Mines of El Dorado County: “Q” and “R” (Part 1)

The Quail mine was a placer mine on 40 acres one mile northwest of Indian Diggings.

The Quail Consolidated mine was a lode gold mine consisting of two claims totaling 77.154 acres of the Mother Lode two miles south of Kelsey.

The Quartz Canyon Mine, a placer gold mine one mile south of Volcanoville, and appropriately located in Quartz Canyon. During the 1890s debris that had accumulated from other mining activities and natural forces was worked for gold in a “self-shooting” reservoir.

The Quiggle mine was a lode gold mine on 30 acres of the Mother Lode, two miles northwest of Kelsey. It was owned by one John Quiggle.

The Raffetto mine was a placer mine on 40 acres two miles southwest of Camino, south of Weber Creek.

The Railroad mine was a placer gold mine of 80 acres two miles north of Kelsey near Spanish Flat.

The Railroad Hill mine was a lode gold mine on the west branch of the Mother Lode two miles northwest of Greenwood.

The Rainbow (Wild West) mine was a 24 acre lode gold mine one and one-half miles northwest of Garden Valley on the western branch of the Mother Lode.. The deposit consisted of a system of gold-bearing quartz veins as much as twenty-three feet wide that was mined in 1896. The deposit was developed by open cuts and a twenty-five foot shaft. Ore was treated in a four-stamp mill.

The Raloom mine was a lodge gold claim adjacent to the town of Omo Ranch.

The Randall mine was a placer gold mine nine miles west of Rescue on the South Fork of the American River. It is now under Folsom Lake.

Two miles south of Placerville, near Weber Creek, was the Rattler mine, a lode gold mine. It was active prior to 1894 and developed by two adits.

The Rattlesnake Bridge (Alabaster Cave, Rattlesnake Bar) deposit was a very large limestone mine located one mile east of Rattlesnake Bridge (now under Folsom Lake) and five miles south of Auburn. The deposit was worked intermittently from the 1860s on by a number of different concerns, including the Auburn Chemical Lime Company (1930-1942); Auburn Lime Products Company (1946-1948); Hughes-Vertin Lime Company (1949-1954); and Vertin Lime Company (1954-1955) until the mine and plant were purchased by the Semon Lime Company in July of 1955.
The deposit, 4,000 feet long and 80 to 100 feet in width, is developed by four quarries, both north and south of the processing plant, up to 500 feet long, 25 to 50 feet wide and up to 75 feet deep. All limestone mined at this location and limestone purchased for a time from the California Rock and Gravel Company in Cool, was processed at a plant at the mine. Once processed the limestone was shipped to steel plants, the building-trades industry or sold as roofing granules, chicken grits, limestone flour and road metal (road surfacing rock).

The Rau and Patterson mine was a placer gold mine on 60 acres one and one-half miles north of Georgetown.

The Red Diggings mine was a placer gold mine one and one-half miles southeast of Volcanoville.

The Red Gold mine was an unreported type of gold mine about five miles southeast of Omo Ranch.

Two miles northwest of Garden Valley was the Red Hill mine, a lode gold mine on the west branch of the Mother Lode. It was active around 1914 when a vein of gold-bearing quartz was developed by a 100-foot inclined shaft and a 350-foot drift. The ore was treated in a two-stamp mill.

There is a second Red Hill mine located on 21 acres of the Mother Lode one mile north of Kelsey on the Mother Lode. Both of these may be the same mine poorly described.

The Red Raven Consolidated mine was a series of four adjacent lode gold claims totaling 71.13 acres two miles east of Rescue.

The Red Rover mine was a lode gold mine three miles southeast of the townsite of El Dorado. It was active in 1894 and again in 1920, when a vein of gold-bearing quartz, which varied in width from half a foot to three feet, was developed by two shafts, 30 and 130 feet in depth, and 115 feet of drifts. There was a second Red Rover mine, a lode gold mine only described as being in the general area of Rescue.

