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Mining

Articles explaining the mining that has gone on around Silver Reef

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William Tecumseh Barbee

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Besides John Kemple, the next most significant person responsible for developing Silver Reef into the boom town it became, was William Tecumseh Barbee. With the help (funding) of his partners, Barbee would develop two mining areas in Silver Reef: Tecumseh Hill, which he would sell its collection of mines to the Christy Mining and Milling Company. Following that, he developed the Barbee & Walker Mine and Mill that would continue to operate until 1916.

William Tecumseh Barbee

Barbee’s Beginnings

Unfortunately, no known picture of Barbee exists. He was born December 1831 in Greencastle, Warren County, Kentucky. In 1847, the family moved to Weston, Platte County, Missouri. At age 28, he served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War being a private in the First Missouri Cavalry.

By October 1869, Barbee was the mining recorder for the Clifton Mining District near Tooele, Utah. The next year he was engaged in mining in Tintic, Utah. In the nearby Ophir District, he discovered and located the Silveropolis and Silver Chief claims. He served on the committee that prepared a code of mining laws for that district. In 1874, he built himself a prospecting cabin. Eventually, he sold the Silveropolis mine to the Walker Brothers for $27,000.

Sent to Silver Reef

In 1875, a prospector from Silver Reef sent a sample of horn silver to the Walker Brothers. These were four affluent brothers in Salt Lake City firmly involved with banking and State politics. Knowing Barbee’s expertise in the silver mining business, they dispatched him to what was known then as the Harrisburg Mining District to investigate.

Arriving in June 1875, Barbee was enthused when he found this unusual circumstance of silver in sandstone. He even reported that silver was found inside petrified wood. He located 22 claims on what he called, using his middle name, Tecumseh Ridge. He then hurried back to Salt Lake City for supplies.

Returning in October, knowing that there could be a potential silver rush, he laid out a proposed townsite named Bonanza City, hoping to also cash in on a potential real estate development. It would have been situated just south and east of current-day Silver Reef. His plan included a racetrack, assay office, blacksmith shop, sampling works, boarding house, and several wick-a-ups. He even planned a miner’s supply store. But the land Barbee offered for sale in the new town was expensive, so nobody bought his land. Instead, a tent city arose nearby, called the Rockpile. When the rush occurred, Rockpile became Silver Reef City.

William Tecumseh Barbee
Spotting pipe across street from museum points out location of Tecumseh Hill
William Tecumseh Barbee
Tecumseh Hill in the near distance
William Tecumseh Barbee
View of Tecumseh Hill looking to the southeast
William Tecumseh Barbee
Ruins of mines on Tecumseh Hill from the late 1870s
William Tecumseh Barbee
Tecumseh Hill seen along road to cemeteries

Tecumseh Hill & Bonanza City

On August 23, 1875, Barbee recorded the Barbee mine for himself and the Walker claim for one of the Walker brothers, Joseph R. Walker. He returned to Salt Lake City in September to obtain supplies and funding. The Walker brothers had no faith in the mining district and turned over their claim to Barbee and they refused to finance him further.

The following month, Barbee returned to Silver Reef. In November, when Barbee was passing by a resident in a wagon, it skidded, tearing up soft rock in the road for several feet. Barbee stopped to inspect the rock and found it to be rich in chlorides of horn silver.

By December, Barbee filed several more claims near the area where the wagon skidded. It was also about this time when he began setting up his real estate venture of Bonanza City close by. As this was going on, Barbee continued to report his doings to people in Salt Lake City, and a flood of prospectors soon arrived and staked more claims.

It was also in December that Barbee shipped his first ten and one-half tons of ore to Salt Lake City for milling. The ore was assayed at $502 per ton, looking very appealing to would-be prospectors. In reality though, Barbee sent ore that was already sorted and was “high grade” to make it look more valuable. It wasn’t ore that was taken directly out of the ground.

Later, Barbee sent more ore for milling to Pioche, Nevada. This ended up bringing more attention to miners there that later resulted in what would become known as the Pioche Stampede (to Silver Reef).

The End

Although Barbee bought and sold stakes in mining claims and operations, making big amounts of money along the way, he died in 1896 of heart failure without a cent to his name.

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The Mines of Silver Reef

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The mines were where silver-bearing ore was removed from the Earth by hard-rock miners by digging underground tunnels and shafts. Silver ore varied considerably throughout the Silver Reef area and the surrounding Harrisburg Mining District. The Virgin Anticline pushed up long ridges, exposing Springdale Sandstone outcrops containing the ore. Prospectors, then later miners, scoured these ridges and established mining in locations surrounding the town of Silver Reef for miles in all directions.

The Mines of Silver Reef

In This Article

About the Mines

Mining activity was brisk throughout the district in the late l870’s and l880’s with over 450 openings punched in to the White and Buckeye reefs (see What is a Reef?). Many mine openings entered the promising Springdale Sandstone without finding significant silver where it was expected (see Where the Silver was Mined) and produced no ore. Other mines found good ore grade and developed extensive underground workings with numerous mine openings.

Mining began in earnest in the district in l876, peaked in l879 and tapered off until l888 when the last mining company, the Christy Mining Co., shut down operations. Some sporadic mining continued until shortly after the turn of the century by “chloriders” (independent operators recovering mine waste or leasing access to closed mines.) The last mill still operating to accept this ore was the Barbee Walker.

Mining Claims

After prospectors located potentially valuable silver-bearing ore by having rock assayed (valued) from different locations, they would typically sell their prospect to someone with proper funding to build a mine. That person (or company) would then file a mining claim.

Mining claims were not necessarily private property that was purchased. Miners would file a mining claim with the government giving them the sole right to remove minerals from a portion of ground over a period of time. If the miner didn’t work (i.e., mine) the property over a given period of time, then they would lose the claim.

Below is a genuine mining claim map of the Silver Reef area from about 18??. A large copy of this map can be seen in the Silver Reef Museum diorama room.

