Gold & silver mines, Mono County, Calif., near Bishop, RARE 1st ed, sep big MAPS

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Seller: desertflux ✉️ (1,496) 100%, Location: Fountain Valley, California, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 162563836641 Gold & silver mines, Mono County, Calif., near Bishop, RARE 1st ed, sep big MAPS.

Rare 1st-edition report pinpoints gold, silver and tungsten deposits in Mono County, near Bishop, Calif.

In Sierra foothills near Tom's Place and Lake Crowley

5 BIG detached maps show mine locations, underground workings!!

Small detail of separate map in rear pocket shows mines, mines and more mines! Map is full color and 28 by 28 inches — and in like-new beautiful shape.

This rare first-edition report pinpoints more than 18 separate gold, silver and tungsten mines in Mono County — near Bishop, Tom's Place and Lake Crowley, in California.

Map from report shows location of quadrangle in relation to Benton, Bishop, Mono Lake and other area landmarks.

Although a few larger reports exist on Mono County, none contain as much detail on this (see pictures for name) quadrangle, just 15 miles southeast of famous Mono Lake. And this is the only official state report on this quadrangle.

Any Mono mining report is super rare The report comes with FIVE nice oversize detached maps, some in color (see scans in ad). Even if you don't care about mining, any of these maps would look great framed in any Mono or Inyo County homestead! Anyone familiar with Mono mining knows that ming reports about this county are extremely rare. Except for Bodie, very little was ever printed about Mono mines.

Rare first-edition report This is the first one of these reports that I have seen in 10 years, and I have been collecting and selling rare mining books for almost 20 years now. Don't wait to buy this, thinking another one will pop up on ebay for cheaper. Ain't gonna happen.

So buy it now or forever hold your peace. Once it's gone; it's gone.

And some of these deposits could prove still to be big money makers, located south of Bodie, California's most famous ghost town, which once had gold riches without compare.

Big bucks could be lurking in forgotten deposits These deposits are exactly the type sought by modern-day prospectors. Miners back in the day did all the really hard work. They discovered the deposits for you. Better yet, after they found the deposits, then they essentially walked away, literally leaving gold and silver there to be recovered by someone else. There wasn't enough gold and silver to economically work the deposits back then.

The report says:

"Data on the grade of the deposits are few, but the cited reports indicate that the best ore contained 1 to 2 ounces of gold and 25 to 50 ounces of silver per ton. The richest ore shoot in the Lone Star Mine averaged ... 26 ounces of silver per ton ... and a 300-ton shipment of ore from the Long Chance mine average 1.85 ounces of gold per ton."

Tungsten outside an Inyo County mine: Scheelite and other tungsten ores fluoresce brilliantly in UV light. Photo by Floris van Breugel

But times have changed. Gold is now worth FIFTY TIMES the lousy $30 an ounce it went for in the '50s. These deposits aren't just borderline economic today; they are rich deposits by today's gold and silver prices. What's more, this report says that some (if not most) of the gold/silver is FREE, not tied up in sulfides or other hard-to-process chemical compounds. Bring along some water, and you can test for worth with a simple gold pan. It does not get any easier than this.

Only 10 miles from Bishop, Calif. Although these mines are off the beaten path, they are not in the middle of nowhere or in Alaska or South America. They are only 10 miles north of the Bishop, on the way to Lake Crowley. (So you can finish up your day of gold hunting with a cold one and a nice comfy hotel bed.)

If you're not having a great fishing day, just pack up the truck. Drive a few miles up into the Sierras, and try your luck at filling the back of your pickup with gold boulders.

Wishful thinking? Over-exaggeration? I think not. Many times a year, some lucky so-and-so picks up a shiny rock only to find that it's a 20-pound gold nugget. Why can't you be that lucky so-and-so? Remember you don't have to discover that rich mine or giant gold nugget every day. You only need to do it once.

Tungsten ore glows brilliantly "But I'm not a gold hunter," you say. "I want to [fill in the blank]."

Not a problem. This book isn't just for gold seekers! It is a treasure trove of information for history buffs, bottle collectors, photographers, rockhounds, hikers, offroaders, metal detector enthusiasts, prospectors, geologists — just about anyone interested in the California's geology, scenery and historic old mining sites. Sick of metal detecting at spots where every square inch has been dug 500 times? Then this book is definitely for you.

There are plenty of mines other than gold mines in this report. This area is only a few miles from the Bishop Tungsten District, which hosted the largest tungsten reserves in the U.S., if not in the entire world. And, yes, this quadrangle contains the famous Black Rock Mine, which produced the most tungsten in this quad and was the top producer in the entire state in 1956 and the sixth top producer in the whole U.S.

Much tungsten ore is prized by collectors because it fluoresces beautifully under UV light (see photo). Tungsten ore from this area is no exception.

Black Rock Mine had extensive underground workings.

No guards, fences or barking dogs Many locations in this report are completely accessible, deserted and open to exploring. You can go anywhere you want at these sites and pretty much do whatever you want, when you want, as long as it's legal. (We do not condone or suggest mine exploring; we're talking the aboveground parts of these locations.)

There are no guards, fences, barking dogs or no trespassing signs. All these mines are miles away from any town of any size and are on federal Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service lands. BLM lands are COMPLETELY open to prospecting and mineral collecting.

This 1956 first-edition report has been totally out of print for years, with no official reprints ever issued. It's packed with exact mine locations, geology information, ore value, mine-production stats and history. This report is considered primary source material; much of this info is available nowhere else .

