Inyo Gold Mine, Schwab, Echo-Lee Mining District, Funeral Mts (Funeral Range), Amargosa Range, Inyo County, California, USAi

Regional Level Types
Inyo Gold Mine	Mine
Schwab	- not defined -
Echo-Lee Mining District	Mining District
Funeral Mts (Funeral Range)	Mountain Range
Amargosa Range	Mountain Range
Inyo County	County
California	State
USA	Country

A former Au-Fe-Mn mine located in sec. 31, T28N, R3E, SBM, and in sec. 6, T27N, R3E, SBM, 3.3 km (2.0 miles) ENE of Schwab, and 6.0 km (3.7 miles) E of Winters Peak (4.8 miles S of Lees Camp), on National Park Service wilderness land (Death Valley National Park/Death Valley Wilderness). Property is several locations within 0.5 mile of each other, and consisted of 17 patented and 5 unpatented claims. MRDS database stated accuracy for this location is 10 meters.

Owned by the Inyo Gold Mining Company. First mentioned in January, 1905. Last mentioned 27 January 1912.Latschar, 1981

Like the Hayseed Mine to the east, the Inyo Mine on the Echo side of the district represents both the earliest discovery on the west side of the Funeral Range, and also the only mine on that side which ever produced more than an occasional sack of gold. The first locations in Echo Canyon were made by Maroni Hicks and Chet Leavitt in January of 1905. After a brief trip to civilization for supplies, the two men returned to Echo Canyon in March, and made several more locations. By May of 1905, the prospectors had accumulated two groups of locations, consisting of twenty claims, and after staking out all the ground which they thought might be any good, they started to dig a tunnel on one of the claims in June.

During the summer of 1905, as the first movements into the Echo-Lee District began, the Hicks and Leavitt property became one of the most talked about in the region. It appeared that the prospector's dream was about to come true for the two men, as they found capitalists interested in purchasing their locations. In August, nine of their claims were bonded to Tasker L. Oddie for $150,000, and the remainder to Charles Schwab for $100,000. Schwab was to pay the prospectors $5,000 on September 1st, if he decided he wanted the mine. Oddie, in turn, was to pay $5,000 on December 1st and the balance of the money one year later. Although Schwab never paid, and apparently never tried to develop his portion of the mine, Oddie's men went to work at once. Soon they had a shaft 50 feet down in the ground, and were talking of erecting a mill, a wire rope tramway and an electrical power plant for the mine. Oddie also considered cutting a new wagon road to Rhyolite at a cost of $1,500, cutting off thirty-five miles from the present winding road.

But by November, Oddie had let his option expire, due to "a misunderstanding having arisen concerning terms, etc.," and the claims were bonded again, to two Colorado capitalists. The new agreement called for a payment of $10,000 immediately, and another $140,000 during later months. But again, the new purchasers were either not impressed when they began to work, or were not able to raise the $10,000 demanded by Hicks and Leavitt, for their option was soon cancelled.

Finally, in December, a sale was made. L. Holbrook and associates, a group of Utah mining promoters, purchased the entire mine and incorporated the Inyo Gold Mining Company. Maroni Hicks accepted cash for his half of the mine, but Chet Leavitt retained his interests and became the vice president of the new company. The Inyo Gold was incorporated in Utah, with a capitalization of $1,000,000, based upon 1,000,000 shares of stock with a par value of $1 each. The new company owned twenty-one claims, which represented all of the Hicks & Leavitt properties, including those which had formerly been bonded to Charles Schwab. Soon after the incorporation of the new company, development work in the mine began, and in early January of 1906, the property was surveyed.

By the first of February the shaft on the Inyo Mine was down to sixty-five feet, and that depth had been increased to 100 feet by March. At that time, nine men were employed at the mine, under the direction of Chef Leavitt, who was general manager of the company. By the end of April, crosscuts were going out from the W0-foot level of the shaft in the search for ore, and a second shaft was started on another claim. In June, a big strike was made at the mine, as noted by the Rhyolite Herald "The Inyo Gold Mining Company has made the most phenomenal strike in the history of Funeral Range mining and one of the biggest uncoverings since the discovery of Tonopah Assays from the new strike, which was at the bottom of the new shaft at a depth of sixty-five feet, were close to $300 per ton."

