Rainbow Minerals Placer Claim - Salmon River

Report on the Salmon River

The Salmon River drains the Marble Mountains and Salmon Mountains Ranges and flows west to Somes Bar to become one more tributary to the greater Klamath River.

Known to have been the richest little river in northern California the Salmon River seems little more than a large creek. Yet just a few miles of the Salmon River from Sawyers Bar down the north fork to just below the Forks of the Salmon produced more placer gold than all the rest of Siskiyou County mining districts combined! And I might add that Siskiyou County in total was one of the great placer gold producers in the past and still is today. In particular the Klamath River has been giving up a lot high of value placer gold deposits in recent years.

North Fork

One small tributary to the north fork of the Salmon River is Russian Creek. This creek drains the Snowden Mining District. Rich with lode gold deposits, this district is the first known contributor of gold to the north fork of the Salmon.

Less than 10 miles down river is the Sawyers Bar Mining District. On the south side of the drainage is Whites Gulch and Eddy Gulch, the second district of high grade lodes to add gold the north fork. There are a few small outcroppings and known lode deposits on the north side of this same district that added to the very rich placers found from Whites Gulch down to Sawyers Bar. The lode deposits of this district are the last known major contributor of gold to the north fork. From Sawyers Bar down to Kelly Gulch drag lines and hydraulics produced an estimated $4 Million in gold. Eddy Gulch and Whites Gulch are on the north/east slope of the Blue Ridge. Along the top of this ridge were several successful lode mines. The Black Bear Mine being the most notarized and being the richest lode mine in Siskiyou County. This very interesting group of mountains will contribute gold to both forks of the Salmon all the way to the upper east fork of the south fork. On the south/west side of this same ridge is the Liberty Mining District that drains into the south fork of the Salmon River.

South Fork

Less than 20 miles down river from Sawyers Bar is the Forks of the Salmon Mining District. Here we meet the south fork of the Salmon River. Draining from the south/east the south fork will pass through two important lode districts. The first is less than 4 miles up south fork and known as the Knownothing Mining District. This district drains down from the north slope of the Salmon Mountains that is the Siskiyou/Trinity county line. It's hard to say just how much gold comes into the south fork from this district. The over all production from lode mines was small but of good grade.

Less than 10 miles up the south fork on the north/east side of the south fork is the Liberty Mining District. This district was the most productive in the south fork drainage. This is the south/west slope of the Blue Ridge that feeds gold into the north and south forks of the Salmon all the way up the east fork of the south fork as I mentioned earlier. This triangular group of mountains is most likely responsible for the largest part of the gold in the Salmon River.

The Main Branch of the Salmon River

From the Forks of the Salmon down river, the first 6 miles is almost a continual secession of bars and high benches. Theses workings were a large contributor to the record production the Salmon River is known for. The most important of theses being the Carpo Mine is reported to of had 20 to 25 feet of rich gold bearing gravels overlaid with 20 to 60 feet soil with red and yellow clays. Production records show that most of theses bars ran 400 to 1000 ounces of gold per acre. One 2½ acre production from the Blommer Hydraulic Mine produced more than $20,000 of gold per acre (at $14.00 per ounce). One report stated that some of the higher benches in this district had coarser gold but that lower bars contained more gold over all. Most of these workings would dump there tailings into the river to be carried away. The lowest of these bars are the Sauerkraut and the Morehouse Mines. These were both high bench operations. Below this point it is 13 miles before the Salmon joins the much larger Klamath River. Starting at the 13 mile marker all the way down river to just above the 5 mile marker the Salmon River is narrow with steep canyons and large boulders, deep pools of crystal clear water. Within this 8 miles access is very difficult. Two exceptions are the Indian Bottom Mine at about the 10 mile marker and at Butler Flat just below the 9 mile marker. Both of theses bars were worked in the past. Butler Flat like most of the bars at Forks of the Salmon was also patented. Down river and just above the 5 mile marker is Murderers Bar the first bar in another almost continuous concession of bars. Theses bars run all the way to Somes Bar Mining District at the mouth of the Salmon River. Several of theses bars were rich enough to work with a Derrick. Some were also patented.

