A bit of history for you, published in the San Francisco Call on August 14th, 1896
GOLD FOUND IN SONOMA COUNTY, Yellow Flakes Brought to Santa Rosa by a Woman.
MRS. LEGGITT’S PLUCK. Perseveres as a Prospector and at Last Strikes a Ledge of Quartz.
ITS LOCATION KEPT SECRET.
A Housewife’s Success in Delving for Riches During Odd Hours of the Day.
SANTA ROSA, Cal., Aug. 13.— A Sonoma County woman has discovered a gold mine. Armed only with a milkpan and a fire shovel, Mrs. W. T. Leggitt has prospected the creek near her home in Redwood Township for several months.
Laughed at by her husband and joked by her neighbors the plucky woman went mining every day that her household duties would permit, declaring all the time that there was a ledge somewhere near and that she would find it; and she kept her word. One little patch of black sand on her claim yielded $3 in flake gold, and on many occasions she has washed out more than $2 worth with a few minutes’ work. To-day Mrs. Leggitt visited this city to sell some of the gold and have an assay made of several pieces of rich-looking quartz. The gold was contained in a small tin box and was in flakes ranging in size from a grain of wheat to tiny particles. It was sold to Heath & Ekstroin and when melted made a solid button of the pure yellow metal nearly as large as a robin’s egg. The quartz will be assayed at once for Mr. Heath and the result of the assay is likely to create a boom in Redwood Township. Of course, the exact location of the new find is as yet a secret, but it is said to be on one of Thomas Hopper’s ranches, near Occidental. Mrs. Leggitt and Hopper have reached an agreement as to the ownership of the mine, in case the ledge proves to be on Hopper’s land, and there are many who believe that the proverbial “Hopper luck” has something to do with the discovery. Mrs. Leggitt is the mother of five children and is a robust, matronly looking woman on the sunny side of 40. Her pleasant features are browned by the sun and her dark eyes show determination and courage..
San Francisco Call, Volume 80, Number 75, 14 August 1896 — Page 3
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18960814.2.37