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                               OLD MINES
                                   OF
                          SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA


                    _Desert-Mountain-Coastal Areas_
                             _Including the
               Calico-Salton Sea Colorado River Districts
                                  and
                           Southern Counties_

                                  1965
                         Frontier Book Company
                         Toyahvale, Texas 79786

                            _Reprinted From_
                 _The Report of The State Mineralogist
                                 1893_
                        _Limited to 1000 copies_




                          LOS ANGELES COUNTY.


                By W. H. Storms, Assistant in the Field.

The mining industry in this county is not as extensive as that of some
of the neighboring counties, but there are mines in Los Angeles County
of unquestioned value, and others which have a prospective value,
dependent to a great extent upon the success achieved in working certain
base ores, which occur in comparative abundance.


                            THE KELSEY MINE.

One of the most interesting mines in the county is located in the rugged
mountains about 8 miles from the town of Azusa, in the San Gabriel
Cañon. It is commonly known as the Kelsey Mine, and has become famous as
a producer of silver ore of fabulous richness.

The country is made up almost entirely of metamorphic rocks, having
schistose, gneissoid, and massive structure. Both hornblende and mica
occur in these rocks abundantly, the former being frequently altered to
chlorite, or by further change to epidote. Dikes of porphyritic rock
have been intruded into the crystalline schists. In the immediate
vicinity of the Kelsey vein are intrusions of a dark green, much
decomposed, and shattered rock, probably diorite. Faults, great and
small, are numerous throughout the region. Within a few hundred feet of
the mine is a great fault, which may be plainly seen cutting the
mountain. The displacement must reach many hundreds of feet. It has
resulted in bringing in contact on a horizontal plane rocks of entirely
different character. On the south side of the fault the rocks are made
up of quite regularly bedded micaceous sandstones, more or less
schistose, and having a prevailing buff or light gray color. These rocks
dip east at an angle of 20° to 30°. On the north side of the fault the
rocks are harder, of a dark gray color, and containing considerable
hornblende. These rocks are more gneissoid and massive than schistose.
The dip is much less regular than on the south side of the displacement.
Large, lenticular masses of quartzose and feldspathic rock are of
f