2000 – California Mining and Quarry Industry (historical up to 2000) – Excerpts from A Guidebook to Mining In America: Volume 1: West (The Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and farther West), by John R. Park, Stonerose Publishing Co., Miami, Florida, April, 2000," available at Stone Publishing Company. (The following excerpts are used with the permission of the author, John R. Park.)

"Native Americans in California were very active in exploiting mineral resources. Nearly all substantial archeological finds in California include soapstone bowls, finger rings, and other ornaments and tools. Turquoise was also mined. Cinnabar, hematite, and sienna were mined for pigments…The Golden State is of course best known for the 1849 gold rush that followed the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848. It isn't so well known that Spaniards-Mexicans were actively mining gold as early as 1775…In any case, by 1860, little easily mined placer gold was left, and hydraulic and hardrock mining began, financed by large companies. In the 1890s, dredging was introduced to exploit some deeper placer deposits. By definition, the Gold Rush Country extends from Mariposa in the south to Sierra County in the north. The area north of El Dorado-Coloma is called the Northern Mines and the area to the south of this point is called the Mother Lode…."

"The mineral production of California is extremely diverse (e.g., also including fullers' earth, kaolin, feldspar, gypsum, iron ore, dimension stone, asbestos, sodium sulfate, soda ash, magnesium compounds, pumice, pumicite, perlite, talc, salt and potash)…."

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