The Strange Story of Silver Reef Utah

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NOTE: I just imported years of posts at RTH here and it all needs to be revised. I'll get to it when I can. 4/8/2021

In 1866 John Kemple, an older and experienced prospector and assayer, took a room for the winter at the Harrisburg home of Orson Adams.



While wandering the hills west of town he noticed the green and blue copper stains in the rocks.
Assaying samples, he found valuable amounts of silver was present! He sent ore samples to other assayers for conformation.

H. H. Smith, of Shaunty, Beaver County said:
"Kemple must be crazy to ask me to assay a sand rock."




John Kemple recorded the first claim in his name as follows:

“said location commencing at a monument and notice placed on the ledge about three hundred yards southwest of O.B. Adam‟s house (Harrisburg) and running from thence in a northerly direction (1500 ) feet. This ledge shall be known as the Pride of the West Ledge and the Kemple Company. Location June the 18th, 1874.

Recorded June 26, 1874. Locator – John Kemple”

Where was the Orson Adams House?



Sgt Orson Bennett Adams (B. 9 March 1815 Alexander, Genessee County, New York
Death: 4 February 1901 Leeds, Washington County, Utah)
Veteran of Mormon Battalion in 1846, Original settler in Parowan in 1851.

The Adams family was among the nine families "called" in 1861 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to settle at the confluence of Leeds and Quail Creeks; the new settlement was named Harrisburg. Orson selected the most western 200 acres on Quail Creek for his home.



Willard G. McMullin, a master stone mason, arrived here in 1862 and constructed the Adams home, as well as many of the other residences of Harrisburg, during the period between 1863 and 1865. From 1864 until the early 1890s, Orson B. Adams, his wife Susannah, two sons, and eventually two granddaughters lived in this two-room sandstone dwelling.

The land was donated to the BLM and the house restored in 2009.



Ir is on the road to the Red Cliffs recreation area.







Kemple was getting old and little work was ever done at the mine.

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Silver Reef is a five mile wide fifteen mile (+) long gouge in Triassic Chinle rocks about ten miles northeast of St George Utah





I wrote about it on Mindat in 2011.
www.mindat.org/article.php/1114/Silver+Reef%2CUtah


The major geological study of the area was done in 1953, Just before Gene Shoemaker convinced the world that ancient impacts still existed on earth.

ugspub.nr.utah.gov/publications/bulletins/B-44.pdf

GEOLOGY OF THE SILVER REEF (HARRISBURG) MINING DISTRICT
WASHINGTON COUNTY UTAH
By PAUL DEAN PROCTOR - April 1953

Because of its historic significance in orogenesis and because of its strategic position at the boundary line of the Colorado Plateau with the Basin and Range Province as these provinces are exhibited in Southern Utah, the Silver Reef district was given priority by the Survey as a subject of study. While it was undertaken primarily as a means of throwing additional light, by the application of modern means of research, on the historic problem of the formation of economic deposits of silver in sandstone the presence of small amounts of uranium, vanadium and selenium in the mineral assemblage making up the Silver Reef ore bodies was an intriguing aspect of the subject, and the fact that the Silver Reef district was situated on what was believed to be a possible oil structure furnished an additional reason for giving preference to this investigation.

The problem of the genesis of the Silver Reef are bodies is one which has received the close attention of students of economic geology through-out the world. These ore bodies constitute the only occurrence of its size of silver in sandstone un-connected in any demonstrable way with an igneous source.
It will be noted from the following Bulletin that Dr. Proctor comes to the conclusion, after weighing all the evidence from his own and from previous investigations, that the silver was derived from particles originally disseminated in volcanic ash. He thinks that these were in turn concentrated by solution and re-precipitated by organic matter along stream channels of the Buckeye Reef member of the Chinle formation.

