Cleve Creek District
Overview
Other Names: Kolchek
County: White Pine
Discovered: 1923
Active: 1923, 1951-53
Commodities: tungsten, gold, silver
Comments
Located in the upper Creek, near Kolchek Basin in the central part of the Schell Creek Range.
References
Hose and others, 1976, p. 49; Stager and Tingley, 1988, p. 211
Clifford District
Overview
County: Nye
Discovered: 1905
Commodities: silver, gold, arsenic
Comments
The Clifford district is confined to the area of the Clifford Mine in section 3, T3N, R49E. The district includes a small hill that lies at the edge of Stone Cabin Valley, about two miles northwest of the margin of the northern Kawich Range and about (? typo) miles south of U.S. Highway 6.
References
Lincoln, 1923, p. 165; Stoddard, 1932, p. 65; Kral, 1951, p. 42; La Heist, 1964, p. 66; Kleinhampl and Ziony, 1984, p. 67
Cloverdale District
Overview
Other Names: Golden, East Golden, West Golden, Eclipse, Black Springs, Republic
County: Nye
Discovered: 1905
Commodities: gold, silver, lead, copper, fluorspar
Comments
The Cloverdale district includes portions of the Toiyabe and Shoshone Ranges and extends from Cottonwood Creek on the east to Golden Wash, north of Cloverdale Ranch, on the west and extends south to include the Green Lizard area in the outlying hills south of the mouth of Cottonwood Creek. The district includes Secret Basin and the old camps of East Golden and West Golden. The district formerly included the Black Spring[s] and Republic areas, both to the west of Cloverdale and the Peavine Canyon area, east of Cloverdale.
Both Black Spring and Republic are now considered to be separate districts and Peavine is included in the Jett district. The 1880 map shows an Eclipse district in the southern Toiyabe Range that in cluded the present Cloverdale and Jett districts.
References
1880 map; Hill, 1912, p. 221; Lincoln, 1923, p. 165; Stoddard, 1932, p. 65; Kral, 1951, p. 43; Bonham, 1976; Schilling, 1976; Papke, 1979, p. 39; Kleinhampl and Ziony, 1984, p. 71
Cloverdale Placer District Description
Location
long Cloverdale Creek between the Shoshone Mountains and the Toiyable Range, north of Big Smoky Valley, Tps. 8-10 N., R. 40 E. (unsurveyed; on Toiyabe National Forest land).
Topographic Maps
Black Spring 15-minute quadrangle, U.S. Forest Service, scale 1:31,680.
Geologic Maps
Kleinhampl and Ziony, 1967, Preliminary geologic map of northern Nye County, Nevada, scale 1 : 200,000.
Access
From Tonopah, 2 miles west on U.S. Highway 6-95 to State Highway 89; from there, about 38 miles northwest to vicinity of Clover- dale Ranch; a dirt road paralleling Cloverdale Canyon leads north to placer area.
Extent
Placer gold occurs along the lower half of Cloverdale Canyon, which trends north-south for about 15 miles from its headwaters to Cloverdale Ranch. In 1906 the first placer was discovered 4 miles east of Cloverdale Ranch (approximately center of T. 8 N., R. 40 E.). Most, if not all, later work was concentrated in the gravels along Cloverdale Canyon for 8 miles north of Cloverdale Ranch (T. 9 N., R. 40 E.) . The creek channel in this part of the canyon is 750 feet wide, and the depth to bedrock is 42-50 feet.
Placers were worked in creek gravels and hillside gravels below East Golden, a small lode-mining area 8 miles north of Cloverdale Ranch, and at West Golden, on the west side of the ridge from East Golden. These placers and adjacent small lodes are probably in that part of the creek 2 miles below Farrington Ranch and 3 miles north of Four Mile Spring (sees. 8 and 17, T. 9 N., R. 40 E., unsurveyed).
Production History
Placer production from the Cloverdale district has been small and intermittent. Most of the placer gold was recovered by drywashing. Excessive water at the West Golden placer led to abandonment of placer mining. In 1928, ambitious plans were made to dredge 7/2 miles of Cloverdale Canyon, after exploratory drilling indicated gold values of the gravels of 10 cents to $1.50 per cubic yard, but the plans were abandoned.
Source
The gold in the Cloverdale Canyon placers is probably derived by erosion of the lodes at East and West Golden mining areas. Krai, (1951, p. 44, 46) states that at East Golden the gold is found in shear zones in a brecciated rhyolite, and at West Golden (p. 44), in narrow veins.
Literature
Krai, 1951: Locates two placer areas; placer operations in 1931 noted; problems in placer mining at one site; source.
Lincoln, 1923: Notes placer discovery.
Mining Journal, 1928: Reports plans to dredge Cloverdale Canyon; extent of placer area; length of placer area in canyon; width and depth of gravels in canyon; gold content of 100 to $1.50 per cubic yard.
Vanderburg, 1936a: Notes small-scale placer-mining activity beginning in 1906; reports plans to dredge area in 1931.