[mining claim map]

Life of the Mines

The mines of Silver Reef depended on their ability to produce millable (profitable) ore at a predictable rate. Ore seams in the Springdale Sandstone were not predictable. The seams (ore bodies) varied in thickness from inches to 10 feet. Some mines encountered two ore seams separated by 30 feet in the 100 foot thick Springdale Sandstone layer.

Finding millable seams—thick enough and with enough silver—was done by mining. Those who found mineable ore were either good at their insight or lucky.

As the price of silver steadily dropped during the Silver Reef mining days, good silver ore became harder to find and of a lower grade. The day came when even the best miners and operators had to quit.

Map of the Mines

The following map shows where some of the mines were located around Silver Reef. Below the map are descriptions of some of those mines.

Click an icon to learn more about a particular mine.

Leeds Mine

The Leeds Mine is located on the west side of the White Reef, north of the saddle in the reef where a wagon road allowed access to Silver Reef and the mills on the east side. This road can still be driven in a 4WD vehicle today. Organized by experienced miners and investors from San Francisco, California, the Leeds Mining Company bought and relocated the old Maggie Mill from Bullionville, Nevada, and erected it on Leeds Creek very close to the Leeds Mine (see The Mills of Silver Reef).

Both mine and mill were in operation by late 1876. The mine was likely the largest on the White Reef. Mining progressed from the ledge of the reef down the seam to below the valley floor to the west. At its peak, both mine and mill employed 48 men.

Adits were driven into the ore zone and ore stoped out above until the ore dipped below the valley floor. Several shafts were driven to access and hoist the ore. Mining was curtailed frequently by mill shutdowns due to equipment failure and by mid-1882, the mine ceased operation, even though good grade ore was reported at lower levels. Today it is very evident where good ore was recovered by “stoping” (see How the Silver was Mine) out large ore areas, like caverns. These stoped areas have caved in and the surface since subsided (collapsed).

The Mines of Silver Reef
Various mine shafts around the Leeds Mine
The Mines of Silver Reef
One of the adits (horizontal mine entrance) to the Leeds Mine
The Mines of Silver Reef
One of several vertical shafts of the Leeds Mine
The Mines of Silver Reef
One of several buildings at the Leeds Mine
The Mines of Silver Reef
Leeds Mill was below the Leeds Mine

Christy Company Mines: Tecumseh Hill & Buckeye Reef

The mines supplying the Christy Mill of the Christy Mining Co. were located primarily on the Tecumseh Hill area of the Buckeye Reef. The mining began as surface mining and proceeded underground with adits then continuing below the valley floor where ore was then hoisted from shafts to be hauled to the nearby mill.

The mine claims, as well as Bonanza Flat property, were acquired from W. T. Barbee after which he erected his own mill at his new mine site on the White Reef. The Tecumseh Hill area of the district produced some of the highest ore grades and largest quantities of mill grade ore.

The Christy Co., under the leadership of Captain Lubbock, remained in continuous operation from 1878 to 1888, even during the miners’ strike in 1881. Mine production kept pace with the five-stamp mill capacity which usually averaged over 40 tons per day. The Christy mines included the Tecumseh, Silver Flat, California, Maggie and Last Chance.

The Mines of Silver Reef
Covered mine opening with Tecumseh Hill in background
The Mines of Silver Reef
Ruins of mines on Tecumseh Hill from the late 1870s
The Mines of Silver Reef
Spotting pipe across street from museum points out location of Tecumseh Hill

Savage Mine

The Savage Mine was one of the Stormont Company’s mines located south of Tecumseh Hill on the Buckeye Reef. The ore zone was below the valley floor and was accessed by a vertical shaft. The mine was large enough to justify the capital to install a steam powered hoisting system.

Several of the larger mines in the district had vertical shafts to access the descending ore bodies or seams (see Where the Silver was Mined). The mechanical hoists were either steam powered, as at the Savage Mine, or utilized a “whim” and were horse powered. The Stormont Company had several mines in the Silver Reef district, however the ore needed to be hauled by wagon five miles to the Stormont Mill in Babylon on the Virgin River. A couple of mines on the East Reef (on the east side of the Virgin Anticline and much closer to the mill) operated by independent miners supplied a small portion of the mill feed.

The Mines of Silver Reef
Historic picture of the Savage Mine when in operation
The Mines of Silver Reef
Vertical shaft of Savage Mine is covered today
The Mines of Silver Reef
Old foundations from the Savage Mine

Savage Mine: Now and Then

A now and then comparison of the Savage Mine site. Use mouse or to move slider right and left to compare.

The Mines of Silver ReefThe Mines of Silver Reef

Barbee & Walker Mine

The mine portal sits directly above the upper level of the Barbee & Walker mill. After selling his claims and Bonanza Flat property to the Christy Mining Company, W. T. Barbee developed his claims on the White Reef and built a mill at the mine’s portal. The site of both mine and mill can easily be seen from the viewpoint along the Silver Reef Walking Tour.

Utilizing steam power from the mill for hoisting, the mine adit followed the ore bearing strata directly down the inclined ore seam (down dip). At various levels, down to the 500-foot level, crosscuts were developed both left and right. As the crosscuts passed through millable ore, stopes would remove that ore above the crosscuts.

The mine produced good ore and the operation was profitable until the miners’ strike in 1881. The Barbee Walker Mine encountered more broken and faulted rock than other mines in the district and, after the strike, reentering and rehabbing the mine was difficult and costly. The mine production of good ore never reached the levels that were achieved before the miners’ strike. The operation was shut down and sold on Jan. 16, 1883. The new owners continued to operate the mill from ore supplied by chloriders well into the new century (1908).

The Mines of Silver Reef
Historic picture of Barbee Mine and Mill
The Mines of Silver Reef
White Reef and the site of the Barbee Walker Mine & Mill

Below is map and cross-section of the Barbee-Walker Mine showing its various levels and stoped out areas. It was published in newspapers and mining journals of the day (in the 1880s). The deepest level of the mine was the 500 Level, which meant the mine went down 500 feet (150 meters). This cross-section can be found in the book described below.