However, to some of those familiar with the wide-spread occurrence of the Chinle bentonitic members assumed to have come from volcanic ash, it may be difficult to visualize the mechanism by which the silver is assumed to have been concentrated into an economic deposit in the Silver Reef area while not receiving similar concentration in any of the many areas to the east of the Silver Reef district where these same Chinle beds are well exposed.

Another circumstance which may have greater significance than is obvious from Proctor's treatment is the apparent correlation between the structure of the area and the Silver Reef ore deposits. It appears that the economic deposits form a U-shaped outline around the nose of the Leeds anticline.
This would seem to suggest that the folding preceded the emplacement of the minerals so as to have influenced their mechanism of accumulation.

One wonders if there may not have been some connection between the great andesitic accumulations in Pine Valley Mountain to the north and the hydro-thermal solutions which conceivably traveled south-ward and upward on the Leeds anticline becoming colder in their long transit through the porous sandstones, which acted as conduits, until they no longer could retain in solution their metallic burden.

ABSTRACT

The Silver Reef mining area in southwestern Utah contains the only known occurrence in the United States of commercial bodies of silver ore with minor copper-uranium-vanadium minerals in sandstone. The ore bodies are restricted to the Silver Reef sandstone member of the upper Triassic Chinle formation and occur on the limbs and nose of a major anticline and a subsidiary anticline and syncline. A newly recognized north trending normal fault and a thrust fault with a minimum eastward displacement of 1500 feet repeat the ore horizon three times. No constant relationship exists between the mineralization and the folds or faults.

Silver, copper, and minor gold values in a bentonite 300 feet below the ore-bearing horizon, minerals of these metals and lense-like bentonitic shales in the Silver Reef sandstone, and other known occurrences of notable metal content in volcanic tuffs suggest a new theory of origin for these unusual deposits. It is concluded that the metals were primary constituents of original volcanic tuffs in Triassic time; that these metals were dissolved and/or mechanically transported by streams eroding the tuffaceous sediments; that they were later deposited with the sandstone and shales of the Silver Reef area; that further concentration of the metals in the Silver Reef sandstone was by (1) solution in circulating ground water, and (2) precipitation through contact with entombed plant debris and associated bacteria in more permeable buried Triassic stream channels. Folding, erosion, and exposure of the ore horizon is assumed to have resulted in secondary enrichment of the ore deposits by meteoric waters.

I believe that 150 million years ago an exotic comet entered the solar system and broke up, then peppered the earth at this location, at Upheaval Dome, and numerous other world locations, donating a large amount of our silver, gold, vanadium, uranium, etc.

[Admin]

The Petrified Forest Cave story recorded by the Pioche Record January 1, 1881 - tells of

“It is seldom that Dame Fortune bestows her carresses [sic] on people who are worthy of them, yet in the case of Henry Freudenthal and Louis Hassell, it would seem that the old lady had at last came [sic] to her right mind and has been ever so lavish of her favors on two deserving young men.

On the 24th, Freudenthal and Hassell, chloriders in the Thompson & McNally, were putting a hole into unusually hard rock, when suddenly the entire face of the drift before them gave way with a looming sound, into a black abyss 200 feet deep.

Mr Hassell, who was turning the drill at the time, instantly sprang backward, thereby saving himself from being carried downward with the huge mass of rock. The astonished chloriders realized that an immense cave was before them. Two hundred feet over head, and faintly seen by candle light, frowned its dome like ceiling, the further extremity of which was lost in the darkness. Two hundred feet below, firm and upright stood a forrest [sic] of huge trees.

Ropes were procured and the chloriders descended into the forest, which was found to be petrified. On some of the trees strange characters were inscribed. Various mosses, also petrifactions, appeared green and life like, covered the ground. All these petrifications carry silver—some of the samples broken from the trees assaying as high as $200 per ton.

Last evening, in company with Judge A. H. Parker, Mining Engineer, we visited the wonderful cave and found its dimensions to be as follows: Length 875 feet, width 75 to 100 feet, heighth [sic] from the bottom to ceiling or roof, 375 to 400 feet.”

