Treasures in Warner’s Ranch

There are a good number of stories that have been told of gold that was lost around Warner’s Ranch. One of these stories tells of one of the wives of the men that worked on the ranch. It is said an Indian woman who used to work for the lady offered to show her an area where there was a good amount of gold. They went to go find the gold however they were stopped by the husband of the Indian woman. The Indian woman did tell the woman where the place was located in the mountains close to Oak Grove. There is another story that tells of a Yaqui Indian that had worked on a ranch and who always had a good amount of gold to spend. Whenever this Indian needed money he would go down to the San Felipe Creek and would leave for around three days and would come back with a bag full of gold nuggets. He managed to accumulate around four thousand dollars worth of gold that was covered in black lava and was found under the Indians bunk bed. Obviously the stories that have been mentioned are only a few and there are probably a lot more on the treasures that have been buried in the Anza Borrego State Park. If you are into electronic prospecting you may want to consider doing this around Carrizo Wash, San Felipe Creek, Yaqui Pass, Grapevine Canyon, Yaqui Well, and Vallecito Stage Station.

The Chocolate Mountains – Tumco – Potholes area
This area was once the most gold producing area in the south areas of California. This area has a great amount of claims on it now however there are still some good areas left for grabs. The area is quite remote and the terrain is very rugged and has harsh climate which has avoided it from being worked a great amount. There are some other activities that can be done in this area such as dune buggy racing over the sand hills.  

The Chocolate Mountains
To get to the Chocolate Mountains simply take the San Bernardino freeway 10 until you reach Indio. From here take highway 86 south to Brawley. When in Brawley you will need to take highway 78. The Chocolate Mountains are located on the left after having passed the sand hills. The area around the Chocolate Mountains is closed for about ten miles past Glamis. This is done however for the safety of people given that it is used as an aerial gunnery range. The gold mining district Mesquite is also included as part of the Chocolate Mountains. Mining (lode and placer) has been going on for a long time in this area; ever since the 1800’s. In the 1930’s there were various attempts to mine the placers on a large scale basis by dry washing however these attempts failed. This area has lode quartz veins that have gold and silver with iron oxides that occur in granite rock. The veins in the area are not big but some rich pockets have been found here.