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Virgin Spring Canyon, Black Mountains, Amargosa Range, Inyo County, California, USAi
Regional Level Types
Virgin Spring CanyonCanyon
Black MountainsMountain Range
Amargosa RangeMountain Range
Inyo CountyCounty
CaliforniaState
USACountry

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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
35° 57' 13'' North , 116° 34' 50'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Köppen climate type:
Nearest Settlements:
PlacePopulationDistance
Tecopa150 (2011)34.0km
Mindat Locality ID:
259153
Long-form identifier:
mindat:1:2:259153:0
GUID (UUID V4):
0


A valley/canyon located in the Black Mountains.

NOTE: Geographic coordinates presented are arbitrary at a point in the canyon near the now dry Virgin Spring.

An even smaller and still less important mining effort took place in the confines of Virgin Spring Canyon during the early 1900s. Like Willow Creek and Rhodes Springs, the discovery of ore in Virgin Springs Canyon was a direct offshoot of the Greenwater boom. When a lonely prospector found surface croppings of 30 percent copper in the area in the fall of 1906, the South Furnace Creek Copper Company was soon organized, with a capitalization of $1,250,000. Stock was put on sale for 25¢ per share, and due more to the name of the company than to any knowledge of its property, enough shares were sold for mining to start. The company owned nine claims, and towards the end of 1905 had employed six miners to start a shaft on one of them. The work was disappointing, however, and after a brief life of two months, the mine was abandoned and the company folded.

The Virgin Spring area was not molested again until the spring of 1908, when another short-lived strike was m ado. This time, gold was discovered, as a result of the little gold boom in nearby Willow Creek. Before the flurry died down, several claims had been optioned for a reported $60,000. Like the earlier strike, however, this one soon proved worthless, and the mine was quickly abandoned.

The Virgin Spring area has been deserted ever since, with the exception of a small milling operation which was connected with the Desert Hound Mine, which will be discussed later.
Latschar, 1981

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