Following the news of that strike, which seemed to prove that the Inyo Gold would make the transition from a developing to a producing mine, rumors began to circulate concerning the sale of the property. In August, the Bullfrog Miner reported that the mine had been sold to the Schwab interests for $2,000,000, and the Rhyolite Herald reported that all of the company's stock had been sold for $1 per share to a group of Salt Lake City capitalists. But nothing came of either rumor, and since the mine ceased work during the hot summer months, little was heard from it.

In October the Inyo Gold Mining Company was reorganized, although the changes were mostly internal. L. Holbrook, the principal owner, was still listed as president of the company, but Chet Leavitt lost his position as vice president. Work would be resumed shortly, the company stated, and now that the railroads were reaching Rhyolite, the shipment of medium grade ore from the mine would soon make it a producer. But work progressed more slowly than the company had hoped, and no shipments were made in 1906, although the company had its new shaft down to seventy-three feet by the end of that year, and several crosscuts were started.

But as 1907 opened, work began in earnest on the Inyo Gold. The company ordered a small gas hoist in early January of that year, and by the end of that month reported that it had three shafts exploring for ore at depths of 100, 73 and 30 feet, respectively. In addition, tunnels and crosscuts were being driven, and ore bodies were being found, although the estimated extent and content of the ore finds were not greatly publicized. Chat Leavitt, who was still the mine superintendent, was employing twenty men in February, and a boarding house had been built at the property for their convenience, Plans were also in the works to construct a commissary store, and the company ordered ore cars and tramway tracks to facilitate the removal of ore from the mine.

Towards the end of February, the Rhyolite Herald took time out to describe and assess the Inyo Gold's property. Average values in the various shafts and tunnels, the paper stated, were around $44 to the ton. The ore was free milling, which meant that it could be treated in the simplest manner, and once the Ash Meadows Water company had completed its pipe line into the Lee district, the company was considering the construction of a mill. Water was now hauled from Furnace Creek, a distance of eight miles, at considerable expense to the company. The boarding house at the mine was feeding thirty miners. Since that overcrowded its accommodations, a new boarding house with an eighteen by thirty foot dining room and a fourteen by sixteen foot kitchen was being built. When it was finished the present boarding house would be converted into a rooming house. In addition, the company was building a sixteen by twenty foot commissary for the sale of groceries and mining supplies to the company's employees and other prospectors in the area. "The concensus of opinion, concluded the Herald "is that the Inyo Gold Mining company's property, the original Hicks & Leavitt group, is one of the most likely properties in the new gold fields along the Nevada-California border."

During March and April, work continued steadily, and the local papers faithfully reported the progress made in the company's shafts and tunnels. By mid-April, the company had begun preparations for the construction of a mill, and several loads of lumber were on the ground. The mill was to be built at the mouth of the main tunnel, near the new blacksmith shop. Thirty men were employed at the mine, and most were eating at the recently-completed boarding house, run by Mr. and Mrs. McKnight. By this time a portion of the mine's new hoisting machinery had arrived, and the company announced that it would not ship its high-grade ore, but would rather keep it on the dump until the mill could be built. In response to several inquiries, the papers reported that the Inyo Gold was a closed corporation, so that the company's stock was not being sold on the open market. Several blocks of shares, amounting to no more than 50,000, had been sold by one or more of the original incoporators of the company, but most of those had been bought back by other owners.

Once again, due to the heat of summer, work slacked during the hot months of 1907. Some miners continued to labor in the shafts and tunnels, but not with the pace of previous months, and the papers had little more to report other than the statistical advances of that work. But in September, the company, which was running out of development funds advanced by the owning partners, decided to go public. From its application for a license to sell stock in California, many details of the company's position are available. Fifty-two thousand of the 300,000 shares of treasury stock in the company had already been sold, and the Inyo Gold was now asking permission to sell the rest. The company had an indebtedness of $15,250 and no money in the treasury. The property was equipped with a hoisting whim, a blacksmith shop, a bunk house, and mining tools, and its employment roll had shrunk to seven men. Three hundred and fifty feet worth of shaft work had been done, in addition to 700 feet of tunneling and 75 feet of crosscutting. No ore shipments had been made, but the company claimed to have $650,000 worth of ore in sight. At the time of its application, the Inyo Gold had already been approved for stock sales in Utah.

