RARE GOLD SILVER MINES, Resting Springs, Tecopa, Death Valley, Inyo, Calif, maps

Description

OLD rare 1st-ed. report locates all gold & silver
mines near Resting Springs, near Death Valley, CA
Mines are in Mojave Desert, in Inyo County,
near Tecopa, Calif.; Pahrump, NV; Death Valley
In near-perfect very good condition!
T
his hard-to-find old report describes and locates little-known mines and geology around Resting Springs, an historic area in California's Mojave Desert, near the tiny town of Tecopa, east of Death Valley on Route 127.
Detail of full-page map from book:
Plan of the Underground Workings of the Gunsite Mine, Tecopa Consolidated Mining Co., Inyo County, California.
One mine alone produced 85,000 tons of gold and silver ore that ranged in value from to (!!!!) a ton. Another group of mines produced million in ore from 1912 to 1928.
5 million
Gold sold for a mere an ounce in 1928; million in gold in 1928 would be worth
an astonishing 5 million
today
.
Yes, the area is remote ... But where did you expect to find gold and silver these days? In a planter at Disneyland? Still, most area roads are easily traveled by a vehicle with highish clearance. In most cases, four wheel drive is not needed.
No guards, fences, barking dogs, no no-trespassing signs
There are no guards, fences, barking dogs or no trespassing signs. All these mines are miles away from any town of any size and are on federal Bureau of Land Management lands and are open to prospecting and mineral collecting
.
Very hard to find
These first editions are increasingly difficult to find. In the next couple of years, you will be hard pressed to find a first edition anywhere at any price. No bull. The publishing runs were small to begin with, and collectors are not reselling them at any price. I am finding very few in the States now and am buying the last few copies from European collections.
Yes, you do see issues of the
California Journal of Mines and Geology
occasionally on ebay, but
read the descriptions carefully
. Usually the ones offered for sale
are the absolute dogs
— about clay pits, paint pigments or Los Angeles oil fields. Usually, they are NOT the extrememly rare and collectible issues about gold, silver and other precious minerals.
I know what I am talking about. I have been collecting and selling these reports for over 30 years. I know exactly what is in every single one of these issues.
So buy it now or forever hold your peace. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Exact locations of mining sites
The report gives exact locations of
all
known mining sites in the region, sometimes using landmarks, but always using
infallible range-and-township coordinates
. The book contains info on (and locations of) eight mines, some rich gold and silver prospects, including the:
Blue Dick mine
, in the Kingston mountain range, near the San Bernardino County line, southeast of Tecopa.
The
famous War Eagle mine
, on the western slope of the Nopah Mountains, nine miles southeast of Tecopa and one mile south of the Grant mine.
Redwing mine
.
Noonday and Grant mines
.
Sierra Talc Company
.
Great info for metal detector users
And this book isn't just for gold seekers! It is a treasure trove of information for history buffs, bottle collectors, photographers, rockhounds, hikers, offroaders, metal detector enthusiasts, prospectors, geologists — just about anyone interested in the California desert's geology, scenery and historic old mining sites.
Sick of metal detecting at spots where every square inch has been dug 500 times? Then this book is definitely for you. Just plug the exact locations into your GPS or look them up on the appropriate topo, and you're there.
Also a valuable tool for stock certificate collectors
Because this first-edition report lists mine owners and different names for the same mine, it can be valuable to collectors of stock certificates. Some mine descriptions contain brief histories of the mines in question (including dates of actual production) and previous owners.
The report includes five maps (one an oversized foldout), eight photos and is packed with information — geology, ore value, mine production stats, history, even claim holders' names and addresses. This report is considered primary source material; much of this info is available
nowhere else
. The first edition has been totally out of print for years, with no official paper reprints ever issued.
This is not some gift-shop rockhound book; it was prepared by the California Division of Mines 67 years ago. The book contains information of interest to history buffs, bottle collectors, photographers, geologists, hikers, offroaders, rockhounds, metal detector users, prospectors — just about anyone interested in exploring or learning about old mine sites and geology in the historic Resting Springs region, amid some of the Mojave Desert's most spectacular scenery, just southeast of Death Valley National Park.
Full-page map from book:
Plan of Noonday Mine
.
Resting Springs was important water source
Besides containing six or seven sources of potable water (extremely important to early travelers in the water-scarce Death Valley area), the region also boasts one of California's most popular hot springs, just outside Tecopa, still in operation today.
