Wolf Creek

Historical Record

Wolf Creek was a 34-acre unpatented placer claim — two adjoining 17-acre placers — on Wolf Creek, about a mile South of Greenville, Plumas County, California.

Type of Claim: 2x Unpatented Placer Claims

Total Size of Claim: 34 Acres

Mining Commodities: Gold

Past Production: Yes

State/County: California, Plumas County

Accessibility: Paved, well-maintained roadways

Deposit Type: Placer on a flowing river

Cell Phone Reception: None by the river; spotty on all networks elsewhere

Discovery Marker (GPS, WGS84): 40.125100°, -120.960110°

The Wolf Creek claims sat on a creek that pushed fresh gold downstream every day the water flowed. The area suffered from the Dixie Fire in 2021, leaving char and fire-scarring on most of the trees; the burn also reduced ground-hugging vegetation, allowing new rock to fall into and be washed by the high-volume creek in the years since, likely building up several new feet of sluice-able material down to bedrock.

Wolf Creek has a documented gold-mining history dating to the 1860s, when the Creek and its tributaries produced plenty of gold and drew small placer mines throughout the Round Valley. Repeated wildfires through Greenville kept any single boom from lasting, but the gold in the creek gravels remained each time.

The claim sat at a high mountain placer with a deep, high-flow channel carved from the Round Valley Reservoir, creating banks that could be mined along with the river itself. Highway 89 (the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway) traces the area's volcanic history, with the fractured, faulted ground the creek runs over extending about three miles South.

Economic Profile: Surface-placer operation, historical/reclaimed development status, gold commodity type, ore body type Paleozoic marine rocks. Mining District: Plumas. MRDS references nearby: John Bull (#10140205), New York Mine (#10164356), Arcadian Mine (#10213273).

Geologic Structure: Paleozoic marine rocks — major metamorphics/granodiorite (metasedimentary, metavolcanic, granodiorite) with minor melange/tectonite.

Claim Features (Historical)

• 34 acres of unpatented placer ground — two adjoining 17-acre claims on Wolf Creek
• Located in Plumas County, California, about a mile South of Greenville
• Primary commodity: Gold
• High banks along a high-flow mountain channel, with fresh material exposed by the 2021 Dixie Fire
• Documented gold-mining history dating to the 1860s
• Paved, well-maintained road access close to town
• Sold through Mountain Man Mining™