Location
The Brownsville district is in northeastern Yuba County about 35 miles northeast of Marysville and 27 miles southeast of Oroville. It includes the lode-gold deposits here and in the Hansonville-Rackerby area, and the New York Flat placer "diggings". The town was named for I. E. Brown, who established a sawmill here in 1851.
Geology and ore deposits
The chief rocks in the area are greenstone with several gabbrodiorite intrusions. Amphibolite and some slate lie to the east. A number of north- and a few west-striking quartz veins commonly occur near intrusive-metamorphic contacts. The veins are one to seven feet thick and contain free gold with varying amounts of pyrite and other sulfides. The ore shoots are limited in size. Milling ore usually yielded 1/7 to 1/3 ounce of gold per ton, but some high-grade pockets were encountered.
Mines
Abbott, Arbucco, B. A. C., Beaver, Beehive (Mt. Hope) $100,000, Easy Money, Golden Key, Horseshoe, Manzanita, Napa and Oro, Ora Lewa, R. C., Rogers, Seaborg and Davis, Spanish, Twentieth Century Wonder, William Arthur.
Bibliography
Lindgren, Waldemar, 1895, Smartsville folio: U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas of the U. S., folio 18, 6 pp.
Waring, C. A., 1919. Yuba County. gold·quartz mines: California Min. Bur. Rept. 15, pp. 443-456.
