Goldbelt Mining District, Cottonwood Mountains, Panamint Range (Panamint Mountains), Inyo County, California, USAi
| Regional Level Types | |
|---|---|
| Goldbelt Mining District | Mining District |
| Cottonwood Mountains | Mountain Range |
| Panamint Range (Panamint Mountains) | Mountain Range |
| Inyo County | County |
| California | State |
| USA | Country |
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
36° 35' 48'' North , 117° 26' 58'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Köppen climate type:
Goldbelt Spring is located about 4-1/2 airline miles northeast of Hunter Mountain at the head of Marble Canyon, the northern branch of Cottonwood Canyon. The presence of this valuable water source and its rather sheltered location made the site a natural spot for a small settlement. Today the ruins of what was once a moderately extensive mining community rest in the gully running from the spring to Marble Canyon. From their architectural style (or lack thereof) and meager furnishings, the three extant houses appear to date from no earlier than the 1930s or 1940s and probably have been occupied by talc miners, although no record of who actually built them has been found. One structure has already collapsed and another one burned. A root cellar and privy are also on site. Up toward the spring, to the southwest, is a small complex of fencing and corrals and a metal water tank.
First occupants of the Goldbelt Spring area were probably Saline Valley Panamint Indians, one seven-member family reportedly appropriating the site as a winter village despite its relatively high elevation. The initial mineral discovery that precipitated a small rush to the neighborhood was that of free gold made by Shorty Harris in the closing months of 1904. Utilizing the same route followed into the Ubehebe region--via Willow Spring to Surveyor's Well and then up Cottonwood Canyon--eager prospectors staked the first locations on the northeast slope of Hunter Mountain. Access to the area could also be gained over a forty-mile trail from Keeler via Lee Landing (Lee Pump), skirting Hunter's Ranch, and then heading northeast to the new camp. Harris, L.P. McGarry, E.G. Padgett (Pegot or Paggett), Joseph Simpson, and W.D. Frey were credited with the first strikes.
Development of the area started immediately and culminated the following January in establishment of the Gold Belt Mining District, with A.V. Carpenter as recorder, and embracing the territory stretching from the Ubehebe District on the west eastward to the north arm of Death Valley and from Tin Mountain south to Cottonwood Canyon. Ledges averaging four feet in width and containing a high grade of free-milling ore in addition to copper stains were the source of this perceived wealth. Samples taken to town returned assays of $8 to $176 in gold, plus smaller silver values. The presence of fuel and water in abundance was considered extremely conducive to mining operations. One early location °was referred to as the Gold Nugget Group, assaying from $38 to $240 in gold, but neither this nor any of the other reported seventy claims in the district received any extensive development work at this time. Nonetheless plans for a townsite were already forging ahead.
In February 1905 it was stated that sufficient capital had been secured to thoroughly explore the district, this support probably having been obtained from the San Francisco parties who bonded the Goldbelt mines about that time. No information has been found relative to the ultimate extent of the Gold Belt Mining District camp, nor has its exact location been determined. By 1905 the camp was described as abandoned, the only work in the area having been performed on thin veins and lenses.
Despite the obvious slackening of mining activity in the Goldbelt area, a few of the original locators stuck fast to their claims, confident that a great future yet lay ahead if the extreme hardships imposed by lack of transportation facilities and insufficient working capital could be overcome. Len P. McGarry, for one, 'general manager of the Bullfrog West Extension, continued assessment work on his claims, which were showing gold values of $10 to $150 and as high as 36% copper content, at least through 1910. Only a scattering of notices for new claims in the vicinity exist for the next few years. Most information concerns the B & B Group, about ten miles south of Salsberrys camp, and owned by McGarry, some Rhyolite associates, and W.S. Ball, B.T. Godfrey, and H.W. Eichbaum. These men were also interested together in twenty-four other locations in the area, mostly situated about twelve miles southeast of Salsberry's headquarters. In 1907 the B & B contained a shaft and an approximately 200-foot-long crosscut tunnel intended to reach the main ledge, which showed assays from $6 to $622 at a depth of 18 feet. Another promising group was the Snowbound, carrying 12% copper values. At the start of 1910 the B & B had been developed with a 280-foot tunnel and was still achieving high gold assays of $620. The Snowbound was also receiving annual assessment work, the two properties now owned by Annetta Rittenhouse of Los Angeles, H.W. Eichbaum of Venice, L.P. McGarry of Pioneer, and W.S. Ball of Rhyolite.
