Matelot Gulch &
Hidden Treasure Gold Mine

Matelot Gulch is an area at the South end of Main St where hydraulic mining had been used and the ground washed away so bare rocks can be seen. There's gold panning to be done, and you can even buy bits of gold to add to your sand so the your kids can find something. Souvenirs of all sorts can also be bought. Just beyond the end of the gold panning are there's some old hydraulic mining machinery to be seen. It is amazing to think that so much material was washed away from the hills that there was real danger of Sacramento being cut off from the sea as the rivers were silting up. California's ban on hydraulic mining last century was one of the first ecologically driven laws in the country.

You can also buy tours of the Hidden Treasure Gold mine here and this is what we came to do. The mine itself is a 15 minute minivan ride away, but an exciting ride it was. Not because of the speed but because of the narrow switchback road descending down the steep side of the Stanislaus River valley.

The mine has five levels, counting from the top, of which the fourth and fifth levels are still in operation. We were to tour the fifth level. Our tour guide, decked out in authentic garb and speaking with an accent straight out of a Clint Eastwood film (at least some of which were filmed here), led the way.

The tour was fascinating. I was amazed to find out that without forced ventilation there'd be no oxygen in the mine. All the galleries are connected up by vertical chimneys for ventilation and there are pumps to force air into the passages.

I was also amazed when we came to the gold vein. The gold vein in this hill is several miles long and thousands of feet tall, but very narrow. Its width varied from a few inches to a few feet and appeared as a layer of quartz. In the quartz were embedded gold nuggets - the arrow points at them. The other yellowish stains were just that - stains and not gold.

However, the gray dusty material you can see in the quartz is telluride. It was being thrown away in the search for the nuggets of pure gold, until a geologist came to look at the mine and was appalled. It turns out the telluride from this mine contains some 70-80% of gold by weight, as very fine particles, plus other valuable minerals.

The whole trip lasts around an hour and a half, and at the end you receive one of these fancy certificates so you too can claim to have stock in a gold mine.