Finding a Thesis: Battle Mountain to Austin to Gabbs

With this post, I'm going to return to a theme or series I started a while back, part of the overall Highway 8A series, though the sections or chapters in the overall series aren't necessarily being posted in order. I will back in and out of them and bring a few new ones in every now and then. This particular part of Highway 8A is about finding a thesis. The thesis section is not the beginning of 8A, the beginning was here.

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It was typical springtime weather for Nevada: mostly cloudy, cool to cold, variably windy, with intermittent and unrelenting snow showers moving across the mountains and valleys. I was driving on I-80 from Reno to Battle Mountain, which is where I would start my search for a thesis area. I-80 is shown on historical road maps of the day as being incomplete through Lovelock, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Carlin, Elko, and Wells, and also from Pequop Summit to the state line at Wendover. At all those small to medium-sized towns, I-80 unceremoniously dumped one out onto main streets that have now been bypassed, and from the Pequops to Wendover, old Highway 40 still remained, single-laned and winding through mountain ranges.

Photo: The Humboldt Range near Lovelock in the springtime.

Just past the north corner of the East Range (MSRMaps), almost in sight of Winnemucca but still traveling on the relatively new freeway, I pulled over to take a picture of dark clouds hovering over the Sonoma Range and Osgood Mountains, not realizing how much time I would end up spending in the Osgoods a relatively short time into the future. As I stood there, a car with a trailer pulled up behind me. I soon recognized a former office mate of mine from the grad school, one who had graduated and was traveling to a new job outside Nevada. We chatted for a while, then got back to traveling, splitting our directions in Winnemucca: northward for him and his family, eastward for me.

Eventually, I made it into Battle Mountain, where I most likely got a room at one of the joints then open, probably at the Nevada Hotel. At that time, I knew of two places to eat: the Nevada Hotel and the Owl Club, neither of which I would have recommended to anyone because of the real danger of succumbing to food poisoning. [Battle Mountain was known for such things as recently as the late 1980's. I can't say about now — but I'll still drive to Winnemucca for dinner if given a choice.]

Checking out various localities in the Hilltop mining district near Battle Mountain (MSRMaps) — which includes the Betty O'Neal Mine and others — was relatively easy and straightforward — many dirt roads were passable by nearly any vehicle, including my 1972 Opel. A few roads were too steep to drive up, and when they were I hiked. In later years, though I didn't know it then, I'd stay in one of the old cabins up one of those lush, green creeks, one similar to this cabin at Lewis.
After spending some time on the west side of the Shoshone Range, on the steep western range front and up the canyons, I drove up Rock Creek, over Marysville Summit, and down Indian Creek into the east side of the mining district—that part sometimes known as Tenabo or Bullion. Head-high Big Sage hid cows roaming through the wide valley of Indian Creek. I stopped for lunch amidst the sage.

Photo: Triangular facets on the west side of the Cortez Mountains, as seen from the southwest. Mt. Tenabo is the peak on the right.

I then dinked around on some of the many old mine dumps on the eastern slope of the Shoshone Range, scrutinizing various “goody piles” left by old-timers, prospectors, and claim holders. From those mine dumps and prospects, I gazed eastward across the wide, green Crescent Valley at the steep triangular facets along the Crescent Valley Fault, the range-front fault on the west side of the Cortez Mountains.

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Reese River, south of Battle Mountain.

After looking around the area, I headed south on Highway 8A (now S.R. 305) toward Austin, making it up the variably muddy, often narrow and creek-like Reese River to Highway 50.

Sign at the junction of old Highway 8A and Highway 50.

I then drove west on Highway 50 to Middlegate Junction, the home of Old Middlegate Station, and then south on old S.R. 23 (now S.R. 361) to Gabbs.

Main Street in Gabbs, looking south from Waterline Street.

See a few more pictures of Gabbs and the Pole Line Road on this post from 2008.

To be continued...