Map and cross-section of the Barbee-Walker's underground workings
Map and cross-section of the Barbee-Walker’s underground workings
The Mines of Silver Reef

How You Can Learn More

Much of the information about the mining in Silver Reef was obtained from the book Silver, Sinners and Saints, A History of Old Silver Reef, Utah. To learn more about the mining that occurred here, as well as the history behind Silver Reef in general, purchase your own copy of this book at the Silver Reef museum gift shop.

The Mines of Silver Reef

Related Information

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The Mills of Silver Reef

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The mills were the beating heart of Silver Reef’s mining boom — the places where raw sandstone ore was crushed, washed, and refined into valuable silver. While the mines pulled the ore from the ground, the mills turned it into profit, and their constant noise and activity defined daily life in the town.

The Mills of Silver Reef

In This Article

About Mills & Milling

Before explaining details about the different mills that were built around Silver Reef, it’s important to know a little about what a mill is and the various milling processes.

What is a Mill?

In most cases, a mill is a building and functions like a factory. Silver‑bearing rock (ore) from the mines were hauled in by wagon and fed into the mill for processing. Ore entered on one side of the mill, and both pure silver and waste rock would come out on the other side. The waste rock was dumped into what are called tailings – the distinctive mounds of finely ground rock often seen around historic mills and mining sites.

In the 1870s and 80s, the efficiency of the mills was not as great and some of the silver was dumped into the tailings. Later, after the 1920s, extraction methods became more efficient, making it profitable for companies to “rework the tailings” (re-milling), as it was called, to extract the previously discarded silver. This practice continued on and off in Silver Reef until the uranium mining years of the 1950s.

Mills were usually built on downward sloping hills. A good example is the 1950s-era uranium mine that can still be viewed next to the Barbee & Walker Mine overlook to the west of the museum. Below are examples of mills, such as the former uranium mill and a gold mill in Bodie, California.

The Mills of Silver Reef
Example of a mill built on a slope – Bodie, California
The Mills of Silver Reef
Skidoo Mill in Death Valley around 1915
The Mills of Silver Reef
Skidoo Mill – built on a slope – picture taken 2004

Why Mills Were Needed

The ore of the Harrisburg Mining District was unusual — silver locked inside sandstone. As a result, the mills had to use specialized crushing and washing techniques to free the metal. The mills were among the most advanced in the region at the time.

Silver Reef had several mills starting in 1876, with the last one stamping ore about 1916, not to mention a uranium mill that operated during the 1950s. Of those mills and during the silver-boom years, the two most important mills were the Barbee & Walker and the Stormont.

Processing the ore at or near Silver Reef was necessary to avoid shipping costs of hauling the ore a long distance, such as to Pioche, Nevada, or near Salt Lake City, where existing mills were located. Businessmen developing mines in the district knew they needed a nearby mill to process the ore in order to be profitable. Recovering pure silver from mines around the district averaged 20-50 troy ounces of silver to one ton of ore.

During the boom years, seven mills were constructed In the district to mill ore from area mines. Six of them utilized a “stamp mill” and one used an “arrastra”. Both types of mills are explained under Milling Methods below. Four of the seven mills processed most of the ore. The seven mills were built in the following chronological order.

  1. Steele Mill – arrastra milling method – location Toquerville
  2. Duplaix and Spicer Mill – 8 stamp mill – location Toquerville
  3. Leeds Mill – 10 stamp mill – location Leeds
  4. Buckeye (Pioneer) Mill – 3 stamp mill – location Silver Reef
  5. Stormont Mill – 10 stamp mill – location Babylon
  6. Christy Mill – 5 stamp mill – location Silver Reef
  7. Barbee-Walker Mine & Mill – 5 stamp mill – location Silver Reef

Milling Methods

Of the seven mills in the district, only the Steele Mill used an arrastra, an early grinding device powered by animals or water. All the others relied on stamp mills, which used heavy iron stamps to crush ore into a fine powder, much like using a hammer to smash rocks. Both machines served the same purpose: reducing rock to a workable consistency so the valuable minerals could be separated. Modern milling methods, however, are far more advanced. Today’s large‑scale operations use high‑efficiency ball mills and sophisticated leaching processes to extract metals from ore – techniques that far surpass the technology available in the boom years of Silver Reef.

Arrastras

Arrastras were ancient ore‑crushing apparatuses that had been used in Europe for centuries before it reached the Americas. Spanish settlers introduced the technology to Mexico, where it became a common milling method. From there, Mexican miners carried the practice north into what is now the United States. As a result, arrastras became widespread across the mining regions of Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.

The mechanism of an arrastra is quite simple. Ore was placed into a circular pit or basin – usually constructed from hard stone such as granite. Inside the basin, several large, rounded granite stones were dragged over the ore to crush it into smaller fragments. A mule or other livestock typically provided the power by walking in a circle to turn a central post that pulled the heavy stones across the ore. This slow, grinding motion gradually reduced the rock to a workable powder. Below are images showing typical arrastra designs and layouts.

The Mills of Silver Reef
Example of an arrastra in Death Valley built around 1934
The Mills of Silver Reef
Arrastra built out of stone granite in Gold Butte, Nevada
The Mills of Silver Reef
This arrastra was carved out of a nearby granite rock

Since arrastras were easy to construct, there were many used throughout the Southwest. Since they were easy to construct, they were also easy to erode and disappear, hence the reason why there are not many good examples of arrastras left. There were mentions of other arrastras being constructed and used around Silver Reef, but there’s no evidence left today of their existence.

Stamp Mills

Stamp mills replaced arrastras just before the era of Silver Reef, about the mid-1800s. As mining operations became bigger, miners could invest more money into creating a larger stamp mill instead of a small arrastra.

