Gold Butte Mining District

Gold Butte Mining District

The Gold Butte district is in southeastern Clark County in the southern end of the Virgin Range. It includes the territory south of Gold Butte lying between the Nevada-Arizona boundary line on the east and the Virgin River on the west. Mining was begun in this area in the eighties. A small boom occurred in 1908, when the camp of Gold Butte was established, and although a number of small companies were organized to work various properties, no important discoveries were made. The total production from the district has been about $75,000, mostly in shipping ores. In 1936 the principal operation in the district was that of the Lake Shore Mining Co.

The geology of the Gold Butte mining district has been described by Hill (Hill, James M., Notes on Some mining District in Eastern Nevada: U.S Geol Survey Bull. 648, 1916, pp 42-53)

The ore deposits are of two types – replacement deposits in limestone and quartz veins in gneiss and granite. The ore in the limestone consists of oxidized copper, lead, and zinc minerals. The values in the quartz veins are chiefly in gold.

A small amount of sheet mice has been produced from pegmatite dikes in the vicinity of Gold Butte.

Mica Deposits

In 1873 Daniel Bonelli discovered mica deposits 4 miles east of Gold Butte, but because of their isolation and unfavorable transportation facilities very little mining was done. As far as the writer could learn, the only production has been 5 tons of sheet mica shipped by Bonelli prior to 1900 and 2,500 pounds shipped by Frank Allsop in 1908. In recent years these deposits have not been exploited. William Garret of Gold Butte is the owner of several unpatented mica claims in this area.

The deposits have been prospected by a number of shallow shafts, the deepest of which is about 40 feet. The mice, associated with garnet, quartz, feldspar, and tourmaline, occurs in pegmatite dikes that cut granitic schists. Due to the manner in which the mica occurs, it is difficult to mine it in large sheets. The mice is said to be of good quality as to transparency, color, cleavage, and flexibility, and the size of the sheets varies from 6 to 15 square inches.

Magnesite Deposit

Magnesite occurs in the vicinity of Horse Springs, 14 miles by road southeast of St. Thomas, Nev and 9 miles north of Gold Butte. The deposit was located originally by Fay Perkins of Overton, Nev in 1922. The present owner is Albert Bauer. No production has ever been made. Development comprises several short tunnels and a shaft about 60 feet deep. Fine-grained dolomite and magnesite beds overlain by shale and underlain by limestone and dipping about 30 degrees outcrop for several thousand feet

Webster Group

A group of sever unpatented claims in Cedar basin is owned by Mrs. A. G. Webster of Moapa, Nv. In 1937 this property was under option to H. G. Snyder of Salt lake City, Utah. Development comprises a shaft 130 feet deep and several hundred feet of lateral workings. Property is equipped with a 2-stamp mill (1,050 pounds each),a jaw crusher (6 by 8 inches), and an amalgamation plate (4 feet long and 3 feet wide). Mill equipment is operated by an automobile engine. About 150 tons of ore, averaging 1 ounce of gold per ton, was treated in this mill.

The ore occurs in a quartz vein in the granite. The dip of the vein is about 75 degrees and the average width is 18 inches. Formation is altered granite and schist traversed by pegmatite dikes.

Azure Ridge Group

The Azure Ridge Group of four unpatented lode claims owned by John F. Perkins of Overton, Nv is near the Arizona-Nevada boundary in the southeastern part of the Gold Butte district. The only production from the property was in 1918, when John F. Perkins shipped two carloads of zinc ore and one carload of copper ore. The zinc ore averaged 40 percent zinc and the copper ore 35 percent copper, with small values in gold and silver. This ore was hand-sorted and hauled to St. Thomas for shipment to smelters. Since 1918 the property has been inactive.

This property is in the prospect stage of development and all work has been superficial in character. Development comprises an adit 100 feet long, another of 40 feet, and several shallow shafts, totaling in all about 300 feet of workings. Mineralization occurs in a faulted zone in limestone near granite.

http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/mdfiles/mdfiles.htm

A Snapshot of Gold Butte in 1930

Information from the 1930 Census for people at Gold Butte on the date April 14, 1930

William Garrett: Own\Rent: Own Relation: Head Farm: Yes Sex: Male Race: White Age 50 Birthplace: Texas English: Yes Occupation: Stockman Industry: cattle

Frank Grimes: Own\Rent: Rent $:5 Relation: Head Farm: Yes Sex: Male Race: White Age: 37 Birthplace: Vermont English:Yes Occupation: Mining

Christine Grimes: Relation: Wife Sex: Female Race: White Age: 33 Birthplace: California English: Yes Occupation: none

Baby(not Named) Murphy Son of J. Murphy Birthplace: Nevada

Al Davie: Gold Butte Transients Relation: Lodger Sex: Male Race: White Age: 73 Birthplace: Oregon English: Yes Occupation: Odd jobs

Thomas A. Aljer: Gold Butte Transients Relation Lodger Sex: Male Race: White Age: 51 Birthplace: Utah English: Yes Occupation: Driller Industry: Copper Mine

C. Jacob Aljer: Gold Butte Transients Relation: Son Sex: Male Race: White Age: 13 Birthplace: Utah English: Yes Occupation: Farm Laborer Industry: Truck Farm

John H. Bailey: Gold Butte Transients  Relation Lodger Sex: Male Race: White Age: 69 Birthplace: Switzerland Immigration Natrilization: 1903 English: yes Occupation: Peddler Industry Willow Baskets

Arthur Coleman: Relation: Boarder sex: male race: white age: 53 birthplace: Kansas Occupation: Miner Industry: Mining

ftp://ftp.us-census.org/pub/usgenweb/census/nv/clark/1930/ed12-pg144a.txt

Grand Old Man of Gold Butte - Art Coleman & Bill Garrett

Orville Perkins is well known for capturing much of early Southern Nevada life with his entertaining and skilled writings. In his book Hookey Beans and Willows he writes of the Grand old Men of Gold Butte capturing a timeless snapshot of the good ol' days at Gold Butte.