Every gold mine is listed This 60-year-old report alphabetically lists every known gold, silver, tungsten and iron prospect in this quadrangle — both famous and forgotten — in a table. Some are detailed in the text.

This list gives exact locations of all mining sites, sometimes using landmarks, but almost always using infallible range-and-township coordinates . Road names or landmarks may have changed radically since 1956, but these coordinates have not. Just plug 'em into your GPS or look 'em up on the appropriate topo, and you're there!

Also valuable to stock certificate collectors

Beautiful detached color map is one of five maps that comes with report. Every "X" on this map marks a mine! Note penci l for scale.

Because this report lists mine names, it is also a valuable tool for collectors of stock certificates.

This is not some gift-shop rockhound book; it was written about miners for miners by miners. Prepared by the California Division of Mines, it's a treasure trove of information for history buffs, bottle collectors, photographers, geologists, hikers, offroaders, rockhounds, prospectors, metal detectorists — just about anyone interested in learning about, exploring or prospecting old mine sites in historic Mono County.

Many mines described, both famous and forgotten

Here are just a few of the listed mines:

Gold Crown Mine — owned by the Barker Bros of L.A., Vein of brecciated quartz ... ranging in width from 10-20 feet wide, strikes north and dips 70 degrees west. "Ore carries free gold and gold and silver-bearing pyrite."

Beckman Mine — quartz vein, as much as two feet thick, dips 65-70 degrees south. Ore is podlike within vein and is composed of galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite, azurite and malachite with gold and silver!

Chance Mine — quartz vein in a shear zone in granodiorite. ore materials are silver-bearing galena, anglesite, malachite and gold-bearing pyrite.

Invaluable info! Okay, so you have a book by a "noted rockhound" or an "ace prospector." You might get lucky and find a couple of neat places, but you'll also hit plenty of absolute duds. Why? Because what rockhound, mine explorer or prospector in their right mind would give away their favorite productive locations? Not one.

What they will give you are directions to sites that are picked clean or second rate at best. Don't rely on secondhand information when you can get firsthand info from this book. I guarantee that most — if not all — tourist-oriented rockhound and prospecting books for this quadrangle have used this 1956 book as a prime source for information.

Book describes geology in detail Because this is, after all, a book about mining and geology, it also covers the latter topic in detail. Want to know what rocks host gold-bearing ore? It's here. Want to know geologic condition conducive to gold formation? It's here too.

Can't list name of report Okay, here is one of the STUPIDEST problems I have ever encountrered on ebay. Listing robots think this item is some game, so I can't include the name of the actual report because it duplicates the name of some stupid game ..... ARGGGGH. So you'll have to look at the name of the report in the scans and get the name that way.

The book: Economic Geology of the [see scans for quadrangle name], California, Special Report 48, August 1956, by Dean Rineheart and Donald C. Ross, Geological Survey, U.S. Dept of the Interior, published by Division of Mines, San Francisco, first and only printed official edition, 17 fact-packed pages, 9 x 11 inches, stiff paper covers. Stapled binding, name stamp on front cover, NOT a library book, in beautiful near-fine condition. Inside pages are also in very good to near fine condition as are the maps; one of the best copies that I have seen of this rare title.

One map is in full color and has creases but NO wear tears. Other are two-three colors. No yellowing or discoloring. Colors are striking, and printing is superb. They just don't make 'em like this any more.

As always, I am extremely conservative about rating book condition and very detailed in listing any potential flaw, no matter how slight. You get what you pay for. If you want a trashed book — filled with scribbled notes, dog-eared pages and underlined passages that the seller just "somehow forgot" to tell you about in his ad — then look elsewhere on ebay.

Payment methods and domestic shipping Paypal only. I pride myself on bulletproof packaging and ship in sturdy cardboard boxes or reinforced envelopes.

The fine print: Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the item or terms of sale. I post feedback once a week. Not responsible for typographical errors.

Good luck and thanks for looking!

Drawing shows workings around Black Rock Mine; drawings like this can be invaluable in finding where to metal detect and not waste time detecting empty desert.

Towns and nearby counties Towns in Mono County include Bridgeport, Coleville, Crowley Lake, June Lake, Lee Vining and Mammoth Lakes. Nearby counties are San Bernardino, Kern, Tulare, Kings, San Benito, Merced, Stanislas, San Joaquin, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado and Sacramento. Towns, population areas and interesting sites in or near Inyo County include Aberdeen, the Alabama Hills, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Argus, Badwater, Ballarat, Big Pine, Bishop, Bullfrog, Cartago, Cerro Gordo, China Lake Naval Weapons Center, Cottonwood Lakes, Coso Junction, Darwin, Death Valley Junction, Dolomite, Dunmovin, Eureka Sand Dunes, Fossil Falls, Furnace Creek, Greenwater, Haiwee Reservoir, Independence, Inyokern, Keeler, Laws, Lake Sabrina, Little Lake, Lone Pine, Mt. Whitney, Olancha, Owens Lake, Onion Valley, Panamint Springs, Pearsonville, petroglyphs, Rhyolite, Saline Valley, Scotty's Castle, Shoshone, Sierras, Sierra Nevada, Stovepipe Wells, Swansea, Trona stock certificate, Tecopa, Ubehebe Crater and Whitney Portal, of course.

  • Condition: Used
  • Paper Item Type: Mining report and maps
  • Item Type: Paper Items
  • Country of Manufacture: United States

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