Mines of El Dorado County: “G” (Part 1)

The Gabriel Tunzi claim was a placer claim on 80 acres two and one-half miles southeast of Placerville.

The Gaddis Creek placer mine consisted of 160 acres of land on Gaddis Creek, a tributary of Slab Creek. It was near Sand Mountain and Pino Grande on the north side of the South Fork of the American River.

The Gallagher lode gold mine was located on 20.66 acres of isolated land two miles northeast of Greenwood. Another Gallagher mine, this time a placer mine, was located near Grizzly Flat.

The Gambling (also known as Gamblin’) mine was a lode gold mine located two miles southwest of Fair Play. Active 1915-18 and 1933-34, it consisted of a 18 to 30-inch vein of gold bearing quartz in granodiorite. It was developed by a 500-foot inclined shaft, considerable drifting, and an adit on the 90-foot level. The ore was treated in a 45 ton, 10-stamp mill with Frue vanners (a piece of machinery that concentrates the gold bearing materials invented by William Frue) and amalgam (mercury) plates.

The Ganong placer mine was located on 120 acres along the north side of the South Fork of the American River, about one mile downstream from Coloma.

The Gardner Consolidated (a consolidated mine is a group of mining claims operated together) mine was on 26.12 acres, one mile north of Placerville on the Mother Lode. Active prior to 1914, the deposit was a 5-foot vein of gold bearing quartz in slate. It as developed by a 400-foot crosscut adit and 500 feet of drifts.
One mile south of Volcanoville was the Garfield mine. Active around 1894, it was a lode gold mine developed by a 120-foot inclined shaft and 700-foot crosscut adit. There was another Garfield mine that was a lode gold claim on the west branch of the Mother Lode one mile east of Greenwood.

The Garfield and Excelsior Consolidated mine was a lode gold deposit one mile northeast of Greenwood. Also active around 1894, it consisted of 20-foot wide vein in slate developed by four crosscut adits, 200 to 400 feet long.

The Garibaldi Consolidated mine was located near Greenwood. Prospected around 1894, it was a 6-foot vein of gold bearing quartz in slate.

The Gem placer mine was located on 32.01 acres of land two miles north of Kelsey and east of Spanish Flat.

The General Dredging Corporation, based in Natoma (a town now under Lake Natoma behind Nimbus Dam), operated two dragline dredges (one and one-half and two cubic yards in capacity) near Coloma and near Shingle Springs during the years 1939-42.

The Geniac placer mine was located near Weber Creek, about one mile southeast of Placerville.

The Gentle Annie Consolidated lode gold mine was located on the Mother Lode about one mile north of Placerville. It consisted of 33.24 acres worked at two locations, the Bona Sorte and the Gentle Annie. These were also worked together with the adjacent Gross Consolidated and the Mierson Consolidated mining operations.

The George E. Williams claim was located on 140 acres one-half mile south of Placerville. From its location, it appears to be a placer claim, although it is adjacent to the Mother Lode.

The George M. Clark claim was a placer claim on 100 acres about two miles southeast of Placerville on a tributary of Weber Creek.

The George W. Vineyard claim was a placer claim on 80 acres two miles northeast of Placerville, near White Rock Creek.

The Georgia Hill Tunnel and Hydraulic placer mine was located two miles northeast of Placerville near White Rock Creek.

One of the largest seam gold mines in El Dorado County was a consolidation of the Bettie and Parsons Consolidated, Blue Rock, Mulvey Point and Pacific mining claims, known commonly as the Georgia Slide mine. It was located one and one-half miles north-northwest of Georgetown on the south side of Canyon Creek. Its name is derived from miners who came from the gold mines in the state of Georgia, near a town named Dahlonega, where gold had been discovered in 1828. It was these experienced Georgia miners who were some of the earliest in the gold fields of California and who brought with them, and shared with others, much of the needed mining knowledge and experience.
Originally the several claims making up the Georgia Slide mine were worked individually by hydraulicking from 1853 to 1895, using water from Canyon Creek, North Canyon and Dark Canyon. After the cessation of hydraulic mining, small amounts of ore were treated in several stamp mills on the property. In 1915 a 10-stamp mill was erected to rework the accumulated tailings. The total estimated output from the seam deposits is $3,000,000 and from the placer deposits in Oregon Canyon and Canyon Creek, which derive their gold from the seam deposits, another $3,500,000. It is estimated that 3,500,000 cubic yards of material was removed from the immense pit that still remains. The seams ranged from less than an inch to a foot or more in width, some swelling into lenses several feet thick. After hydraulic mining stopped, the banks were excavated by blasting and the debris was directed by water pressure into a sluice. Whenever quartz seams were encountered they were treated by hand mortaring. The pit is about 1000 feet long and about 600 feet wide at the top.

