The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1914-05-02
AMERICAN CANYON
TWENTY YEARS AGO

Twenty years ago American can.
yon, in Humboldt county, Nevada,
was the scene of great activity. Hun.
dreds of Cinnamon were working the
gravels and recovering millions in
gold dust, of which fact ample evi.
denee remains in the hundreds of
shallow shafts. and the piles of work.
ed gravel spread over not less than
two miles of the river bed, saws
Ernest q. Locke in the Mining &
Scientific Press. The first discoveries
were probably made by white men.
but they proved Indifferent to the
riches at their hands, so the ground
was leased to Chinaman on a
royalty basis. 1t is said that this
Chinaman brought in hundreds of his
lcountrymen to whom he sub-let the
ground in blocks of 20 feet square.
Each lessee sunk shaft to the pay
streak and mined out the ground com
prised in his lease. Thousands of
piles of tailings attest the energy
with which work was conducted. An
old Chinaman still living on the
| ground--the last of 500-states that
each block of ground 20-foot square
produced from 81 500 to $4,000 in
gold dust and nuggets. The source
of the gold has not been definitely
traced, but it is believed to have or
| iginated in range of porphyry hills
through which the old river cut its
bed, and the remains of which can
now be examined still carrying gold
| 70
and 500 per ton. In my mind there
is no doubt that these porphyries pro-
vided the placer gold of America n
canyon, and of the several other can
yons lying north and south, which al
so produced the yellow metal.
1t is a difficult matter to endeavor
to make an estimate of the aggre.
gate amount of gold taken out of
American canyon. Cinnamon are Sc
cretive as to their gold, but il is said
that the Wells Fargo Exjress Co. has
record of several millions of dol
lars worth carried out by it. F. l.
Ransome gives reported output OF
ten millions, and others believe TWEEN
/ ty millions to be nearer correct. How
ever, il is certain that the extraction
has been good from an area represent
ed by only two miles of river bed
which was the extent of the gold
bearing gravels.
In working the gravels down the
river the bedrock was porphyry III
to certain point, where it changed
to limestone. The pay-streak lay Oh
a false bed rock of clay, generally
about go feet from the surface, be
ing shallower at the upper end of the
diggings and increasing in depth al
the lower party. A shaft nearly 20C
feet deep was sunk through gravels
to the limestone. The pay-streak
however. still retained its position al
about 20 feet from the surface; little
or no gold was found below the false
bedrock, and none on the limestone
About mile below this shaft the
gold spread into fan shaped de
posit and gradually was lost. The
canyon continued, so why did not the
gold2 1t is believed by many that
the lower part of the old channel was
| faulted and carried northward for
about 1000 feet, the upper portion
being tilted up to a steep angle. Some
| time after this occurrence flow OF
| lava came from the mountains to the
west and filled and concealed this
| faulted part of the channel.
This portion of the gold river chan.
mel, unnoticed by generation OF
prospectors, has recently been diseov-
ered through portions of the gravel
having rolled down the hill side from
| under the lava. There can be no
doubt of ii being an old river chan.
nel-the north rim of the channel
| (limestone)is visible in several places
| but the south rim is buried under the
lava; in between, the gravel out
crops at one point, and has been un-
covered at several PAGES by pick and
shovel A shaft, now down 130 feet
is projected to go to bedrock and
tunnel is being driven under the lava
| toward the south rim. All of this
work is in washed gravel, sand and
boulders--pannings show that the
gravel contain fine eolors of gold
some cinnabar, plenty of magnetic
and cubes of hematite; in fact, the
porphyry gravels are exactly the same
as those worked by the Cinnamon in
American canyon, there can be nc
oubt that the same hills were the
| source of both.
| Such being the conditions, 1T is
confidently anticipated that when
bed rock is reached and the old river
channel erosscut from rim to rim, rich
returns will be had
American canyon is situated a
short distance from the new camp OF
Rochester, the head of the canyon
being no more than one mile north of
Nenzel hill; these diggings are about
three miles down the canyon, and
many now look forward to seeing
there the life and battle of success
full gold district.