Today's Hike: Trees, Wildflowers, Stratigraphy, and Faults

We went on a hike today, and for the first time in several months, I hiked beyond my usual rocky-flowery point (here, first set of photos) to this bonzai-like piñon tree, and beyond that all the way up the hill.
We saw a fair number of different kinds of wildflowers. This is a broomrape, Orobanche L, possibly this one. It's parasitic on other plants and shrubs, just like Indian paintbrush.
Walking up the hill, I pondered the geology. Here, looking south toward Ward Mountain, you can see some variably dipping limestone and shale formations, which I knew to be cut by the low-angle Chainman Fault, which usually places the Ely Limestone on top of the Chainman Shale (younger on older).
After getting back, I stitched several photos together and did some more pondering (click all to enlarge if desired).
I started drawing lines and stratigraphic map symbols. The section starts with a little bit of Permian Riepe Spring Limestone (Prs), above Pennsylvanian Ely Limestone (doublePe), above Mississippian Chainman Shale (Mc), above Mississippian Joana Limestone (Mj), above Devonian-Mississippian Pilot Shale (MDp), above the Devonian Guilmette Formation (Dg). These are fairly widespread and common units in eastern to east-central Nevada, with the cyclothemic Ely Limestone and the two shale formations sandwiching the Joana Limestone being good place markers for figuring out where one is in the section.
Then I went nuts and added teeth to the two low-angle faults, which have been mapped as thrust faults on the two quadrangle maps of the area. To my surprise, I found that the maps show not only the Chainman Fault, which I already knew about, but they also show a low-angle fault between the Joana Limestone and underlying Pilot Shale. I had concluded on this walk that there had to be a fault there, at least on the east side of my photo-drawing, where the Guilmette is rudely cut off by the Joana.

This section and these faults can be seen on the south side of Highway 50 just west of Ely, although the view will be somewhat obscurred by roadcuts and steep hills.
On the way down, I found this rock specimen of a microfault in Devonian or Silurian limestone or dolomite. All in all, it was a good hike.

Seen in the Field: A Preserved Headframe

This headframe-ore bin from the mercury diggings at the [Paradise Peak] mine-site provides a strong contrast to the mining and ore processing techniques used in the industry today. The bucket was used to lower miners into the shaft and to lift out mercury ore which was then dumped into the ore bin for later handling. Though the technology of mining has changed, the perseverance and determination of the Nevada Prospector has never wavered. FMC Corporation has preserved this headframe - ore bin in recognition of Nevada Prospectors' dedication to their profession in years past, present, and future and for their continuous contributions to the mining industry. [sic]

Whew! I think the sign verbiage must have been written by someone in the PR office back east.

There are several interesting stories behind this sign, which is located just outside the fence of the old Paradise Peak Mine millsite about eight miles south of Gabbs in west-central Nevada (MSRMaps aerial B&W, Google Maps aerial color). One story tells of the old mecury miners, who stopped their underground diggings within 50 feet (or less) of gold ore, not knowing it was there; another story tells of the two Nevada Prospectors who brought company geologists into the district, which caused the claims to be staked, which caused the soil samples to be taken, and so on. There are many stories about the discovery of the gold deposit, about the geologists who discovered it, and about those who didn't. I won't get into all of them here — I'd need to do just a little more research. One discovery story keys in on the several names by which the ore deposit has been known.

After gold was discovered outcropping on top of a small, now mined-out hill, the geologists who did the discovering exclaimed, "Even a blind pig could have found it!" They said this because the mineralized knob or small hill was easily visible from the Pole Line Road — the main dirt road between Gabbs and Tonopah — and because rock samples from the top of the hill contained as much as 0.25 ounces per ton gold. (I think some samples ran as high as 0.35 opt Au.)

The unnamed knob was located near the north edge of the Granny Goose Well 1:24,000 quadrangle — the knob was split in half by two topo maps, and it was within three miles of the corner of four sheets, thereby meeting one of the rules every mine needs to meet (see below). The mine was first called "Granny Goose" or "The Goose" for short, named after the well or the topo sheet. Corporate types back east decided that "The Goose" didn't match their company image, so various fake names, labels, and other appellations were considered until the alias "Paradise Peak" — stolen from a nearby, often snow-covered peak located several miles to the northeast — was selected. The topographically misleading name fooled a few geotypes into looking for the newly discovered deposit in a totally incorrect location.