Three miles south of El Dorado on the Mother Lode was the German (Haeger or German Group) mine. Consisting of 11 acres, it was active around 1896 – 1900 and developed by a 500-foot inclined shaft. Ore was treated at the mine in a 10-stamp mill.

The Gibralter Group had a lode gold claim on the Mother Lode one-half mile southeast of Diamond Springs.

The Gignac mine was a placer gold drift mine at Texas Hill, two and one-half miles southeast of Placerville. It was active during the 1890s.

The Giltedge mine was a placer gold mine located two and one-half miles south of the town of Fair Play. Active in 1896 when an ancient river channel, capped with sand and clay, was developed by driving a 300-foot adit under the cap to get at the coarse gold on the bedrock.

One mile southeast of Greenwood was a seam gold mine also known as the Gilt Edge (Revenge Consolidated) mine. In the early days of the Gold Rush it was worked by hydraulicking.

The Ginafalio placer mine was near Salmon Falls on or near Sweetwater Creek and the South Fork of the American River.

The Givani Romelli claim consisted of 20 acres somewhere in the general area of Georgetown.

The Glenn mine was a chromite mine located 2 miles southeast of Latrobe. Although it was in an area rich in chromite, it was not mined but only prospected in 1918.

The Gloriana mine was a lode gold mine at Henry’s Diggings two miles north of Omo Ranch, in the southern part of El Dorado County. When it was last reported on in 1956, it had been “long idle.”

The Goethe placer mine was located on the South Fork of the American River, one mile downstream from Lotus.

The Gold Bug mine was a chromite mine four miles southeast of Latrobe on a ridge east of Big Canyon Creek. 16 tons of chromite ore was produced from this mine in 1918. This deposit of low-grade ore, 1 to 3-feet wide and 125 feet long, was developed by open cuts. Another Gold Bug mine (also known as the Canyon Creek Mine) was a placer gold mine two miles north of Georgetown, just north of Georgia Slide Mine. This was mostly a secondary mining operation since accumulated hydraulic mine tailings, seam deposit detritus and some virgin gravel were intermittently worked by several different operators from around 1896 to 1934. The material was extracted by draglines and sent through a trommel (screen) and sluices. A third Gold Bug mine, this time a lode gold mine, was located on 15.35 acres of land on the south side of Sand Mountain, about two miles west of Pino Grande on the north side of the South Fork of the American River.

The Gold Channel placer mine consisted of workings within six different sections of land about seven miles northeast of Georgetown and directly north of today’s Camp Chiquita.

The Gold Deposit lode gold mine was located on an undisclosed amount of land in the area of Kelsey.

The Gold Divide lode gold claim existed, but is not accurately described as to location in the records.

The Gold Dyke lode gold claim was located about one-half mile east of Sacramento County, north of Green Valley Road.

The Gold Hatchet placer mine was on or near the North Fork of Weber Creek, two miles east of Camino.

The Gold Hill placer mine was located on 80 acres one mile south of Coloma in the Gold Hill area.

The Gold Mountain lode gold mine was located on 17 acres of the Mother Lode at Nashville.

The Gold Note Consolidated lode gold mine consisted of several claims comprising 142 acres two miles to the southeast of Omo Ranch. This mine is another one that has been idle so long that not much is known about it.

The Gold Reef lode gold mine was part of a group of nine mines on about 150 acres of a small branch off the Mother Lode that were worked together, three miles south of the town of El Dorado.

The Gold Seam lode gold claim was located just south of the Middle Fork of the American River, just east of Spanish Dry Diggings.

The Gold Slide placer mine consisted of 50 acres on the Middle Fork of the American River, just up stream from its convergence with the North Fork.

The Gold Stake lode gold claim was located on the Mother Lode, two miles south of the town of El Dorado.

The Gold Star lode gold claim was located on the Mother Lode, just south of Kelsey.

The Gold Top lode gold mine was located on 21.66 acres of the Mother Lode, two miles south of the town of El Dorado.

The Golden Center lode gold claim was located on the Mother Lode, two miles south of Diamond Springs.

The Golden Egg lode gold claim was located on the western branch of the Mother Lode, one mile east of Greenwood.

The Golden Fleece (Church) lode gold mine was located on 20.58 acres of the Mother Lode, two miles south of the town of El Dorado.

The Golden Horseshoe lode gold mine was located on the Mother Lode one mile northwest of Placerville.

The Golden State mine was a seam gold mine on 17.91 acres of land just west of Jones Hill and one mile east of Spanish Dry Diggings. The deposit consisted of numerous quartz bearing seams in a belt 200 to 300 feet wide. It was mined by open cut and the material then run through a sluice.