This project keeps its uncertainty in the open. Below are the questions still
unanswered, the coordinates and figures that conflict, and what it would take
to resolve each. If one of these is yours to answer — a document, a
photograph, a family memory — we would love to hear from you.
Open questions
Where exactly was Manchester, and what remains visible today? open
location
What we know At the head of Alder Creek, a few hundred yards downhill from the Last Chance, about four miles inland of Cape San Martin (family narrative), up the grade from Willow Creek. Only a marker, level ground, and scattered remains survive.
What would resolve it Georeference USGS Bulletin 735-J maps and the 1921 district map; overlay modern topography/drainage; compare cadastral/parcel boundaries; ideally a GPS field visit. Publish a confidence polygon rather than a false-precision point.
Sources:
Manchester (E Clampus Vitus marker); The Los Burros Mining District and the Lost Town of Manchester; The Los Burros District, Monterey County, California
What does the coordinate 35.88292, -121.39448 actually represent? open
coordinate
What we know It is 'previously associated with a Manchester listing' and sits ~200 m NW of the internal placeholder townsite point. Not confirmed as the monument, townsite, viewpoint, or road-access pin.
What would resolve it Read the HMDB marker page's map/description carefully; determine whether hmdb.org uses monument coordinates or a road/viewpoint pin; if possible, GPS the physical marker.
Sources:
Manchester (E Clampus Vitus marker)
Which mine locations can be established from primary maps vs. only family tradition? open
coordinate
What we know All current mine coordinates are low-precision placeholders from the internal places table. Many mines (New York, Western Star, Hollyberry, Queen Hattie, Goodrich, Melville, Buffalo, Grizzly, Ajax, Protection, Oregon) have no coordinate at all.
What would resolve it Georeference USGS 735-J and the 1921 map; extract mapped mine symbols; mark each as historic-map-location; leave family-tradition-only mines as area/unknown.
Sources:
The Los Burros District, Monterey County, California; USGS Los Burros mining district map, 1921
How close was Manchester to the Last Chance, Ocean View, and the other mines — straight-line and by historical route? open
analysis
What we know The family narrative's rough 'two or three miles' should NOT be published unmapped. Manchester is a few hundred yards below the Last Chance; the Plaskett Ridge claims are a few ridges west.
What would resolve it Establish credible coordinates/polygons per mine, then compute geodesic straight-line distances and, only where a route can be reconstructed, labeled route-distance estimates with elevation change.
Sources:
The Los Burros District, Monterey County, California
How many saloons did Manchester really have — seven or thirteen? open
discrepancy
What we know The E Clampus Vitus marker says 'seven saloons.' Two family articles (Willey Cruikshank; Mother Krenkel) say '13 saloons.' The number likely varied over the town's short life.
What would resolve it Newspaper/postal/business records from 1889-1895; note it may be irreconcilable and present both figures.
Sources:
Manchester (E Clampus Vitus marker); Willey Cruikshank — Mining Was His Life; Mother Krenkel: A Coast Legend
Who held the Ocean View/Lilac/Blackberry — L.M. Plaskett (1912) or the heirs of William E. Plaskett? open
discrepancy
What we know The Los Burros story says the group passed to L.M. Plaskett in 1912; Mabel's Pacific Valley article says the patented claims are held by the heirs of William E. Plaskett.
What would resolve it Monterey County land patents and deeds; disambiguate the several 'William' Plasketts.
Sources:
The Los Burros Mining District and the Lost Town of Manchester; Pacific Valley Gold Claims Still Producing
What is the precise Mansfield → Manchester naming/renaming history (post office, school district, town)? open
naming
What we know Post office spanned 1889-1897 (HMDB, as 'Mansfield'); family account says first named Mansfield (Pete Gillis), later renamed Manchester. A separate Mansfield school district stood at 'Lonny Field.' There is also a distinct Mansfield family of Pacific Valley.
What would resolve it USPS postal-history records; school-district records; keep the three Mansfields distinct.
Sources:
Manchester (E Clampus Vitus marker); The Los Burros Mining District and the Lost Town of Manchester
Is the internal 'Buchanan Copper Mines' record a real mine or a mis-seeded label for the Buclimo? open
data hygiene
What we know An internal places row 'Buchanan Copper Mines' sits at 35.91,-121.43, coincident with the Los Burros district placeholder. No source names a Buchanan copper mine at Los Burros. 'Buclimo' is the renamed Last Chance (gold).
What would resolve it Trace the row's origin; likely delete or merge into last-chance-mine. Do not surface it in the Explorer until resolved.
