Location
This district is in eastern Placer County west of and nonh of Lake Tahoe. It includes the areas known as the Squaw Valley and Red, White, and Blue or Elizabethtown districts north of the lake and a few scattered lode-gold mines and prospects west of the lake.
History
Gold and silver were discovered north of Lake Tahoe in 1861 and soon brought many miners to the area. Settlements known as Elizabethtown and Neptune City were established a few miles northwest of what is now Kings Beach, and Claraville and Knoxville were founded near the mouth of Squaw Creek. AIl of the prospects and these settlements were abandoned after 1864. In 1932 gold was discovered at the Tahoe Treasure mine a few miles west of Chambers Lodge. This mine has been worked intermittently since.
Geology and Ore Deposits
North of the lake lie massive andesite flows with andesitic tuffs and breccias. In places, zones of bleaching and silicification with impregnation of disseminated pyrite contain traces of gold and silver. West of the lake a few narrow gold-quartz veins occur in granodiorite and pyritic bodies in hornfels and schist.
Bibliography
Lindgren, Waldemar, 1897, Truckee folio; U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas of the U.S., folio 39, 8 pp.
Logan, C.A., 1936, Gold mines of Placer County, Tahoe Treasure mine; California Div. Mines Rept. 32, pp. 37-38.
