Chaparral Hill mine, Tuolumne County, California

The Chaparral Hill mine in Tuolumne County, California, was worked by Rawhide Asbestos Corp. on a small scale: the U.S. Bureau of Mines' Minerals Yearbook lists the company in 1960 among those that "reported mining asbestos for experimental purposes."¹ The yearbook for 1961 names the mine itself, saying Rawhide reported "small amounts of asbestos produced for experimental purposes" from "the Chaparral Hill mine in Tuolumne County."² In 1962, according to the yearbook, the company "discontinued mining operations."³ In December 1975 Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, wrote that a "194-acre, unimproved asbestos property near Chaparral Hill" was still available for sale or lease, and that the deposit was "said to contain 4.5 to 9-million tons of recoverable asbestos, Grades 4-7."⁴

The documents report work here (mining, shafts or a mill) but no fiber sold or shipped; that is what our documents say, and the mine may still have sold some.²

Location

Year by year

Every statement about this mine in the documents, in each document's own words, by the year it is about.

1960

• Worked: “reported mining asbestos for experimental purposes: ... Rawhide Asbestos Corp. in Tuolumne County” (Rawhide Asbestos Corp.), p. 2¹

1961

• Worked: “small amounts of asbestos produced for experimental purposes: ... Rawhide Asbestos Corp., from the Chaparral Hill mine” (Rawhide Asbestos Corp.), p. 2²

1962

• Closed: “discontinued mining operations, Rawhide Asbestos Corp. in Tuolumne County” (Rawhide Asbestos Corp.), p. 2³

1975

• Description: “still available for sale or lease is the 194-acre, unimproved asbestos property near Chaparral Hill; said to contain 4.5 to 9-million tons of recoverable asbestos”, p. 20⁴

Other names

Documents call this mine “Rawhide Asbestos Corp.”, “Chaparral Hill mine”.

See also

• Asbestos exposure sites in California
• All asbestos mines

References

1. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1960 (January 1, 1961), p. 2.
2. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1961 (January 1, 1962), p. 2.
3. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1962 (January 1, 1963), p. 2.
4. Asbestos Magazine, 1975, December 1975 (December 1, 1975), p. 20.