A revival of sorts hit the area around 1916 with the commencement of tungsten mining encouraged by its acceleration in price at the outbreak of World War I. Again it was Shorty Harris who first found the ore near Marble Canyon, about one mile southeast of Goldbelt Spring, shipping out a few hundred pounds worth about $1,500 in early March. Subsequent locations were centered in the region south of the Racetrack near Dodd and Goldbelt springs. Keeler was the closest shipping point, but though the route from Keeler to Lee Pump was now fit for auto traffic, only a trail still led from there to the mine locations. [59] In 1941 the Shorty Harris Tungsten Mine, composed of two claims three miles south of Goldbelt Spring and ten miles east of Dodd Spring, was owned by Bert Hunter of Olancha and E.G. Mason of Los Angeles. The only other data found on this gold and tungsten property concerns its purchase by William C. Thompson of San. Fernando, California, who also owned the Saddle Rock. Group near Skidoo and the Lost Burro Mine in the Ubehebe. New access roads had by now opened up the previously untapped property, and new machinery had been purchased for its immediate exploitation. [60] Either no production or only a very small amount resulted from these efforts in open cuts and a twenty-foot adit.
From the 1940s through the 1960s various small talc and other mineral operations existed in the Goldbelt area, but they were only sporadically active. The closest talc property whose workers might have resided at the camp site near the spring is the Quackenbush, but it is also possible that operators of the Calmet #1 through #27 wollastonite claims, about one-half mile northwest of the spring and owned by U.S. Minerals, occupied some of the cabins. This latter operation was envisioned as eventually developing into an open pit operation. Its thirty-one unpatented claims were located from 1959 on, and the #1 to #23. claims were worked as late as 1976 by Joe Ostrenger of San Fernando. In the 1960s the Goldbelt Spring camp was under lease to Sierra Talc, a company involved in exploration and development of several old claims in the surrounding area. (According to Belden, Mines of Death Valley, p. 65, Goldbelt Spring was an active mining camp in the 1960s.) The mill site was later obtained by William B. Grantham who quitclaimed it to Victor Materials Company, the present claimant.Greene, 1981
Select Mineral List Type
Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical ElementsCommodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded from this region.Mineral List
Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities12 valid minerals.
Detailed Mineral List:
Gallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
| Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ⓘ | Bornite | 2.BA.15 | Cu5FeS4 |
| ⓘ | Pyrite | 2.EB.05a | FeS2 |
| Group 3 - Halides | |||
| ⓘ | Fluorite | 3.AB.25 | CaF2 |
| Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides | |||
| ⓘ | Hematite | 4.CB.05 | Fe2O3 |
| ⓘ | Quartz | 4.DA.05 | SiO2 |
| ⓘ | 'Wolframite Group' | 4.DB.30 va | |
| Group 5 - Nitrates and Carbonates | |||
| ⓘ | Azurite | 5.BA.05 | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| ⓘ | Malachite | 5.BA.10 | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| Group 9 - Silicates | |||
| ⓘ | Tremolite | 9.DE.10 | ◻Ca2Mg5(Si8O22)(OH)2 |
