This 84-year-old rare report locates every known gold prospect in both Lassen and Modoc counties, California.

Detail of full-page map from book: Harris-Musgrove Tunnels, Boyd Ledge.

This first edition has been completely out of print forever. And the first one we've found in 5 years.

Buy it now, or
someone else will
If you don't snap this one up now, chances are that someone else will. We get a couple e-mails every week, asking if we have another copy of this-or-that title. Nope, once it's gone, it's gone. And we might not find another one for years. There is no secret source for these books. They're getting so rare now that we're buying from european sources. Buy it now, or kiss it goodbye.

Three hours from San Fran
These two sparsely populated counties are only three hours from Sacramento — or five hours from San Francisco — but a world away. Although not as well known as the huge Motherlode gold mines, some of these Modoc and Lassen mines made their owners money big-time.

Look where no one else is looking
As the well-known gold-producing areas are becoming completely depleted, explorers and gold-seekers are hunting for currently undiscovered areas, which these areas are, far from the madding crowds ... But with escalating gas prices, the closer, the better. Both of these long-neglected counties fit the bill exactly.

The description of each mining operation runs from a few lines to several pages, depending on the deposit's importance. Ten vintage photos and nine maps (see examples throughout this ad). illustrate the 52 pages on mineral resources of both counties. The maps include two oversize foldouts

No guards, fences, barking
dogs, no no-trespassing signs
Most of the locations in this report are completely accessible, deserted and open to exploring. You can go anywhere you want at these sites and pretty much do whatever you want, when you want, as long as it's legal. (We do not condone or suggest mine exploring; we're talking the aboveground parts of these locations.) There are no guards, fences, barking dogs or no trespassing signs. All these mines are miles away from any town of any size and are on federal Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service lands. BLM lands are COMPLETELY open to prospecting and mineral collecting.

Treasure trove
This is not some gift-shop rockhound book; it was written about miners for miners by miners. Prepared by the California Division of Mines in 1936, it's a treasure trove of information for history buffs, bottle collectors, photographers, geologists, hikers, offroaders, rockhounds, prospectors, metal detectorists -- just about anyone interested in learning about, exploring or prospecting old mine sites in historic Lassen and Modoc counties.

No collection of Lassen County, Modoc County or California mining memorabilia is complete without this hard-to-find report -- packed with geology information, ore value, mine-production stats, history, even claim holders' names and addresses. This report is considered primary source material; much of this info is available nowhere else. It is a first edition, totally out of print, with no reprints available, in overall very good condition. So buy it now or forever hold your peace. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Mill of the Honey Lake gold mines in Lassen County. At the time of report, owners had done a large amount of work at the property formerly known as the Badger Group.

Also a valuable tool for stock-certificate collectors
Because this report lists mine owners and different names for the same mine, it is also a valuable tool for collectors of stock certificates. Some mine descriptions contain brief histories of the mines in question (including dates of actual production) and previous owners.

The nine-by-six-inch book contains 158 pages. Two reports in it -- "Mineral Resources of Lassen County" and "Mineral Resources of Modoc County" -- total 45 pages and 12 pages, respectively. Each report contains a wealth of information on the respective county's mineral resources, including placer and lode gold prospects. More importantly, the report gives exact locations of gold mining sites, sometimes using landmarks, but almost always using infallible range-and-township coordinates. Just plug 'em into your GPS or look 'em up on the appropriate topo, and you're there!

Lassen County
Lassen County gold mines described include:

• Arkansas Claim, which reportedly produced at least $200,000.
• Brown property, south of Earl and Clark; much evidence of past placer mining is evident on the northeast portion of the property.
• Gayman-Spaulding claims, includes six unpatented mining claims.
• Golden Eagle mine, one of the old productive groups of the Hayden Hill district; in 1934 the dumps of this mine were being worked with a crew of four men.
• Hayden Hill Gold Corporation, only mine operating at the time of this report (see second to last photo at bottom).
• Honey Bee property, owned by W. J. Earl of Susanville, California.
• Honey Lake gold mines (see photo above), equipped with a 10-stamp Straub mill.
• Lassen Lumber and Box Company (yes, a strange name for a gold mine), near Gold Run Creek.
• McDow property, largest holding of mineral land in the Diamond Mountain Mining District, on the north slope of the Sierra Nevada.
• Satica property, owned by Michael and Robert Satica of Susanville, California.
• Watson estate, near the summit of the Hill Creek and Lassen Creek Divide.

Book includes this oversize foldout map of Diamond Mountain Mining District; map shows Susanville-Quincy Road and road to Janesville; district is in far southern Lassen County.

Modoc County
Modoc County gold mines described include:

• Craig Property, about three miles east of Willow Ranch; a mill (see last photo below) with a rated capacity of 25 tons per day had been completed at the time of the visit, March 12, 1936.
• Gold Share lode, single claim held by George T. Cline of Alturas, California.
• Lost Cabin mine, 28 miles west of Alturas, has a new mill about 100 yards from the highway.
• Northern Star mine, 160 acres at an elevation of 7,500 feet.

Other mineral locales for Lassen and Modoc counties in this report include ones for copper, mineral springs and stone. The report also contains these articles:

• "Mechanics of the Lone Mountain Landslides, San Francisco, California," William D. Cogen, 15 pages.
• "Oil field Development Operations," R. D. Bush, state oil and gas supervisor, five pages.
• "Submarine Canyons Off the California Coast," Francis P. Shepard, 13 pages.
• "Biennial Report of the State Mineralogist," Walter W. Bradley, eight pages..
• "Properties and Industrial Applications of Opaline Silica," John D. Thorndyke, four pages.
• "Index to Volume 32," 38 pages.

Where are Lassen and Modoc?
Lassen County is located in the northeastern part of California, just south of Modoc County, which lies in the northeastern corner. Other adjacent counties are Shasta and Plumas. The eastern boundary line forms part of the line between Nevada and California. Cities and towns include Westwood, Helong, Johnstonville, Janesville, Susanville, Beiber, Ravendale, Greenville, Quincy and Chester.

Modoc County is located in the extreme northeastern corner of the state, with Oregon adjoining to the north and Nevada to the east. Other adjacent counties are Siskiyou, Shasta and Lassen. Cities and towns include Newell, Willow Ranch, Cedarville, Fort Bidwell, Alturas, Adin, Canby and Likely. Counties near both counties are Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Butte, Sierra, Yuba and Nevada.

The book:
California Journal of Mines and Geology, Quarterly Chapter of State Mineralogist's Report, 1936, State Division of Mines, San Francisco, stiff paper covers, six by nine inches, pp. 405–563, about 158 pages total. Overall in very good, nearly perfect condition; binding tight — absolutely one of the best copies that I have seen of this rare report. No ripped or bent pages; barely discernible bumps to corners; spine is slightly sunned. Looks like it has never been read. Just a killer copy. Some slight sunning to covers and bumped corners. That's about it.

As always, I am extremely conservative about rating book condition and very detailed in listing any potential flaw, no matter how slight. You get what you pay for. If you want a trashed book, filled with scribbled notes, ripped pages and underlined passages that the seller just "somehow forgot" to tell you about in his ad, then look elsewhere on ebay.

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The fine print:
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I post feedback once a week. Not responsible for typographikull errors.

Good luck and thanks for looking!

Cyanide mill (25 ton) of the Hayden Hill Gold Corporation in Lassen County.

Mill at Craig Property in Modoc County (cross-hatching is from scanning process and not visible in original).