Westville District

Publication Info:
Gold Districts of California
Bulletin 193 California Division of Mines and Geology 1976
Table of Contents

Related: Where to Find Gold in California

Location This placer-mining district is in eastern Placer County about 17 miles northeast of Forest Hill and 10 miles due south of Emigrant Gap. It adjoins the Damascus district on the west and the Canada Hill district on the east. The district includes the Macedon Ridge, Whiskey Hill, and Secret Canyon areas.

Geology
The placer deposits lie along a Tertiary intervolcanic channel of the American River, known as the Red Point channel, which extends southwest into the Damascus district. A tributary known as the Whiskey Hill or Black Canyon channel joins the Red Point channel at Westville. This tributary is narrow, steep, and contains coarse gold. The gravels are capped by andesite, and bedrock is quartz-bearing schist and slate. Much of the development in this district has been drift mining.

Mines
Golden Fleece, Greek, Green, Hogsback, Herman, Hungry Hollow, Macedon, Osborne, Union.

Bibliography
Lindgren, Waldemar, 1900, Colfax folio: U. S. Geol, Survey Geol. Atlas of the U. S., folio 66, 10 pp.

Lindgren, Waldemar, 1911. Tertiary gravels of the Sierra Nevada: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 73, pp. 156-157.

Logan, C. A., 1936, Gold mines of Placer County, placer mines: California Div. Mines Rept. 32, pp. 49-96.

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