Geological Survey Bulletin 612 Guidebook of the Western United States: Part B

SHEET No. 19. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Gerald is a station just east of Barth.

Barth (see sheet 19, p. 170) is a sidetrack and shipping station near the lower end of Palisade Canyon. (See Pl. XXXV, p. 153.) Just across the river there is an extensive deposit of iron ore, which has been developed for use as flux in the smelters in Utah. From 100 to 300 tons of iron ore has been shipped daily from this place for a number of years, the total shipments being more than 250,000 tons.¹ Besides the iron mine there are in the vicinity at least two other mines, the Onondaga and the Zenoli, about a mile south of Barth, which have produced $200,000 in silver from veins in andesite. The ores in addition to silver carry lead and copper.

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¹This deposit of iron ore is mentioned in one of the reports of the Fortieth Parallel Survey. The ore is massive hematite, carrying from 60 to almost 70 percent of iron. It is of high quality, its content of phosphorus, though above the Bessemer limit, being much less than that of the Alabama iron ores. The ore body, a mass about 200 feet in diameter and about 80 feet deep or thick, has been described as a replacement deposit in andesite.

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About 2-1/2 miles west of Barth the canyon opens into a broad valley with terraced floor. Harney and Cluro are stations in a somewhat unpromising looking stretch of country, with hard, white, clayey soil, deeply cut by gullies.

The old settlement at Beowawe (be-o-wah'we), which may be seen from the railroad, stands south of the station in a group of trees that is surrounded by cultivated land. The name is said to be an Indian word meaning gate and was given to this place because of the peculiar shape of the hills near by, which present the effect of an open gateway up the valley to the canyon beyond. The settlement at the railroad is comparatively modern. It contains the power plant of the Buckhorn Mines Co., from which a transmission line goes to the company's mine and mill, about 35 miles to the southeast. The mine was opened about 1908 and is reported to be working a large body of low-grade gold-silver ore in Tertiary lava. Concentrates from the Buckhorn (Mill Canyon) district are shipped by way of Palisade, but some ore from the Tenabo and Cortez districts, south of Beowawe, is shipped from this station. It is reported that 6,780 acres are under irrigation near Beowawe. The land is used for growing alfalfa and native hay and for pasture.

Leaving behind Beowawe, the railroad swings to the north. Across Whirlwind Valley to the south may be seen a white line, or terrace, against the distant mountain side. This is a hot-spring deposit and, like so many others in Nevada, is situated just below the steeper part of a mountain front. Here, as elsewhere, the spring has probably risen along the line of the fault or displacement which blocked out the mountains from the valley.

Ladoga, Farrel (elevation 4,626 feet), Mosel (4,583 feet), Argenta (4,553 feet), and Rosney are minor stations between Beowawe and Battle Mountain. The railroad passes around the north end of a broad lava plateau, and similar uplands are to be seen far across the valley to the north. As the train skirts the northern foothills of the plateau, the dark lava (basalt) may be seen close at hand. Beyond Argenta the train runs out into one of the most extensive valley areas along the Humboldt, the route traversing a broad expanse of plains far south of the main river channel.

The town of Battle Mountain was named after the mountain to the southwest, where in the early sixties a band of gold seekers attacked by Indians fortified themselves just south of the prominent eastern ridge. Antler Peak is the highest point on Battle Mountain visible from the train. The town is a distributing and shipping center for a number of well-known mining districts, the principal among which are the Austin¹ and Reese River districts. It is the northern terminal of the narrow-gage Nevada Central Railroad, which runs south 93 miles to the old town of Austin, the seat of Lander County. Probably more than $50,000,000 worth of silver has been taken from this district alone. Among the producing mining camps adjacent to Battle Mountain are those of the Mayesville, Kimberly, and Hilltop districts, 20 miles southeast. Deposits of lead, copper, silver, and gold occur in the mountains to the southwest and recently placer gold has been obtained on the south side of the mountain. Five or six million dollars' worth of ore has been taken from the various mining camps about Battle Mountain.²

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¹Austin has a population of about 1,000 and supplies an extensive grain and stock ranching territory along Reese River and in the Smoky Valley. It is the starting point for a number of stage lines into central Nevada.

The discovery of ore near Austin is said to date from May 2, 1862, when William Talcott, one of the riders of the Pony Express, on his regular trip to Virginia City picked up a piece of the rock along his route and had it assayed. On his return he located the Pony claim. Eight days later the Reese mining district was organized, and the fame of Lander and Union hills soon brought thousands of prospectors to the camp.

The ore about Austin is in narrow veins in granite (a porphyritic monzonite). The veins consist of quartz and rhodochrosite through which the metallic minerals (tetrahedrite, pyrargyrite, proustite, stephanite, polybasite, galena, sphalerite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite) are distributed. The first five minerals named are rich ores of silver containing also antimony or arsenic and copper with sulphur; galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite are ores of lead, zinc, and copper, respectively. The veins run northwest and dip 15° to 45° NE. They are closely spaced, and several may occur in the breadth of a claim (600 feet). They have been displaced in a remarkable manner by parallel north-south faults that dip to the west. All these faults are normal—that is, the ground west of the fault has sunk with respect to that on the east side. The granite on both sides of the veins has been decomposed and bleached by the solutions that deposited the ores. Mining in these small faulted veins has been costly, but miles of underground tunneling attest the value of the ore, which has been found in rather regularly distributed shoots.

²The ores of the Battle Mountain district occur in veins in sedimentary rocks, as replacements of calcareous parts of dark shales, or in contact-metamorphic deposits. The main vein deposits are of two types—pyritic gold quartz veins and galena-silver-calcite veins. Copper has been obtained from veins of both types.

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From Argenta, 10 miles east of Battle Mountain, to the canyon above Golconda, the river and railroads pass though an extensive valley about 45 miles long and from 10 to 20 miles wide. Although most of the land along the river has been taken up, several thousand acres that lie at some distance from the river and that lack a water supply is still under Government ownership.

Piute (elevation 4,509 feet), Valmy (4,507 feet), Stonehouse (4,451 feet), Herrin (4,408 feet), Iron Point (4,390 feet), Comus, and Preble (see sheet 20, p. 178) are minor stations passed in turn. Stock and hay raising are the chief industries in this vicinity. Stonehouse was a station on the Overland Stage route. The name refers to an old stone building near a spring at the foot of the Battle Mountain Range. Conflicts with the Piute Indians occurred hereabouts, and there are many graves in the vicinity. Beyond Stonehouse the railroad approaches the foothills of lava and cuts though some of the lower spurs. These sheets of lava with some interbedded softer rocks have been broken by faults, and the resulting blocks have been tilted up into ridges having abrupt, broken fronts and gradual back slopes. Several such ridges are passed in succession.