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Home > California > CA - Quarry Links & Photographs > El Dorado County > List of Quarries > Indian Diggings (Only)
“There were several locations in and around Indian Diggings where crystallized limestone deposits were found. These mines were collectively known at the Indian Diggings Mines.”
These marble quarries are located southeast of the Indiana Diggings Cemetery, according to the U. S. Geological Survey map, Omo Ranch 7 ½' Quadrangle. Limestone and marble was discovered in 1859. The Hayward, Hobart and Lane Company bought the marble quarry in 1916 and attempted to transport the marble to Sacramento but was unsuccessful as the marble fell into the Consumnes River (near Highway 16). (The preceding information was compiled from various sources.)
I have been told that the quarry is not easily found as there are many logging roads in the area. Stone from this area is generally white and heavily streaked with grey veining. Many examples of this marble can be found in California cemeteries, especially in the Old Sacramento City Cemetery in Sacramento. (See the following entry for photographs of cemetery stones constructed from Indian Diggings marble and some Indian Diggings area marble/limestone stones.)
Sacramento, January 2d, 1866.
Mr. I. N. Hoag, Secretary of the State Agricultural Society:
Sir:-In compliance with your request, I give you some information in regard to our marble quarries. The quarries from which we procure the marble known as "Indian Diggings marble," are located in El Dorado County, about three miles from the line that divides El Dorado from Amador County, twenty-five miles east of south from Placerville, thirty-two miles east of Latrobe, and sixty-two miles from Sacramento City. A branch of the new Amador road from Virginia City, Silver Mountain, etc., leads within one half mile of the quarries.
These quarries were first seen by me in the winter of eighteen hundred and fifty-three and four; at that time there was nothing to attract attention to them except the quality of the marble, which was as fine as the best Italian.
In the winter of eighteen hundred and fifty-six and seven, the solid ledges were uncovered by hydraulic mining, from which we have been taking marble since the summer following, from eighteen hundred and fifty-seven to eighteen hundred and sixty-one. We quarried only for monumental work. In eighteen hundred and sixty-one we erected a steam mill, with three gangs of saws, by which we have been able to supply the increasing demand for this material.
The marble is more easily worked, more free from iron, flint, or other outside matter, and as it is as susceptible of as high a polish as the best Italian, there is no reason why it should not, in a few years, supersede the use of imported marble altogether. For general purposes, there is no marble in the United States that can compete with it; and, as you are well aware, we have exhibited it at all the State fairs since eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, in competition with foreign or domestic production. And we have the proud satisfaction of knowing that California has carried off the palm in marble, as she has in everything else in which she has come in competition with other parts of the world.
In view of the above facts, it seems that this part of the production of the State has been almost entirely overlooked, and has not received the fostering care and encouragement from your society or the State Government that its importance demands. Knowing the deep interest that you take in developing all the resources of the State, I have placed the above at your disposal, hoping that it may assist you in your good work.
I remain, respectfully, Your obedient servant, ISRAEL LUCE.
“Hayward, Hobart and Lane Estates of San Francisco owns a deposit of crystalline limestone at Indian Diggings, which is undeveloped on account of its distance from transportation.”
"Four miles northwest of Indian Diggins, and extending a mile and a half northeast across the canyon of Middle Fork of Cosumnes River from Slug Gulch to Rocky Bar, there is a large deposit of limestone. This is in part associated with copper ore at the Cosumnes copper mine. The association of limestone, copper ores, and magnetite is also found at other copper mines in the county. In such cases, the calcite has been re-crystallized into coarse crystals during the process of mineralization accompanying the following granitic intrusion. There has been no commercial utilization of such deposits."
"Indian Diggins Marble Deposit. This deposit is in sec. 18, T. 8 N., R. 13 E., about 25 miles southeast of Placerville and has not been developed because of its remoteness from railroad. About a mile southwest of it, at Marble Spring, is another deposit. Both are good-sized."
| Plate 26- B. Indian Diggins Limestone Deposit, El Dorado County. |  |
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