Hickory Gulch Pocket Strike
In August 1897, a major pocket mine strike occurred at Hickory Gulch in the Coffee Creek Mining District of Trinity County. Prospectors Burgess and Murphy uncovered a large vein of decomposed porphyry yielding immense quantities of gold, reportedly selling a baking powder can full of gold to a storekeeper at the Nash Mine on upper Coffee Creek. This sparked a minor gold rush of prospectors into the upper Trinity region.
Field Research Notes
Hickory Gulch is located in the rugged Upper Coffee Creek area of Trinity County. Placer gold can still be found in the gravels of Coffee Creek and its tributaries. Check Shasta-Trinity National Forest guidelines regarding mineral collecting and panning; note that much of the creek remains under active mining claims.
Recommended Gear
Gold Pan, Sluice Box, Crevice Tools, Shasta-Trinity Forest Map
Related lost mines
-
The Lost Cabin Mine
In the autumn of 1850, three prospectors named Cox, Wood, and Buck followed the Trinity River up into the rugged headwaters. Near a waterfall, they found a rich gravel bed loaded with heavy gold nuggets. They.
-
The Lost Cement Mine
In 1857, two miners wandering lost in the Eastern Sierra discovered a vein of rich, red volcanic cement-like rock that was packed with pure gold. They chipped off a few pounds of the rock, showing it to others when.
-
Goose Egg Mine
Rooted in the early excitement of the 1848 California Gold Rush, the legend of the Goose Egg Mine began when a lone prospector reportedly discovered a highly concentrated placer deposit in Mosquito Valley that yielded.
-
Waterfall Mine
In the early 1850s, a small party of prospectors from the East Coast traveled into Shasta County, crossing near Cow Creek and Fort Reading, and followed a rugged stream thirty miles into the high mountains. There, they.
-
Great Blue Lead at Forest City and Bald Mountain
Forest City and the Bald Mountain drift mine sat on the famed Great Blue Lead, a buried auriferous channel that drove some of Sierra County's most persistent lost-channel speculation. Historical accounts describe the.
-
Empire Mine State Historic Park
One of the oldest, largest, deepest, and richest hard-rock gold mines in California. Operating for over 106 years from 1850 to 1956, it produced 5.8 million ounces of gold from 367 miles of underground passages.