Greenwater motherlode still there? Death Valley, Calif, RARE 1st ed report, maps

Description

RARE 1st edition and maps locate mines &
fossils in Greenwater area of Death Valley
Unmined riches may still exist for the taking!
T
his is the
only
full-length USGS report to cover the mining around Greenwater, Kunze and Furnace, California — boomtowns that sprung up in the infamous Greenwater mining frenzy of the early 1900s.
A tiny detail of one color map from pocket showing mines in hills near the site of Greenwater, once the center of the copper mining excitement in the early 1900s.
And this first-edition report is
rare
. It took me FIVE YEARS to find the one for sale here.
This is not a photocopy or some blurry pdf.
And what a frenzy Greenwater was: "The word went out that a whole mountain of copper had
been found right on the brink of Death Valley. Thousands of prospectors rushed in to stake it ... In a whirlwind of excitement, Greenwater was heralded as 'the greatest copper belt the World has ever known!' A quarter of a billion dollars in stock was offered to the public ... and tens of millions of dollars were taken from them. George Graham Rice called it 'the monumental mining-stock swindle of the century.'"
1.
Was the motherlode overlooked?
But here's the skinny: The first prospectors might have completely missed the Motherlode! Early mines and prospects still dot the hills around Greenwater Valley, and the maps from this report pinpoint many of them (see maps above and below). Surprisingly, far from being worthless holes in the ground, This report suggests that there really might be undiscovered wealth in them thar hills:
We have many MANY more rare mining books! Just visit our ebay store, Rare Mining Books:
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"It is possible that a larger, unexposed mineralized body might be located by further ... prospecting," says this report. "The potential economic implications ... are great ... "
Great potential!
Read that line again: "The potential economic implications ... are great ... " These geologists are ALWAYS conservative in their predictions. If they think there's a ton more left to be mined, you can bet your bottom dollar that there's a shipload left.
The report also discusses area fossils and fossilized tracks of ancient animals, including artyodactyls, cats, birds and a probocidian (extinct mammoths and mastodons are probocidians).
Beware: Reprints have NO maps
Do NOT be fooled by the horrible-quality illegal Chinese and Indian reprints that have started to hit the market. Not only is the printing nearly illegible and the photos look like 1967 photocopies, these cheesy reprints have ++NO++ separate maps. None. Like watching a movie with no sound — a complete waste of time. Without the maps, these reports are utterly useless. NONE of the reprints have the separate maps.
But this 78-page, first-edition report is in like-new condition and has both large ORIGINAL color maps in the rear pocket; one map pinpoints many area mines (including gold and copper prospects).
Detail of map from book shows area covered by report in relation to Death Valley, the Panamints, Shoshone, Tecopa, Amargosa Valley, the Nopah Range and other landmarks.
The Funeral Peak quadrangle is a remote, unpopulated 240-square-mile section of Mojave Desert in southeastern Inyo County, California, almost all of which is within the newly expanded borders of Death Valley National Park. But where did you expect to find gold? Under the parking lot of South Coast Plaza in Orange County? Okay, the roads are dirt roads, but 4WD is NOT needed on most of them, just a vehicle with highish clearance like a pickup truck or SUV.
The quadrangle straddles the ranges between Death Valley and the Amargosa Valley and contains parts of the Black Mountains, all of Copper Canyon, Coffin Peak, Sheep Canyon, Hidden Spring,
An 8.5 inch x 11 inch section (obviously reduced to a much smaller size here) of one of the large striking maps from report's rear pocket.
Gold Valley, Smith Mountain, the previously mentioned Greenwater Valley and the Greenwater Range. A small part of Bennetts Well quadrangle is also described; Dantes View and Badwater (the lowest place in the United States) lie in the northwestern part of the area.
To see just how much real estate this 1963 book covers, see the map above. Interestingly, this area is plainly marked on the Auto Club of Southern California Death Valley road map, so the road map can be used to correlate exact mileages to mines and other geologic features on the maps from this book.
Beautiful maps
Like other sought-after mining and geology books about the Death Valley area, the oversize maps from the rear pocket might be the real prize here (see detail at right and below). Any and all would look great framed. They're handsome examples of geologic cartography with bright colors (for easy viewing in a dimly lit mine adit) and nicely executed calligraphy. They just don't make 'em like this any more! If you're looking for historical paper from the Death Valley area, these maps are far nicer and more interesting than any vintage traditional road map or topo. True, they are folded, but that adds to their authenticity.