Orville and his stories are cited in many different histories of Clark County. His stories and depictions of early life Southern Nevada are an invaluable resource of information, exciting for any reader from the casual to the academic. His descriptive narratives are the reason that many of the histories and legends of this area still exist today. I highly recommend that you track his book down, Hookey Beans and Willows, and purchase a copy for yourself. A copy may be found at the Old Logandale School.

Grand Old Man of Gold Butte

With the passing of Bill Garrett and Art Coleman, an era came to a close. It had been slowly developing for a long time. The two old men were the only link that held the past to the present at Gold Butte.

Art Coleman had been a long time prospector in Nevada. He first saw this area in 1907 during the Copper City boom and was quite impressed with the general area. Art, being young and restless had worked in many camps in Nevada. Robert E. Lee told of seeing Art in early January of 1910 in Caliente, waiting to go to Goodsprings to look for a job. Because of the big flood he was stranded. Art not wanting to waste anymore time in a flood drenched town decided to walk to Ely, the only way to get there. He and a pardner walked the one hundred and thirty miles in the dead of winter. This must have been quite a fete as hardly anyone lived north of Pioche till you reached the Ely area.

With the coming of prohibition many old prospectors turned to bootlegging, they knew most of the old camps and springs to set up operations. In the early twenties Art ran the Moapa Bar, but tiring of looking over his shoulder for probi agents, decided to go to the Gold Butte area and homestead. He settled in the Jumbo Basin to do a little dry farming and prospecting and if things to too tough, he could always do some bootlegging. The farming operations were never a real success but prospecting was good. Art set up dry washing operation in the most likely washes. One time with the aid of Bob Fleming, they did some slice mining. By saving the water, they could run it thru several times. They did recover some gold and a few of the choice nuggets he kept for display, having fun sometimes with the unwary. He was one of a disappearing breed. Here, at Gold Butte, he teamed up with Bill Garrett who had moved into the now abandoned house shipped in by Johnnie Nelson’s mother from White Hills. The house was dismantled and hauled to Kingman where it was shipped in sections by rail to St. Thomas. Johnnie hauled it to Gold Butte and reassembled it. Quite a comfortable home.

Bill Garrett, raised in Texas, wasn’t one to talk much about the past. He was the sort of fellow that one did not pry too much into his past. In some of his more mellow moods he told of as a boy he and another youth pulled a holdup, in the melee that followed a man was shot. The boys ran and bill wound up in Canada. While in Canada, Bill fell in with an old man who taught him how to build a still. This was to come in handy in later years. Drifting back to the States he began to follow rodeos and eventually, became a world champ cowboy. He told of being in St. Louis in 1904 for the world fair. A rodeo was part of the fair, and Bill entered the saddle bronc riding event. On the first day he got a very rough horse and just as the gun went off, ending the ride, this cinch broke. Bill, saddle and all, made a beautiful loop landing straddle of a pole fench with Bill still in the saddle. It was the hit of the rodeo, they wanted him to do it everyday, little realizing it could not happen that way again in a hundred years.

The next fifteen years found Bill working on ranches and following rodeos. Bill became quite the rodeo star. While working in the Unitah County area of Utah, he got involved with a girl, her former boyfriend went looking for Bill, he found him in Vernal. Bill had been warned the man was looking for him in the shoot-out that followed the man lay dead. Bill was arrested and stood trial in Vernal but freed on a self-defense plea. Bill knew it was time to move on, so he next showed up in Gold Butte, working for George Hartman as a cowhand.

For server years the Lord had been good to Southern Nevada, the rains had been plentiful and stickmen were increasing their herds, the future looked bright.by the mid nineteen twenties that had all changed, a prolonged drought had set in and few were the cow outfits that would survive. Hartman was one that would fail, even with the men going without pay to keep things together. Big Swapp had nine hundred dollars coming and at thirty a month, that’s a long time without a payday. Bryant and Roxton Whitmore, Bill Garrett and others had back pay they could not get. Some took a few cows for pay, and Bill did this and moved into the abandoned White Hills house which was to be his home for the next forty years.

The Gold Butte house became a popular place, most people going out that way stopped at Bills. He sometimes made a little whiskey which did a lot for the house’s social success. Smoke coming from in back of the big rock some hundred yards back of the house would be a sure sign that a new batch was in the works.

The thirties came and with it the great depression, repeal of the Volstead Act and if that wasn’t enough, the Taylor Grazing Act. One by one Bill sold off his cattle to live. He had a prize horse running on the range, a light sorrel stallion with flax mane and tail. This horse was Bill’s pride and joy. A rancher from Willows, California, saw him from a distance and made a good offer so he was also sold. Bill was getting a little age on himself by this time, he wasn’t quite what he used to be, so had to get Elwood Perkins to catch Sun Flower, the pride of the Gold Butte range.

Art managed by accident to create more excitement than they could handle. One day while prospecting down below the Butte, he pulled off the road to turn around, his old model A backfired and set a grass fire that nearly got him before he could speed away. The smoke could be seen for a couple of days from as far away as Overton.

In their later years, they both got a county pension, still the Gold Butte house always had an open door. Throughout the years, hundreds had enjoyed their hospitality. Art was the older of the pair and passed away first, he was buried there at Butte. A couple of years later, Bill followed and was laid by his old friend. Stones were bought for the pair by their many friends. Those that pass and pause long enough can see that here lies the last of this breed of men.