In a stamp mill, heavy iron stamps repeatedly rose and fell to crush ore that was fed beneath them by gravity. Each impact broke the rock into finer material until it became a powder. From there, the pulverized ore moved – again by gravity – into the next stage of processing. Many mills were built on a downhill slope, with the structure stepping downward so each phase sat lower than the one before it. Raw ore entered at the top of the mill, and the increasingly refined material progressed downward through each level until the processed metals (silver in Silver Reef’s case) emerged at the bottom.

To mechanize the stamping process, a cam shaft was used to move the stamps up and down. The shaft was driven by steam engine, waterwheel, or even animal power. In later years, gasoline engines were used. Both the Christy and Barbee & Walker Mills utilized steam power. The heat for the steam was derived by burning wood, as explained in the Silver Mining article – Supporting the Mines section. The Stormont Mill in Babylon utilized water from the Virgin River to turn a waterwheel and power the stamps.

Naturally, the more stamps a mill had, the more ore it could process. This is why you’ll hear that a mill was a 5-stamp mill, while another was a 10-stamp mill. During the time of Silver Reef, stamp mills in the Southwest averaged 10-30 stamps. A mill in Park City, Utah, had 80 stamps, an exceptionally large amount for that time. The biggest stamp mill in the Americas was built in 1899 near Juneau, Alaska. It had 300 stamps!

The Mills of Silver Reef
Remains of 10-stamp mill at museum in Tonopah, Nevada
The Mills of Silver Reef
Stamp mill at museum in Tonopah, Nevada – angled view
The Mills of Silver Reef
Close-up of stamps at museum in Tonopah, Nevada
The Mills of Silver Reef
10-stamp mill at Skidoo, Death Valley, California

Leaching

Another milling process is called leaching, which utilizes the science (or chemistry) of metallurgy. Ore would literally be soaked in different types of compounds that would leach the valuable metals (i.e., silver, gold, uranium, etc.) out of the ore.

Leaching is a more hazardous milling method because it uses extremely dangerous compounds such as cyanide, ammonia, and various acids. When a mill that uses leaching shuts down, it often leaves behind waste materials that can be harmful to the environment if they aren’t properly cleaned up.

During Silver Reef’s boom years in the 1880s, one mill – the Leeds Mill – later adopted leaching methods. In the first half of the 1900s, several companies attempted to rework the old waste piles around the mines, using different leaching techniques to extract additional silver. However, none of these efforts proved very efficient. The reason why is that the silver was embedded within the Springdale Sandstone and the ore simply didn’t respond well to leaching. Plus, the amount of silver recovered was too low to be profitable.

Steele Mill

The Steele Mill was actually just a standalone arrastra built by an individual named John Steele. The mill is credited as being the first mill in the Silver Reef area to begin milling silver. It was built in early 1876.

The mill was built in nearby Toquerville, about 5 miles to the northeast of Silver Reef. The arrastra utilized water power from neighboring Ash Creek. Steele referred to his mill as a “crushing works”. He paid $400 to have the arrastra built by the Iron City Iron Works located 20 miles west of Cedar City.

The inconsistent waters for Ash Creek proved one of mill’s downfall. The location of the mill was also a considerable distance from the mines in the district. It wasn’t long after 1876 when other mills were built that were more efficient and closer to Silver Reef. This spelled the quick demise of the Steele Mill.

Dupaix and Spicer Mill

In June 1876, another mill was built along Ash Creek in Toquerville, a half mile upstream from Steele’s operation. It utilized a stamp mill with eight stamps and was the first real mill in operation in the Silver Reef area.

For an eight-stamp mill, the construction of the mill was larger than normal. A dam in Ash Creek was built, along with a mill race three-quarters of a mile long that provided enough “head” (height) for the water to drive a waterwheel. After some troubles, the mill became operational mid-1877.

In July 1877, a few of the people that worked on constructing the mill filed an intent to file a “Mechanics and Laborers” lien against the mill for unpaid wages between November 1876 and July 1877 in the amount of $417. By November 1877, Joseph Dupaix was in deep financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy. The mill only processed silver ore for a few months.

After the mill shut down, the Stormont Company purchased the Dupaix & Spicer Mill (there is no definitive record of that) to use its equipment to build the Buckeye Mill later in 1877. The same company would later build the Stormont Mill in Babylon in July 1878, probably using some of the left over material from Dupaix’s mill.

Leeds Mill

In March 1875, the Leeds Mine was established on the west side of the White Reef along the shore of Leeds Creek, roughly one mile southwest of the Silver Reef museum. Since it proved to be a rich deposit, the company that developed the mine built a mill in December 1876. The Leeds Mine was a series of separate, then later, interconnected mines. The mill was built slightly downhill of the mines making it easy to transport the ore.

The mine owners purchased a mill from Bullionville, Nevada (next to current-day Cathedral Gorge State Park) called The Old Maggie and transported all the pieces of it to Silver Reef, about 100 road miles away. It began operating in February 1877.

During 1878, the Leeds Mill milled 12,064 tons of ore with an average grade of 19.42 ounces of silver per ton of ore. Silver recovery averaged at 15.11 ounces per ton of ore, which amounted to 80% of the available silver in the ore was extracted. This meant another 20% was left in the waste rock piles near the mines. This led to companies reworking those piles (as discussed earlier) many decades later after milling technologies improved.

By late 1882, the mill became increasingly inefficient on account of frequent breakdowns of the old equipment acquired from Nevada. It was shut down completely by 1884, spelling the end of the Leeds Mining and Milling Company.

In 1886, the property was purchased by another company, Harding, Bailey and Nesbitt. They converted the mill to a leaching operation. This milling method proved to be unsuccessful due to the presence of green and blue carbonates of copper in the ore. The copper in the ore reacted with the leaching solutions and the silver was lost. By 1887, the new owners also went out of business.

