Ghost Town

Placer gold discoveries following the Galconda Creek and the Prickly Pear Creek brought several prospectors to the Buckeye Mine area. Lode mines drew more miners to the hills, as a result the Buckeye was mined intensively.

The ground at Cable Mine was so rich that a cigar box of samples assayed $1,000. The world's largest nugget was found here, bought by W.A. Clark for $19,000. This also is the site of the Old Atlantic Cable Mine.

Copperopolis served originally as a stage station. It was halfway between White Sulphur Springs and Martinsdale. In 1866 copper veins were discovered in the area north of the Castle Mountains and started attracting attention as a mining center.

Mining around Gilt Edge was not easy because regular means of mining could not be used. It was in 1893 when a cyanide mill was established at the foot of the mountain that Gilt Edge became a settlement. The ore quality was always low grade around Gilt Edge.

The Gold Coin Mine was full of surprises. Several times it closed down when its gold ore ran out, but later exploration always brought forth a new ore pocket.

Greenhorn Gulch placer camp is gone except for the tiny railroad flag station at Austin. Placers were worked for a distance of twelve miles and drained by the Seven-Mile Creek. The total placer production was estimated at $1,200,000.

Hassel was originally known as Saint Louis. Sometime during 1895 the St. Louis name was dropped in respect to a pioneer miner, Joseph E. Hassel and the request of the post office. Other names for Hassel at various times were Knoxville, Placerville and Florence City.

Karst's Camp was originally a dude ranch that was founded in 1901 by Pete Karst. He was awarded the property because of back pay that the Cooper Tie Company owed him. Karst built a cabin and eventually built twenty-five cabins to accommodate one hundred people.

Harry T. Kendall had built a cyanide mill, a house, a stable, and a boardinghouse for his forty employees by 1900. The Kendall Gold Mining Company mined an average of $800 a day. Within the first five years of operation, $2,500,000 of bullion was produced.

As a supply center near Alder Gulch, Laurin shared in the $100,000,000 riches of the gulch.

The area silver was found uncovered in an area eight miles long and four miles wide which included Lump Gulch, Clancy Gulch, Strawberry Gulch, Shingle Gulch and Warm Springs Gulch. Lump Gulch was prospected for placer gold, exaggerated reports brought a stampede to the diggings.

In the beginning there was confusion over the naming of Maiden. Three different stories describe where Maiden got its name but the naming of the town didn't slow down it's population. In 1881 population grew to 6,000 people with most of the men living in tents along the creek.

Marysville was once a thriving gold camp. Now Marysville is a small community with several buildings listed on the National Historic Register. There is much to see here in this almost ghost town. The town is far from being deserted and some mining still goes on.

Originally Rimini was named Young Ireland. History has it that Rimini was either named after a city in Italy or a drama production that traveled through during its formative years. Several of Rimini's old buildings are inhabited today and make up the Rimini community.

Taft was destroyed in a forest fire from the Coeur d'Alene forests, in 1910. This mining camp once had 2,000 residents, but not so much from mining as from construction, logging, and bootlegging.

See Saltese.