Quartz Gold Traditional Cache
Auburn Troop 19: Archived until it can be re-done
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Lock and Lock box
This cache brought to you by Boy Scout Troop 19.
When the 49ers first came to the Sierra Nevada Foothills looking for gold, they went for the easy stuff, the gold in the streams and rivers. When that ran out, they had to look a little harder and soon found that gold could often be found mixed in quartz rocks. Veins of quartz often went deep below the surface and thus many large gold mines went thousands of feet deep underground. One of those mines was only about 1/2 mile from this cache, the Marguerite Mine, for which a local road was named.
Sometimes, however, veins of quartz could be found on the surface and miners would remove the white quartz rock looking for gold that might be hidden inside. This cache is at such a location. Notice the several foot wide by several foot deep trench on either side of the roadway and the quartz rock at the bottom of it. You can see where miners have removed the quartz rock looking for gold. From the size of the 36 inch diameter oak growing out of the trench, this spot was probably mined over 100 years ago and then the roadway partially filled it in.
The dirt road to the west was recently brushed out. If you follow the line of the quartz vein away from the road, just the other side of the dirt road you will find a large hole where somebody again dug down to find the quartz and gold.
Watch out for Poison Oak!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Sbyybj gur dhnegm
Treasures
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