Just outside Mojave, surrounded by snow-capped hills and giant wind turbines, there is a mountain deeply rooted in California history. The place that has provided the promise for a better life for well over 120-years.
Soledad Mountain, it’s golden scorched soil and radiant rocks reminiscent of the treasure that’s been sought after since the turn of the turn of the 20th century.
The place where Kern County struck gold.
It’s one of the largest mines in the state of California, and Thomas Clay is now leading the effort to find hidden treasure, that was started by his father in the 1980’s. “ I heard about this thing around the dinner table when I was 6-years old,” Clay said. “My father interrupted family vacations to drive us hundreds of miles out of the way to watch meteor showers on the side of this mountain, it was a big part of my childhood growing up.”
Now, Clay is operating Golden Queen Mining Co, his family’s company involved in Soledad Mountain for decades. It started as a land position in 1986, and after clearing major hurdles they began mining here just last year.
