2014-04-10_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - M2014011 (2)

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C52 OXIDIZED ZINC DEPOSITS OF THE UNITED STATES GARFIELD COUNTY CARBONATE DISTRICT Plate 1, nos. 4-7, 10 Location. —The district is -in the southern part of White River Pla- teau in T. 3-5 S., R. 87 -89 W., eastern Garfield County. The site of Carbonate is 22 miles by road from Glenwood Springs, but 13 miles due, north of it, on the east side of Carbonate Ridge at an altitude of about 10,500 feet. It is 3 miles southwest of Heart Lake and can be, reached by unimproved roads and trails starting 2 miles north of Dotsero and extending westward to Heart Lake and Carbonate Ridge. Some of the silver -lead mines and prospects (pl. 1, no. 5) are at the west and northwest edge of the old Carbonate townsite, and others are scattered throughout the southern part of the plateau; the larger ones are at the site of Fort Defiance in Dead -Horse Canyon above Shoshone (pl. 1, no. 6), at the heads of Canyon and Johnson Creeks south -of Carbonate (pl. 1, nos. 4, 7), and at the heads of Mitchell, Oasis, East No Name, and Cascade Creeks north of the Transfer Springs .Ranger Station (pl. 1, no. 10) . Probably the largest deposit in the district is the Windy Point (or Strong) mine, which is about 5 miles north of Glenwood Springs and 2 miles north of the Transfer Springs Ranger Station. Development and production.— Although the area was prospected as early as 1879, a report in 1881 that very rich silver ore had been discovered led to a large -scale mineral rush early in 1882, when more than 2,000 men came to the area to prospect. They founded a town called Carbonate, the first county seat of Garfield County, but located only small deposits, widely scattered over the plateau; by the fol- lowing winter most of them had become discouraged and left. Since then, prospecting and mining have been only sporadic; and produc- tion, mostly of gold and silver, has been small (Vanderwilt, 1947, p. 88) . A few tons of oxidized zinc ore are reported to have been pro- duced, probably in 1941 or 1942, from the Defiance group of mines and prospects (N. W. Bass, oral communications, 1954) . The workings visited are shafts, pits, adits, and trenches. All the workings are shallow and have little stoping and probably little production. Geology and ore. —The small ore deposits are in fissure veins and weak stockworks that out limestones probably of Devonian and of Mississippian age; many are in the Leadville Limestone; some are in the Chaffee Formation. The limestones dip very gently along the axial crest of the gentle White River uplift, which trends northwest- ward. A report by Bass and Northrop (1963) describes the geology of the Glenwood quadrangle.