The Mills of Silver Reef
Remains of the Leeds Mill, Silver Reef, Utah
The Mills of Silver Reef
Side view of Leeds Mill
The Mills of Silver Reef
Hardware laying around at the Leeds Mill

Buckeye (or Pioneer) Mill

As mentioned earlier, the Buckeye Mill was constructed by the Stormont Company in October 1877. The mill was also known as the Pioneer and the Little Mill. Having just three stamps, it was a small operation, so it very quickly developed efficiency problems and subsequently shut down in 1879. The Stormont Company took its equipment and incorporated it into the Stormont Mill (see below), which was currently under construction.

The site of the Buckeye Mill was located south of current-day downtown Leeds. It once stood where the northbound off-ramp (exit 22) for Leeds on Interstate 15 was built on the south side of town.

A sketch of the Buckeye Mill
A sketch of the Buckeye Mill

Christy Mill

The Christy Mill was built by the Christy Mining and Milling Company on the south-end of Silver Reef’s Main Street, just east of Chinatown and slightly north of the Bonanza Flats development. It began operation in January 1878. The mill was steam powered and utilized five stamps. It processed ore primarily from mines on Tecumseh Hill (Buckeye Reef), about a half mile to the south, which reduced hauling costs for the miners.

Managed under the careful eye of Captain Henry S. Lubbock, the mill ran very efficiently. He arrived in Silver Reef in 1876 after working in San Jose, California, in farming, then later in Lincoln, Nevada as a mining superintendent. The title of captain came about because Lubbock was the captain of various ships in the 1850s, including a Confederate gun boat in the Civil War.

Captain Henry S. Lubbock
Captain Henry S. Lubbock

In Silver Reef, Lubbock resided in a rock-walled home with attractive gardens that was situated just west of the museum. Several of the home’s walls still stand today. Its remains can be visited along the Silver Reef Walking Tour. Lubbock moved back to the Bay Area of California in 1884.

Before building the mill, the company acquired numerous mining claims from William Tecumseh Barbee, including the valuable Tecumseh property. This ensured that the mill would have plenty of ore to process. Good ore was mined from these properties and subsequently milled in the Christy Mill from 1878, continuing through the end of 1881. During that time, 31,000 tons of ore had been mined, from which 598 bars of silver valued at $1.1 million (1880 dollars) were processed and shipped out.

Captain Lubbock’s wise decision to not lower miners’ wages during the disastrous labor strike of 1881 caused the company to be profitable where others began failing. This encouraged miners to stay with the Christy Company, where miners from other mines left Silver Reef to find work elsewhere.

As explained earlier, the mill was built on a slope for reasons discussed earlier. At the end, tailings were dumped on the south side of the mill, which included a tailings pond. Below is a famous picture taken in 1880 showing the mill with it reflected in the tailings pond.

The Mills of Silver Reef
Classic picture of the Christy Mill with mill pond reflection from about 1880
The Mills of Silver Reef
The Christy Mill site as of 2026 – flat white area was the mill pond
The Mills of Silver Reef
Site of Christy Mill looking east in 2026
The Mills of Silver Reef
Site of Christy Mill looking southeast in 2026

The company reorganized into the Pinkham and Christy Milling and Mining Company in June of 1882. After the reorganization, the company continued to be well managed, even after Lubbock’s departure, up until its closure in 1889. Today, it is not possible to visit where the Christy Mill once stood as it is on private property. One can only access it with permission from the owner. The tailings and their toxic waste were cleaned up in the late 2000s. There are several foundations still standing.

Barbee & Walker Mill

William Tecumseh Barbee was the one man who probably had the greatest influence on the development of Silver Reef. With the financial backing of the Walker Brothers of Salt Lake City, Barbee began discovering silver deposits and staking claims in 1875 on what would become known as Tecumseh Hill. Barbee is the one responsible for developing many mines in the district.

After selling the claims on and around Tecumseh Hill to the Christy Company discussed previously, Barbee staked a new claim on the White Reef, a mere quarter of a mile west of the Silver Reef museum. Here, he constructed the Barbee & Walker Mill adjacent to the mine of the same name.

The mill was completed in March 1878. It was steam powered and, like the Christy Mill, only had five stamps. It was the only mill built at the mouth or portal of an operating mine. Ore cars from the mine were hosted out of the mine, then the ore was dumped and fed directly into the mill’s stamps. Since the mine and mill were adjacent to each other, the Barbee & Walker didn’t incur ore hauling costs like all of the other mines.

Just after a year in operation, disaster struck in June 1879. A fire started in the stack of cord wood used to fire the boilers and couldn’t be contained. The mill was a total loss. Barbee rebuilt the mill and the entire operation was up and running again in February 1880.

Production from the Barbee and Walker mine was significant and probably exceeded $1 million. Mining conditions were likely more difficult than the other mines because of broken and unstable rock. If you look at the site today and compare to the diggings around Tecumseh Hill, you’ll see the crumbly rock of the White Reef.

Barbee was one of the most influential people in Silver Reef. See the article on William Tecumseh Barbee.

In the 1890s, the property changed ownership a few times. Local St. George merchants Woolley, Lund, and Judd were one of the owners for a spell. Under a new owner in 1893, the operation experienced more success. By 1901, mining and milling was sporadic with the last mill run occurring sometime in 1908. With plans to build a new and larger mill, a new owner dismantled and sold the parts of the mill in 1916. The planned new mill was never built.

The Mills of Silver Reef
Historic picture of Barbee Mine and Mill from about mid-1880s
The Mills of Silver Reef
White Reef and the site of the Barbee Walker Mine & Mill
The Mills of Silver Reef
Barbee & Walker Mill, middle picture, late 1880s
The Mills of Silver Reef
Closeup of remains of blacksmith shop at Barbee & Walker Mill
The Mills of Silver Reef
Model of the Barbee & Walker Mill in the Cassidy Powder House

Stormont Mill in Babylon

As mentioned, the Stormont Company began building the mill with the same name in 1878. It would become one of the larger producers of the district, simply because it was one of the largest of all the mills with its ten stamps. It was also one of the earliest mills to begin milling ore near Silver Reef.

