By Jon Hammond
contributing writer
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“The prehistoric evidences of past races found in this region are worthy of some description. . . In the vicinity of Tehachapi there are numerous and varied remains and evidences of ancient Aztec civilization. . . One of these ditches leads to a silver-bearing ledge, where shafts had been sunk, and from the bottom of which drifts ran in different directions, showing that the aborigines had mined here for the precious minerals in the days of old. This old mine was rediscovered by the Narbeau brothers, who worked them for a time from the same shafts sunk by the ancient inhabitants of this continent.”
– A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, 1891
I’m not sure how this long-ago author reached the conclusion that Aztecs once mined for silver in the Tehachapi area, but there have been reports of deserters from early Spanish expeditions who took up mining in this county. . .
