Gold Fever in Clear Creek - Redding, CA
N 40° 29.616 W 122° 28.028
10T E 545156 N 4482680
Two signs of history reside at the Clear Creek Gorge Overlook, a historical location where gold mining was prevalent from the mid-1800s through the 1950s.
Waymark Code: WMNRHZ
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 04/25/2015
Views: 1
Located within the Clear Creek Gorge Overlook is a pavillion containing a number of informative displays, two of which are signs of history of this area. One reads:
Gold Fever in Clear Creek
The discovery of gold...
Major Pierson B. Reading discovered gold in Clear Creek in 1848 at what is now known as Reading Bar, located about a mile upstream. Thousands og people rushed here in search of fortune. Gold fever spread and caught people from all walks of life, who quit their jobs and headed for the California gold fields.
Created many boomtowns...
Miners often lived a sparse existence in tents, cabins, or shacks while working their claims. Gold mining settlements or "boomtowns" sprung up rapidly with names like Horestown, Muletown, and Whiskeytown. Horsetown was located about two miles upstream. At the height of the Gold Rush, Horsetown covered 36 acres and had about 1,000 inhabitants. Chinese miners arrived in Shasta County in the early 1850s. Hard working and efficientm they often found gold in areas previously mined and successfly worked these abandoned claims.
Followed by busted towns...
Very few of the original mining settlements in Shasta County remain. Most of what remained of Horsetown was destroed by dredging around the turn of the 20th century. The boomtown that was once Whiskeytown was submerged with the construction of Whiskeytown Reservoir.
And then corporate mining.
Eventually corporations replaced individual miners and these large-scale mining operations left thousands of acres covered in mine tailings. In the late 1800s copper replaced gold as the leading ore mines in Shasta County.
TIMELINE
1820s--Fur trappers, first contact between Native Americans and whites
1844--Pierson B. Reading's Mexican land grant called "Rancho Buenaventura"
1848--Gold discovered at Sutter's Mill and Reading Bar in Northern California
1849--Gold Rush in full swing with placer mining using a pick/shovel/pan/sluice box
1850s--Hydraulic mining, water ditches, widespread environmental devastation
1850s-1860s--Hard rock/lode mining, with shafts, adits, and stamp mills
1890s-1950s--Dredging, piles of tailing and adverse environmental impacts