North of Randsburg lies the Yellow Aster Gold Mine, discovered in 1895 by three friends, Fredrick Mooers, John Singleton, and Charles Burcham, an event that marked the beginning of the famous Rand Mining District. The Yellow Aster was the richest gold mine in Southern California, yielding more than $20 million in gold, 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. It was first worked with dry-washers on rich gold-bearing placer deposits, but after the richer placer material was depleted, hard-rock mining and underground mining took over, and 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 after a closure until 1921, reopened it and ran it until 1933. The Anglo American Mining Corp. Ltd. leased and operated the mine from 1933 to 1939, and after that it was mined intermittently by lessees working underground and in the walls of a large open pit.