Yellow Aster Gold Mine

Yellow Aster Gold Mine. . , North of this sign is the famous Yellow Aster Gold Mine in Randsburg. Three friends, Fredrick Mooers, John Singleton and Charles Burcham discovered the Yellow Aster Gold Mine in 1895 and so was the beginning of the famous Rand Mining District! The Yellow Aster Gold mine was the richest in Southern California with more than $20 Million Dollars of gold taken from it. (That was gold prices back then!) It was initially worked with 'dry-washers' and later, hard-rock mining took over. , The Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Co. owned 49 patented and 6 unpatented claims. It was the principal source of gold in Kern County and had an output of $12,000,000 most of which was mined and sold at pre-1934 prices. The mine was operated continuously by the Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Co. from 1895 to 1918, closed until 1921, then reopened and operated until 1933. The Anglo American Mining Corp. Ltd. leased the mine in 1933 and operated it until 1939. Since that time it has been mined intermittently by lessees who have worked at various places underground and in the walls of a large open pit. For a few months following its discovery on the Yellow Aster property in 1895, rich gold-bearing placer was worked in dry washers. Following the depletion of the richer placer material, mining was conducted underground and by 1905 about seven and one half miles of horizontal underground working had been driven. , Photo caption: Yellow Aster Discoverers Drywashing, May 1895, View N to NW(?). John Singleton, second from the left, Frederic M. Mooers holding the riffle tray at right. More of a 'Photo Opportunity' than actual work. The riffle tray, held as it is, may have been to aid the photographer in processing the film. They wear the same clothes as in the First Camp photo, below. The dry-washer would have been of the standard model in use at Summit Diggings, Goler and Red Rock Canyon; a hopper with 1/2 inch screen above a bellows box, driven by a hand-crank and flywheel. The riffle tray is carpeted with shirt fabric, passing air from beneath, 'winnowing' the heavy gold (and magnetite black sand) from the lighter material. This is the earliest photo in the collection of mining at Rand Mountain. – McPherson