mother lode#California Mother Lode
{{short description|Principal vein of gold or silver ore}}
{{other uses}}
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|footer = (Left) Two water-worn gold nuggets from Tuolumne County. They are typical of larger nuggets found by the early California gold rush placer miners (each ~1.6 x 1.1 x 0.3 cm). (Right) Crystalline gold specimen from the California Mother Lode, probably from Tuolumne County (5.3 x 2.7 x 2.4 cm).
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File:USGS map of the Mother Lode belt in California.jpg
Mother lode is a principal vein or zone of gold or silver ore. The term is also used colloquially to refer to the real or imaginary origin of something valuable or in great abundance.
Term
The term probably came from a literal translation of the Spanish veta madre, a term common in old Mexican mining. Veta madre, for instance, is the name given to an {{convert|11|km|mi|adj=mid|-long}} silver vein discovered in 1548 in Guanajuato, New Spain (modern-day Mexico).{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Preliminary Economic Analysis - El Cubo/El Pinguico Silver Gold Comples Project |url=https://www.gsilver.com/images/pdf/20-076_VanGold_El_Cubo_PEA_FINAL_Amended_06_May_2021_Signed_1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240109170547/https://www.gsilver.com/images/pdf/20-076_VanGold_El_Cubo_PEA_FINAL_Amended_06_May_2021_Signed_1.pdf |archive-date=January 9, 2024 |access-date=January 9, 2024 |page=18}}
California Mother Lode
In the United States, Mother Lode is most famously the name given to a long alignment of hard-rock gold deposits stretching northwest-southeast in the Sierra Nevada of California,{{cite journal |last1=Knopf |first1=Adolph |title=The Mother Lode System of California, USGS Professional Paper 157 |url=https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp157 |publisher=USGS |access-date=11 October 2021 |date=1929|doi=10.3133/pp157 |doi-access=free }} bounded on the east by the Melones Fault Zone.{{cite web |title=Ophir District |url=https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/show-mrds.php?dep_id=10310713 |publisher=USGS |access-date=11 October 2021}} It was discovered in the early 1850s, during the California gold rush. The California Mother Lode is a zone from {{convert|1.5|to|6|km|mi}} wide and {{convert|190|km|mi}} long, between Georgetown on the north and Mormon Bar on the south.
The Mother Lode coincides with the suture line of a terrane, the Smartville Block.{{Cite book |last=McPhee |first=John |title=Assembling California |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2010 |isbn=9780374706029 |pages=58 |language=English}} The zone contains hundreds of mines and prospects, including some of the best-known historic mines of the gold-rush era. Individual gold deposits within the Mother Lode are gold-bearing quartz veins up to {{convert|15|m|ft}} thick and a few thousand feet long. The California Mother Lode was one of the most productive gold-producing districts in the United States. Now it is known as a destination for tourism and for its vineyards.A.H. Koschman and M.H. Bergendahl (1968) Principal Gold-Producing Districts of the United States. US Geological Survey, Professional Paper 610, p.55
As with most gold rushes, the California gold rush started with the discovery of placer gold in sands and gravels of streambeds, where the gold had eroded from hard-rock vein deposits. Placer miners followed the gold-bearing sands upstream to discover the source in the bedrock. This source was the "mother" of the gold in the river and so was dubbed the "mother lode".
In popular culture
The term "mother lode" has appeared in some pop culture. For example:
- Mother Lode (1982 film){{Citation |last=Heston |first=Charlton |title=Mother Lode |date=1982-09-23 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084359/ |type=Adventure, Mystery, Thriller |access-date=2024-01-09 |others=Charlton Heston, Kim Basinger, Nick Mancuso |publisher=Agamemnon Films |last2=Heston |first2=Fraser C.}}
- A cheat code in The Sims which grants the player an additional 50,000 Simoleons (the in-game currency){{Cite web |last=Arts |first=Electronic |date=2022-10-18 |title=The Sims Cheats |url=https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/cheats |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Electronic Arts Inc. |language=en}}
- A zone{{cite web|url=https://www.wowhead.com/zone=8064/the-motherlode|title=The MOTHERLODE!!|date=|website=Wowhead|access-date=2024-10-21}} in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth (styled as The MOTHERLODE!!).
- The Mega Man Legends video game series featured a legendary treasure known as the Mother Lode as its central plot device.