Historical Notes
Henry Angel, of Rhode Island, a shopkeeper who started a trading post in the camp during the Gold Rush of 1848 has the honor of having the town of Angels Camp named after him. As with all the extraordinary towns along Historic Hwy 49, Angels Camp has many stories of pioneers striking it rich. One example, a vein of gold bearing quartz was discovered accidentally by a man with the unique name of Bennager Raspberry. While out hunting one afternoon near Angels Camp, Bennager took some time to clean his gun, and his ramrod became lodged in the barrel. Thinking the best way to free the stuck ramrod was to shoot the gun, he aimed the gun at a nearby squirrel and fired, missing the squirrel and sending the ramrod into the bushes. When he extracted the ramrod he noticed on the tip a small piece of quartz rich with gold. That afternoon he dug up $700 worth of gold using only his ramrod as a shovel. The following day, better prepared, he pulled out $2,000 worth of gold and $7,000 on the third day.
At one point in Angels Camp's early history there were as many as 4,000 miners working the claims. The Surface gold however, quickly diminished, leaving only the hardrock mining industry which flourished until recently.
In the fall of 1865 a young Mark Twain, who was at the time living in a small cabin on "Jackass Hill", overheard a story in a hotel bar, and later penned the now famous "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". It was the literary piece that made Mark Twain a household name.
References
Blake, Wm. P. (1866), Crystallized gold in California: American Journal of Science, 2nd. Series: 41: 57.
Genth, Frederick Augustus (1868); Contributions to mineralogy, No. 7: American Journal of Science, 2nd. series: 45: 312.
Silliman, Benjamin, Jr. (1868a), Note on three new localities of tellurium minerals in California and on some mineralogical features of the mother vein: California Academy of Natural Sciences Proceedings: 3: 378-382; […Mining and Scientific Press: 16: 9 (1868)]: 379.
Murdoch, Joseph & Robert W. Webb (1966), Minerals of California, Centennial Volume (1866-1966): California Division Mines & Geology Bulletin 189: 204, 313, 360.
The above list contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to
visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders
for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.
This page is currently not sponsored. To sponsor this page click here.
Mineral and Locality Search
