Rare 1913 first-edition report describes
legendary Darwin silver mines in California

First one on in 10 years; written soon after
boom by boots-on-the-ground author Adolph Knopf!

Details geology, owners, mining methods-history, transportation, vegetation, topography, even weather! Detail of map from article shows numbered mines; numbers are keyed to mine names in text. For example, number 1 is the Christmas Gift Mine, also as pictured below right.

Any original article on the legendary silver mines in the rough-and-tumble boomtown of Darwin, Calif., is rare — so grab this one before it gets away.

This is the first one of these that I have seen in 10 years. Knock yourself out trying to find this first edition anywhere at any price. This one came all the way from Sweden!

"The Darwin Silver-Lead Mining District, California," printed in 1913, describes just what the title says, only 30-40 years after Darwin\'s big boom was winding down, or so they thought. Photo from Spring 2015 shows Christmas Gift mine and tailing piles as they exist today (photo is NOT ++NOT++ included with report and only reproduced here for location ID purposes).

But they would be proved wrong as the mines came back big time in the 1920s, soon after this report was written, with mining magnate E. W. Wagner at the helm. (That boom, however, didn\'t work out so well for Wagner, who blew his brains out over huge Darwin debts.)

And the little town that refused to die, came back at least twice more in the \'40s and \'60s, before the mines finally shut down in the late \'70s.

Not written by armchair miner
This article was not written by some old drunken codger trying to remember what happened 70 years ago. Author Adolph Knopf was no stranger to Owens Valley, the Sierra and the Inyo Mountains. He wrote several seminal articles on the area. Knopf penned this rare article after observing for himself geology, mining methods, mining history, quad vegetation, topography, even a bit on high-desert weather at Darwin\'s 4,750 feet, making for temperate summers but butt-freezing winters with snow and howling winds (my weather description, not Knopf\'s).

This is not some gift-shop rockhound brochure; it was written about miners for miners by miners. Although not the longest report on desert gold mining ever published (weighing in at 18 pages), it does have a surprising amount of firsthand info valuable to anyone interested in all things Darwin, reportedly one of the most violent towns in the old west.

Prepared by the USGS
Prepared by the U. S. Geological Survey, it\'s a treasure trove of information for history buffs, bottle collectors, photographers, geologists, hikers, offroaders, rockhounds, prospectors, metal detectorists — just about anyone interested in learning about, exploring or prospecting old mine sites in the historic Darwin area. Diagram from book shows what to look for when searching for silver deposits.

Chock-full of useful info!
Don\'t be deceived by its brevity. This article packs a lot into a little space, including separating out the major mines:

Christmas Gift Mine — About two miles from the main Darwin mines on the hill coming into town, still there waiting for someone to reopen it and start working. By 1913, production estimated at $550,000 (an astonishing $22+ million at today\'s silver prices). And this HUGE amount of money was extracted from a relatively tiny mine, 230 feet deep along a vein only 300 feet long! "The production at the time of visit was at the rate of 100 tons a month. The shipments during May averaged 60 ounces to the ton in silver, and $2 to the ton in gold." That\'s almost $150,000 a month in silver alone at today\'s silver prices! Even this short blurb is chock-full of useful data to the observant history detective.

Lucky Jim Mine — Near the Christmas Gift, produced 1.2 - 1.5 million bucks. But get this: At today\'s silver values, that\'s a mind-boggling 62 million smackers. Not bad at all for a couple years work. New miners in the area are reopening and assaying everything they can get their hands on, so you can bet there\'s lots more where that came from. For example, early miners often left behind adit-support pillars made from rich ore, because at the time ore was cheaper than importing hundreds of trees to shore up the mines. Today, many of those high-value ore supports are still in place, just waiting to be mined and replaced with cheap shoring.

Defiance Mine — Perhaps Darwin\'s most famous, named after the fact that someone was always fighting over it, resulting in myriad court battles over ownership and claim jumping. Four patented and three unpatented claims one mile north of darwin. (Figure 3., above left is, of the Defiance Mine.) "The ore of the Defiance Mine is said to have had a value as sorted and shipped, at $100 a ton in lead silver and gold, the gold being present, however, to the extent of $4 a ton. Above the main ore body of the mine is a short narrow tabular mass of ore that lies parallel to the strike of the inclosing rock and has been explored by open cuts." $100 a ton back then equals $4100 a ton today. Now that is RICH ore.

Eight more mines — Large and small, famous and forgotten. Illustration from article showing relation of ore bodies to country rock.

