The Clipper Mountains

This area was also known as the Gold Reef district and gold was first discovered around 1915. those interested in getting to the mining area can get there by taking the Danby Road from old highway 66 around six miles west of Essex. The Clipper Mountains, as probably all of the gold bearing areas have had, has its story of lost treasure. The story says that in 1894 a Santa Fe railroad employee who was known as Schofield came to find a Dutch oven that was packed with gold when he was looking for water under the ground. He had taken the day off from work and was looking around when he ran into the gold. Schofield saw an old trail and followed it to see where it would take him. This trail went through a gulch, then past a spring that was bubbling from the side of the gulch, over thee small hills, and into one more canyon and when he got to this area he saw an opening in the cliffs. He went through the narrow opening he had seen and ran into a bunch of black rocks. He saw that it was an ancient mining camp. The mine shaft was close by and was still in pretty good shape. When he was walking and looking around the camp, he banged into a beat up Dutch oven that was sitting there and saw that a bunch of gold nuggets had fallen off and were all over the ground. Schofield filled his pockets up with as much gold as he could get and went to Los Angeles to announce and celebrate what he had found. He then tried to get back to the same camp but was not able to ever find it again. There are some treasure hunters that think that the mine was not located in the Clipper Mountains but rather in the Woman Mountains on the south. The Old Woman Mountains are also a gold district but they do not have a great amount of production there.