The petrifications of course were mined for their silver thus destroying the remarkable trees.

Most of the silver etc. was found with wood and vegetation, making this a great tale, but it probably isn't true.



wchsutah.org/towns/silver-reef8.pdf

Jacob Oscarson, Dixie State University
HIST 4800R, Independent Study Spring 2015

Silver Reef’s Petrified Forest: An eggnog inspired tale?

The truthfulness of this petrified forest story relies upon the creditability of the Record’s
correspondent from Silver Reef. This creditability is cleared up in the subsequent week’s
edition. In a continuation of the story the correspondent writes:

“In a second cave leading from the first great cave mentioned a week ago, was found a beautiful Indian maiden reclining on a couch of furs in front of a lodge of skins. Close beside her knelt an Indian taking a drink of water from a silvery stream. All were petrified—stream, Indian and maiden. Yet, before we go any further, we owe an explanation in regard to the great discovery. On Christmas night we went to bed with Egg Nog, a congenial partner, who very soon soothed us to sleep with a bad headache. Without doubt Nog had something to do with the construction of truly an eggnog inspired dream, or simply a cockamamie story, the truth is no doubt a disappointment to many who have heard the legend. By conveniently forgetting to mention the cave as a dream in the first article, the correspondent no doubt caused a sensation, which has continued for some into the present day.

For the modern historian some questions are naturally raised while reading the second article. For example have past historians simply not gone to the next issue of the Record and thus never found the recantation?
Has the legend survived so long because ghost town enthusiasts conveniently forgot the other half of the story?
Or was the second article part of a conspiracy ordered by mine bosses to hide the truth?

One important note to add is that Silver Reef’s own newspaper, the Silver Reef Miner, makes no mention of the discovery in its issues of January 5th and 12th of 1881.

Proctor -1953
The intimate association of the major silver mineral with certain lithologic types is notable.
With reference to a certain rock type, the ore is classified into four important varieties with a fifth less important one added:

1. Small fossil plant and larger tree replacements by silver chloride in buff to white fine grained sandstone. At depth, the silver sulfide occurs in the tree remains. Iron oxide nodules, pseudomorphic after pyrite, and chalcocite nodules also occurred together with the plant remains.

2. Disseminated specks of silver chloride
and thin plates of the same mineral parallel to the bedding planes, with rare native silver.

3. Silver chloride associated with clay gall and clay ball conglomerates.

4. Streaks and small grains of silver chloride in sheared lavender to brownish red sandstone.

5. Horn silver films and occasionally some native silver on slicken-sided surfaces within the shale or "soapstone."

Ore bodies were almost restricted to lenses of lavender, and buff to white sandstone containing abundant plant remains. The lithology of these ore zones rapidly changed from sandstone to clay conglomerate to alternating sandstone and shales.
On the strike and dip such a body thinned and disappeared or became too small to mine profitably.
Some carbonaceous material extended beyond the silver are limit. The silver content within the clay gall and clay ball conglomerates behaved in a like manner.

Though commercial silver deposits were restricted to the Silver Reef sandstone member of the Chinle formation, assays indicate that a very minor amount of silver is present in the rocks both above and below it. In fact, within the member itself, it would be difficult to find a sample free of a trace of silver.

[Admin]

Dec 10, 2018 9:13:55 GMT -7 @win said:

We visit Silver Reef on occasion but never spent time looking for rocks. An acquaintance told me her father still mines Silver there, not a lot but it is there. She pointed me to a wash with some yard rock, went back recently and it's posted, "Private Property" and "For Sale" It's fun to go "behind the Reef", walk and explore the old foundations, visit the Cobb Mine. Wish I knew more about Geology, has to a fascinating area. There is a really nice Museum there, well worth a visit. Here's a link to some of my photos.

winpics.fototime.com/Silver%20Reef%20Mine%20Area-%20Leeds%20Utah

LOVE your photos!

