Cat Town, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cat Town | |
|---|---|
  Cat Town Location in California  Cat Town Cat Town (the United States) | |
| Coordinates: 37°38′40″N 120°05′22″W / 37.64444°N 120.08944°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Mariposa |
| Settled | c. 1850s |
| Elevation | 2,254 ft (687 m) |
Cat Town is a ghost town and former gold mining camp in Mariposa County, California. It was established during the 1850s California Gold Rush and gave its name to the Cat Town Mining District, a gold-bearing area recognized in California Division of Mines and Geology inventories of the Mother Lode region.[1][2]
Gold Rush origins
Cat Town developed as a small placer mining camp in Solomon Gulch during the 1850s, part of the broader expansion of mining settlements in Mariposa County during the early Gold Rush period.[1][2]
Cat Town Mining District
The Cat Town Mining District is described in the California Division of Mines and Geology's statewide inventory of gold districts as lying between the Coulterville and Kinsley districts.[1] Mining activity in the district began with placer deposits and later shifted to lode mining, with intermittent underground development continuing into the twentieth century.[2]
Bowen and Gray (1957) describe the district's mines as exploiting gold-bearing quartz veins in the metamorphic rocks of the western Sierra Nevada foothills.[2]
Decline
As placer deposits were depleted, Cat Town did not develop into a permanent town and declined as a settlement, though mining in the surrounding district continued sporadically during later periods of renewed gold production.[2][1]
