Location and History
The Nashville district is in southwestern El Dorado County about 15 miles south of Placerville. It is in the Mother Lode gold belt. The area was mined during the gold rush when considerable quantities of high-grade ore were taken from near the surface. Originally known as Quartzburg, the town of Nashville was renamed by miners who came from Tennessee. Activity was considerable here during the 1930s, when the Montezuma-Apex and Nashville mines were worked. There has been minor prospecting since.
Geology
A north-trending belt of gray to black slate of the Mariposa Formation (Upper Jurassic) is in the central portion of the district. Massive greenstone is to the west, and schist, amphibolite, quartzite, and granitic rocks are to the east.
Ore Deposits
Several long north-striking massive quartz veins in the slate are up to 25 feet thick. These veins contain large but low- to moderate-grade ore bodies (1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton). Stoping lengths were up to 500 feet, and the veins were mined to inclined depths of 2000 feet. The ore contains free gold and pyrite. Considerable fault gouge is present. The veins in greenstone to the west and amphibolite and schist to the east are usually only a few feet wide, but they have yielded appreciable amounts of high-grade ore.
Mines
Bonanza, Briarcliff $120,000, Balmaceda, Last Chance, Manhattan, Monarch-Sugar Loaf $100,000, Montezuma-Apex $1 million, Nashville $2 million.
Bibliography
Clark, W. B., and Carlson, D. W., 1956, El Dorado County, lode gold mines: California Jour. Mines and Geology, vol. 52, pp. 401-429.
Fairbanks. H. W., 1890, Geology of the Mother Lode region: California Min. Bur. Rept. 10, pp. 80-81.
Lindgren, Waldemar, and Turner, H. W., 1894. Placerville folio: U.S. Geological Survey Geol. Atlas of the U.S., folio 3, 4 pp.
Logan, C.A., 1935, Montezuma mine: California Div. Mines Bull. 108, pp. 30-34.