I suggest you Download
ugspub.nr.utah.gov/publications/bulletins/B-44.pdf

for a lot of good information on the area!



Another good source is
scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5151/

There Stuki wrote on page 107 (113/145)

it seems possible as the Salt Lake Tribune claimed that "the Mormons took up the claims to monopolize the mining ground to keep the gentiles out of the area and to suppress the mines. Most of the Mormon claims were never developed."

If that is correct, there is still a lot of valuable minerals in the area.

[Admin]

Of interest to rockhounds is the agate layer in the area.

Proctor described "Fire Clay Hill"

Fire Clay Hill bentonitic shales

The best exposures of the Fire Clay Hill bentonitic shales of the lower Chinle are on the East Reef 1000 feet north of the Duffin Mine where the shales conformably overly the arkosic sandstone and are gray to purplish. A distinctive fluffy soil indicative of bentonite, with gentle to steep scarps, characterizes the weathered outcrop of these gray to purplish beds.

The thickness changes a little from the East Reef to the West Reefs, but the average is 10-13 feet. Towards the base, calcareous concretions and geodes as much as six inches in diameter occur sporadically, and in places are associated with concretions of iron-oxide and distinctive copper-bearing concretions up to five inches in diameter.

Assays of the copper concretions show considerable copper, some silver, and a fair showing of gold as given below:

EDIT 2018/12/10-1:45pm: So far I have been unable to find the location of Fire Clay Hill, The Duttin Mine (later re-named to the Requa) In one place it is stated to be on the Emily Jane, another states it is on the Requa claim.

@redrockrods wrote about "Lunch Break Agate."
forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/59343/lunch-break-agate

yup. this stuff is part of the same formation that created rainbow wood in AZ, but here in so. Utah it formed seam agate deposits in the chinle instead.

Read more: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/59343/lunch-break-agate#ixzz5ZCvtW3Gm

[Admin]

Silver Reef jail.

www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2017/08/27/silver-reef-day-the-boom-bust-and-rebirth-of-a-ghost-town-anomaly/#.XA7BozF7n9I

[Admin]

citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1011.9133&rep=rep1&type=pdf

COMMENTS REGARDING ORE GENESIS AT SILVER REEF, UTAH
by RICHARD V. WYMAN

The most recent publication on the geology of Silver Reef is that by Paul Dean Proctor (1) in which he hypothecates an origin of the silver mineralization from the leaching of Triassic volcanic tuffs, and transportation of the metals as sulfates to the seat of syngenetic deposition within the Silver Reef sandstone.

The following comments are intended principally to refute the arguments presented by Proctor, rather than let his work stand uncontested. Additional facts based upon the work of the recent operators add weight to the epigenetic origin of the orebodies from hypogene solutions.

ARGUMENTS FOR SYNGENETIC ORIGIN ANSWERED
On page 121 Proctor lists eleven points that must be considered in any theory of origin. Most of these points as presented tend to favor a syngenetic origin. They are as follows:
1.) The occurrence of silver chloride in association with copper carbonates and minor amounts of uranium-vanadium minerals and some selenium.
2.) The known areal distribution of minor silver and copper content in the St. George basin.
3.) The localization of commercial ore deposits in light colored sandstones inter- bedded-with red sandstone and shales of the Triassic Chinle formation.
4.) The common association of the metallic minerals with plant remains.
5.) The concentration of silver and copper minerals in stratigraphic units within the sandstone member.
6.) The association of silver, and to a lesser extent, copper with clay galls.
7.) The paragenetic sequence of deposition of the different minerals in the deposits.
8.) The absence of the associated intrusive rocks with the mineral deposits.
9.) The lack of silicification, sericitization, typical ore textures, and other accompaniments of hypogene deposition.
10.) The absence of recognizable feeder channels for the different orebodies.
11.) The occurrence of silver- and gold-bearing chalcocite-pyrite concretions in the bentonitic shale 310 feet below the Silver Reef sandstone.

