CARSON HILL

NAME: Carson Hill
COUNTY: Calaveras
ROADS: 2WD
GRID #(see map): 3
CLIMATE: Mild winter, warm summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT:
Anytime
COMMENTS: Also known as Oregon City, Semi-ghost. Great Article on Carson Hill.
REMAINS: Many original remnants.
This is the story of the $40,000 nugget and Carson Hill. It happened on November 29, 1854. A group of five miners were working their claim at Carson Hill when one of them, generally thought to be someone by the name of Perkins, hit a rock Too large to be picked up by hand and looking more closely at the rock, Perkins discovered it was, indeed, a gold nugget. Its true weight was established at 195 pounds, the largest in the world as of that time. It was decided to take the find to New York Along the way, a New Orleans man offered to buy the nugget for $40,000. Perkins accepted and promptly dropped out of sight not to be heard from again. James S. Carson was a sergeant in the U.S. Army stranded in Monterey at the end of the Mexican War. Carson joined a group of ex-soldiers and headed for the gold fields and the Mother Lode. It was Carson who discovered the site where, in the year 1850, the staggering amount of $2,800,000 in gold was taken from the site. Carson, who made the original discovery, died in 1853 scarcely benefiting from his discovery. Submitted by Henry Chenowith.

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