This striking manuscript “Map of the Ophir Mine, Ophir, Placer Co., Oct. 17ᵗʰ 1867” is a single, oversize sheet of drafting linen measuring roughly forty-nine inches in width.
Executed in crisp pen-and-ink with delicate watercolor washes, it bears the bold hand-lettered title at lower right and the neat signature of civil engineer Edwin Charles Uren, later well known for his official 1887 survey of Placer County.
The plan traces nearly three-quarters of a mile of the main quartz vein that underpinned Ophir’s post-Gold-Rush revival. A vivid magenta line, annotated at one-hundred-foot intervals, marks the strike of the Hilton Company’s ledge; thin black bars record the collars of shafts such as the Ophir and Great Finder, each labeled with working depths, while fine black lines sketch the drifts and tunnels driving into the ore body. Orange crescents indicate open stopes, and dotted red survey lines suggest projected workings or claim limits. Blue watercolor picks out surface croppings and seasonal streams, while gray fan-shaped hachures model the steep walls of North Ravine and the unnamed gorge to the west. Across the northern margin the word “GRANITE” in light script identifies the country rock that hosts the quartz.
Uren plotted a patchwork of adjoining properties—EDGE, FRED MALET, and others—reflecting the speculative frenzy that followed the exhaustion of Ophir’s placer diggings in the early 1860s. By 1867 the district’s future lay in hard-rock mining: stamp mills, hoisting engines, and capital-intensive ventures were replacing the simple rocker boxes of 1849. The engineer’s careful callouts, scale in feet, and true north arrow demonstrate professional rigor uncommon in earlier Gold-Rush sketches, marking the emergence of formal mining engineering in the Sierra foothills.
Drawn on durable drafting linen, the map was intended to survive hard use in field offices and courtrooms. Today it provides a rare snapshot of Ophir at the moment it pivoted from surface gold to deep quartz and, briefly, copper extraction.
Ophir
Ophir, a boomtown of the California Gold Rush, was originally named The Spanish Corral in 1849. The town received its Biblical name, Ophir, in 1850, alluding to the legendary source of King Solomon's treasures, due to the abundant gold placer mining in the area. By 1852, Ophir had become the center of the local gold mining industry and was the most populous town in Placer County, polling 500 votes.
The town's rapid growth saw it flourish with over 500 families by 1853. However, a catastrophic fire on July 12, 1853, devastated the town, destroying it almost entirely. Ophir was not immediately rebuilt after this disaster. Nonetheless, the area later regained prominence as the center of quartz mining in Placer County.
The Ophirville post office operated from 1852 until its closure in 1866, while the Ophir post office opened in 1872 and closed in 1910. Despite the destruction and challenges, Ophir remained an important mining hub, transitioning from gold to quartz mining.
At its peak, Ophir was a vibrant community with 40 saloons, 12 dance halls, five churches, a jail, and a colorful reputation for its wild and tough residents. After experiencing three devastating fires, the town eventually gave up rebuilding efforts and merged with the neighboring town of Newcastle. Today, Ophir is remembered as California Historical Landmark #463, a testament to its once-thriving mining industry and colorful past.
Currently, Ophir consists of a fire station, a school, two businesses, and a cemetery, with an estimated population of 700 residents. The town's legacy as a gold rush boomtown and its subsequent evolution into a quieter community continue to be a point of historical interest and pride.