The small community of Babylon developed next to the mill, providing a place for millworkers and their families to live. See the separate article on Babylon.

The mill’s uniqueness and advantage over other area mills was its use of water power from the neighboring Virgin River. It utilized a maze of mill runs or ditches diverting water from the river to power its stamps. These ditches were constructed following a level path to create an 18 foot “head” (height) to run the waterwheel at the mill. Traces of the old mill race can still be seen today.

The downside of the mill is that ore had to be hauled in from mines near Silver Reef, a distance of about five miles. The Stormont Mill was located on the “East Reef”, meaning on the east side of the Virgin Anticline, where only a few small but close by mines produced enough ore worth milling. This made the Stormont rely on ore from the major Silver Reef mines to stay profitable.

A well-known mining engineer of the 1880s summarized the mines of Silver Reef and provided a description of the Stormont Mill to the Engineering and Mining Journal, a widely distributed publication that ran from 1869 until 1922. The articles he wrote certainly helped the sale of Silver Reef-area mining stock during that time, as people across the USA read the journal. Much of the history we know today about the district’s mines and mills came from that journal.

The Mills of Silver Reef
The Stormont Mill
The Mills of Silver Reef
Ruins of Stormont Mill in lower middle of picture from 2021
The Mills of Silver Reef
Ruins of Stormont Mill – ruins on right was office, ruins on left is newer building built on top of mill site
The Mills of Silver Reef
Remaining wall that was one side of the mill’s office
The Mills of Silver Reef
How the mill’s office building looked
The Mills of Silver Reef
Model of the Stormont Mill in the Cassidy Powder House
The Mills of Silver Reef

Timeline

The following is a timeline of the mills that were built around Silver Reef and, later, their demise.

  • Jun 1876

    Dupaix & Spicer Mill in Toquerville

    The first mill in operation in the area was in Toquerville along Ash Creek. It lasts until Nov 1877.

  • Dec 1876

    The Leeds Mill

    The Leeds Mill, built near mines about one mile southwest from Silver Reef, is not actually in the town of Leeds. This mill continued in operation until 1886.

  • Oct 1877

    Buckeye or Pioneer Mill Established

    Buckeye or Pioneer Mill Established

    This mill was built on the south end of Leeds, where the northbound I-15 off-ramp sits today. Lacking the capacity, it lasts until abut 1880.

  • Jan 1878

    Christy Mill

    Christy Mill

    The Christy Mill is completed and located a short distance southeast of central Silver Reef. It begins milling ore primarily from mines on Tecumseh Hill.

  • Mar 1878

    Barbee & Walker Mine & Mill

    Unlike most mills around Silver Reef that milled ores from independent mines, the Barbee & Walker had its mill right next to its mine. Both were owned by the same company.

  • Jul 1878

    Stormont Mill in Babylon

    The Stormont Mill would become one of the larger producers of the district, simply because it was one of the largest of all the mills with its ten stamps. It was also one of the earliest mills to begin milling ore near Silver Reef.

Map of Silver Reef Mills

Below is a map of where the mills of the Silver Reef area were located.

Related Information

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Babylon

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Babylon was a community southeast of Silver Reef that sprouted up and supported the large and successful Stormont Mill that was built in 1878. Residents of Babylon were mostly the Stormont’s millworkers and their families. Today, faint relics of the small ghost town can be found, including the mill’s foundations and one or two of its walls, along with a few cabins.

Babylon

Babylon (Town)

The residents of Babylon were clearly not Mormon. They wanted a town named in stark contrast to St. George, Pintura, Kolob, and other placenames having significance in the Mormon Church. The residents clearly wanted their differences, both in people and religion, to be known to all. In biblical prophecy, “Babylon” symbolizes a global system of false religion, spiritual rebellion, and worldly corruption that opposes God.

The Babylon townsite was laid out by Washington County surveyor John Macfarlane 1877. Below is a copy of the town’s tract map, along with Macfarlane’s handwritten notes. Like other towns of Utah, notice it too had a Main Street and other streets with common names.

Babylon townsite tract map
Babylon townsite tract map

Stormont Mill

The existence of Babylon was because of the Stormont Mill. Don’t miss the separate article on the Mills of Silver Reef – Stormont Mill.

Although there were only a few mines located near the mill, most of the ore to be milled came from mines around Silver Reef. Those few nearby mines produced small amounts of ore for the Stormont to mill. Regular shipments of ore from the Silver Reef mines were taken by wagon to the Stormont Mill. This caused a lot of routine traffic between Silver Reef and Babylon.

The residents of Babylon were mostly workers at the mill. Maybe a few worked at those few small, nearby mines. Miners mainly lived in Silver Reef near the larger mines on the White and Buckeye Reefs.

The Stormont Mill continued to operate until about 1891. After that, the residents of Babylon began to move away. Most were gone in 5-10 years.

Babylon
The town of Babylon was located in the center of the picture, just above the ruins of the mill
Babylon
Historic picture of the Stormont Mill
Babylon
How the mill’s office building looked
Babylon
Last remaining wall (now fallen down) from the office
Babylon
Remains of the Stormont Mill & Babylon House as of 2021

The “Babylon House”

John Vought was an official in the U.S. State Department. He met and married Geraldine Ruth George who was the first female diplomat from southern Utah. They had three children, all sons.

John & Geraldine Vought had planned to return to southern Utah and build a retirement home in the Leeds area where Geraldine had grown up. Unfortunately, Geraldine died before they were able to do so. However, John proceeded with the plan.

Vought bought the old Stormont Mill property in 1988 and engaged St. George architect, Mary Ann Kozlowski. John put $250,000 into the building of what he called the “Babylon House”. However, after the home caught fire and burned down to the foundations, he abandoned the project.