The assemblage of metals described in item 1 should also include iron, which is especially prominent as spongy limonite associated with the uranium ores. Otherwise there is no difference of opinion as to the presence of the metals.

The assemblage could fit an epigenetic origin from hypogene solutions just as well.

In item 2 above, Proctor implies a wide areal distribution of metals in the Silver Reef. There are a few other deposits of this type known in the Santa Clara, St. George, and Hurricane areas. However, the deposits are isolated from one another, small, and not necessarily in the same stratigraphic position. In fact, minor amounts of silver and copper are known from the Shinarump up through the Dakota in the general area.

Item 3 is an undisputed fact. The light color, however, crosses bedding planes and spreads out from fractures and jointed areas. The light color described by Proctor as the Leeds Sandstone is also believed to be an alteration phase rather than a sedimentary facies. The relation of alteration of this type to ore mineralization is direct and significant, and can be used as a guide to favorable areas on a district basis, although it is too general a guide to be used for locating specific ore shoots.

Item 4 is only half true. To this should be added, "the occurrence of silver in the absence of plant remains," and "the occurrence of plant remains in the absence of any metals." The experience in the district was that plant remains were not a good indication of mineralization. Much of the silver ore lacks plant remains, and in one case--the 200 level of the Cobb mine-- charified plant remains occur unmineralized only a few feet from a com- mercial silver body that contained no plant remains. Organic material was much more important in localizing uranium, as would be expected from the conditions required for its precipitation as described by Garrels (2).

Items 5 and 6 are explained as the result of selectivity based on structural or chemical favorability. Similar selectivity in limestone sections has been noted in many mining districts where one bed is favored for some reason. In the Silver Reef district, the favored bed is not always in the same strati- graphic position within the sandstone, and there are also instances of several mineralized beds lying over one another.

Item 7, the paragenetic sequence, can be explained satisfactorily on the basis of epigenetic hypogene mineralization.

Item 8 is only partly true. There are no known igneous rocks other than recent basalts in the district. But the huge igneous mass of Pine -Valley Mountain lies within 6 miles to the north. This has been described by Cook (3) as a laccolith intruded beneath a blanket of ignimbrites. In many mining districts the granitic mass ascribed as a source of the metal is farther than this.
Nothing is known of the presence or absence of igneous rocks underneath the district. In particular, it is possible that the Virgin Anticline itself may contain a Iaccolithic mass that has not been exposed by erosion.

Item 9 is not true. A halo surrounding the ore deposits is mildly silicified. In particular, the individual quartz sand grains are extended by authigenic overgrowths to form a quartzitic rock.
It is notable that the stope backs stand well for this reason. Development of sericite is seen within the ore. At greater distance from the ore alteration in the form of bleaching, hydration of hematite, and removal of iron may be considered as a "normal" accompaniment of ore deposition.
To use the apparent lack of "typical" ore texture as supporting the syngenetic theory in an un-typicaI deposit is not a logical argument.

Item 10 is not true. In mining the Big Hill orebodies, the relationship of ore to feeders was clearly shown. There was even a zoning of metals away from the feeders, which was quite convincing. The feeder channels consist of strong fractures of small displacement of a few inches or a foot. Minor distribution was along joints from that introduced along the feeders.

In the Big Hill mine the zoning is as follows:

A central zone of high- grade uranium and much limonite iron surrounded by a zone of silver-bearing uranium ore.
Farther out and surrounding this zone is a broad area of silver ore with little or no uranium.
This gradually decreases in grade to an economic limit.
There is some increase in copper in the peripheral area.

In following the faults that are described as feeders, as they leave the uranium area they are still distinctly related to mineralization, and contain high-grade silver ore on both sides, decreasing outward until another feeder is approached.
A very prominent feeder is located on the Buckeye Reef where all of the mined orebodies appear related to it.

