Troy District
Overview
Other Names: Irwin Canyon, Nyala, Grant, Grant Canyon, Terrell, Seymour, Grant City, Central City
County: Nye
Discovered: 1869
Commodities: tungsten, gold, lead, zinc, silver, copper, beryllium, uranium
Comments
The Troy district is on the western slope of the southern part of the Grant Range. The district extends between Grant Canyon on the north and Little Meadows Creek Canyon on the south and includes Grant, Irwin, and Troy Canyons. The Seymour area is located in the area of Irwin Canyon.
References
Territorial Enterprise, April 14, 1869; White, 1869, p. 79; Raymond, 1870, p. 177; White, 1871, p. 91; Whitehill, 1873, p. 112; Angel, 1881, p. 517; Lincoln, 1923, p. 193; Stoddard, 1932, p. 72; Kral, 1951, p. 175; Griffiths, 1964, p. 72-73; Garside, 1973, p. 89; Bonham, 1976; Kleinhampl and Ziony, 1984, p. 191; Stager and Tingley, 1988, p. 151
Truckee District
Overview
Other Names: Fireball, Leete, New Truckee
County: Churchill
Discovered: 1869 (1930)
Commodities: gold, silver, lead
Comments
The original name of the district was probably New Truckee. Carlson (1974) described a New Truckee district (1869) about 6 miles from Hot Springs station, and the Gold Hill News (1865) described the New Truckee district as being located “between the Truckee River and the Hot Springs Mountains.” The name Fireball was applied to the district in the 1930s following discoveries made on Fireball Ridge. The Nezeida Mine, on the south end of Fireball Ridge, however, was included in the Leete district by Lincoln (1923).
References
Gold Hill News, February 23, 1865 3:1; Stoddard, 1932, p. 20; Vanderburg, 1940, p. 30; Willden and Speed, 1974, p. 85-86; Carlson, 1974, p. 177; Bonham, 1976
Tule Canyon District
Overview
Other Names: Lida
County: Esmeralda
Discovered: 1876
Commodities: gold, silver, molybdenum, uranium
Comments
Located in Tule Canyon in T7S, R40E, and adjoined by the Sylvania, Gold Point, and Lida districts. Tule Canyon was originally a placer gold district, and was sometimes included in the Lida district to the northeast. Tule Canyon includes the site of the Cucomungo molybdenum deposit in Alum Gulch. Tule Canyon was originally included in the Green Mountain (now Sylvania) district.
References
Whitehill, 1875, p. 23; Stuart, 1909, p. 59; Vanderburg, 1936a, p. 79; Garside, 1973, p. 52
Tule Canyon (Lida) Placer District Description
Location
Along Tule Canyon, between Magruder Mountain and the northeast flank of the Sylvania Mountains, Tps. 6 and 7 S., Rs. 39 and 40 E.
Topographic Maps
Magruder Mountain 15-minute quadrangle.
Geologic Maps
McKee, 1968, Geologic map of the Magruder Mountain area, Nevada-California (pi. 1), scale 1:62,500.
Access
From Tonopah, 34 miles south on U.S. Highway 95 to Lida Junc- tion; from there, 19 miles west to Lida on State Highway 3. About 5 miles west of Lida a dirt road branches off Highway 3 and leads south to Tule Canyon, which is paralleled by another dirt road.
Extent
Placer deposits occur along Tule Canyon and in some side gulches for an undetermined distance along the upper 4 miles of the canyon. Tule Canyon heads at the east side of an alluvial basin near Walker Springs and trends eastward between Magruder Mountain and the Sylvania Mountains to the alluvial valley at the east flank of the mountains, where it turns and drains south to Death Valley. Placers were worked in the alluvial basin near the head of the canyon (sec. 36, T. 6 S., R. 39 E.) and at other points along the eastward part of the wash.
The alluvium along Tule Canyon is about 12-18 feet thick and is composed of sand, gravel, and medium-sized boulders in the upper part of the canyon; angular detritus containing large boulders are found in the lower part of the canyon.
Gold is concentrated along bedrock and within the overlying 6 feet of gravels above bedrock. The gold recovered at the Los Angeles Rock and Gravel Co. claims is coarse and rounded; gold recovered at the Ray White placer claims is coarse, angular, and attached to quartz.
Production History
The Tule Canyon placers are reported to have been discovered in 1876, but there is evidence of work by Mexicans before 1848. Early in the history of the district, the area was mined extensively by Chinese placer miners, who recovered large amounts of gold—estimated by some writers at more than $1 million. No real evidence exists to support this claim of high gold recoveries. During the 20th century, the placers have been worked continuously, although on a small scale. The operations of the Los Angeles Rock and Gravel Co. (1933-36) and those of E. E. Layton at the Ray White claims (1935) were two attempts at mining the gravels on a larger scale than usual in the district.
The Los Angeles Rock and Gravel Co. worked an area 2 miles in extent along the upper part of the canyon, and E. E. Layton worked an area 1 mile in extent about V/2 miles below their operation. These operations recovered about 1,200 ounces of placer gold from 1933 to 1936. After cessation of these mechanized operations, placer mining was continued by individuals using drywashers or sluices utilizing water from the small springs in the area.
Source
The presumed source of the placer gold is gold ores in the Jurassic granites that form the Sylvania Mountains. Details of the gold occurrence are unknown.
Literature
Stuart, 1909: Production estimate for Tule Canyon placers.
Vanderburg, 1936a: History; location and extent of placers; placer-mining operations in 1930's; depth of gravel; placer-mining tech- niques; size of gravel material; size and fineness of gold; value of large nugget found; average value of gravel in lower Tule Canyon; source.
U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1935: Amount of gravel placered, in cubic yards; production.
Whitehill [1875]: Placer-mining activity; size of nuggets (chispas) recovered.