The Inyo Mine could not have chosen a worse time to go public, for the Panic of 1907 hit the district shortly after the company put its stock up for sale. Had the decision been made six months earlier, the Inyo mine could have taken advantage of the height of the Echo-Lee District boom, when stock in much less worthy mines was selling at fever-inflated prices. Now, in the fall of 1907, mines were closing and very few investors could be found who were willing to risk scarce investment funds in an outlying district. Now, instead of a fat treasury which would have enabled the company to continue its development work on an extensive scale, and to build its mill, the Inyo Gold instead was faced with bankruptcy.

Nevertheless, the company continued operations for a few months. Work was continued during September and October, with a force of between fifteen and twenty miners. But after the middle of October, momentum slowed considerably and very little further work was accomplished for the rest of 1907, although the mine was reported to still be employing a "small force of men" at the end of the year. The Rhyolite Herald denied rumors that the Inyo had closed down completely in December, and went on to lament the general state of mining in Echo canyon. "The properties are among the best in the district and it is much regretted that the companies do not find it consistent to work on a large scale. But the ore is there and when the financial sky is clearer, the properties will show the world what kind of golden lining Echo canyon is made of."

Like so many of the other Echo-Lee District mines, the Inyo Mine had been fatally crippled by the Panic of 1907. Following the onset of the panic, development work virtually ceased throughout the rest of 1907, and 1908 followed suit. No work was done on the mine during that entire year, and the only notices in the papers concerning it were several rumors of sale. The Bullfrog Miner reported that the mine had been sold to Thomas Lockart, president of the Florence Mine in Goldfield, in March, and the Rhyolite Herald reported that L. Holbrook had secured control of a majority interest in the mine during August. But neither of these rumors were borne out, as the Inyo Mine virtually dropped from sight. In July and August, both papers reported that the mine would be reopened soon, complete with a processing mill, and several paragraphs were taken up in discussions of the possibilities of such an event, but they never occurred. In November, Chet Leavitt promised that the mine would soon be heard from, and stated that all the claims of the company would be patented before the year was out. The company had even taken the opportunity for some nation-wide advertising, when the Weekly Advertiser devoted an issue to Nevada mining, but even the effect of a full-page ad was futile, for the depression upon mining was being felt across the entire nation.

During 1909, the situation did not improve at all. The Rhyolite Herald reported in April that Chet Leavitt had sold his interest in the mine, but a later issue noted that the dear was not definite, and it never was. The company did put some ore on display at the American Mining Congress convention in Goldfield that fair, but little else happened on the property. The company's application for a patent on seventeen of its claims--a total of 215 acres--was approved on August 15th, but like so many other mines of the region which had applied for a patent during the boom days, the papers arrived too late to do the company any good. In September, the Bullfrog Miner optimistically noted that the "Inyo property has arrived at the point where plans for a mill are next in order, and the next week printed a rumor that the Inyo mine "will be subject to the biggest leasing deal yet known in Nevada." Salt Lake City promoters, the paper reported, were negotiating for a long term lease and were planning to develop the ground to the extent of constructing a large size treatment plant. On the basis of this rumor, Inyo Gold stock suddenly appeared on the trading boards, for the first time ever, and was sold at the price of 6¢ per share. But like so many others, this deal also feel through, and the Inyo Mine continued to lay idle.

The rumors continued through the following years, as the Rhyolite Herald reported in January of 1910 that the company was again negotiating for the sale of the property, with the potential buyers proposing the installation of reduction facilities. Again, nothing came of the negotiations, The mine, which had not been worked since the fall of 1907, was not mentioned again until January of 1912, when its stockholders met in Utah with the intention of reducing the par value of the company's stock from $1 to 10¢ per share, apparently as an attempt to start another promotional and development campaign. But again nothing happened, and the Inyo mine was finally abandoned.

Thus ended the first phase of the Inyo mine. Its officers had held onto the mine too long, and had made the decision to go public only after they had run out of private development funds, just in time to see the Panic of 1907 ruin their hopes. After 1907, little if any mining was done to what was once seen--probably correctly--as the best and most promising prospect in Echo Canyon.

But unlike the other mines of the Echo-Lee District, the Inyo Gold had a revival. Unfortunately, that revival took place long after Death Valley mining had lost its appeal, and little notice of the subsequent activities at the Inyo Mine reached the local newspapers. Thus although we know that the mine was operated for several years in the 1930s, we have very little day-to-day knowledge of those operations.