I refer to the fault illustrated by Proctor in Plate VIII, page 58. This fault was even stoped as a vein within the Buckeye Mine. On the White Reef, a strong system of through going fractures is related to the Cobb-Newton mine, and another to the Barbee-Walker. On the East Reef each of the several small ore showings has a similar structural locus.



Item 11 describes the concretions on Fire Clay Hill. It should be noted that this hill is in the center of the eroded Leeds Anticline, and only a few hundred feet from some of the biggest producers of the district. It is not surprising to find mineralization there. In fact, this can be used as an argument favoring a hypogene origin of the ore, as there is no evidence that these concretions are syngenetic.

Of the above comments, the most important favoring an epigenetic origin are those concerning the alteration of the sandstone, and the presence of structures to channel the ore solutions. Additional structural controls of deposition have been noted since the earliest days of the camp; some of them are:

1.) Location of the district on the nose of the Virgin Anticline.
2.) Location of the principal producing area of the district on the Leeds Anticline.
3.) Location of orebodies underneath clay beds, and in highly fractured areas, especially near faults of small displacement.

The control of mineralization by structures that were formed during Laramide or Tertiary time is sufficient evidence that the orebodies as they appear today are epigenetic. These same structural controls were used successfully to locate unoxidized black uranium and sulfide mineralization below the zone of vadose circulation, which throws still greater doubt upon the theory that these bodies were formed by secondary enrichment of a widespread low-grade mineralization.

Proctor states that the silver was derived from the leaching of the Bentonitic Shale member of the Chinle. On page 21 he lists analyses of these shales. The two highest assays were 0.10 oz Ag and the rest were "trace" or none. All samples were taken within the mining district. The thickness of the bed is 10 to 13 feet.

If the tiny amount of silver present were leached with 100 percent efficiency and moved by surface streams in solutions and reprecipitated 100 percent within the Silver Reef sandstone, then in order to account for the quantity of silver from recorded production plus that remaining in low-grade ores and dumps, a total of 6 square miles of the shale would have had to have been leached.

All of these conditions are highly improbable. In addition, the fact that the Silver Reef itself averages more than 0.10 oz Ag per ton, and is 100 feet or more in thickness, calls for the additional leaching of 10 square miles of the bentonitic shale for each square mile of the Silver Reef sandstone, assuming complete leaching.
There is no evidence that the bentonitic shales normally contain as much as 0.10 oz Ag, as again, all samples were taken within the mineralized district, and only 310 feet below the known "reef" mineralization.
Of the 6 samples, two had no silver, two had a trace and two had 0.10 oz Ag. This is very little upon which to base a theory of genesis.
If the bentonitic shales formerly existed in larger volumes, then there should be evidence of the presence of large quantities of redeposited bentonite within the Silver Reef. In fact there is none, or so very little that it is of distinctly minute importance.

CONCLUSION

The theory of genesis of the Silver Reef mineralization from a syngenetic process is doubtful on the basis of the evidence. The theory of genesis from the leaching of underlying bentonitic shales appears impossible from a logical approach, as well as from the field evidence.

An epigenetic origin for the orebodies fits the facts, and is especially substantiated by the presence of related alteration and a relation of orebodies to post-Chinle structures. A hypogene origin for the ore solutions appears most logical in view of the epigenetic origin, presence of igneous activity in the general vicinity, and stratigraphic distribution of the known mineralization. Solutions in their migration were controlled by permeability and ore deposition by chemical favorability of the beds as well as structure.

The ore solution must have been capable of carrying silver, copper, uranium, vanadium, gold, selenium, and sulfur. Further reconstruction of the nature of the ore solution would be a worthwhile step in the study of the ore genesis.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The ideas advanced above have been the opinion of the writer for a number of years, and were the result of geologic studies at Silver Reef during the years of 1954 to 1957 when employed by Western Gold and Uranium, Inc. as Chief Geologist and General Superintendent.