The Red Top mine was a lode gold mine three miles south of the town of El Dorado on the Mother Lode.

Three miles south of the townsite of El Dorado was the Red Wing mine, a lode gold mine. Located on 20 acres of the Mother Lode (including the Red Top mine’s 5.7 acres) it was first active from 1914 to 1922 and again in 1926. At this location a five-foot vein of gold-bearing quartz was developed by an upper 125-foot adit and a lower 525-foot crosscut adit and drifts. The ore was treated in a two-stamp mill.

The Reed and Kayser mine was a lode gold mine on the Mother Lode, at the northwest edge of Placerville.

An iron mine known as the Reliance mine was located three miles north of Bass Lake (Bass Lake is between Cameron Park and El Dorado Hills). Two magnetite veins, four and one-half feet in width, were developed by three shafts, 50, 218 and 312 feet in depth. The shafts have since been caved in for safety purposes.

The Relief mine was an unknown type of gold mine two and one-half miles southwest of Omo Ranch.

The Relocated Eureka mine was a lode gold mine one -half mile south of Placerville on the Mother Lode.

There is a second Relocated Eureka mine, also a lode gold mine, one and one-half miles northwest of Placerville on the Mother Lode.

The Reon mine was a placer gold mine on 20 acres, one and one-half miles south of Smith Flat.

The Reuter and Co. Hydraulic mine was a placer gold mine one mile south of Camino near Weber Creek.

The Revenge mine was a lode gold mine on the west branch of the Mother Lode, one mile south of Greenwood. Later this mine would become part of the Revenge Consolidated mine group, consisting of four sites: the Revenge location, the Revenge mill site, Jerome Raber location and Jerome Raber mill site.

There is a second Revenge mine, also a lode gold mine, two and one-half miles north of Greenwood on the west branch of the Mother Lode.

Two miles south of Pilot Hill was the Revoir mine, a copper mine. It was located just south of the Costa Ranch Mine and not much more than a prospect.

The Ribbon Rock mine was a lode gold mine one and one-half miles south of Placerville on the Mother Lode.

A second Ribbon Rock mine, also a lode gold mine, was located one mile north of Placerville on the Mother Lode.

The Rich mine was a placer gold mine three miles east of Volcanoville.

The Rich Gulch mine was lode gold mine on the east branch of the Mother Lode, one mile north of Garden Valley.

The Richards mine was a lode gold mine one 20.008 acres of the Mother Lode, one and one-half miles south of Diamond Springs.

The Richelieu mine was a lode gold mine on 20.20 acres of the Mother Lode, two miles south of the townsite of El Dorado. It was active in 1932 when a small amount of gold was mined through a shaft of unknown depth and 275-foot adit. Some of the ore was treated at the Church Mine’s mill.

One mile southeast of the town of Fair Play was the Richmond mine (Richmond and Syracuse, Richmond Consolidated Group), a lode gold mine on 38 acres. Little more is known about it other than the ore was treated in an eight-stamp mill.

The Ringgold Lode and Keystone (also Rinegold and Keystone Lode) mine was a lode gold mine on 36.412 acres one and one-half miles east of Diamond Springs near Ringgold Creek.

The Rip and Tear (Dodson) mine was a copper mine located two miles north of Latrobe. Originally worked during California’s little known “copper boom” of the 1860s, it was reopened in 1918 when two carloads of copper ore was mined and shipped to a smelter. In 1943, W. J. Varozza, a Latrobe resident, cleaned out the workings of the mine and shipped a small amount of ore. The deposit consists of bands and stringers of copper ore as wide as five feet and containing as much as ten percent copper. Development at the mine consisted of a 100-foot main shaft and drifts. About a mile to the north of the main shaft was another shaft, forty feet in depth.

The Rip Van Winkle mine was a lode gold mine on 20.41 acres either two and one-half or five miles east of Garden Valley, depending on the report.

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