Pahranagat District
Overview
Other Names: Hiko, Irish Mountain, Pahranagat Lake, Crescent, Boomerang
County: Lincoln
Discovered: 1865
Organized: 1865
Commodities: manganese, silver, lead, copper
Comments
Located in the vicinity of Silver Canyon in the Mount Irish Range about 10 miles northwest of Hiko. The original name was Pahranagat but the district was later sometimes known as Pahranagat Lake, also sometimes referred to as Hiko for the nearby mill town, or as Irish Mountain, for the peak in central part of district. In 1871, the Crescent district, covering an area near Crescent Spring, was formed from the Pahranagat district but was in existance for only a short period of time. The Nevada Miner (1902) mentioned a Boomerang district that may have been located in the area of the Crescent Mine.
References
Stretch, 1867, p. 64; White, 1869, p. 80; Wheeler, 1872, p. 43; Angel, 1881, p. 485; The Nevada Miner, Sept. 15, 1902, 16:2; Hill, 1912, p. 217; Lincoln, 1923, p. 123; Stoddard, 1932, p. 53; Averett, 1962, p. 33, Tschanz and Pampeyan, 1970, p. 149; Tingley, 1991, p. 11
Palmetto District
Overview
Other Names: Pidgeon Springs, Fesler, Windypah
County: Esmeralda
Discovered: 1866
Organized: 1866
Commodities: silver, gold, lead, copper, talc
Comments
Located in the Palmetto Mountains in the vicinity of Palmetto Peak. Lincoln (1923) included the Windypah (Fesler) district to the north in the Palmetto district. The Pidgeon Springs district, also included by Lincoln (1923) in this district, is actually within the Sylvania district to the southwest.
References
Stretch, 1867, p. 44; White, 1869, p. 96; White, 1871, p. 104; Angel, 1881, p. 417; Hill, 1912, p. 208; Lincoln, 1923, p. 79; Stoddard, 1932, p. 40; Gianella, 1945, p. 58; Albers and Stewart, 1972, p. 70; Carlson, 1974, p. 247; Papke, 1975, p. 8; Bonham, 1976
Pamlico District
Overview
Other Names: Hawthorne, Clarendon, Silver Circle, Sulfide, Sulphide
County: Mineral
Discovered: 1866 (1885)
Commodities: gold, copper, silver, uranium, iron, barite
Comments
The Pamlico district is located in the western Garfield Hills in T6-7N, R31-32E, and includes Pamlico, Never Sweat, and Bromide Canyons. Pamlico is sometimes included in the larger Hawthorne district, along with the adjacent Lucky Boy and Ashby districts. According to Stretch (1867), the Clarendon district was located “in the southwestern section of the [Nye] county.”
The Territorial Enterprise (1868) used Silver Circle as an alternate name for Clarendon and located the district 7 miles from the old Virginia (Rhodes) Salt Marsh. The 1880 map showed the historic Clarendon district to include the present Pamlico, Ashby, and Garfield districts. Schilling (1976) listed Sulphide as an alternate name.
References
Stretch, 1867, p. 58; Territorial Enterprise, February 2, 1868,1:2; Lincoln, 1923, p. 144; Stoddard, 1932, p. 60; Vanderburg, 1937a, p. 35; Reeves and others, 1958, p. 75; Ross, 1961, p. 82; Archbold and Paul, 1970, p. 1; Garside, 1973, p. 83; Bonham, 1976; Schilling, 1976; Bonham, 1980; Wong, 1982, table 1; Papke, 1984, table 3
Pamlico (Hawthorne) Placer District Description
Location
Central western edge of the Garfield Hills on land outside the eastern boundary of the Naval Ammunition Depot Reservation T 7 N R. 31 E.
Topographic Maps
Pamlico 7 1/2 -minute quadrangle.
Geologic Maps
Archbold and Paul, 1970, Geologic map of the Pamlico mining district (pi. 1), scale 1:24,000; Geologic map of the main Pamlico mines (pi. 2) , scale 1 : 2,400.
Access
From Hawthorne, a dirt road leads southeast about 10 miles to the Pamlico area.
Extent
Small placer deposits of unknown extent and exact location have been worked intermittently in the vicinity of Pamlico Hill and Pamlico Canyon (sees. 13 and 24, T. 7 N., R. 31 E.) at the western edge of the Garfield Hills.
Production History
The Pamlico placers have apparently been worked since 1908, the first year of recorded production attributed to the Hawthorne district. During 1915 and 1916, deep deposits at Pamlico in Pamlico Canyon were worked by drift mining, and slope wash or skree on Pamlico Hill was worked by placer methods. Subsequent placer mining has been on a small scale and intermittent.
Source
Gold-bearing quartz veins in volcanic rocks of the Excelsior Formation (Triassic?).
Literature
Archbold and Paul, 1970: Brief history of placer mining; geology of bedrock and lode deposits.
Lincoln, 1923: States that placers were worked in the vicinity of the Pamlico mine by drift mining from 1915 to 1917.
Paher, 1970: Brief history of mining activity at Pamlico; photograph shows placer mine where a shaft was dug 170 feet to bedrock.
U.S. Geological Survey, 1915: Reports drift mining at Pamlico; method of mining; depth of gravels; average value of gold in gravels; production. 1916: Reports placer mining of erosional material on Pamlico Hill; source.
Vanderburg, 1937b: Notes placer mining in Pamlico Canyon below the Pamlico mine; estimate of placer production in 1912; depth of gravels.
