Why is there so little Iron in California?

Other than Iron Mountain in the far north of the Central valley and deposits in the Mohave, I can't find any evidence for iron mining in the entire state, which seems very bizarre for a state of California's size. I feel like there would have been at least some small deposits elsewhere, but there's no record of anything of the sort. I know that the Spanish missions in SoCal were working bloomeries in the 1700's but I can't find any information on local deposits. Was all their ore being imported from Mexico or am I just missing something? If anyone has sources that indicate otherwise I would be very interested.
 
Other than Iron Mountain in the far north of the Central valley and deposits in the Mohave, I can't find any evidence for iron mining in the entire state, which seems very bizarre for a state of California's size. I feel like there would have been at least some small deposits elsewhere, but there's no record of anything of the sort. I know that the Spanish missions in SoCal were working bloomeries in the 1700's but I can't find any information on local deposits. Was all their ore being imported from Mexico or am I just missing something? If anyone has sources that indicate otherwise I would be very interested.

I did some reading wondering the same thing and came up dry. There’s surface iron almost everywhere in the world, enough to support local efforts, but industrial-quality mines are much more rare.
 
I did some reading wondering the same thing and came up dry. There’s surface iron almost everywhere in the world, enough to support local efforts, but industrial-quality mines are much more rare.

It's just so odd because it seems like the only iron deposits in the entire state are only industrial-quality.
 
It's just so odd because it seems like the only iron deposits in the entire state are only industrial-quality.

It was the great and glorious cult of iron. In the last era they gathered all iron to build the tower of babel in the mohave!

(Sorry)

That is odd to be honest. Then again California is on the edge of a fault, so it could be that in an earlier geological epoch that californias surface was more or less recycled.
 
So Wikipedia states that the Spanish Missions acquired all their ore through trade, but lists the reason as being they didn't have any skill or knowledge in mining ore, not that there wasn't local ore to be exploited. This is probably a case of lazy writing but this is the only hint I've been able to find that even suggests there was exploitable iron in the pre-industrial era in-state. Did the gold-rush era settlers literally import everything made from iron?

Honestly I'm beginning to suspect that records of smaller iron mines were purged by environmentalists; the only information I've been able to find about historical mining in-state talks about the environmental damage caused by it.
 
From the Los Angeles Herald August 1910:
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19100819.2.98.53

California's Deposits of Iron Ore

California produces so many things of so many kinds that it is not surprising to learn that it now bids fair to become an important producer of iron. Geologists of the United States geological. survey have recently been studying the deposits of iron ore in that state, and in an advance chapter of an annual bulletin controlling short papers and preliminary reports on economic geology announce that the deposits are abundant and important. Ban Kills Obispo, Calaveras, Placer, Ban Bernardino, Shasta, Sierra, Madera, Tebama, Nevada and Riverside counties all contain more or less Important iron resources. The Minaret deposits, Madera county, and the Eagle jnountaln deposits, Riverside county, are probably the largest in the west. The investigations were made and the deposits are described chiefly by K. C. Harder, who was asalsted in. the work In San Bernardino county by J. L. Rich". The Perfumo canyon deposits in San Luis Obispo county consist of a nearly vertical bed of limestone about a mile long and eight to tvelve feet thick. It is supposed to be a bog iron deposit which may have a thickness of 2500 feet forming an immense mass of low grade ore. In advance of careful exploration, however, it is unsafe to count on a thickness of more than 100 feet. The ore contains about 46 percent of iron and a large percentage of phosphorus. In Calaveras county there are several small deposits of brown iron ore, at places a mile-and a half northeast of Valley springs, half a mile north of Esmeralda and a mile north of Murphy. The Detert, near Valley springs, shows several outcrops of Iron ore; the largest body exposed is fifty feet long and six feet wide, and rises about fifteen feet above the level of the knoll on which It occurs. All the Oalaveras deposits are small, of low grade and of little present value. Placer county contains the Hotaling deposit, which is six miles north of Auburn. This has been opened by trenches, pits and shafts that extend along the outcrop for 150 or 300 feet. Most of the ore is of low grade, but the deposit contains local masses of (Iran and high grade ore. The Ran Bernardino county deposits are near Dale. The principal veins. Which are nearly vertical, crop out over an area about half a mile square, forming a long hill. There aro fifty or more veins, but less than ten are ten feet thick; the longest is about 425 feet lone*. Most of these ores are hematite, altered from magnetite, though some an limonite. The ores are very pure and of high grade, but do not appear to be sxtemvte enough to make them attractive commercially.
 
Thank you! Kind of odd that both articles are so old.

Another site I just found called The Diggings has a lot of information about mining claims around the world, and lets you select for previously producing mines.

I was looking for old articles. If you're looking for more current information check out the US geological survey's website as they do industry reports every year or less. Something like 95% of US iron comes from Minnesota and Michigan because it's the cheapest to extract from there. There are plenty of other deposits, even large ones, but it's just not currently cost effective in today's market.
 
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