Lone Pine Gem & Mineral Society
CFMS Field Trip
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Cerro Gordo Mine
8:00 am

 

Lone Pine Gem & Mineral Society is hosting a field trip to Cerro Gordo on June 24, 2012.  They would like everyone in CFMS to be invited.

Meet:   8:30 am at Lee's Chevron station at the south of end of Lone Pine.

Cost - $5.00 per person +  2 gallons of fresh water minimum and a half dozen pieces of firewood or more. (*More water would be greatly appreciated - Cerro Gordo lost their onsite water system, so water has to be hauled in from Keelen.)

High-clearance vehicles are recommended, with low gearing for the last 15 miles of the trip, which takes about 45 minutes from Lone Pine. This road is steep but well graded dirt road (9 miles with 5000 elevation gain).  Car pooling can be arranged at Chevron station.

What to Collect:  Cerro Gordo offers more diverse mineral specimens than any other mine in California.  Most of us will be looking for Smithsonite, a zinc carbonate, usually with some iron, magnesium, and calcium, occasionally with some cadmium, copper, and cobalt.  Combinations of all these elements do not exist; only particular combinations can exist.  Blue Smithsonite on the left and "Turkey Fat" Smithsonite on the right. Notice the botryoidal texture in which the mineral has a globular external form resembling a bunch of grapes. Smithsonite is normally found in the massive form and rarely found as crystals. 

blue smithsonite

yellow smithsonite

 

Tools to bring: small hand rake (three prong garden tool) for scraping through the tailings, spray bottle, small shovel, rock pick or hammer, collecting bag or bucket, sturdy boots, sunscreen, hat, and plenty of drinking water.

Bring water and lunch.  Cerro Gordo is at an elevation of 8,300ft. It'll be several degrees cooler than the valley floor. The temperature can either be hot or cold so plan accordingly.

Contact - If you have any questions please contact Dana at 760-876-5020 (you may have to leave a message) or Francis Pedneau at (760) 876-4319, Lone Pine Gem & Mineral.

Cerro Gordo was primarily a silver mine in the 1870s and a zinc mine around 1911. The mine is at an elevation of 8,000 feet, so plan accordingly. The site has a small museum to explore. The old American Hotel is under restoration, and the town has many other small buildings and mill site to look at though they won't be open. Collecting will be in old tailings and we will look primarily for smithsonite and associated copper and lead minerals. Cerro Gordo is noted for over 49 minerals.

Mineral Collecting at this site can be quite rewarding. CERRO GORDO is world renown for: Anglesite, anhydrite, argentite, atacamite, aurichalcite, azurite, barite, bindheimite, bouronite, calcite, caledonite, cermrgyrite, cerussite, ceruantite, chrysocolla, dufrenoysite, flourite, galena, geothite, greenockite, hemimorphite, hollosite, hydrozincite, jamesonite, leadhillite, limonite, linerite, liroconite, malachite, mimetite, plumbgumite, pyrite, quartz, silver, smithsonite, sphalerite, stibnite, stromeyerite, tetrahedrite, tetrajymite, willemite, and wulfenite. Of special interest to rock hounders is the smithsonite which is world class.

Nestled high in the Inyo Mountains east of the Sierra Nevadas, at an altitude of 8,500 feet, Cerro Gordo, Fat Hill, was discovered to be rich in silver deposits by a group of Mexican miners led by Pablo Flores. The year was 1865. By 1866, Victor Beaudry, a French Canadian, now a merchant at Fort Independence in Owens Valley, realized there were opportunities at the Cerro Gordo mining camp, and opened a general store on the mountain. He began acquiring mining properties in lieu of overdue accounts and by January of 1868 arranged with Pierre Desormeaux to build ore furnaces. By April of 1868, Beaudry acquired more properties which included the richest claims on the hill, the Union, the San Lucas, the San Felipe and more.

That same April that Victor Beaudry claimed more and more properties around Cerro Gordo, Mortimer Belshaw came in to town. He became part owner of the Union Mine, as well. June 1868, Belshaw processed ore in one of the Mexican furnaces, then brought the first wagon load of silver into the sleepy pueblo of Los Angeles. He built the Yellow Grade road from Owens dry lake to Cerro Gordo, in July of 1868, so equipment could be taken to the mines, and the ore taken down the mountain. He also built his own smelters to process that ore, in much larger volumes than Victor Beaudry was capable of.  By December of 1868, regular shipments of silver bullion were going to Los Angeles. Silver ingots 18 inches long, and weighing 85 pounds, were worth from 20-35 dollars. Cerro Gordo was being hailed as another Comstock.