In order to preserve some sense of accuracy, and to register outrage at the incorrect labeling of their gold deposit, certain geologists wore football jerseys sporting the team name The Goosers, and some wore baseball caps imprinted with hill, headframe, and the saying, "Even A Blind Pig Could Have Found It!" Sometimes the knob was called Blind Pig Hill, most often it was just called The Knob.

The hill is entirely gone now, replaced by a relatively small hole in the ground. Stripping ratio, because the ore deposit stuck almost completely out of the ground the way it did, was almost negative (well, not really, that's a mathematical impossibility).

Some Locations:

Granny Goose Well - U.S. Board of Geographic Names

Granny Goose Well - 1:24,000 USGS Topographic Map, 1980.

Granny Goose Well - MSR Maps.

The knob and original location of the headframe - MSR Maps, the south end of the knob and headframe on the 1980 Granny Goose Well topo map.

Paradise Peak, the peak, and the Paradise Mine (not the Paradise Peak Mine) - on MSR Maps.

Some References:
John, D. A., 1988, Geologic map of Oligocene and Miocene volcanic rocks, Paradise Peak and western part of the Ione quadrangle, Nye County, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey, Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2025, scale 1:24,000.

Sillitoe, R. H., and Lorson, R. C., 1994, Epithermal gold-silver-mercury deposits at Paradise Peak, Nevada; ore controls, porphyry gold association, detachment faulting, and supergene oxidation: Economic Geology, v. 89, no. 6, p. 1228-1248 [links to abstract].

Some Requirements for Finding a Mine:

1. Be located within 5 miles of a paved road. ✓ The ore deposit was 2 air miles from pavement, 5 miles on dirt from pavement, and less than a mile from a main gravel road.
2. Be located at or near the corner of 4 topo sheets. ✓ In fact, the ore deposit was bifurcated by two topo sheets and within three miles of the corner of four.
3. Be located less than 30 miles from a bar. ✓ The knob was about 7 miles from a then active, now defunct bar and mini-mart.

The now defunct bar, where many rounds of no-slop, bank-the-eight were played (Austin Rules).

From the Field: Gabbs Valley

This view, from two weeks ago when I was on the second of two meeting-related field trips, looks northwest across Gabbs Valley and Alkali Flat toward Pilot Cone and the Denton-Rawhide Mine (MSRMaps). Gabbs Valley is the green area in front of the first set of hills; Alkali Flat is the white alkali flat behind the first set of hills and in front of the second set. Pilot Cone is the dark, cone-shaped hill on the horizon; the Denton-Rawhide Mine, which was mined for gold in from 1988 to 2003, is the light-colored area to the right of that knob (click to enlarge).

Somewhere, almost straight away in the distance behind Rawhide, is the "lost" gold mine I described two years ago.

Three Years Ago Today: East Side of Honey Lake

Three years ago today, while driving between somewhere and somewhere else, I came upon this cool oasis in the greasewood zone below the sagebrush steppe on the northeast side of Honey Lake, CA. The locality is probably marked on this map as Flowing Wells.
The peaks to the north are the high, unnamed peaks of the Amedee Mountains, Just behind these peaks are the higher peaks of the Skedaddle Mountains, which are part of a fairly old basaltic shield volcano, now eroded and long inactive. The volcanic rocks on Skedaddle Mountain are broadly shown as Pliocene to Pleistocene in age on the Westwood (Susanville) sheet of the Geologic Map of California.
Mmm... cool shade and water.
And, if you happen to be of the exploratory or wandering type, there appears to be a trail heading into the distance, across the playa, toward the Diamond Mountains.

Some References:
Lydon, P.A., Gay, T.E., and Jennings, C.W., 1960, Geologic map of California : Westwood sheet: California Division of Mines and Geology, scale 1:250000.