Music Mountain Mining District, Grand Wash Cliffs, Mohave County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Music Mountain Mining District	Mining District
Grand Wash Cliffs	Cliff
Mohave County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

The Music Mountain district lies about 25 miles north of Hackberry, in the foothills of the Grand Wash Cliffs. It comprises principally an area about 3 miles in diameter, ranging in elevation from about 3,000 feet at the border of the valley to 4,000 feet on the east. The camp is located toward the southeastern part of the district, near the head of Camp Wash, at about 3,400 feet elevation.

Mineral was discovered here in 1879 or 1880, some of the discoverers and locators being Dave Southwick, Ed Burk, Bill Hatch, and Joe Prisk. Many of the claims began at once to produce. Most of the early work was done by lessees, the ore being treated in arrastres or shipped; later much of it was milled on the ground. The recent history of the camp is practically synonymous with that of the Ellen Jane mine. A chief drawback to the camp has been lack of water.

Concerning the production of the camp, figures of which are not available, the following data were gathered. Much rich ore was produced by lessees in pioneer times from nearly all the principal veins. At that time the Burk claim, now called the Golden Serpent, produced considerable ore that averaged from $300 to $400 a ton in gold and at present some of its ore contains 7 to 8 ounces of gold to the ton. The Ellen Jane mine in 1892 produced 165 tons of $32 ore, and later a smaller lot of $42 ore. The Lucky Cuss vein and the Marie E. vein are known to have produced considerable, all of which, together with what has been produced by the other veins, probably considerably exceeds $20,000.

The surface of the district in general slopes westward into Hualpai Valley (fig. 25). The topography is mostly rough, with several longitudinal ridges locally studded by cliffs and separated by washes or gulches, some of which head several miles to the east near the summit of the cliffs and the Colorado Plateau.

The country rock is principally granite, which in part belongs to the pre-Cambrian gneiss and schist complex, while the greater portion seems to be younger. The pre-Cambrian rocks are best exposed where they form the core of the ridge just south of the camp. The supposed younger or post-Cambrian granite prevails throughout the greater portion of the district and is especially prominent in North Ridge, northwest of Camp Wash, where it extends to the old mill at the border of the valley on the west. In the northern part of the district it is a relatively fresh-looking medium-grained gray biotite granite, allied to quartz monzonite. In the southern part what is thought to be the same rock is coarse or pegmatitic.

The older or pre-Cambrian country rocks have a well-marked schistosity, which trends about N. 30° E. and dips about 65° SE., and both classes of rocks are cut by a well-marked sheeting that strikes about N. 60° W. with dip about vertical and seems to be decidedly later than the schistosity.

The country rocks are intruded by dikes and masses, both basic and acidic. The most important of the basic rocks is a medium to coarse grained basaltic diabase, which weathers in coarse pieces and nodules and may be of two periods in age. As dikes it is associated with the veins, and as a mass, or possibly a sheet, about 150 feet in thickness, from which the dikes seem to be given off; it trends in a north-south direction across the middle portion of the eastern part of the district and dips eastward into the mountains at angles of about 25°. Remnants of it also in part cap the northeastern part of North Ridge and dip gently to the west.

The diabase-basalt is not affected by schistose structure but is older than the veins and probably also older than the sheeting. It contains fragmentary inclusions of granite and exhibits the other phenomena usually characteristic of an intrusive.

The most important of the acidic intrusives are a coarse granular granite containing much orthoclase, no bisilicates, and no microcline; a fine-grained microcline granite; and a medium-grained purplish-gray granite porphyry. The coarse granular granite is not affected by schistosity and is older than the diabase, probably also than the sheeting. The fine-grained granite is in part schistose, and is earlier than the sheeting, the veins, and the diabase. It may be pre-Cambrian. The granite porphyry is associated with the Lucky Cuss and South wick veins. It has a micropoikilitic groundmass of quartz and orthoclase and contains phenocrysts of oligoclase, andesine, and biotite. It has no schistose structure and is earlier than the diabase. At the Lucky Cuss mine it seems to be earlier and at the Southwick mine later than the vein deposits.

The deposits are chiefly quartz fissure veins, which in the main dip steeply to the northeast. The principal ones are the Ellen Jane, Lucky Cuss, and Southwick. The Ellen Jane vein lies in the eastern part of the district and has a length of about a mile and a known vertical range of about 600 feet. (See fig. 25.) Its croppings range in elevation from about 3,430 feet in the head of Camp Wash to about 4,000 feet on North Ridge. The vein is best developed in the Ellen Jane mine. Some of the veins may be found to continue in a northwesterly direction underneath the heavy wash of the valley.

About 6 miles east of Music Mountain Camp, at the head of Clay Springs Wash, near the summit of the Grand Wash Cliffs and the Colorado Plateau, deposits of iron ore of considerable extent are reported to occur. The iron ore is locally stained by copper. These deposits seem to lie in the Carboniferous limestone.