you love mining history and you haven't done so already you should really take a river trip down the Middle Fork of The American River. It was the heart of the Gold Rush in California and filled with mining history and debris from top to bottom. I spent 7 years as a full time guide out there and picked up a lot of great gold rush history from that Canyon!


I'll have to do that some time! I'm still looking for a big donor so I can just do this mining stuff full time :)
 
I'll have to do that some time! I'm still looking for a big donor so I can just do this mining stuff full time :)



Yeah the more you learn the more the landscape comes alive and you feel rooted in the places that you travel. On the Middle fork the miners were incredible industrious dynamiting holes in the canyon to divert the river to mine. In one location they blasted a tunnel through the rock and cut divots in the floor to make that tunnel act as a huge sluice box and then they used monitors for hydraulic mining to run whole hill sides worth of debris through that tunnel. When they were done they would turn the water off and walk through picking the material from the divots to pan down for gold. That kind of engineering given the technology they had available is simply amazing!
 
Nice work DD : ) i clicked the "like" button for FB on the website.

Cari and i spent a week just accross the river from the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma California's Gold Rush area. Beautiful area!

Most of our panning trips are on the Lewis River in Washington and the Quartzville Mining District near Salem Oregon because they are fairly easy drives for us from the Oregon Coast (max 4 hours away). There by lunch and spend a few days on the river mid week to avoid crowds.

There are some fun old timers in QMD. We've seen the same group for the past three seasons we've been visiting. Most old-timers happen to be retired vets who tell us they are supplementing their "retirement".

Happy Trails,
Thom
 
Announced another big update today, including the addition of photos from the trip some of the WTW members attended in July - Bodie, Gold Point etc.

http://www.westernmininghistory.com/blog-details/7094
 
Big update today! Finally finished integrating the USGS mines place name coordinate database into Western Mining History. You can see the result here:

http://www.westernmininghistory.com/minesmap/

In total there are approximately 30,000 mines in the database. I found a clever Google Maps app that allows thousands of points to be displayed on a single map through a clustering technique. The states with many thousands of points are a bit slow loading and they can break Internet Explorer so please use Firefox to view the maps. There is also a map with all 30k points on one map (slow loading):

http://www.westernmininghistory.com/westernmines/

While most of the mines only contain the basic data contained in the USGS, I will be adding additional info and photos to the mine records on a regular basis. Example of an expanded mine record:

http://www.westernmininghistory.com/mine/7637/

Some of the views on the maps are pretty neat like this one of the town of Leadville with many mines right in town:

leadvillemines.jpg
 
Great stuff here DD. I did not realize there were so many mines located in my area. These databases with coordinates are great.
 
DD, I used that same google clustering tool for a client recently, it's a good one. Using Chrome and Safari, things are fast. You might mention that next to your "FIREFOX ONLY!!!!" rant ;)
 
DD, I used that same google clustering tool for a client recently, it's a good one. Using Chrome and Safari, things are fast. You might mention that next to your "FIREFOX ONLY!!!!" rant ;)


It doesnt say Firefox only :) I just wanted to drop a subtle hint not to use IE.
 
The states with many thousands of points are a bit slow loading and they can break Internet Explorer so please use Firefox to view the maps. There is also a map with all 30k points on one map (slow loading):



You are so right DD, loading the mines' maps does break IE. I guess it's time to make the switch to Firefox.
 
You are so right DD, loading the mines' maps does break IE. I guess it's time to make the switch to Firefox.


Have you ever tried Chrome (the browser from Google)? My favorite for the past year or so -- I recommend it.
I liked it better than Firefox when I made the switch, but I haven't tried Firefox in over a year...so maybe I should.

I still use IE for a few web-based Microsoft applications, such as accessing Outlook Web Access. Chrome and Firefox don't have full functions with OWA or SharePoint.
 
I'd like to get my Alaskan out for some prospecting in Colorado next spring,summer,fall..cool to see the interest in mining history on here.

Sent from my XT1585 using Wander The West mobile app
 
I didn't know that was the intent of this page, I will keep this in mind when I post.
Many years ago I traveled route 49 in California, old gold mining towns like Murphy's were incredible places on the trail.
 
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