Not that the book is a slouch by any means. Far from being all dry geology-babble, it has some facts and figures about productive mines (some gold, silver and copper, some close to 100 years old) and their histories in and around Greenwater Valley. It also has much on the area's unusual geology, including age, origin, rock types, rock formations and even a half page on the area's famous turtleback faults.
Geology described in detail
Because this is, after all, a book about mining
and
geology, it does cover the latter topic in minute detail. The rocks of the Funeral Peak quadrangle are: metamorphic and sedimentary of Precambrian age; sedimentary rocks of Paleozoic age; plutonic rocks of Tertiary age; and volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Cenozoic age. Distribution of the rocks in the Black Mountain block is not uniform. Many thousand feet of volcanic rock underlie the the northern part of the block. The rocks of the Funeral Peak quadrangle are divided on the included geologic map into 23 units, many of which are only local informal lithologic units. The rocks were variously folded, faulted and intruded at intervals from Precambrian to recent time.
Of course, the text contains far, far more detail about geology — especially how it relates to mineral deposits and their formations — than just the previous two paragraphs. Geology varies widely over an area the size of this quadrangle, so it is impossible to convey but the simplest geologic features in an ad.
Fossils also described
Like other other Death Valley areas, the Funeral Peak quadrangle has some very interesting fossils, including fossilized tracks of ancient mammals and birds. Artyodactyl are the most common tracks; others include those of cats, birds and a probocidian (extinct mammoths and mastodons are probocidians). Many artyodactyl tracks or imprints are about 3.5 inches long and over 2.5 inches wide. The cat track is about the size of a large bobcat. Probocidian tracks are depressed about seven inches (!!!!) and have a pace of about seven feet.
Fossils from the Copper Canyon formation fall into two groups, ostracodes and gastropods. All occur in the siltstone and evaporite member. The gastropods "occur in abundance in several limestone beds."
Where is it?
Death Valley National Park (DVNP) is located mostly in southeastern California; some of it crosses state lines into Nevada. Most of DVNP is in Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California. Counties adjacent to Inyo are Mono, Fresno, Tulare, Kern and San Bernardino.
The book:
Geology of the Funeral Peak Quadrangle, California, on the East
Flank of Death Valley
, geological survey professional paper 413, by Harald Drewes, 1963, real first edition, United States government printing office, Washington, nine by 11 inches, 78 glossy pages, 14 photos and maps in text, two large color maps folded in rear pocket. Stapled binding with stiff paper covers. In very good condition; bumped corners, slightly crunched lower-right corner (sounds way worse than it is); slight spine tears repaired with archival tape; best shape that I have seen in years.
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, ripped pages and underlined passages that the seller just "somehow forgot" to tell you about in his ad, then look elsewhere on ebay.
1.
The quote at the beginning of this ad came from
Death Valley & the Amargosa: A Land of Illusion
, University of California Press, 1986, by Richard E. Lingenfelter.
Payment methods
Paypal only. I pride myself on bulletproof packaging and ship in sturdy cardboard boxes or reinforced padded envelopes. Not one of our reports has had shipping damage in 25 years!
The fine print:
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the item or terms of sale.
Do not
wait until you bought the item to ask if it has rare pictures of Jimmy Page play a three-neck Gibson at Badwater. (It doesn't.)
I post feedback once a week. Not responsible for typographical errors.
Good luck and thanks for looking!
Detail of of map from book shows highly mineralized areas in hills surrounding Greenwater Valley, areas deemed likely to hold undiscovered deposits.
Tiny detail of large color map from pocket shows just three mines of many dotting the hills around Furnace, now just a site but once a bustling boomtown, just a mountain range west of Death Valley.
Nearby counties and Inyo towns
Counties near to Inyo include: Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Tuolumne and Alpine.
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 geology mining mines stock certificate, Tecopa, Ubehebe Crater, Whitney Portal.
San Bernardino County cities and towns: Adelanto, Alta Loma, Apple Valley, Barstow, Big Bear Lake, Bloomington, Chino, Cima, Colton, Cucamonga, Essex, Etiwanda, Fontana, Forest Falls, George Air Force Base, Grand Terrace, Havasu Landing, Helendale, Hesperia, Highland, Hinkley, Lake Arrowhead, Loma Linda, Lucerne Valley, Mentone, Montclair, Morongo Valley, Mountain Pass, Mt. Baldy, Needles, Ontario, Oro Grande, Parker Dam, Phelan, Pinon Hills, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, Upland, Yermo, and Yucca Valley.