In 1895, three friends, Fredrick Mooers, John Singleton, and Charles Burcham discovered the Yellow Aster Gold Mine in Randsburg, beginning the famous Rand Mining District. The Yellow Aster became the richest gold mine in Southern California, with more than $20 million in gold taken from it, and it was the principal source of gold in Kern County, with an output of $12,000,000, most of it mined and sold at pre-1934 prices. Mining first used dry-washers on rich gold-bearing placer found on the property, then shifted to underground hard-rock mining after the richer placer material was depleted. By 1905, about seven and one half miles of horizontal underground workings had been driven. The Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Co. owned 49 patented and 6 unpatented claims and operated the mine continuously from 1895 to 1918, then again from 1921 to 1933 after a closure. In 1933, the Anglo American Mining Corp. Ltd. leased the mine and operated it until 1939, after which it was mined intermittently by lessees working underground and in the walls of a large open pit.