Sources:
Internal Plaskett project database (places table, placeholder coordinates)
What is the license/attribution of the 1921 Los Burros district map on Wikimedia, and is it usable? resolved
rights
What we know RESOLVED 2026-08-03: the file is a USGS 1921 topographic map of the district, PUBLIC DOMAIN (U.S. Government work, and published pre-1929), original from the Los Burros Mining & Historical Society. Downloaded and archived (data/losburros/source_images/), served at /static/losburros/, and used as the historic overlay with an approximate single-anchor georeference + opacity slider.
What would resolve it Done. Follow-up: replace the approximate bounds with a rigorous QGIS ground-control-point georeference (rq-georeference-1921).
Sources:
USGS Los Burros mining district map, 1921
Can the 1921 USGS map be rigorously georeferenced (QGIS, ground control points)? open
coordinate
What we know The overlay currently uses an APPROXIMATE single-anchor placement (Buclimo pinned to ~35.883,-121.390; scale from the map's one-mile PLSS section grid; cross-checked against Cape San Martin/coastline). Bounds live in overlays.json and are editable. The map carries a full PLSS section grid (T23S R5E), and CDMG County Report 5 (in-repo image 3794) gives PLSS descriptions for many claims (e.g. Buclimo = SE 1/4 sec. 35, T23S R5E) — strong ground-control candidates.
What would resolve it In QGIS, pick control points from the section corners / coastline / benchmark (BM x2673) and known mine PLSS positions; export bounds (or a warped GeoTIFF/tiles); document residual error; drop the new bounds into overlays.json. This would also let mine coordinates be upgraded from placeholder to historic-map-location.
Sources:
USGS Los Burros mining district map, 1921; The Los Burros District, Monterey County, California
What mines, coordinates, and geology does USGS Bulletin 735-J actually record for Los Burros? open
source ingest
What we know Public-domain government report, pp. 323-336, not yet downloaded or read into this dataset.
What would resolve it Download and archive the PDF; extract named mines, production, and any mapped positions; add as government-geological-report-sourced facts (higher confidence than family tradition).
Sources:
The Los Burros District, Monterey County, California; U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 735 (full report PDF)
Is the 'Davis mine' owner the same Alvis Davis who kept the Manchester saloon? open
person
What we know A Davis saloon is photographed in the archive; a 'Davis mine' on Plaskett Ridge appears in the claims list. No source links them.
What would resolve it Claim records / directory naming the Davis mine owner.
Sources:
Pacific Valley Gold Claims Still Producing; The Los Burros Mining District and the Lost Town of Manchester
Where were the Manchester school and cemetery, and is the Manchester cemetery distinct from the Pacific Valley roadside cemetery? open
location
What we know Manchester had a one-room school and a small cemetery. Separately, a 'little cemetery by the road' near Pacific Valley held Krenkel infant Dorothy and Harry Mansfield.
What would resolve it School-district and burial records; field survey; keep the two cemeteries distinct until confirmed.
Sources:
The Los Burros Mining District and the Lost Town of Manchester; Mother Krenkel: A Coast Legend
Where does 'McKerns Road' (signed at Locked Gate 2, atop South Coast Ridge Road) go, and is it the historic route to the McKern Place on the Nacimiento? partially-resolved
What we know ["Mabel Plaskett: 'In the early 1890's Lawson McKern homesteaded 160 acres and built a cabin on the bank of the river [Nacimiento, 12 mi west of Jolon]. He lived here until he was killed by a runaway team dragging a sharp toothed harrow over him.'", 'Ownership chain: Lawson McKern -> Reil Dani -> Ed Sans (1910) -> Hearst -> Fort Hunter Liggett.', "A 'McKern trail' is named in Mabel's mail-carrier article: George Harlan's route left the coast at Kirk Creek, climbed the grade, dipped to the south side of Mill Creek to the McKern trail, and he overnighted at the McKern Place.", 'No USGS/GNIS feature named McKern was found in Monterey County, and no McKern road appears in any public Los Padres trail source.', "Mabel Plaskett: 'The road from the McKern Place to the summit was built by U. S. Forest Service. Howard Mansfield (Stubby) ... surveyed the road in 1930. In 1933 WPA men under Julius Schiekele worked on the road. Blaine Mansfield worked on the coast side of the grade ... completed in 1934.' This describes the inland half of what is now Nacimiento-Fergusson Road.", 'DISCREPANCY: Mabel gives completion 1934; Wikipedia gives the road as built 1931-1937 by CCC, USFS and relief crews. The two halves may simply have finished at different times.', "Mabel: 'Hunter Ligget Military Reservation ends at the Toler Place' — the McKern Place lies east of Toler, i.e. inside the reservation."]
Why is there no BLM/GLO land patent for Lawson McKern, and is Reil Dani's 1898 homestead the former McKern ground? partially-resolved