Has all 3 detached BIG maps in the rear pocket!!!

Yup, "Au" is the symbol for gold, and as this map shows there are three gold deposits within walking distance of each other on this TINY section of one of the enclosed maps.

This rare first-edition report is the ONLY book devoted solely to gold and silver mine locations (plus the fascinating geology) in the Saltdale Quad — near Red Rock Canyon, Jawbone Canyon, Cantil and Garlock, off State Route 14, in Kern County, Calif.

This slim but info-packed hardback lists and maps 32 lode and placer gold deposits; 22 copper and silver mines and 32 other deposits (including borax) — an amazing amount of minerals in this 242-square-mile quadrangle.

It covers much of the eastern Red Rock Canyon State Recreation Area from Redrock-Randsburg Road and Route 14 north through Indian Wells Valley. This is only the second one of these I've listed in 23+ years on ebay because it's only the second one that I've found all three oversize maps in the rear pocket. (Please see "the book" section later in ad for map and condition details.)

Map key gives general idea of where Saltdale Quad is, but really doesn't show much detail. Generally, the area is east of State Route 14 and includes the eastern section of the Red Rock Canyon Recreation Area.

Near Jawbone Canyon offroad area
If you are reading this ad, chances are that you know this mapped area is north of the EXTREMELY popular Mojave-Desert offroad recreation area near Jawbone Canyon. At one time, it was also an extremely popular area for panning placer gold. So grab this book before it's gone because once it's gone, you might never see another one.

Know where the mines are
With this report, you'll be one of the few to know exactly where the old mines are located, according to the area's OFFICIAL state report! This hard-to-find first edition was written by REAL geologists and miners. It's not some piece-of-junk tourist brochure written by some armchair yahoo who hasn't even taken a geology course in his life.

Lists the small mines
And this OLD report's chart of mineral deposits lists 32 lode and placer gold deposits; 22 copper and silver mines and 32 other deposits (including borax and opal) — an amazing amount of minerals in this 242-square-mile quadrangle. It even maps an area called the "petrified forest!"

These Kern-County deposits and mines run from the famous to the forgotten, from the big to miniscule. And it's usually descriptions of uneconomic tiny mines that folks today are looking for. The big-paying mines of the past have all now been mined out of existence, but the smaller subeconomic deposits were basically ignored.

Area is "riddled with gold-mine tunnels"
Straight from the book: "Gold has been the most commonly sought mineral commodity in the Saltdale Quadrangle ... In several areas the earth is literally riddled with gold-mine tunnels but very few of the mines actually showed a profit."

Of course there wasn't any profit! Gold was a piddling 35 bucks an ounce back then. So those small-output mines today could turn out to hold HUGE riches. They sure as heck are NOW worth mining when gold is in the $1400-ounce range!

"SUBSTANTIAL" placer gold recovery
More from the book: "Recovery of gold has been substantial from placer operations ..."

Need I say more? Placer output was "substantial," but not enough to keep an operation going at 35 bucks an ounce.

"The low production results from low average value of gold in the gravels and veins ..."

Just like I said: Gold wasn't worth enough to finance operations.

"... and from a lack of water for placer mining. The expense of procuring water and the inefficiency of of dry-washing processes make placer operations financially unattractive except during periods of economic depression."

OR when gold is worth FORTY TIMES more than it was in the 1950s. Dry washing inefficient? Not any more. Times have changed. Modern dry washers can really quickly rack up the profits.

Report does the mine location for you
Ideally what today's prospectors want is a mine that then-prospectors found but then abandoned because they couldn't make any money off it. They found the rich seams; they dug preliminary shafts and adits, and then walked away saying, "It ain't worth it."

So the tough discovery work is done; you can walk in and start digging up rich ore right where the old miners left off. Talk about a treasure map!

One of the three big separate maps is a geology map that shows rock types and faults. (Also note location of "petrified forest" at far left.) A geology map is invaluable for finding rock types that have hosted gold in this area. Chances are that if you find gold in quartz in one area, gold will also be present in other quartz outcrops in other areas! So you can predict where to find gold, not just go where gold has already been found.

Don't waste days on dead ends and dead mines
Don't be wasting days and weeks chasing dead ends or dead leads to worthless barren ground. This 63-year-old rare book alphabetically lists every principal gold and silver prospect in the Saltdale Quadrangle — along with mine locations and operational details. Yup, you read that right: this report pinpoints many of these mines in exact range and township coordinates. Plug 'em into your GPS or look 'em up on the INCLUDED topo, and you're there!