After the death of the mine in 1912, the next known reference to it comes in the fall of 1928, when it was sold to Earl B. Gilbert and Daniel Winzelor. Within a few weeks, Gilbert transferred his half of the mine to his wife. Following those transactions, the mine disappears again until 1937, when Mrs. Gilbert leased it to the Inyo Consolidated Mining Company. In August of that year, the Inyo Independent reported that Guy C. Ridell, a mining engineer from New York, had arrived at the Inyo camp to inspect the mines workings. The mine had apparently been operating for several months at the time of this report, for Loren Granger, the manager, was reported in Bishop, buying another load of supplies for the mine.

In March of 1938, the paper reported that the company was still operating, and had installed a ball mill at the mine, The mill was capable of treating twenty-five tons of ore per day, and water for operations was being hauled from Furnace Creek. Since this was costly and unsatisfactory, the company was planning to build a pipe line and pumping station, if operations at the mine continued on a satisfactory basis. The California Journal of Mines & Geology, in October of the same year, reported that the Inyo Consolidated Mine was working on the seventeen patented and five unpatented claims of the property. The principle development was an inclined shaft, 220 feet deep, and the report listed the lengths and depths of various other shafts, tunnels and crosscuts within the mine. At best estimate, by comparing the figures given to those released by the mine in 1907, the Inyo Consolidated had been working the property for less than two years at the time of this report. Ore from the mine, said the Journal was averaging about $25 per ton, and was being processed through the twenty-five ton capacity ball mill. The mill equipment consisted of a fifty ton ore bin, a six by ten jaw crusher, a thirty ton receiving bin, a reciprocating feeder, a three by six ball mill, amalgamation plates, two Simpson tables, and a drag classifier for dewatering. Water was still being hauled from Death Valley, and eight men were employed at the mine and mill.

But shortly after that report, the Inyo Consolidated ceased operations due to a lack of further funds. Although present tailings at the mill site indicate that a limited amount of ore was treated no production record from this era of the Inyo mine exists. In February of 1939, Mrs. Gilbert again leased the mine, to an unnamed individual, who almost immediately found a rich ore shoot at the bottom of one of the shafts. Before the press coverage of this phenomenom ceased, the lessee had sipped thirty-six tons of ore worth $280 per ton to the smelter, for a gross profit of $10,080, and had hired several miners. But once again, the ore shoot ran out, and the lessee was soon out of business.

But the Inyo died hard. The mine was leased again to two men named Thomsen and Wright in 1940, and they installed a small smelter high on a ridge one-halt mile above the former mill site. There, for a short time, they attempted to smelt some of the high grade ore which they took out of a different portion of the Inyo Mine. Again, no production record is available for this effort, which had ended by 1941. A later mining engineer, who inspected this portion of the property, concluded that the furnace at the little smelter had been fired only once, which indicates that the last two lessees of the Inyo Mine were even less successful than had been their predecessors. This was the last attempt to work the Inyo Mine, although its claims are still privately owned.Latschar, 1981

Mineralization is hosted in quartzite and schist. The ore body is lenticular in form, strikes NE and dips 35-55NW, at a thickness of 4.57 meters. The deposiot is comprised of 6 veins with thicknesses varying from 1 to 15 feet, but averaging 3 feet in thickness. Free gold occurred in finely-divided state. Local rocks include Precambrian rocks, undivided, unit 1 (Death Valley).


Workings include underground openings. The principal development is on the Upper Ten claim. It consists of an inclined shaft, 220 feet long, which connects with a tunnel at the bottom. Levels have been driven at 100 and 160 feet horizons, 60 and 40 feet, respectively. The tunnel was driven as a crosscut N 695 feet to the vein, with a drift E 50 feet and 80 feet W to connect with the shaft. At about 200 feet from the portal an air shaft was raised through to the surface, a distance of 80 feet at the collar of the air shaft a crosscut has been driven N 50 feet. They drifted NE 25 feet on this vein. About 50 feet E of the collar of the main shaft, a crosscut exposes the vein for a width of 30 feet, which was said to be good ore (see sketch map in Tucker & Sampson).

Analytical data results: The 100 foot vein on the Upper Ten claim assayed $25/ton of Au (period values).

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Link to USGS MRDS:	10036048

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