The oldest surviving records on the German Bar Mine date back to 1851. However, those records from 1851 indicate that the mine was worked even before then. We do know that it was the first mine in the entire area to be systematically worked and we also know that Sierra County and Nevada County are some of the oldest (and richest) mining regions in California. So, the German Bar Mine is in the category of being one of California’s oldest mines.

The USGS records indicate that the German Bar Mine consists of 4 adits totaling 2,000 feet of workings and 500 feet of raises. We explored two adits and located a third adit that was collapsed on the level of the river. I do not know where the fourth adit was. I would hasten to add that the USGS records do not seem to include any of the winzes – particularly that largest winze that extended under the Yuba River.

Obviously, there were long periods of time when the mine was not worked, but we have seen that cycle of abandoned mines being worked, abandoned, worked again, abandoned again, etc. countless times. If I had to guess based upon the appearance of the workings, I would say that there was obviously the work done in the 1800s, another burst of activity around the 1930s and then the more recent work that the caretaker, Tanis, mentioned.

The USGS report states that the hanging wall in the mine is composed of gabbro and that the footwall is composed of “conglomeratic black slate, schist and tuff.” High-grade pockets of gold ore are found within coarse arsenopyrite (of which we saw plenty inside of the mine). There are two main veins at the German Bar Mine – the German Bar and the Wheeler.