STEVEN CHARLES BELL February 17, 1968 – January 25, 2026 Steven Bell Age 14 Steven was born in Simi Valley, California to Don and Audrey Bell. The family (parents and four kids) moved to Northern California in 1974 to pursue Don Bell’s gold mining ambitions and to get out of suburbia. In 1975 the family moved to the Mott Cabin at The Ruby Mine located (as the crow flies) between the towns of Alleghany and Downieville. The drive to Alleghany was shorter than to Downieville,

RUBY MINE Last week I shared that my family moved from Southern California to Grass Valley in 1974. Today I will share how we ended up...

Carbide lamps are an icon of underground mining. Introduced in 1901, they were such a major improvement over candles that they were...

First Stock Certificate issued by Original Sixteen to One Mine Inc. the oldest Gold Mining Corporation in the United States! Issued on...

More than a million ounces have been mined from the depths of the Sixteen to One Mine making it a major gold deposit. The mine has been...

The Ruby Mine (aka Guatemala) is located at the north end of the Alleghany Mining District. In the 1850s prospectors followed a path of large gold nuggets up Slug Canyon from the North Yuba River near Downieville to where the Ruby gravels "daylighted" at the City of Six. According to Geologist and Historian Bill Fuller: "the channel was poorly exposed and tunnel miners got off to a slow start. Half a mile to the south, Rock Creek had eroded down through the cover of Tertiary