The occurrence of gold for the Modern Miner

To understand the occurrence of gold in the Salmon River today we have to look at the known past. The Bureau of Mines can provide us with historical documents, photos and State Mineralogist reports. The Snowden District was worked more by hand and limited ground sluicing. There was little water at this higher elevation for hydraulic giants. Boulders and tailings could not be carried away by winter rain water. This means that gold not recovered in sluices goes back to the ground as tailings and does not get placed in the creek to be carried away and does not deposit a secondary enrichment down stream. But this was not the case down river in the Sawyers Bar district were ample water was available to work several bars and high benches as well as Whites Gulch and Eddy Gulch and others. From Whites Gulch down river for about 6 miles was extremely rich and was said to be worked out completely including "Bedrock" claims. Locals say there is still virgin ground being found but it may be a secondary enrichment from hydraulic work done up stream at a later period or even new gold. This is still a very rich drainage with new alluvial hillside coming in consistently. Below this point all but the smallest of the bars and benches were worked although not all of the workings were completed. There has been at least one new Patent granted in recent years in this Mining District on old workings. These last few miles of the north fork are narrow with few bars. In this lower half of the north fork most all of the hydraulic tailings were washed into the river to be carried down away. The common recovery method during this period was to wash unclassified gold bearing material through Longtom sluice boxes then the tailings are dumped into the river. This method was fast, simple and easy to maintain. The problem was the loss of gold was up to 40 percent with 20 to 30 percent loss being common. The size of the gold most commonly lost was the size of salt, sand, rice, oatmeal and some raisin size ect. Most all fine gold would go in then right back out of this type of unclassified recovery. Remember also that during the majority of the production years there were no roads in or out of the Salmon River only horseback or walking. This was true wilderness for a long, long time.

Less work was done on the south fork. This is true for both placer and lodes. Bars were fewer and deposits were not as rich as the north fork. While mines were said to have been worked at good profits several deposits were left unworked or unfinished. Locals and new dredgers in the river state that the north fork is still an excellent source for course gold. Until the year 2003 there were more mining claims on the south fork than there were on the north fork. Reports are that often there are more ounces of gold recovered in the form of smaller gold on the south fork. There may also be more virgin ground on the south fork. Much more of this district was neglected. Probably the only chance for virgin ground on the north fork would be the very last few miles. Here the canyons are steep and narrow and very soon must have been over run with tailings, boulders and other waste from hydraulic mines up river. This would soon make it difficult if not impractical to work the bedrock. The same thing would happen below the Forks of the Salmon.

If you took one large 1000 lbs rock and a 1000 lbs of 10 inch rocks add a1000 lbs of 5 inch rocks. 1000 lbs of each all the way down to a fine silt. Throw in 1000 lbs of small to fine gold. Then wash all this material into a moving river here is what happens primarily. The large 1000 lbs rock will not move. The 10 inch rocks may fall behind the larger rock. The 5 inch may be swept a little further perhaps to be stopped by almost anything. The 2 inch and smaller material including the smaller but heaver gold will work its way much further down river until there is less pressure to move it.

At the Forks of the Salmon almost 6 miles of very rich bars and high bench would dump literally hundreds of thousands of cubic yards per year of what would prove to be very rich tailings into the Salmon River from these workings. Theses tailings have left long and sometimes deep beds of material that contain gold from the top to the bottom. This same rich material has been found built up behind and in front of small bars and large boulders. Sometimes it's a flood layer on top of old virgin deposits. It has been found as the first layer on bedrock and covered over with a later flood layer of less value. Most of these tailings would make there way down and be added to the even larger bars near the mouth of the Salmon at Somes Bar or be dumped into the Klamath River. Where the Salmon empties into the Klamath River proved to be a very rich bar and is a patented property. In conclusion there are workable gold values in many if not most places on the Salmon River. However, I do believe theses long quite pools and bars on the main branch may once again make the Salmon known as the Richest Little River in Northern California.