The Leadville Mine northeast of Gerlach in Washoe County, Nevada, has produced a variety of metals from ores associated with porphyritic dikes in andesite. There is a mention in the literature that there were large fluorite crystals associated with the deposits, although there are no real details describing the occurance. It was worth a trip to see this area and some new country and to check out some geode areas on the north side of the Blackrock.

We left Reno early and had breakfast at Bruno’s in Gerlach, the iconic restaurant on the Black Rock-Smoke Creek junction. We traveled by paved and then gravel roads about 35 miles NE to the turn into the Leadville District. A good jeep trail leads to the mine site. It was a very windy and cold day with showers at the 6,000 plus foot elevation, but the flowers were out and a lone antelope and several groups of mustangs didn’t seem to mind the weather. We spent several hours climbing over mine dumps and looking at prospect pits on the main structure and to the southeast on several parallel dikes. The dumps produced several specimens of massive galena, one of sphalerite and numerous samples of sulfide-rich waste rock. There was no recognizable fluorite on the dumps or on the mineralized structure on a single exposure on the drainage south of the main workings.

We left Leadville and drove north to check an area where Sam Knipmeyer, my digging partner, had prospected with his dad in the 80’s. There is a nice display of petrified logs next to the road, protected from passing rock hammers by a sturdy fence. We returned to the north edge of the Black Rock Desert and turned NE again on Soldier Meadow road. We decided not to drive on the playa as it had showered much of the day and might have turned the track to mud. We passed an opal mine (formerly, Little Joe) and proceeded to the Mud Meadows Reservoir and turned south along the west flank of the Black Rock Range. This track follows the approximate route of the 49er’s as they treked to the Highrock Canyon and the Northwest. We passed the site of Hardin City, history unknown. Ruins consist of two eroded piles of cut ash fall tuff blocks that were buildings near a boggy spring.

Top, Hardin City Ruins – Bottom, Double Hot Springs

Some 5 miles to the south is Double Hot Springs, a series of pools with temperatures in the dangerous range. It was to late for a bath, so we turned back north a mile or so to a flat dry camping spot. It was windy and rainy all night but the area was surprisingly dry in the morning.

After breakfast and packing up camp, we re-traced our route to the north and found a track into the hills to the east. The area is reported to have a variety of chalcedony geodes weathering from basalt. We did find a number of specimens, nothing spectacular, and a lot of chips from sites along the flanks of the valley. Some were of a very pretty red jasper and had clearly been shaped as scrapers. The highlight, actually, was at the end of a small box canyon in one of the basalt layers where we found a nesting pair of prairie falcons. They were very upset with our visit but calmed down quickly as we left.

Seeing rain to the south and fearing a muddy track on the playa, we again headed south to Double Hot Springs. We took pictures and reflected on the marker with a quote from a log dated August, 1849, in which the writer remarked on the springs and the fact that they had rested and “boiled beans” (in the springs) as they passed, on the way up the trail. We then headed SW to the track across the Black Rock where for 35-40 miles one can drive in nearly a straight line at 50-60 miles per hour. The dust plume was spectacular!

In the early 1980’s development work at the Homestake Mining Company Mclaughlin Mine project at the junction of Napa, Lake and Yolo counties in California turned up some nice stibnite specimens. Drill core from some areas contained scattered stibnite in veins and vugs, and in one case, stout crystals up to 3-8 cm in a wide calcite vein. The best specimens from this period, however, were found when a bulk sample decline was sunk in a near-surface part of the ore body. This work was designed to sample an area of the silicified Knoxville formation mudstone, a significant gold host on the property. Numerous quartz-chalcedony veins in the workings contained stibnite in masses, radiating sprays and in small vugs. The best specimens showed bright, needle-like sprays up to 3 cm in open vugs lined with bright micro quartz.

The muck (bulk sample) piles provided lots of fine samples, sometimes in masses of radiating crystals up to several pounds. The exposed faces in the decline were great for finding vugs, but were dangerous and usually only accessable after a blast when the fumes were sure to cause a nice ‘nitro’ headache. A contract minor was severely injured by rockfall at the working face during this period.

There are still a few of these specimens around; there should have been a lot available from the pit as it progressed, but I only have a few remaining. One is pictured here.