Location and History
The Long Tom district is in the southern Sierra Nevada in central Kern County. It is 23 miles northeast of Bakersfield and 10 miles south of Woody. The veins at the Long Tom mine, the chief source of gold in the district, were discovered prior to 1860 by prospectors looking for the source of placer gold in nearby creeks. The mine was considerably active during the 1880s and again from 1925 to 1939. It has an estimated total output of $800,000 to $900,000.
Geology
The country rock in the district is quartz diorite with small gabbroic inclusions. A number of fracture zones contain small gold-bearing quartz stringers with minor amounts of sulfides. The deposits do not extend to depths of more than a few hundred feet.
Bibliography
Brown, C.G., 1916. Kern County, Long Tom district and mine: California Min. Bur. Rept. 14, pp. 483 and 502.
Goodyear, W.A., 1888, Kern County, gold: California Min. Bur. Rept. 8, pp. 319-320.
Troxel, B.W., and Morton, P.K., 1962, Kern County, Long Tom mine: California Div. Mines and Geology, County Rept. 1, pp. 114.-115.
