The Deposit Book of Joaquin Flats Assay Office

≈ 6 min

The Joaquin Flats Assay Office is required to submit a weekly ore assay and deposit book to the California District Mining Recorder, who uses the entries to calculate royalty payments owed to each registered claim-holder. Silas Drucker of the Drucker & Morse Mining Partnership has filed this week's book covering deposits received between Monday 9 August and Saturday 14 August 1852. The Recorder's office has flagged a possible irregularity in the record of one deposit, suspecting the named claim-holder on line 4 may not match the partnership registered for that claim number. You are asked to determine which filed line is discrepant and which cross-reference record reveals the contradiction.

The scene

Joaquin Flats Assay Office, Calaveras County, California, 1852

Source documents

Calaveras County Mining Claims Register, August 1852
Letter from Enrique Alvarez to the Joaquin Flats Assay Office, dated 8 August 1852
District Surveyor's Field Notes, Calaveras County, July–August 1852
Assay Office Supply Invoice, Drucker & Morse from Sacramento Assay Supplies Co., 1 August 1852

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