I listed this place ‘second’ because this is where I first learned everything, so I have fond memories mining in this canyon. I got my first flake here, my first nugget here, my first dredging experience here, etc. I used to go every weekend and even during the week for a number of years here! This is one of the best rivers to go to in Southern California to find color and gain experience (But I also like the Kern River). There was a gold rush here and good gold was pulled out during the 1800’s. It was also mined here during the Great Depression.

 

It’s not far from sunny Los Angeles, California in the San Gabriel Mountain Range, the San Gabriel River has yielded a significant amount of placer gold, including some good sized nuggets.  The San Gabriel Mountains are located in a part of the Transverse Range geologic province of Southern California, just a short drive north of one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States.  Because of its easy and convenient access, this location has become a very popular spot for local prospectors - and much of the placer area is designated for recreation and anyone is welcome dip their gold pan in the water and prospect here for free.

 

Placer gold was discovered in the San Gabriel range in the 1840s in the area has had several productive periods since that time (Actually, in the canyon, there are reports of the Spanish Conquistadors working this area before that period and there’s even reports of mining before them!) .  Nuggets and flakes of placer gold have been obtained from both the stream gravels as well as older terrace bench gravels above the river (even 100’ and higher!). Some good sized nuggets more than an ounce in size have been produced from these deposits, but fines and  flakes are much more common. The bench gravels were mined by hydraulic mining as well as tunneling along the bedrock. While a number of streams in the region west of Mt. San Antonio (also known as Mount Baldy) have been productive, the East Fork of the San Gabriel River has produced most placer gold.

 

In 1874, it was reported that more than $2 million in gold had been produced from this area (but it could have easily been much more).  In addition to the productive placer deposits, there are also several hard rock mines located in this area.  Lode gold mining was most productive during the period from 1903 to 1908, however there was some activity again in the 1930s during the Depression.  The estimated total output of the lode mines here is about 50,000 ounces.

 

The gold quartz veins occur in schist and gneiss, both of which are metamorphic rocks. While the values are spotty, the ore deposits are rich in places.  The veins are usually less than 3 feet thick and do not extend to any great depth.  The oxidized zones near the surface yielded the richest ore. The erosion of the veins in these hard rock deposits are the source of the placer gold nuggets found in the gravels.

East Fork Road, located in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of Azusa, California, is a road that gives access from State Route 39 into East Fork and other small townships. Along East Fork Road there are extensive fire fighting facilities which are staged to combat the many fires that break out among the foothills above Azusa, Glendora, and San Dimas every year.

 

The road begins at Route 39, passing over the San Gabriel River, and follows the East Fork of the river, crossing a number of small streams. The terminus is Heaton Flat, which has a campsite, a ranger station, and trails that lead upstream and to the summit of Iron Mountain, 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above.

Popular gold panning sites can be reached from the road. The road passes the site of "Eldoradoville" (near the white bridge - “Cattle Cyn” area), a mining town with three stores and six saloons that was established in 1859 and washed away in a flood on January 18, 1862.

 

East Fork Road was initially planned as an outlet from the Los Angeles Area to State Route 2, and includes a "Bridge to Nowhere" that was abandoned after a flood; a later plan included two never-used tunnels on the aborted Shoemaker Canyon Road.[3]

 

In January 2005 a flood washed out two bridges which stranded 200 campers and residents for days

El Doradoville: The City of Gold

 

During 1854, when gold was discovered in the San Gabriel Canyon, a town named El Doradoville was built at the fork of the San Gabriel to take care of some 2,000 miners who had filed on gold claims along the east fork of the canyon. During the next 20 years, it is estimated that $12 million in gold was mined and shipped to various mints throughout the United States. The town of El Doradoville was destroyed by flood waters in 1861

 

Well, there's a little background info of this area. They're trying to stop panning and sluicing there, but I'll do it anyways! I obey just laws, traffic laws, etc., but I don't obey unjust laws against my Constitutional  rights! These lands belong to us! The People! Not to dictators who have nothing better to do than to take away every little thing that we enjoy, We don't harm the rivers and fish are not killed like some would have you think and when flash floods come down these canyons on occasion, they not only tear up boulders, stream bed material, trees and plants, making far more mud and silt than we can ever do but in some cases these heavy flash floods rearrange the river and the fish seem to do just fine! If you let these Socialist/Communists have their way, there'll come a day where we can't go anywhere or do anything because they've herded us like cattle into cement jungles where they can better "manage" us! Just my tow cents!

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The area has a rich Gold Rush history, and there are still remnants of those days. From the management plan: 

Eldoradoville was a town established in the mid-to-late 1850s to support the mining operations in the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. The town was ultimately destroyed during the flood of 1938, but what remains is still located at the confluence of Cattle Canyon and the East Fork of the San Gabriel River.

The site consists of a series of concrete pads, retaining walls, a cobble rockwork flagpole base, and nonnative vegetation on the primary terrace above the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. Earlier placer workings are located upstream. Placer mining is the mining of the streambed for gravel deposits and can involve washing, dredging, or hydraulic mining.

 

The site is the approximate geographic location of the historic “Prospect Bar” and “Eldoradoville” mining towns of the mid-1800s, historic “Camp Bonita” of the Great Hiking Era, and the historic “'Hooverville” of the 1930s. The remains are most consistent with the 1909 to 1938 Camp Bonita occupation. 

In May 1859, a gold mining boom town known as Prospect Bar, consisting of a boarding house, two or three stores, post office, blacksmith, saloon, butcher shop, etc., arose during a flurry of mining activity on the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. That settlement was described as being located 4 miles up the East Fork, near the confluence of that stream and Cattle Canyon. The site was flooded out in a storm in November 1859. By March 1860, the miners had returned and formed a mining district, naming the town Eldoradoville.

The town was a lawless Wild West settlement, governed by the knife and gun. 

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