Plumas County Adventures
Send Ron EMail: rcooke@oavax.csuchico.edu
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Have I told you how much I love old maps? I guess it goes back to my childhood
and the "Treasure Island" thing. I've always dreamed about finding
a really old map that led to some spectacular treasure. This is the story
of an old map. Just the map, no treasure (or at least no treasure to date).
I recently found this old map of the American Eagle Quartz Mine.
If you have trouble reading the map, let me translate. There is the "Foundling" location (located 1/22/1881); the "Old Hector" location (4/29/1886). These two were lumped together and called the American Eagle Quartz Mine and surveyed in 1887. This survey map shows a quartz mill, two "lodging houses" and an office. It also shows tunnels, shafts, and cuts.
I've been to this old site twice. No real treasures but I found this really cool iron ore cart wheel.
This wheel is 14" in diameter with a 1-5/8" hole. It is 4" (3" wide with 1" keeper) wide. It reads "HINCKLEY, SPIERS, & HAYES, SF" If you know anything about this company, please EMail me!!
The tunnel is interesting. There is lots of ice cold water coming from the tunnel and it has been dammed up and makes a nice bath-sized hole. The entrance to the tunnel is completely filled with water.
Bob is inspecting the hole. It would be a wonderful spot on a really hot summer day. I haven't found the lodging house spots yet but here is a possibility.
There are lots of flats in this area. It is very steep on either side of this flat, but as you can see, there are possible building sites on a flat like this.
I did some research and found a bit of information on the AEQM. In 1892 the mine was noted to have a 5' quartz vein. There was a 600' tunnel and a 1700' tunnel with three raises to the surface. Ore was run through a Dodge rock breaker, a 5 ft Huntington roller mill, and over two triumph concentrators. In 1915 the mine was idle.
Yes, I'm going back! I'll keep you posted.