Readers may recall last month’s post about the Scottini family. Besides a dairy operation they were involved in gold mining. After all, Diamond Mountain being one of the most important mining districts in Lassen County, and only second to Hayden Hill.
As the majority of mining along Diamond Mountain was that of lode bearing quartz, equipment was needed to extract the gold from the quartz. A simple and inexpensive method was with a arrastra mill which would pulverize the rock. The Scottini mill was unique as it was powered by a water wheel, the water of course from Gold Run Creek.
After the Scottini’s left the area, the mill was abandoned, though L.D. McDow, James Branham and Henry Neff acquired the claim. They did not use this mill, and instead built one of their own. In 1965, George McDow stated “The remains of this (Scottini) arrastra lie buried by flood debris with only a few of the side timbers exposed above the ground.”