Bonanza Greenwater Mine, Rhodes Spring, Willow Mining District, Black Mountains, Amargosa Range, Inyo County, California, USAi
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
35° North , 116° West (est.)
Estimate based on other nearby localities or region boundaries.
Margin of Error:
~1km
Type:
Köppen climate type:
It was September of 1906 before any more valuable ground was located in the area, and during the following month several other mines were opened. The activity, although not very extensive, was enough to make the Mining World call Rhodes Springs a camp, and by the end of 1906, about five mines were being opened up by various groups of men. J. Irving Crowell, a Rhyolite investor, led the pack with the incorporation of the Bonanza Greenwater Copper Company, which had smatterings of copper, silver, lead and gold on its property in the vicinity of the springs.
Operations in this vicinity were never very impressive, but were carried out on a shoe-string basis for several years. One of the more promising locations in the district was bonded for $100,000 in May of 1907, and the Bonanza Greenwater Company had enough ore to start sacking it the following month. That ore would be shipped, according to the Bullfrog Miner, as soon as a wagon road into the mine was finished. Since this area was closer to the railroad line than was Greenwater, transportation costs were not quite so prohibitive, and the Bonanza Greenwater estimated that the total cost of mining and freighting its ore would be about $28 per ton. Since they estimated their high-grade ore at around $100 per ton, a good profit could be made on their deposits. Work was eased by the fact that the ore being mined was all exposed on the edge of a dyke, which made the operation a strip mine-type affair.
The Bonanza Greenwater had twelve men working on stripping its ore in mid-June, and Irving Crowell, its owner, predicted that the amount of ore which could be simply dug off the top of the ground was worth $100,000. To back up his statement, he made a twenty-ton shipment of the ore to a smelter in Salt Lake City late in June. The ore returned just over $90 per ton, which after deducting $20 per ton for freight and shipping, left Crowell with $1,400 to pay for his supplies, labor and profit. Crowell's success, although marginal, was enough to inspire other prospectors to scour the area for similar deposits, and the Bullfrog Miner reported in late June that "All the ground has been located for miles and then one or top of another in desperate attempts to get as near the discovery as possible."
Although not many people found similar deposits, one group of prospectors felt that they had enough promising ground to form the Copper Basin Mining Company in September of 1907. But that effort was shortly proven futile, and the company folded after little more than a month's operation. In the meantime, the Bonanza Greenwater Company continued to mine its ore through the rest of 1907, and towards the end of the year reported that the access road to its mine had been completed at a reported cost of $6,000. With the new road easing the transportation difficulties considerably, said Crowell, his company would soon become a regular shipper of ore.
After that bold declaration, however, Crowell and the Bonanza Greenwater Copper Mining Company disappeared from view forever.Latschar, 1981
List of minerals for each chemical element
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
North AmericaContinent
North America PlateTectonic Plate
- Basin and Range BasinsBasin
- Mojave DomainDomain
- Southern Basin and RangeWide Rift
USA
- Death Valley National ParkNational Park
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