| ⓘ | Wollastonite | 9.DG.05 | Ca3(Si3O9) |
| ⓘ | Talc | 9.EC.05 | Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 |
| ⓘ | Chrysocolla | 9.ED.20 | Cu2-xAlx(H2-xSi2O5)(OH)4 · nH2O, x < 1 |
| ⓘ | Nepheline | 9.FA.05 | Na3K(Al4Si4O16) |
| Unclassified | |||
| ⓘ | 'Limonite' | - | |
List of minerals for each chemical element
| H | Hydrogen | |
|---|---|---|
| H | ⓘ Azurite | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| H | ⓘ Chrysocolla | Cu2-xAlx(H2-xSi2O5)(OH)4 · nH2O, x < 1 |
| H | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| H | ⓘ Talc | Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 |
| H | ⓘ Tremolite | ◻Ca2Mg5(Si8O22)(OH)2 |
| C | Carbon | |
| C | ⓘ Azurite | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| C | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| O | Oxygen | |
| O | ⓘ Azurite | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| O | ⓘ Chrysocolla | Cu2-xAlx(H2-xSi2O5)(OH)4 · nH2O, x < 1 |
| O | ⓘ Hematite | Fe2O3 |
| O | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| O | ⓘ Nepheline | Na3K(Al4Si4O16) |
| O | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| O | ⓘ Talc | Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 |
| O | ⓘ Tremolite | ◻Ca2Mg5(Si8O22)(OH)2 |
| O | ⓘ Wollastonite | Ca3(Si3O9) |
| F | Fluorine | |
| F | ⓘ Fluorite | CaF2 |
| Na | Sodium | |
| Na | ⓘ Nepheline | Na3K(Al4Si4O16) |
| Mg | Magnesium | |
| Mg | ⓘ Talc | Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 |
| Mg | ⓘ Tremolite | ◻Ca2Mg5(Si8O22)(OH)2 |
| Al | Aluminium | |
| Al | ⓘ Chrysocolla | Cu2-xAlx(H2-xSi2O5)(OH)4 · nH2O, x < 1 |
| Al | ⓘ Nepheline | Na3K(Al4Si4O16) |
| Si | Silicon | |
| Si | ⓘ Chrysocolla | Cu2-xAlx(H2-xSi2O5)(OH)4 · nH2O, x < 1 |
| Si | ⓘ Nepheline | Na3K(Al4Si4O16) |
| Si | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| Si | ⓘ Talc | Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 |
| Si | ⓘ Tremolite | ◻Ca2Mg5(Si8O22)(OH)2 |
| Si | ⓘ Wollastonite | Ca3(Si3O9) |
| S | Sulfur | |
| S | ⓘ Bornite | Cu5FeS4 |
| S | ⓘ Pyrite | FeS2 |
| K | Potassium | |
| K | ⓘ Nepheline | Na3K(Al4Si4O16) |
| Ca | Calcium | |
| Ca | ⓘ Fluorite | CaF2 |
| Ca | ⓘ Tremolite | ◻Ca2Mg5(Si8O22)(OH)2 |
| Ca | ⓘ Wollastonite | Ca3(Si3O9) |
| Fe | Iron | |
| Fe | ⓘ Bornite | Cu5FeS4 |
| Fe | ⓘ Hematite | Fe2O3 |
| Fe | ⓘ Pyrite | FeS2 |
| Cu | Copper | |
| Cu | ⓘ Azurite | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| Cu | ⓘ Bornite | Cu5FeS4 |
| Cu | ⓘ Chrysocolla | Cu2-xAlx(H2-xSi2O5)(OH)4 · nH2O, x < 1 |
| Cu | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
Localities in this Region
- California
- Inyo County
- Panamint Range (Panamint Mountains)
- Cottonwood Mountains
- Panamint Range (Panamint Mountains)
- Inyo County
- California
- Inyo County
- Panamint Range (Panamint Mountains)
- Cottonwood Mountains
- Panamint Range (Panamint Mountains)
- Inyo County
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
North AmericaContinent
North America PlateTectonic Plate
- Antler Foreland BasinBasin
- Basin and Range BasinsBasin
- Mojave DomainDomain
- Southern Basin and RangeWide Rift
USA
- Death Valley National ParkNational Park
- Sierra NevadaMountain Range
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References
Tin Mountain, Goldbelt Mining District, Cottonwood Mountains, Panamint Range, Inyo County, California, USA