That's right, you read that sentence correctly. This report INCLUDES a big separate topo of the area with all mines marked in numbers. Just look the numbers up in the book's chart. It tells you the mine type (gold, silver, copper, etc.); mine name; mine owners and even comments on mine status: Idle (for example) or "mill erected in section 30."

Remember, the best bets for finding gold these days are from mines that were idle and deemed uneconomic when this report was written. And there are MANY idle mines listed in this book. Usually, you do NOT want a successful mine because chances are that will have been cleaned out with nothing left for you.

Plus the maps are invaluable in pinpointing which mine is which. No guessing whether this dirt pile is the mine or the other one two miles down the road is really the mine. You might get close to the real mine without the coordinates. But trust me, you really want the coordinates if you'll be digging out a collapsed adit. No one wants to spend two back-breaking days clearing away debris, only to find that you're digging on a worthless pumice claim!!

Mines listed and mapped include:

• Brymer mine (lode gold) — range and township coordinates are given, AND the mine is mapped on the included map; owned by A. F. Forrest of Randsburg; "idle, no production." Yeeha! EXACTLY the type of mine we're looking for!
• Golden Badger (lode gold) — currently idle but produced about $4000 in 1940-'41. That's 160 LARGE in today's money. $160,000 for a couple months work is nothing to sneeze at. Originally owned by Herman Gowin (deceased at time of report).
• Cunningham group of placer claims (placer) — production of NUGGET GOLD reported at $1500 for 1930-'34. That's back when gold was even less at 35 bucks, which would translate to $60,000 worth of nuggets today. I'll take 60 grand of nuggets any day of the week!
• Voss Consolidated placer mines — "coarse nugget gold produced in unknown amount!" Idle at time of report. Somebody better buy this book FAST, or I might just take it down off ebay and go after the gold myself. These mines are only an hour from Lancaster and two hours from L. A. You don't have to drive all the way to Alaska likes those nitwits on the gold-mining TV show. They don't call this the golden state for nothing!!!
• Plus others, large and small, famous and forgotten.

Very hard to find
This is one of the sought-after California mining reports because it covers the area east of Red Rock Canyon, which has next to nothing on it in the literature. It's harder to find than a snowball in Death Valley in June — especially in this condition, which is very good to near fine (except for some writing on the maps and in the text). Yes, it has all THREE oversize maps in the rear pocket. (These may be copies; see "the book" for details.)

Not a boring report about cement and gravel like many others
These state quad reports are getting more difficult to find every day. In the next couple of years, you will be hard pressed to find this report anywhere at any price. No bull. The publishing runs were small to begin with, and collectors are not reselling them at any price. Yes, you do see California quad reports occasionally on ebay, but read the descriptions carefully. Those are the absolute dogs about clay pits or the always thrilling cement and gravel mines.

Photo from book of geologic formations near Red Rock Canyon; geology and formations are explained in detail in the text.

Written about miners
by miners for miners
This is not some hokey gift-shop rockhound book; it was written about miners for miners by miners. But it's not just for gold seekers. Sick of metal detecting at spots where every square inch has been dug 500 times? Then this book is definitely for you. Prepared by the California Division of Mines in 1952, it is a treasure trove of information for history buffs, bottle collectors, photographers, geologists, hikers, offroaders, rockhounds, prospectors, metal-detector enthusiasts, mine explorers — just about anyone interested in exploring or learning about old mine sites in the historic and beautiful Red Rock Canyon area.

Gold deposit (marked by "Au") directly across SR 14 from Red Rock entrance.

Rockhounding and gold prospecting legal status
Rockhounding and gold prospecting and even mining is allowed on MOST BLM lands. Some of this area MAY be on state recreation lands, which may have different rules. Then again, we saw several recent online articles saying that gold mining and panning was absolutely fine. It's up to you to check on what's allowed.

Also valuable for stock collectors
Because this report also 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.

Where is this place?
Sorry the map key that comes with this report isn't very detailed, and I couldn't find a map any better online to inlcude in the ad. Grab a copy of the Auto Club Kern County map, and trace SR 14 up from Mojave, Calif. The area covered by this report is the Saltdale Quadrangle, which extends APPROXIMATELY from north of the Jawbone store up through Red Rock Canyon State Recreation area, up to Indian Wells Valley. Most of the report concentrates on land east of SR 14, between Redrock-Randsburg Road and SR 14. Use an online map app, and you'll easily see where we're talking about.

