The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-02-10
TUNGSTEN DEPOSITS
Are Found in Inyo County, California, in
Good Quantities.

The notable tungsten deposits neal
Bishop, the principal town of Owens val
lev, Cal, are described in a report just
issued by the United States geological
survey department of the interior These
deposits are mined in Deep canyon. which
traverses an isolated group of hills at
the base of the Sierra Nevada. Similar
groups of hills farther south in Owens
valley are known by distinctive names,
such as the Alabama hills, and the name
Tungsten hills has been suggested for
the group in which the principal tungsten
deposits have been found. The hills
reach an altitude of 5000 feet, or about
500 feet above the floor of Owens val
ley, but they are dwarfed into insigniti
canoe by sthe mighty range behind them,
which towers to $4,000 feet.
Tungsten ore was first found in place
in August, 1918, on the Jackrabbit claim,
near the present center of mining activ-
ity. Three partners, who were mining
placer gold in Deep canyon, found that
the concentrates they obtained were dir
ficult to clean because the gold was in
variably accompanied by heavy white
mineral. This troublesome material
proved to be sheelite, one of the chief
ore minerals of tungsten, and when its
identity and value became known search
for it was soon begun. 1t is reported
that after all the quartz float in the area
adjoining Deep canyon had been broken
open in vain during a search that COW
cred IS months, the sheelite was finally
found in it's rock matrix by j. P. Pown
ing, who, while out hunting, recognized
the long -sought mineral in an outcrop of
garnet rock on which he had just shot
rabbit an incident to which the discovery
claim owes its name. At this place the
scheelite is embedded in the blacklist gar
net rock in particles somewhat larger
than those commonly found in the ore
bodies of the district, but it is neither so
prominent nor so obviously recognizable
that it would have been found had it not
been the special object of search. The
discovery that the seheelite occurs IN the
garnet rock, however, made prospecting
for tungsten very simple. The blackish
garnet masses on the bare hills contrast
notably with the prevailing gray and
reddish granite ana are therefore easily |
recognized They we're soon staked and |
were tested for tungsten, and in this way !
ore was found at many places. As a rule !
this scheelite is so inconspicuous that |
the largest ore body, although it crops |
out prominently, was at first unfavor-
ably reported on by competent engineers,
because they were unable to ascertain its
trend and consequently its width and
length. I
The deposits, although found in 1913,
remained practically unknown until the
spring of 1915. when their exploitation
was energetically begun. BY midsum-
mer two mills, having a total daily ca
paeity of 400 tons had been completed
and were in active operation.
The ore consists of scheelite, garnet,
epidote, quartz and other minerals. The
country rock is prevailingly granite, but
II includes isolated masses of limestone
which became mineralized soon after the
magma that now forms the granite rock
was intruded into them. The metallic
vapors then given off from this magma
altered the limestones to masses of gar
net-earrying subordinate scheelite, and
these altered rocks are the tungsten de-
posits now under exploitation. The ore
bodies that are now mined are from 20