Location and History
This district is in the northeast comer of Ventura County in the general vicinity of Frazier Mountain. Sometimes it is considered to be in the Coast Ranges. The Piru district is just to the south, and the towns of Gorman and Fort Tejon are to the east. The region was first placer-mined in the 1840s, and the Frazier Mountain mine was opened in 1865. This and other lode-gold mines were worked fairly steadily until around 1895. Minor prospecting and development work has been done in the district since; a small production was recorded in 1952. Fort Tejon, a U. S. Cavalry post established in 1854 to control the marauding Indians, was abandoned in 1864, but it has been restored and is now a state historical monument.
Geology and Ore Deposits
The region is underlain by granite, granodiorite, gneiss, and schist and smaller amounts of quartzite and hornfels. The gold-quartz veins strike north, range from a few inches to five feet in thickness, and occur in shear zones that are principally in gneiss and schist. The ore is free milling and contains pyrite and small amounts of other sulfides.· Milling-grade ore commonly averaged 1/2 ounce of gold per ton. Several of the ore bodies had stoping lengths of up to 300 feet. Some placer gold was recovered in the district from the streams and older terrace gravels.
Mines
Bunker Hill, Esperanza, Fairview, Frazier $1 million, Gold Dust, Harris, Hess, Maule, Sibert, White Mule.
Bibliography
Bowers, Stephen, 1888, Gold-V .. ntura County: California Min. Bur. Rept. 8, pp. 680-684.
Carman, Max F., Jr., 1964, Geology of the Lockwood Valley area, Kern and Ventura Counties: California Div. Mines and Geology Spec. Rept. 81, 62 pp.
Huguenin, Emile, 1919, Gold-Ventura County: California Min. Bur. Rept. 15, pp. 759-760.
Tucker, W. B., and Sampson, R. J., 1932, Gold-Ventura County: California Div. Mines Rept. 28, pp. 253-257.
