A Guide to Treasure in California

This book is available in  digital format only.        Excerpt from 'A Guide to Treasure in California'

It is hard to imagine any state being richer in its number and variety of buried and sunken treasures, lost mines, and artifact and relic sites than California. Each flash of California's kaleidoscopic history has produced its legends of lost treasures and mines, and left its trail of artifact and relic sites. Native Indians, Spanish-Californians, Mexican- Californians, mission padres, explorers, Yankee traders, gold-seeking Forty-Niners, military expeditions and emigrating settlers all left their mark as they marched across California's stage. Out of California's mountains and deserts came gold and silver in quantities never before heard of, and the armies of men who dug and panned it moved from strike to strike, leaving behind their camps when they moved on. Some of these camps have survived and are populous towns today. Many, many others hang on with a mere trickle of their former population, while literally hundreds of others are now only sites, their names forgotten, their remains ground into almost unrecognizable rubbish. While buried treasure and lost sites located within the boundaries of National Parks and Monuments in California are listed herein, it is merely to make the listing as complete as possible, and does not suggest that any searches can be made on such federally-held lands without specific permission of the proper authorities. On the other hand, artifact and relic sites located within National Parks and Monuments in California are not knowingly listed herein. Whereas it is improbable that one is going to locate a buried treasure or lost mine in the National Parks or Monuments, many artifact and relic sites can easily be found in these areas—but cannot be legally touched.