I wish to acknowledge the stimulating conversations on the subject with other geologists who have been over the ground with me and encouraged me to record my observations for publication.
INTERMOUNTAIN EXPLORATION COMPANY ST. GEORCE, UTAH •April 4, 1960

REFERENCES
1. Proctor, Paul Dean, 1953, Geology of the Silver Reef (Harrisburg) Mining District: Utah Geol. and Min. Survey Bull. 44.
2. Garrels, R. M., 1953, Some thermodynamic relations among vanadium oxides and their relation to the oxidation states of the uranium ores of the Colorado plateaus: Am. Mineralogist, v. 38, p. 1251-1266.
3. Cook, Earl F., 1956, Geology of the Pine Valley Mountains, Utah: Utah Geol. and Min. Survey Bull. 58.

[Admin]

Still searching for Fire Clay Hill.



Is THIS the Duffin Mine? ***EDIT 2018/Dec/9 - NO that is the Barbee-Walker Mine.***









The best view of the agate layer is said to be south of the town of Silver Reef.

[Admin]

Proctor Report:

The mineralogy of the ore was very simple in all of the mines.
Silver chloride (cerargyrite) practically constituted the only ore mineral.
Malachite and azurite in some places were directly associated with the silver minerals but mainly were found separate.
The known uranium-vanadium minerals are scarce, but are also closely associated in stratigraphic position with the silver and copper minerals.
Silver sulfide was reported as making up part of the ore at and below the water table during the mining period. It was commonly associated with fossil trees which also contained chalcocite and pyrite.
The intimate association of the major silver mineral with certain lithologic types is notable.
With reference to a certain rock type, the ore is classified into four important varieties with a fifth less important one added:

1. Small fossil plant and larger tree replacements by silver chloride in buff to white fine grained sandstone. At depth, the silver sulfide occurs in the tree remains. Iron oxide nodules,
pseudomorphic after pyrite, and chalcocite nodules also occurred together with the plant remains.
2. Disseminated specks of silver chloride and thin plates of the same mineral parallel to the bedding planes, with rare native silver.

- Page 80 -

3. Silver chloride associated with clay gall2 and clay ball conglomerates.
4. Streaks and small grains of silver chloride in sheared lavender to brownish red sandstone.
5. Horn silver films and occasionally some native silver on slicken-slided surfaces within the shale or "soapstone."
Ore bodies were almost restricted to lenses of lavender, and buff to white sandstone containing abundant plant remains. The lithology of these ore zones rapidly changed from sandstone to clay conglomerate to alternating sandstone and shales.
On the strike and dip such a body thinned and disappeared or became too small to mine profitably.
Some carbonaceous material extended beyond the silver are limit. The silver content within the clay gall and clay ball conglomerates behaved in a like manner.

www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&index=alt&srchtxt=CLAY%20GALL

2 clay gall
DEF
A markedly flattened and somewhat rounded pellet or curled fragment, chip, or flake of clay, generally embedded in a sandy matrix and esp. abundant at the base of sandy beds. It may arise from the drying and cracking of a thin layer of coherent mud, the fragment commonly being rolled or blown into sand and buried, and forming a lenticular bleb upon wetting.

CONT
When a patch of clay or mud dries out, that upper surface cracks and peels away from the under-layers. These thin "leaves" of hardened clay may occasionally be transported a short distance and deposited in a sand or similar sediment in the form of flat or lens-shaped clay galls, generally oriented parallel to the bedding.

Rolker (p. 26, 1881) first reported:

The ore itself is what is known as cerargyrite or chloride of silver, which however, below true water-level will change to sulphuret of silver, with native silver in places.

The old miners state that in fossil trees at depths within the mines, two kinds of silver ore existed, the sulfide of silver and the silver chloride. The Leeds, Savage, and California mines are reported to have had both minerals present.