The building of the Babylon House and subsequent fire erased most traces of the Stormont Mill. Some of the walls of the mill’s office, built from stone, were still standing and partially used to build the Babylon House. By 2020, one wall from the original office was still standing, but it fell down from a windstorm in 2026. The graffiti-riddled walls from the Babylon House’s construction of the 1980s still stand.

Aerial Views

Below is a series of aerial pictures taken above the Babylon House showing the surrounding former townsite of Babylon and the rugged landscape it sat in.

Babylon
Looking northwest – east ribs of Virgin Anticline in background
Babylon
Babylon townsite was in upper-center portion of picture – behind mill site
Babylon
Looking northeast
Babylon
Looking southeast – mill office walls in lower-right
Babylon
Looking southwest – Virgin River on left

Visiting Babylon Today

A visit to Babylon is a scenic adventure. From Silver Reef, return towards and pass underneath I-15, then turn left onto Main Street at the stop sign. In just over half a mile, turn right onto Babylon Road, also marked as 900 North. The town of Babylon is located at the end of this road, a distance of 4.5 miles from Main Street.

WARNING!

Do not attempt getting to Babylon unless you have a 4WD vehicle. The road goes down-slope to Babylon in deep sand. This is the only road in and out of Babylon. This means your vehicle will need to climb through the deep sand to return. This will not be possible for most 2WD vehicles.

As of 2016, there is a lot of construction occurring on the first mile of Babylon Road. Continue roughly south through the construction on whatever route is currently there. In about 1.5 miles, you’ll cross into the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.

At 2 miles, a large parking area will be seen on the left. Here, one can see a preserved silver mine adit. From the parking area, hike the trail to the mine’s closed-off entrance. Inside, one can see how the mine was shored up with timber. This is the Toquerville Mine, also known as the Vandergilt #5 Mines. Only a small amount of ore was produced from this mine during the boom years. In the 1950s, it was also prospected for uranium.

At 3.7 miles, the road begins to descend fairly steeply to where the townsite existed. One will be rewarded by the colorful and rugged landscape and geology concentrated in this area. The road ends at the Virgin River.

Map

The following map points out places mentioned in the article above.

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Charcoal Kiln

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Many mining areas in the late 1800s utilized beehive-shaped charcoal kilns to slowly burn wood to make charcoal for the smelting of gold and silver ore. Today, places like Death Valley National Park in California and Ward Charcoal Ovens Historical State Park make an effort to keep these historic kilns in pristine condition. Silver Reef has its own charcoal kiln located about three miles west of town that’s also in pristine condition.

Charcoal Kiln

Charcoal kilns, similar to the one in Silver Reef, were in use during the same period of the 1870s to 1890s. The other charcoal kiln sites explained below, such as in Pioche, Nevada, and Death Valley, demonstrate how this same technology was use for creating the fuel used for firing the furnaces at the smelters and mills used for extracting silver and gold from ore. By the late 1890s, other fuels that were cheaper to obtain were beginning to be used at, phasing out the need for producing charcoal.

In This Article

NOTE:

This article explains how charcoal kilns were used and compares the kiln in Silver Reef to kilns in other mining areas of the American Southwest.

Why Charcoal?

Charcoal is a much hotter and consistent burning fuel as compared to other fuels available at the time, such as burning straight wood. Often, charcoal kilns were built close to a big supply of wood, such as a forest, then the resultant charcoal would be transported to the mines, sometimes quite a distance away because many mines were not near any forested area. For Silver Reef, that distance wasn’t too far, just three miles.

Charcoal ready to burn
Charcoal ready to burn

Charcoal Production

The production of charcoal has a long history. The process was used for thousands of years. It would begin with harvesting nearby lumber, then placing the cut wood onto their ends to create a conical pile. The pile was covered with turf or clay as to not admit air, except through small openings at the bottom. The wood would be slowly lit and continue to burn for several days. When the burn was complete, and the wood transformed into charcoal, the holes would be plugged to cut off the supply of oxygen and the fire would be extinguished.

By the 1800s, the turf structure was replaced by a conical brick structure that would be used over and over. There was a small entry way near the bottom for workers to load wood, along with a few holes placed around the base. There was also a hole in the roof of the kiln to release smoke. This is the basic charcoal kiln design we see today in the American Southwest and in Silver Reef.

When the kiln was empty, workers would line the walls of the kiln with wood and load it full all the way to the center. The fire would be started slowly and the holes were plugged to limit the fire’s oxygen supply.

Charcoal production was a profession. Skilled workers made charcoal throughout the ages. Often, these skilled workers lived in isolation, basically where the kilns were, because this is where the wood (timber) was harvested.

Silver Reef’s Charcoal Kiln

The one charcoal kiln that served several mills in Silver Reef is located up in a forested canyon in the nearby Pine Valley Mountains. The site is easy to find but might be a little challenging to reach in a normal vehicle. SUVs, trucks and 4WD vehicles can reach it easily when the road is in good condition.

Today, the charcoal kiln, located under the jurisdiction of the Dixie National Forest, is part of the Children’s Forest at the Kiln. This short nature trail meanders through the surrounding juniper forest and passes by several exhibits that explain some of the plant species of the area. The trail is well maintained, easy to walk on and can even pass as being accessible to disabled citizens.

The trail passes over a bridge and ends at the charcoal kiln. Along with the charcoal kilns at Death Valley National Park, this is probably one of the best-preserved charcoal kilns from the late 1880s era of mining.

Charcoal Kiln
Entrance to Silver Reef’s charcoal kiln
Charcoal Kiln
The trail and its kiosks
Charcoal Kiln
The trail crosses this bridge
Charcoal Kiln
Silver Reef’s lone charcoal kiln
Charcoal Kiln
The backside of the kiln

Directions to Charcoal Kiln

If using Google Maps or similar navigation app, simply navigate to “The Kiln“.

