David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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IF you think the padres had time to find gold...
Make sure to get Herman Hill's new book, 'Baja's Hidden Gold: Treasure Along the Mission Trail' available from Amazon.com It's a hoot, and Herman is
quite a character (lives in Bahia de los Angeles, by Guillermo's, if you go there).
It is good entertainment from a man who has been living off the gold he's mined/ found for many years... cool character.
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mulegemichael
Super Nomad
Posts: 2310
Registered: 12-24-2007
Location: sequim,wa. and mulege
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Mood: up on step
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ok....my bride and i are now on a little trip south from mulege....4-5 days or so would be my best bet...wanna go to santiago and el triunfo areas
where i've stomped around a bit....we have our new goldpanning equipment with us and are going to give it a go on one of those year around streams up
above santiago...all it is is goldpans and some little bottles, neither of which do we know how to use...but...i can visualize us sitting in the
middle of this cool little stream up in the foothills by a huge ficus tree with a cold one on a rock nearby and slurshing around this muddy slurry of
potential gold soup in my pan....i've been there before, the only thing missing was the gold pan...so...do i need to be paranoid about "this
act"????...goldpanning, i mean....is it regulated or "enforced" like the artifact laws?...can we comfortably sit in a mountain stream and wile the
time away with a pan full of useless gravel before us?...any knowledge of this firsthand?...i conducted day tours of these areas for years and always
wanted to check out the potential of developing a new hobby...thanks for the info
dyslexia is never having to say you\'re yrros.
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John M
Super Nomad
Posts: 1907
Registered: 9-3-2003
Location: California High Desert
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Mining in Jesuit times
Amy - Perhaps you are aware of the book "Observations in Lower California" by Johann Jokab Baegert, S.J. - 1952 edition by Brandenburg & Baumann -
there is at least one chapter about existing mining at the time of the Jesuits.
Beginning on page 44 with the chapter "Of the Pearl Fisheries and the Mines of California"
Baegert speaks specifically about areas in the south, "Santa Ana and San Antonio, only three hours apart, are the two reales de minas, as the Spanish
call the places where they settle to dig for silver."...later, same page: "Aside from this mineowner, there are perhaps four or six more [miners] in
the districts of Santa Ana and San Antoniio, either discharged soldiers or former mission cowherds who scratched in the ground here and there or dug a
tunnel in rock trying to catch a piece of silver."
then: "Whether or not in the whold widespread country more gold and silver lies hidden under ground, outside of the two places mentioned, I do not
know. Some people are inclined to believe so, especially in a district between the 28th and 29th parallel latitude, north, called Roasrio.
"....In the region of San Ignacio sulpher is found, and so I was told, also veins of iron ore."
In total, only a couple of pages written about mining by Fr. Baegert, a Jesuit who spent 17 years (1751-1768) at San Luis Gonzaga. One of his better
known and often repeated quotes "Everything concerning California is of such little importance that it is hardly worth the trouble to take a pen and
write about it."
I'll look for other material.
John M
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John M
Super Nomad
Posts: 1907
Registered: 9-3-2003
Location: California High Desert
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The Central Desert of Baja California
By Homer Aschmann
This may be the piece you've read as it specifically mentions Punta Prieta and Calmalli. Aschmann has one long paragraph on page 25 I can type if
you'd like. But basically saying "During the entire misison period no gold mines were reported in the Central Desert, though during the next 75 years
mines were discovered."
John M
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John M
Super Nomad
Posts: 1907
Registered: 9-3-2003
Location: California High Desert
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Mining - one more source
Amy - one of the premier sources of Lower California history is the 51 volume Baja California Travel Series, by Glen Dawson.
Number 51, and the last to be issued is Modest Fortunes -Mining in Northern Baja by Donald Chaput.
I do not have the book, wish I did, although I have had the opportunity to read it - unfortunately I can't remember much -just getting too old to
recall I guess.
Costly in total - well over $2,000 today for the complete set, some individual volumes can be found at a fairly reasonable price.
The books are each a single topic, well-researched, and in total cover a wide variety of topics.
I just checked on line and this last volume is selling for over $150.00! Yikes. Very few libraries have this series on the shelf.
John M
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baja Steve
Nomad
Posts: 469
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Bend, or
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Bajaamy
I spend a lot of time on the ranches in the Sierra’s of Baja Sur and see many areas that have past mining sites. On of the ranches that I have been to
many times in the Sierra Laguna’s has a couple of mines and in the tailing piles the color of the rocks are very different then any others I have seen
in Baja Sur. The mine is a tunnel mine which is now flooded, there is an old plaque close to the mine with a date of 1948 on it. I spent Christmas
day with the ranch family and collected some of the rock which I have with me. I will be back in the La Paz area around Jan. 11th and back in the
Mulege area about Jan. 26th if you would like to look at them.
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Jack Swords
Super Nomad
Posts: 1094
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Nipomo, CA/La Paz, BCS
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We do lots of recreational mining in CA and Nevada using dry washers and also panning. Most of the mines we have encountered here in Baja have been
hardrock mines where the ore must be crushed and put on vibrating tables or chemically treated to get the gold out. That is especially true down in
Valle Perdido S of La Paz and also up near Arcos. That being said, erosion wears down rocks and creates placer opportunities so certainly panning
should create "color" if you are in the right area. Several areas we have hiked in had the remains of dry washers and rocker type of washers, so
placer deposits are in Baja. These mining areas are much more recent than the mission era. I would be discreet and prudent if you plan on extracting
minerals while in Baja.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Just love this stuff...!
Thanks John M for mentioning the books. I have 'Observations' and pulled it out to read the sections, too!
Jack, I have often wondered about placer gold in all the dry washes coming out of the quartz and granite rock hills.... If there was only running
water!
Have pan will travel!
So, do you know what technically the laws are for foreignors doing a little recreational mining? Or, is it one of those "you don't need to know"
answers... kind of like digging for clams??
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airmech
Nomad
Posts: 183
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Murrieta Ca
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Mood: Expeditionary
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David, The mexican laws pretty much don't allow anyone to take anything of value. And if it's in ejido property they want half of that. BTW, we just
got back from BOLA and took Herman up flying over the northern hills to look for some "lost" valleys. Neat guy to visit with. bg
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to the society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.
— George Bernard Shaw
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64493
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Sounds great! That was super cool of you!
We will be in Bahia de L.A. in a few days and I am bringing my copy of his book for an autograph (if he's home)!
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