Red Mountain Creek

Historical Record

Red Mountain Creek was an 80-acre unpatented placer claim block (four conjoining 20-acre claims, "Red Mountain Creek #1–4") in Washoe County, Nevada. Located on Red Mountain Creek, this claim offered placer gold, silver and gem potential with excellent access.

Type of Claim: Unpatented Placer Mining Claims

Size of Claim: 80 Acres (four conjoining 20-acre claims)

Mining Commodities: Gold, Silver, Gems

State/County: Nevada, Washoe County — Deephole Mining District

Discovery Monument (GPS): 40.916806°, -119.410514°

Closest City: Gerlach, Nevada (26 miles)

Accessibility: Occasionally rough dirt roads — 4x4 recommended.

Camping: Yes, up to 14 days at a time.

Cell Phone Reception: Sparse — GPS recommended.

Prior Workings: Minimal.

Type of Deposit: Surface, Placer.

The Red Mountain Creek claims are four conjoining, 20-acre placer claims on the Red Mountain Creek, a gold, silver, and gem-producing river flowing off the colorful Calico Mountain Range.

Twenty-six miles from Gerlach and even closer to the popular Burning Man camps in the Black Rock Desert, the Red Mountain Creek claims hold a unique spot in the world; wedged between the active gold and silver Hog Ranch mine to the North, and the gold and silver Mountain View mine to the South, Red Mountain Creek claims sit right in the middle of these two active mines on the same mountain range.

Better yet, both of these mines owe their fortune to fault lines of the famous Northern Nevada Rift, which have made many a miner rich. This rift allowed hot, mineral-rich fluid to be pushed into cracks left by the fault and deposited these minerals into a now highly silicated and brecciated rhyolite host rock. These minerals left by the Northern Nevada rift have always included plenty of the precious three: gold, silver, and copper, left within a crystal quartz/calcite matrix.

The rocks that come tumbling off Red Mountain and into the creek show evidence of being that very same gold and silver impregnated rock found at both the Hog Ranch and the Mountain View mine.

While the source likely lies further west of the claims, years of weathering broke up rock into easily harvestable grains and gravels found on the claim. Both large specimens and small can be found, along with evidence of other minerals in quartz and calcite: chalcopyrite, pyrite, dumortierite, malachite, muscovite and marcasite have all been found in the area.

The area was known to produce more than gold and silver — mercury, lead, uranium, arsenic, antimony and cinnabar were also reported. Plenty of bends and elevation changes along the creek made for excellent natural gold traps. Pronghorn antelope occasionally ran through the area, the creek flowed year-round even well into a dry winter, and a natural camping circle near the claim marker had room for an RV or two.

Mining District: Deephole District, Washoe County. Deposit MAS/MILS ID: 10247046.

Economic Profile: Surface-placer operation, past-producer development status, gold/silver/copper/gems commodity type, small-to-medium deposit size.

Geologic Structure: Placer gravels over disseminated host rock — highly silicated Mid-Miocene flow-banded rhyolitic volcanic rocks, granodiorite and breccia.

Official MRDS records referencing this ground: “Pati” (10271888), “Amy Claims” (10125069), “Bev Red Mountain Creek” (10247046), and “Bev Claims” (10197993).

Claim Features (Historical)

• 80 acres of unpatented placer ground — four conjoining 20-acre claims, “Red Mountain Creek #1–4”
• Located in Nevada, Washoe County, Deephole Mining District
• Primary commodities: Gold, Silver, Gems
• Thousands of feet of creek-side access, ripe for panning
• Reliable, natural year-round water flow off the mountain
• Highly mineralized area — mercury, lead, uranium, arsenic, antimony and cinnabar also reported
• Natural gold traps at creek bends and elevation changes
• Sold through Mountain Man Mining™