Some Gold Districts in
Calaveras County

Collierville
The district of Collierville is located around four or five miles east of Murphys close to the Stanislaus River. Something that can often times be found in this place is white to dark grey quartz, which has been the ore that has paid out at times.

Hodson
You can get to the district of Hodson by taking the Hodson Road north off Highway 4, which is right before entering Copperopolis from the west. Some rich gold pockets were located here during the time of the gold rush. One of the biggest stamp mills in the state used to be here as well which was a 120 stamp mill at the Royal Mine.

Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind was mostly a placer mining district. The gold in this area can be found in gravel deposits of the Calaveras River and in the terrace gravels located along the side of the river. These deposits were dredged and hydrauliced.

In order to get to Jenny Lind, take Highway 26 south off Highway 12 in Valley Springs, to Milton Road and then take a left. The Jenny Lind site is located on the place where you will need to cross the Calaveras River.

Mokelumne Hill
The district of Mokelumne Hill was one of the roughest, wildest and riches gold camps that existed. This place was known for all the killings that went on every single week. It is said there was at least one killing per week for seventeen weeks straight and five killings on one weekend.

The placers in this area were very rich and the claims in this were limited to only sixteen feet. The French War occurred here in 1851 as well. The French miners on French Hill raised their French flag over the diggings they had done. This obviously caused the angered Americans miners to get together and they drove the French miners off the hill and took over the very rich diggings. It has always been considered that it was more than patriotism that motivated the Americans to get into this battle (the rich deposits perhaps?)

Mokelumne Hill is also one of the places that a portion of the great rich Big Blue gravels have been located. Additionally eight Tertiary channels were found in this area and some of the placer mines in this area have produced more than one million dollars worth in gold. The mines reached their maximum point of production in the last part of the 1800’s. The Mokelumne Hill is located right off Highway 49.

Mountain Ranch
Some Tertiary gravel was located in Mountain Ranch during the days of the gold rush and there were some very rich small spots of gold quartz veins that have been worked on as well. This area can be gotten to by taking the Mountain Ranch Road east out of San Andreas.

Murphys
This place is called Murphys because it was founded by the brothers John and Daniel Murphy after they discovered gold here. This camp then turned into one of the most famous camps in the Mother Lode. Murphy’s hotel has had some important visitors such as U.S. Grant, Mark Twain, Charles Boles, Horatio Alger, Thomas Lipton etc.

At the end of 1849 the Murphy brothers decided they had made a good amount of fortune and decided to leave the camp. The district of Murphy also includes the Esmeralda area. Some gold can still be found in the streams in this area and the gold bearing quartz veins can be found in slate and schist, and have mostly a rosy color. Murphy’s district is located east of Angels Camp on Highway 4.