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Orleans District

Past Producer in Humboldt 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. Ore body information
  12. Controls for ore emplacement
  13. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  14. Mining district
  15. Bibliographic references
  16. General comments
  17. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310661
Record type District
Current site name Orleans District

Comments on the site identification

  • This placer-mining district is along the Klamath River in the northeastern corner of Humboldt County. The most notable producer was the Pearch Mine, a hydraulic operation about one mile northeast of the settlement of Orleans.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -123.53965, 41.30204 (WGS84)
Location accuracy 100(meters)
Relative position The district is about 48 miles northeast of the city of Eureka.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Humboldt(county)

California(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Orleans(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Hoopa(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Weed(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Lower Klamath(hydrologic unit)

Klamath(hydrologic accounting unit)

Klamath-Northern California Coastal(hydrologic subregion)

California(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Six Rivers National Forest(National Forest)

National Forest FS(Type of land area)

FS(Federal land areas administered by FS)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States California Humboldt

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Humboldt 010N 005E California
Humboldt 010N 006E California
Humboldt 011N 005E California
Humboldt 011N 006E California

Comments on the location information

  • Location selected for latitude and longitude is the town of Orleans on the USGS 7.5-minute Orleans quadrangle.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Platinum Critical Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Commodity Info: Gold is fine to medium.
  • Ore Materials: Native gold, native platinum
  • Gangue Materials: Metamorphic rocks, igneous rocks (as clasts)

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Platinum Ore

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) -123.53965, 41.30204
ListMap

Economic information

Ore body information

  • General form Irregular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Mechanical accumulation within stream-channel lag gravels, bars, and point-bar deposits.

Comments on the geologic information

  • REGIONAL GEOLOGY

    The Orleans District is situated within the western part of the Klamath Mountains geologic province. This province is characterized by extremely complex lithologies and structures that were assembled through various plate-tectonic processes.

    Paleozoic-Mesozoic metamorphic complexes intruded by various Mesozoic plutons compose the basement of the province. Many of these various lithologies contain gold in places.

    Structurally, the metamorphic rocks and some of the plutonic rocks have been deformed by folding and faulting. The dominant structures are major regional thrust faults with superimposed younger faults.

    LOCAL GEOLOGY

    The Orleans District is characterized by high-relief landscape with narrow river canyons that have been incised into metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the Jurassic Galice Formation; farther upstream from the district, there are other metamorphic and plutonic rocks. The canyon bottoms in this area contain small deposits of Quaternary alluvium in the form of active bars and older terraces. The materials in these deposits have been derived by erosion of the various basement rocks at higher elevations. In places, the basement rocks contain gold within quartz veins and altered rock.

    Erosion of the gold-bearing basement rocks provided the gold that was eventually deposited in the modern placer deposits along the canyon bottoms. The narrowness of the canyons resulted in limited extents of placer deposits along the canyon bottoms.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1850

Mining district

District name Orleans District

Comments on the workings information

  • Mining in this district was accomplished through surface placering methods in the early days and later included both hydraulicking and dredging. The bench gravels along the Klamath River were mined by hydraulic methods.

Comments on other economic factors

  • Tooker and Vercoutere (1986) estimated the production along the Klamath River to be about 138,000 ounces through 1981.

Comments on development

  • Mining began in this district during the gold rush and continued at least through the 1940?s. As published information about this district is sparse, it is uncertain exactly what year this mining activity began.

    The most productive property in this district was the Pearch Mine. Averill (1946) reported that in 1941 the mine produced 266 ounces of gold and 38 ounces of silver from 128,500 cubic yards of gravel. The placer deposit here was reportedly about 80 feet thick, but only its lower part was gravel.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Averill, C.V., 1946, Placer mining for gold in California: California Division of Mines Bulletin 135, p. 258-259.

  • Deposit

    Clark, W.B., 1970, Gold districts of California: California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 140.

  • Deposit

    Tooker, E.W. and Vercoutere, T.L., 1986, Gold in the conterminous United States, Perspective of 1986 - Preliminary map of selected geographic, economic, and geologic attributes of productive (>10,000 oz) gold districts: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-209, 32 p.

  • Deposit

    Wagner, D.L. and Saucedo, G.J., 1987, Geologic map of the Weed Quadrangle, California: California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology Regional Geologic Map Series, Map No. 4A, scale 1:250,000.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The gold-bearing deposits are alluvial gravels in the Klamath River itself and extensive older bench gravels about 50-80 feet above the level of the present river. Silver and platinum are also present in the gravels.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 03-AUG-2006 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.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative California resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.