The first mining strikes in the Resting Springs region were made in early 1875 by the Brown brothers, William and Robert, the same brothers responsible a few years earlier for some of the first claims in Darwin and the ensuing rush of miners to that famous boomtown. Also in Inyo County, Darwin mines went on to become the second biggest producer of silver in California history. In the Resting Spring region, the Browns created the Balance Consolidated Gold and Silver Mining Company, built a ranch at Resting Spring and laid out the short-lived town of Brownsville near Tecopa Pass.
Before serious mining got underway, Resting Springs was a troop outpost, from 1859–'60, setup to protect the precious waterhole on the old Spanish Trail between Las Vegas and the Mojave River. The site of an Indian massacre in 1844 (avenged by Kit Carson and Alexander Godey of Fremont's expedition), a Mormon mail train was later attacked in 1854.
Geology described in detail
Because this is, after all, a book about mining
and
geology, it covers the latter topic in minute detail, especially how it relates to mineral deposits and their formation.
Where is it?
The Resting Springs area is in the southeastern corner of Inyo County, about 300 miles northeast of Los Angeles. It is bounded on the northeast by Nevada and on the south by San Bernardino County. Death Valley lies just to the northwest. The report covers about 300 square miles.
Many of the roads in the area are dirt but are completely passable with a normal car with highish clearance, like a pickup truck or an SUV. Usually 4WD is not needed. But much of this is backcountry, so it's still best to check locally about road conditions. The Auto Club San Bernardino County road map can be a great help in exploring the area if used with this book.
Within the area's boundaries are two principal mountain ranges, the Nopah Range on the east and the Resting Springs Range in the center. Between these two lie the Chicago Valley, while the Amargosa Valley is at the western foot of the Resting Springs range. Elevations range from about 1,600 feet in the valleys to 5,000 in the Resting Springs Range and 6,425 in the Nopah Range. Principal towns are tiny Shoshone and Tecopa. Nearest town of any size is Baker, at the intersection of I-15 and State Route 127, 52 miles away. But, Pahrump -- Nevada's newest boomtown -- is also close. Just go through Shoshone -- north of Tecopa -- and bang a right, and you're on your way to Pahrump.
Small section of full page map from book:
Index Map of Nopah-Resting Springs Region, Inyo County, California
. Section of map is blurred to protect mine locations; real map is not blurred.
The book:
The nine-by-six-inch report —
California Journal of Mines and Geology, Vol. 33, No. 4, October 1937
— contains 122 pages. The two main reports in it are "Mineral Resources of the Resting Springs Region, Inyo County" and "Paleozoic Section in the Nopah and Resting Springs Mountains, Inyo County, California." They total seven pages and 69 pages, respectively.
Quarterly Chapter of State Mineralogist's Report XXXIII, State Division of Mines, Ferry Building, San Francisco, California, stapled binding, stiff paper covers.
Interior pages are overall gorgeous very good condition. Corners are barely bumped. Looks like it rolled off the presses yesterday, except for some slight interior-page toning. All in all, a wonderful copy; you will be hard pressed to find one in better shape.
As always, I am
extremely
conservative about rating book condition and very detailed in listing any potential flaw, no matter how slight. You get what you pay for. If you want a trashed book, filled with scribbled notes, ripped pages and underlined passages that the seller just "somehow forgot" to tell you about in his ad, then look elsewhere on ebay.
Payment methods and shipping
Paypal only. I pride myself on bulletproof packaging and ship in sturdy cardboard boxes or reinforced envelopes.
The fine print:
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the item or terms of sale.
I post feedback once a week. Not responsible for typographical errors.
Good luck and thanks for looking!
Nearby counties
Counties adjacent to Inyo are Mono, Fresno, Tulare, Kern and San Bernardino; nearby counties include: Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Tuolumne and Alpine.
Towns, population areas and interesting sites in or near Inyo County include Aberdeen, the Alabama Hills, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Argus, Badwater, Ballarat, Big Pine, Bishop, Bullfrog, Cartago, Cerro Gordo, China Lake Naval Weapons Center, Cottonwood Lakes, Coso Junction, Darwin, Death Valley Junction, Dolomite, Dunmovin, Eureka Sand Dunes, Fossil Falls, Furnace Creek, Greenwater, Haiwee Reservoir, Independence, Inyokern, Keeler, Laws, Lake Sabrina, Little Lake, Lone Pine, Mt. Whitney, Olancha, Owens Lake, Onion Valley, Panamint Springs, Pearsonville, petroglyphs, Rhyolite, Saline Valley, Scotty's Castle, Shoshone, Sierras, Sierra Nevada, Stovepipe Wells, Swansea, Trona, Tecopa, Ubehebe Crater, Whitney Portal.
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