W. M. Nesbitt, who worked at Silver Reef from 1878-88, stated to W. P. Jenney (p. 464,1902):
At one place a tree trunk, 18 inches in diameter was found, the heart wood was silicified and very hard, and carried 8-10 ounces of silver per ton. The sap wood and bark, 3-6 inches thick, were altered to soft crumbling lignite full of silver sulphide, it assayed 5,000 ounces of silver per ton.

Malachite CUC0₃.CU(OH)₂
Malachite, the green copper carbonate mineral, is the most common copper mineral in the district.
It replaces former plant material and rarely occurs disseminated within the sandstone. Locally, it is found as stains in the rock and as replacements of woody material. Only rarely does it completely replace fragments of fossil trees. The mineral occurs almost universally in white or buff sandstone and only sporadically in lavender sandstones.
Under the microscope the malachite occurs as finely radiating masses between the quartz grains and appears to replace the kaolin groundmass. (Plate IX).
- 108 -
The mineral is most common on the White and East Reef, but it is locally abundant on the Buckeye Reef. The best occurrences are on the Emily Jane property near the Thompson Mine, in the Newton Mine to the north, and on the Maud claim on the East Reef where it locally cnnstitutes 5 percent of a buff, fine-grained sandstone containing abundant plant fossils.

Azurite, 2CuC0₃·Cu(OH)₂
Azurite occurs only with malachite and has not been rep6rted or observed to occur singly in the district. The ratio of malachite to azurite approximates 10-1. The most abundant showings are in the Leeds Mine and in the Newton working workings its occurrence is identical to that of malachite.

Cuprite, Cu₂0
Cuprite occurs in minute quantities in some of the copper stained buff, fine-grained sandstones.
Rolker (p. 27, 1881) observed:
another frequent occurrence is a foot or two foot seam of sandstone full of petrifications, charged with red oxide of copper, azurite, and malachite to some extent and carrying no silver.

[Admin]

Trying to keep all this information in my head wasn't working so I made this chart -
The dates are when major catastrophes happened during the formation of the Chinle.

In Arizona the buried wood was replaced with colorful agate.

At silver reef it was replaced first with silver chloride, then silver sulfide, some copper, and a little vanadium and uranium.



The above information is from Proctor (1953). There have been Changes in rock unit nomenclature:

[Admin]

Dec 14, 2018 21:28:12 GMT -7 @rwa3006 said:

I've visited that little museum and enjoyed it. If anyone is going by there it's worth the time to stop and see.

I spent a couple of hours at the museum Saturday. They have changed the "front room" a LOT since my last visit in 2004.









But those have all been sold or moved to the artest's home and showroom in Silver Reef - a VERY LIVELY "Ghost Town"!

Now we see:







But the back rooms still have lots of special displays of the items used at the time - pistols, pancake locks, and a pieces of ore with copper and a leaf replaceed with silver chloride.




Finally, on returning home I found -

www.wchsutah.org/mining/harrisburg-mining-district2.pdf

that answered most of my questions.



Map of the EAST Reef:


EACH black dot is a mine!

[Admin]

Main mining was on the west side.

[Admin]

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[Admin]

Google Earth really makes searches interesting. Did you know you can draw a line between points

THEN look at the Elevation Profile?

As you move your mouse along the profile it shows how far you have moved and the elevation at that point!

[Admin]

The Silver Reef rush began with the arrival of William Tecumseh Barbee in July 1875.

Proctor - 1953

the original discovery of rich ore in place was made by Barbee who noted an outcrop of 300-400 ounce silver which had been gouged out by the wheels of Joe and_Alex McCleave's wood wagon on the east side of Tecumseh Hill.

400 troy ounces of silver in 1 ton (a cube about 2.3 feet per side) of sandstone!



On the Bonanza Flat Road.

[Admin]

Where did the silver come from?
Downhill here 150 million years ago was toward the northwest, so the silver came from the southeast?

Correlating Proctor's rock units with the latest version -