Pinpoint oldest original workings and campsites
Chances of finding new ground is always better in areas not trampled by everyone over the years. I always thought some of these areas were explored later, much later, as in the \'40s-present. Boy was I wrong! (Prospecting, rockhounding/collecting is usually legal as pie in many of these BLM areas; check with the local BLM.)

New untouched deposits!
So you\'re thinking, how can a little report like this possibly have any worthwhile info about new untouched deposits? What you\'re looking for: Mines or prospects abandoned as subeconomic (or not worked heavily) because the price of gold/silver just wasn\'t high enough to support the operation at 58 cents an ounce (market price for silver back then).

Now that gold is 50 times that (and silver prices are also skyrocketing), these once-worthless deposits can be hugely rich. And don\'t forget that some Darwin ore was beyond rich. I personally have seen mine-run Darwin ore that is largely silver, pretty much solid silver, as it comes straight outta the ground. You can\'t get any more rich than that.

How do I find these rich sites? By exploration. Find the old sites and get down there and sample, sample and then sample some more. I\'m not telling where these rich site are, but I know they are there because I have personally seen them. No digging involved. Just bend down and pick up rich float right off the ground. And this ore wasn\'t even the richest ore back then. Remember, they left this stuff behind! That\'s why it\'s there.

Don\'t judge a report by its size or length. Just because it may be shorter than some others doesn\'t mean that it can\'t have some interesting and VERY useful info.

Rare first-edition report
This is the first one of these reports that I have seen in 10 years, and I have been collecting and selling rare mining books for almost 20 years now. Don\'t wait to buy this, thinking another one will pop up on for cheaper. Ain\'t gonna happen.

So buy it now or forever hold your peace. Once it\'s gone; it\'s gone.

Geology described in detail
Because this is, after all, a book about mining and geology, it also covers the latter topic in detail. Want to know what rocks host silver-bearing ore in Inyo County? It\'s here. Want to know geologic condition conducive to ore formation? It\'s here too.

Where is it?
Inyo County — the second largest county in the state — is in eastern California, bordering Nevada, about halfway between the Mexican border and Oregon. It includes the highest point in the contiguous United States (Mt. Whitney) and the lowest (Badwater). Counties adjacent to Inyo are Mono, Fresno, Tulare, Kern and San Bernardino; nearby counties include: Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Tuolumne and Alpine.

The report:
"The Darwin Silver-Lead Mining District, California," by Adolph Knopf, originally appeared in U. S. G. S. Bulletin 580 A , 1913, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 1-18, includes mine location map and two diagrams.

Original monograph in original covers, pretty much impossible to find. This is not a copy or later edition. This is the original first edition in near-excellent condition. Just great shape, except for spine which is ripped but holding.

Some slight yellowing, slight cover edge chips, bumped corners. All in all, one of the best of these that I have seen.

Payment methods
and domestic shipping
Paypal only. I pride myself on bulletproof packaging and ship in sturdy cardboard boxes or reinforced envelopes.

The fine print:
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the item or terms of sale. I post response once a week. Not responsible for typographical errors.

If you don\'t see it, ask us
We live and breathe rare mining books and ephemera, just like our name says, particularly about the desert southwest, specializing in California, Arizona and western Nevada — concentrating on the arid regions of Southern California, including the driest and hottest of them all, Death Valley. Please see what we have for sale on ; if you don\'t see it, ask. We can probably find it for you. We deal ONLY in official printings; NO worthless blurry offshore reprints, missing maps and often infringing on original author copyright.

Good luck and thanks for looking!

Towns or population areas
Nearby counties include: Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Tuolumne and Alpine. Counties near Inyo include: Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Tuolumne and Alpine. Towns, population areas and interesting sites in Inyo County include Aberdeen, the Alabama Hills, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Badwater, Ballarat, Big Pine, Bishop, Cartago, Cerro Gordo, China Lake Naval Weapons Center, Coso Junction, Darwin, Death Valley Junction, Dolomite, Dunmovin, Eureka Sand Dunes, Fossil Falls, Furnace Creek, Geology Village on Tonopah Drive in Goldfield, Greenwater, Haiwee Reservoir, Independence, Keeler, Laws, Lake Sabrina, Little Lake, Lone Pine, Mt. Whitney, Olancha, Owens Lake, Owens River, Panamint Springs, Pearsonville, petroglyphs, Saline Valley, Scotty\'s Castle, Shoshone, Skidoo, Stovepipe Wells, Swansea, Tecopa, Trona and Ubehebe Crater.

Map from article.