News.bytes Extra, issue 238

BLM-sponsored geology and mining history tour of the Southern Mother Lode

The 2006 Mother Lode field conference attracted 56 participants, from June 23 to June 25, 2006. The program featured two public lectures on “Geology and Personalities of the Southern Mother Lode” -- one at the Mariposa County History Center in Mariposa Friday night, June 23, and the other at the Northern Tuolumne County Museum in Sonora Saturday night, June 24.

The field trip on Saturday included demonstration at this stamp mill in Mariposa...

...and tours of Hornitos, La Grange, Coulterville, and Jamestown. Some of the participants camped Saturday night at the old Jumper Mine near Jamestown. On Sunday the field trip visited Columbia State Park, Moaning Caverns, Murphys, San Andreas, and Jackson.

Some participants rapelled into Moaning Caverns on ropes during the tour there. Here they pose for a group portrait before ascending again:

While in Murphys the group saw the 44-pound Kausz nugget:

In Jackson there was a tour of the Kennedy mine. The program ended with an underground mine tour of the Lincoln project in Sutter Creek. The field conference was co-sponsored by the Buena Vista Museum of Natural history and conducted under the terms of a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding between BLM and that organization.

Transportation in the Lincoln project in Sutter Creek:

- courtesy Greg Wilkerson, BLM California
 6/25/06

BLM California News.bytes, issue 238