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Lincoln (Garden Bar)

Past Producer in Placer county in California, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Platinum
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Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Public Land Survey System information
  6. Commodities
  7. Materials information
  8. Mineral occurrence model information
  9. Host and associated rocks
  10. Nearby scientific data
  11. Geologic structures
  12. Ore body information
  13. Controls for ore emplacement
  14. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  15. Mining district
  16. Land status
  17. Bibliographic references
  18. General comments
  19. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310638
Record type District
Current site name Lincoln (Garden Bar)

Comments on the site identification

  • The Lincoln (Garden Bar) District is in western Placer County about 15 miles west of Auburn. Mining in the district consisted of dragline dredging of Quaternary auriferous gravel deposits within lower Auburn Ravine and Doty Ravine, which are about two miles northeast and four miles north of Lincoln, respectively. Most mining occurred during the 1930s. A total of approximately 1,200 acres were dredged. While very little information is available about the mining operations, and total production is unknown, some accounts suggest the Lincoln District was the most profitable dragline dredge field in the state (Clark, 1970).

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -121.26184, 38.90429 (WGS84)
Elevation 30
Location accuracy 100(meters)
Relative position 15 miles west of Auburn

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Placer(county)

California(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Lincoln(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Sacramento(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Sacramento(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Lower Sacramento(hydrologic accounting unit)

Sacramento(hydrologic subregion)

California(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States California Placer

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 012N 006E 11,12 California
Mount Diablo 012N 007E 7 California
Mount Diablo 013N 006E 22,23,25-28,35 California

Comments on the location information

  • Location selected for latitude and longitude is the approximate center of the lowermost dredge tailings in lower Auburn Ravine (C SW/4 Sec. 12-T12N-R6E)

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Platinum Critical Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: Native gold - Fine to coarse gold and nuggets (.915-.935 fine)
  • Gangue Materials: Quartz and metamorphic gravels; accessory minerals magnetite, ilmenite, zircon, pyrite, amphibole, epidote, chlorite, and siderite

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Quartz Gangue
Magnetite Gangue
Ilmenite Gangue
Zircon Gangue
Pyrite Gangue
Amphibole Gangue
Epidote Gangue
Chlorite Gangue
Siderite Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Sand and Gravel
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Quaternary

Nearby scientific data

(1) -121.26184, 38.90429
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description Bear Mountain Fault Zone

Ore body information

  • General form Irregular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Mechanical accumulation on irregular bedrock and in stream channel lag gravels, and bars

Comments on the geologic information

  • The northern Sierra Nevada is home to numerous important placer gold deposits. While most noteworthy deposits consist of remnant auriferous Tertiary gravel deposits laid down by the ancestral Yuba, American, Mokelumne, Calaveras, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne rivers in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, several auriferous Quaternary gravel deposits were also deposited along the western edge of the Sierra by Pleistocene and younger rivers and streams. Some of the more important deposits are those of the Lincoln, Folsom, Oroville, Hammonton, and Michigan Bar districts.

    Geologically the Lincoln District is located along the western edge of the Sierra Nevada where Cretaceous and younger rocks of the Great Valley of California rest on basement rocks of the Northern Sierra Nevada western lithotectonic belt. Throughout most of the district, thin Quaternary alluvial and shoreline gravels onlap exposed Mesozoic dioritic igneous rocks of the Penryn Pluton or exposed metamorphosed intermediate to mafic rocks of the Copper Hill volcanics. Underlying bedrock at most dredge sites is soft weathered tuff or weathered granodiorite.

    In most of the dredged areas the gravels are thin, range from 5 to 20 feet thick, and pinch out rapidly to the east. In some areas, the gravel occurs in irregular and isolated patches. The coarsest material is generally cobbles no more than a few inches in diameter. Some of the finer gravels are thought to be redistributed shoreline gravels, with the bulk of the deposits being alluvial gravels of modern streams.

    The source of the gold is from the reworking of auriferous Tertiary gravel deposits and erosion of bedrock gold-quartz veins in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The gravel was transported by westerly flowing streams within Auburn and Doty ravines. The bulk of the gold is likely from the quartz veins of the important Ophir mining district located approximately 8 miles up Auburn Ravine. This is supported by the presence of abundant quartz gravel that assays have shown contain enough gold to suggest a gold-quartz vein origin.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Significant Yes

Mining district

District name Lincoln

Land status

Ownership category Private
Area name Placer County Planning Dept.

Comments on the workings information

  • Mining operations in the Lincoln district were conducted using draglines and dragline dredges. Most draglines used 50 to 60 foot booms and buckets of 1 to 1.5 cubic yard capacity. Generally, the dredged gravels were run through a grizzly or revolving screen with the finer sands and gravels then being run through sluices. Detailed accounts of several dragline and processing operations in the district during 1935 are given by Logan (1936).

Comments on other economic factors

  • Little information is available regarding gold production for individual operations or the district as a whole. Clark (1970) reported that recoveries ranged from $0.16 to $0.60 per yard and that the Lincoln deposits were probably the most profitable dragline dredge fields in the state.

Comments on development

  • Placer gold was first discovered in Quaternary gravels in the American River at Coloma in 1848. This discovery, in the race at Sutter's Mill touched off the California Gold Rush. Shortly thereafter, prospectors discovered placer gold, both in the active channels of the rivers of the Northern Sierra Nevada and in the widespread alluvial gravels deposited in floodplains and terraces at the mouths of the river canyons. Small-scale placer mining of the terrace gravels at the mouths of the Feather, Yuba, and American rivers occurred as early as 1849, but large-scale mining did not take place until the 1890s and early 1900s with the introduction of bucket-line dredging. Dredging operations at most of the larger deposits continued until the mid 1950s and 1960s.

    While it is known that small-scale placer mining occurred during the early part of the gold rush near the town of Auburn in the upper reaches of Auburn Ravine, it is unclear when the lower deposits in the Lincoln District were discovered. There is also very little information about their exploitation until the onset of dragline dredging in the district in 1935. During that year, at least five companies were operating draglines or bucket dredges on leases at the mouth of Auburn and Doty ravines. Accounts of these operations during 1935 are given by Logan (1936).

    No information is readily available regarding later operations or the duration of the operations. It is surmised that some level of operations continued until the 1950s as was the case in neighboring dredging districts. Approximately 1200 acres were dredged.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Clark, W.B., 1970, Gold districts of California: California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 87.

  • Deposit

    Lindgren, W., 1894, Sacramento folio, California: U.S. Geological Survey Atlas of the U.S., Folio 5, 3 p.

  • Deposit

    Logan, C.A., 1936, Gold mines of Placer County: California Journal of Mines and Geology, v. 32, p. 80-83.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The Lincoln (Garden Bar) deposits consist of thin (5-20 feet thick) auriferous Quaternary shoreline and alluvial sands and gravels deposited by Pleistocene to recent streams in the lower reaches and at the mouths of Auburn Ravine and Doty Ravine near Lincoln. The gravels were derived from the reworking and erosion of older Tertiary auriferous gravel deposits and erosion of bedrock gold-quartz veins in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. The quartz veins of the Ophir lode-gold district are considered a major source because of its location 8 miles upstream in Auburn Ravine and the abundance of quartz detritus that contains a measurable gold content.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 19-NOV-2004 Downey, Cameron (Higgins, Chris, T.) California Geological Survey CGS (Formerly CDMG)
Editor 01-SEP-2007 Schruben, Paul G. U.S. Geological Survey Converted from S&A FileMaker format to Oracle. Edit checks on rocks, units, and ages with Geolex search, and other fields.

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

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