Corona Heritage Park and Museum

The Claim Jumper Restaurant on McKinley is now a part of the past, but mining remains as much the history of Corona as it was to Sutter’s Mill. There may be almost no gold in “them thar hills,” but mining has been a major industry in and around Corona long before, and long since, our well-known citrus heritage. In fact, Corona is one of only six California cities that still has mining operations within its boundaries.

Dig deep into tales of the “rush” and the “49’ers,” and it conjures up images of scandals, scoundrels and scams. Wherever precious metals lie, trouble eventually finds it, and Corona was no exception. A most infamous example was the Temescal Tin Mine, which an 1879 "South Riverside Bee" article described as, “probably the most litigated property in California.”

Suddenly, Canadian salmon, American beef, Australian mutton, Swiss milk, French peas, biscuits and breads, candies and tobacco were available at every railhead and seaport. Tin was “in” but there were very few places in the world it was found.

When it was discovered that the Cahuilla natives used tin as a tribal medicine, an indian guide engaged by a local frontiersman led him to Cajalco Hill as the source. Claims were staked, and by 1860, the Temescal Mining Company was born, starting decades of land swindles, fraud, sabotage, and bilking investors out of millions of dollars. The wild legends were documented in the book The Temescal Tin Fiasco where speculation branded it as the “richest tin mine in the world.” How much tin was actually mined around Corona was buried in 1892 when the veins supposedly stopped short.

On September 15th of that year, The Los Angeles Times headlined, “No Truth in the Story That the Mines are Played Out.” Ironically, the very next day, the Temescal tin mines closed. The London Mining Journal soon reported that the stock issue had been a failure and no capital was raised.

Myths persist and articles pop up in newspapers and mining journals on new and reconsidered “strikes” every few years. It's not uncommon today to find at the people who believe that vast undiscovered fortunes still lie under Lake Matthews someplace.