Skidoo Mine (Silver Bell Mine), Skidoo, Tucki Mountain, Skidoo Mining District, Wildrose Mining District (Wild Rose Mining District), Panamint Mts (Panamint Range), Inyo County, California, USAi

Regional Level Types
Skidoo Mine (Silver Bell Mine)	Mine
Skidoo	- not defined -
Tucki Mountain	Mountain
Skidoo Mining District	Mining District
Wildrose Mining District (Wild Rose Mining District)	Mining District
Panamint Mts (Panamint Range)	Mountain Range
Inyo County	County
California	State
USA	Country

A former Au-Ag-Pb mine located in secs. 19 & 20, T17S, R45E, MDM, , (7 miles N of Emigrant Pass), on National Park Service wilderness land (Death Valley National Park/Death Valley Wilderness). The property consisted of 12 claims in several scattered locations. MRDS database stated accuracy for this location is 500 meters.

Gold was discovered here in 1906. Within a year, a town called 23 Skidoo was established and grew to almost 500 people. Ore was produced intermittently until 1917. Only a few ruins remain. The town was probably named after the phrase "23 Skidoo" which was shouted by police in New York City when chasing women-watching men away from the Flatiron Building, located at the intersections of 23rd Street, Broadway, and 5th Avenue in Manhattan.

In January 1937 Roy Journigan secured a lease on the Skidoo Mine, about 2-1/2 airline miles northeast of his mill, from the Gray and Worcester Mining Company, which had operated the mine for the last two years and used Journigan's Mill to process the ore. Journigan employed five men to work the old stopes on the property, and old dump tailings were also being hauled to Journigan's amalgamation and cyanide plant for treatment.

A report on the Skidoo Mine appeared in the Mining and Scientific Press in August 1910 and presented the following brief summary of its operations: work was being pursued on four veins, with two tunnels and two shafts having attained a maximum depth of 300 feet. Ore averaging $15 a ton was recovered and treated by amalgamation, concentration, and cyanidation in a fifty-ton mill, with about 65% of the gold recovered on the plates. The concentrate was shipped to the Midvale, Utah, plant of the United States Smelting, Refining & Milling Company. Cyanidation of the tailings recovered 90% of the gold. Forty men were employed at the mine and mill, and a power plant consisting of several gasoline engines was on hand in case of severe trouble with the pipeline. The company's statement of operations from June 1909 to June 1910 inclusive showed profits of $92,617, with the total cost of mining and milling at $6.88 per ton.Greene, 1981

Mineralization is hosted in quartz monzonite. The ore bodies strikes NW & E-W and dip 30-40SW & 60N, at a thickness of 1.22 meters. There are 2 vein systems averaging 18 inches to 2 feet (45 cm - 0.61 meters) in thickness. Local rocks include Cenozoic (Tertiary) granitic rocks? (Skidoo Pluton) and/or Quaternary alluvium and marine deposits.

Workings include underground openings comprised of a 300 foot incline on the East vein system, and a 300 foot deep shaft on the main vein system, plus over 1 mile (1.6 km) of tunnels and drifts. Outcrops of 8 veins were mined. The mill was located in Emigrant Canyon.

Production data are found in: Norman & Stewart (1951); Tucker (1926), and Goodwin (1957).

No other production record found. The ore was free-milling and ranged from $15 to $20 Au/ton (period values).

Other Databases

Link to USGS MRDS:	10086459

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References