~TRLR - Eureka Creek Project
Our Eureka Placer Claim is located on Eureka Creek in California’s Sierra City Mining District.This district covers a very large area in Sierra County, extending through Furnier, Loganville, Church Meadows, Gold Valley, and the Sierra City-Buttes areas. It is located at the southern portion of a major belt of gold mineralization that extends to the northern district, Johnsville Mining District, which is located in Plumas County. This area was common for placer mining during the gold rush and many coarse nuggets were recovered. In local lode mines, many high grade surface pockets were discovered, including that of the Four Hills mine which yielded between $250,000- $500,000. This mining district was highly active between 1870-1914, and intermittent mining has continued into present time. The actual value of output from the area is unknown, but is estimated to have been about $30 million.
Geology- Through the west of the district is a trending belt of Calaveras slate, schist, and quartzite with limestone lenses, while the east consists of a quartz porphyry belt that lies in the central portion, and greenstone and amphibolite schist to the east. Few serpentine lenses are present and the northeastern area is overlain by glacial moraines. There are a series of trending quartz veins that range anywhere from a few feet to as much as 40 feet in thickness. These veins can be found in the metamorphic rock, and the ore bodies contain free gold, pyrite, and minor galena and chalcopyrite. Several fairly magnetic deposits can be found in the north end of the district.
The Eureka Mining District is an extensive area of scattered placer and a few lode deposits in northwestern Sierra County about eight miles northwest of Downieville. It includes the “diggings” not only at Eureka but also at Craig’s Flat, Morristown, and Saddleback Mountain. It is surrounded by a number of famous placer-mining districts: Downieville, Poker Flat, Port Wine, Poverty Hill, and Brandy City. The hydraulic mines here were worked on a major scale from the 1850s to the middle 1880s, and then intermittently on a smalll scale through the 1930s.
The principal Tertiary channel deposits are at Eureka, Craig’s Flat, Morristown, and Monte Cristo, the most extensive being at Eureka. They are part of the Eureka channel, an indistinct branch of the Tertiary North Fork of the Yuba River. As in the other nearby placer-mining districts, the chief values were obtained from the lower quartzitic gravels. Some very coarse nuggets have been found here. Bedrock consists of slate and phyllite and several narrow belts of greenstone and serpentine. Several of the high ridges are capped by andesite. There are a few gold-quartz veins, the most productive having been at the Telegraph mine, which is on a slate-serpentine contact