The report:
Geology of the Saltdale Quadrangle, Bulletin 160, 1952, State of California, Dept. of Natural Resources, Ferry Building, San Francisco, six by nine inches, hardcover; 66 pages total, contains also "Mineral Deposits of Saltdale Quadrangle," pp. 45 - 66; which has mine locations keyed to included map, "Economic Map of the Saltdale Quadrangle, Kern County, California," separate map in rear pocket, plus two other big separate maps. These may be copies, hard to tell. But if they are copies, they're perfect copies.

Very good to good condition, except for writing in pencil and pen on the maps and in the text; nothing seems to obscure any important data. Writing may even prove to be useful if interpreted correctly. Economic map has some wear on folds. Library stickers on cover and inside cover; some stamps.

ALL three maps are in very good condition.

The best copy of this rare report that I have seen, and only the second one with ALL three maps present. Maps are folded. Covers and binding are in near-excellent condition; library sticker on cover and card pockets.

Be aware that some of the photos and map scans in the ad have been enlarged or reduced to show more detail; some photos in the report may be smaller (or larger).

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. Look elsewhere on ebay, if you want a trashed book — filled with ripped and stained pages and missing maps that the seller just "somehow forgot" to tell you about in his ad.

Payment methods and domestic shipping
Paypal only per ebay rules. I pride myself on bulletproof packaging and ship in sturdy cardboard boxes or HUGELY padded envelopes, not cheap flimsy envelopes. Our packing is second to none. No package has ever been damaged when shipped by us in the last 25 years EVER! Ask other sellers about their shipping damage and see what they tell you.

Your prices seem to be going up
Yup, they are. For years, I have been warning that these reports are getting harder and harder to find. I am now buying european collections or from U. S. collectors who won't let go of these for cheap. Don't wait, thinking you can find one of these for cheaper. Ain't gonna happen. If I can't find any for less money, you won't either. Yeah, one might pop up every now and then, but that will happen less and less as time goes on.

The fine print:
Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions about the item or terms of sale. Do not wait until buying the item to ask if Uncle Slim the Human Fly has two pages devoted to his bat guano mine.

I post feedback once a week. Not responsible for typographical errors.

Good luck and thanks for looking!

Photo from book of ancient sea bed deposits.

Kern also hosted major supply routes
Not only is Kern County itself filled with some of the state's richest mineral deposits, major supply routes also crisscrossed the county to other rich gold and silver strikes in more remote areas to the east and north, including mines at Cerro Gordo, Bodie, Darwin, and mines in Inyo County's Death Valley and Panamint Valley areas. Even the early 20th century boomtowns of Tonopah, Rhyolite (Bullfrog) and Goldfield (much farther north in Nevada) had supplies originate from — or cross — Kern County.

Because of the trade route connections between the two counties, many of those passing through Kern were bound for these destimations in Inyo County: Aberdeen, the Alabama Hills, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Argus, Badwater, Ballarat, Big Pine, Bishop, Bullfrog, Cartago, Cerro Gordo, China Lake Naval Weapons Center, Cottonwood Lakes, Coso Junction, Darwin, Death Valley Junction, Dolomite, Dunmovin, Eureka Sand Dunes, Fossil Falls, Furnace Creek, Greenwater, Haiwee Reservoir, Independence, Inyokern, Keeler, Laws, Lake Sabrina, Little Lake, Lone Pine, Mt. Whitney, Olancha, Owens Lake, Onion Valley, Panamint Springs, Pearsonville, petroglyphs, Rhyolite, Saline Valley, Scotty's Castle, Shoshone, Sierras, Sierra Nevada, Stovepipe Wells, Swansea, Trona Geology Village, Tecopa, Ubehebe Crater, Whitney Portal.

Towns and cities in Kern County include: Arvin, Bakersfield, Bear, Valley Springs, Boron, Buttonwillow, Caliente, California City, Cantil, Delano, Di Giorgio, Edison, Edwards, Fellows, Frazier Park, Glennville, Gorman, Greenacres, Johannesburg, Keene, Kernville, Lake Isabella, Lamont, Lebec, Lost Hills, Maricopa, McFarland, McKittrick, Mettler, Mountain Mesa, North Edwards, Onyx Pond, Pumpkin Center, Coalinga, Shafter, Taft, Tehachapi, Tupman, Wasco, Weldon, Wofford, Heights and Woody.