Editing Calaveras County, California (section)

==History==
Calaveras County was one of the original counties of the state of California, created in 1850 at the time of admission to the [[United States|Union]]. Parts of the county's territory were reassigned to [[Amador County, California|Amador County]] in 1854 and to [[Alpine County, California|Alpine County]] in 1864.<ref name=csac/>

The county's geography includes landmarks, rolling hills, and giant valleys. It is also known for its friendly communities, and businesses such as agriculture management and construction engineering. It has numerous [[caverns]], such as [[Mercer Caverns]], California Cavern and [[Moaning Cavern]] that are national destinations for tourists from across the country. Other attractions include a thriving wine making industry, including the largest of the Calaveras wineries: [[Ironstone Vineyards]], mountain sports recreation and the performing arts.

'''Gold prospecting''' in Calaveras County began in late 1848 with a camp founded by Henry Angel. Angel may have first arrived in California as a soldier, serving under Colonel Frémont during the Mexican War. After the war's end, he found himself in Monterey where he heard of the fabulous finds in the gold fields. He joined the Carson-Robinson party of prospectors and set out for the mines. The company parted ways upon reaching what later became known as Angels Creek. Henry Angel tried placer mining but soon opened a trading post. By the end of the year, over one hundred tents were scattered about the creek and the settlement was referred to as Angels Trading Post, later shortened to [[Angels Camp]].

[[Placer mining]] soon gave out around the camp, but an extensive gold-bearing quartz vein of the area's Mother Lode was located by the Winter brothers during the mid-1850s, and this brought in the foundations of a permanent town. This vein followed Main Street from Angels Creek up to the southern edge of Altaville. Five major mines worked the rich vein: the Stickle, the Utica, the Lightner, the Angels, and the Sultana. These mines reached their peaks during the 1880s and 1890s, when over 200 stamp mills crushed quartz ore brought in by hand cars on track from the mines. By the time hard rock mining was done, the five mines had produced a total of over $20 million in gold.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.malakoff.com/goldcountry/angelsca.htm | title=The California Gold Country: Highway 49 Revisited | chapter=Angels Camp | first=Elliot H. | last=Koeppel | date=December 1996 | isbn=0-938121-12-X | publisher=Malakoff & Co.}}</ref>

The [[telluride (chemistry)|telluride]] mineral [[calaverite]] was first recognized and obtained in 1861 from the Stanislaus Mine, Carson Hill, [[Angels Camp]], in Calaveras Co., California.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mindat.org/min-852.html|title=Calaverite: Calaverite mineral information and data.|website=www.mindat.org|access-date=March 25, 2018}}</ref> It was named for the County of origin by chemist and mineralogist [[Frederick Augustus Genth]] who differentiated it from the known gold telluride mineral [[sylvanite]], and formally reported it as a new gold mineral in 1868.<ref>American Journal of Science. (2). xlv, p. 314.</ref><ref>http://www.libraries.psu.edu/content/dam/psul/up/emsl/documents/circulars/circular27.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304225328/http://www.libraries.psu.edu/content/dam/psul/up/emsl/documents/circulars/circular27.pdf |date=March 4, 2012 }} Biographical paper on F. A. Genth</ref>