Big Bar Traditional Cache

Gold Bars of the Mokelumne River

A group of prospectors from Oregon are credited with discovering the rich placers here along the Mokelumne River. It happened in October of 1848 and the diggings were rich; so rich that even with their provisions almost gone, the men chose to risk starvation rather than abandon their claim to make the long trip to Stockton for supplies. A man named Syree was finally persuaded to go and when he returned, he set up a trading post atop a hill near the scene of operations. In a canvas tent he sold food, tools, and supplies at a price that more than made up for any mining he had missed.

Most of the early mining in the area took place at Big Bar, the spot located by the Oregonians, and as word of the diggings spread through the mines, more and more miners began arriving and soon the land was covered with their tents and various shelters. Among the first to arrive were those already in the vicinity; the French trappers from the Hudson’s Bay Company, Mexican and American settlers from the central valley, and ex-soldiers from Stevenson’s Regiment, mustered out of service and looking for gold.

One of Stevenson’s men, Samuel W. Pearsall, discovered the first gold found in Mokelumne Hill, on the north side of Stockton Hill. Pearsall’s find marked the beginning of the end of Big Bar, as most of the miners left their claims to give the Moke Hill mines a try.

You cannot legally hike on East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) lands so the only legal access to this cache is coming down the river by personal watercraft. The so called Electra Run is one of the most popular stretches of whitewater in the Sierra Nevada. This five mile section of the Mokelumne has easy access and moderate class II and III rapids. There are no guide companies on this section, so know how to paddle before you go.

Note: You will pass another cache of mine, Middle Bar, further downstream.

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