Location
The Oro Fino district, in central Siskiyou County about five miles west of Fort Jones, includes the Quartz Valley and Mugginsville areas. The placer deposits were first worked during the gold rush and the lode mines began operating soon afterward. There was appreciable activity here again in the 1930s and 1940s, when the lode mines were active.
Geology and Ore Deposits
Many of the lode deposits are in Quartz Hill, a steep resistant peak in the central portion of the district. It consists largely of hard dark massive pyrtic greenstone. Schist, limestone, small amounts of serpentine, and valley alluvium are present. Diorite dikes often are associated with the veins. Numerous quartz-calcite veins contain free gold and often abundant pyrite. The quartz is white to smoky in color. The placer deposits occur in the various creeks, and the gold generally is fine but rough and angular. Some of the placers were extremely rich.
Mines
Fino, Gibralter, Gold Reef, Golden Eagle, Morrison and Carlock $500,000+, Providence, Quartz Hill, Star, Umpah.
Bibliography
Brown, G.C., 1916, Siskiyou County, gold: California Min. Bur. Rept. 14, pp. 825-865.
Irwin, W. P., 1960, Geologic reconnaissance of the northern Coast Ranges and Klamath Mountains: California Div. Mines Bull. 179, 80 pp.
Siskiyou County historical Society, 1957, Guidebook to siskiyou's gold fields: Siskiyou Pioneer, vol. 2, no. 10, pp. 83-88.