To reach the charcoal kiln, follow these directions:

  • Leave the Silver Reef museum on the road you came in on.
  • In a short distance, you’ll return to the junction with the road that came in from the freeway. This is Silver Reef Road. Reset your trip meter and turn left.
  • Continue on Silver Reef Road. In half a mile, the road turns to dirt and enters the national forest.
  • The road becomes narrow as it passes through a narrow canyon. Watch out for oncoming traffic. People who are not comfortable with heights may not enjoy this part of the road.
  • Two miles from the junction, turn right onto Forestry Road FR 032. Signs will point to Oak Grove.
  • The charcoal kiln trailhead is reached 3.1 miles from the junction.

Death Valley Charcoal Kilns

The charcoal kilns located in Death Valley National Park are on the western slope of the Panamint Mountains. The charcoal was transported by wagon, across desolate Panamint Valley, to the silver mines at Lookout Mountain in the Argus Range, roughly 25 miles away.

These kilns were built between 1877 and 1878, which was also at the beginning of Silver Reef’s boom years. An incredible number of kilns were built – ten in all. Each 25-foot tall, 30-foot diameter kiln was filled with 42 cords of wood and burned for a week to yield 2,000 bushels of charcoal. A crew of 40 men kept the kilns supplied with juniper and pinyon pine tree wood from trees located next to the site.

Unfortunately, these kilns were only used for a year and were never used again. By 1879, the ore in the mines around Lookout dwindled and didn’t warrant the need to operate a mill, thus no longer needing the charcoal. The Lookout mines were all deserted by the 1890s.

Unlike other charcoal kiln sites, the ones here are at an elevation of 7,000 feet and are more susceptible to the elements, mainly snow and ice. For that reason, they erode quickly. Thanks to a team of Navajo Indians, the kilns were restored to very good condition in 1971.

Charcoal Kiln
All ten of Death Valley’s charcoal kilns
Charcoal Kiln
Primary entrance to kiln
Charcoal Kiln
Closeup of unique brickwork of these kilns

Pioche / Bristol Wells, Nevada

Located 14 miles north of Pioche, Nevada, a silver mining town closely related to Silver Reef, are a set of three charcoal kilns that were employed at the Bristol Wells mining area. The kilns were erected in the early 1870s and were used for around ten years.

The mill that processed the area’s silver-lead mines was located next to the kilns. The surrounding juniper trees provided ample lumber for the kilns, so there was no need for transportation unlike the Lookout mines of Death Valley. The kilns were phased out in the early 1890s when a new mill was built that used a different fuel source.

Charcoal Kiln
The Bristol Wells charcoal kilns
Charcoal Kiln
Close-up of one of the kilns

Frisco, Utah

Another nearby silver mining area was located in ghost town of Frisco, about 14 miles west of Milford, Utah, which is located 90 miles north of Silver Reef. Just like the aforementioned kilns, these were also built in the late 1870s. There were 36 kilns built by the various mines around Frisco. Five exist today – two have collapsed. Grouped together, they are all of varying sizes.

Charcoal Kiln
Frisco’s kilns of various sizes
Charcoal Kiln
Some of the kilns have collapsed
Charcoal Kiln
The large entrance to this charcoal kiln

Tybo, Nevada

Another interesting set of charcoal kilns are located in the mining area of Tybo, Nevada. This mining camp too was established in the early 1870s, with the kilns being built shortly after that. It seems that a total of three were built, however two still remain, one of them being halfway collapsed.

See the complete story of Tybo and its charcoal kilns, along with a virtual visit to the area, on the BackRoadsWest.com blog, by clicking the button below.

Visit Tybo on BackRoadsWest.com
Charcoal Kiln
The two kilns of Tybo
Charcoal Kiln
Entrance to one of the kilns
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Uranium Mining

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During the 1950s, Silver Reef also experienced a brief uranium rush. After the end of World War 2 and at the beginning of the Cold War, uranium and similar minerals quickly became in high demand. Since a lot of uranium was being found all over Utah, interest again focused on the mines of Silver Reef. Since these mining efforts took place in the 1950s, many of their remains are still visible today. 

Uranium Mining

In addition to the interest in uranium, new milling technologies were available to extract silver from rock. Across the American West, many companies began “reworking” old mine tailings and waste piles. Located all around Silver Reef’s mines from the 1880s, there were plenty of waste piles to rework and hopefully extract more silver with relative ease because it was just laying there – it just had to be milled.

In 1948, a company called Western Gold & Uranium, Inc. acquired all of Silver Reef’s old mining properties that were earlier consolidated into one property. They begin reworking the tailings and waste piles. Although they were profitable in doing so, the company had more profitable operations elsewhere and concentrated on them.

Western Gold & Uranium made the Wells Fargo Building their office
Western Gold & Uranium made the Wells Fargo Building their office

When the uranium boom of the 1950s began, Western Gold & Uranium began assaying all the mines it owned around Silver Reef for uranium. Vanadium, another sought-after mineral during the atomic age, was also found. They located two silver-uranium ore bodies within the Leeds Reef, an area where silver was not previously mined.

In 1955, Western Gold & Uranium built a mine on what was to be called Paulmar Hill (also called Big Hill) on the Leeds Reef. It’s called the Anne’s Pride Mine. This is the mine and headframe seen today on the left side of main road when heading up to Silver Reef. The vertical shaft goes down 140 feet. Several thousand tons of silver and uranium ore were brought up from the underground workings. Another vertical shaft and small headframe is also visible close by along the paved road.

The two headframes located on Paulmar Hill are the only remaining headframes in the entire Silver Reef mining area. In the 1880s, many headframes like this, all constructed of wood, were located all over. There was also a very large steel headframe located on the White Reef that was built in the late 1920s, then fell down in 1948 .

Uranium Mining
The Anne’s Pride Mine built on the side of Paulmar Hill
Uranium Mining
Side view of Anne’s Pride Mine – Silver Reef in background
Uranium Mining
An aerial side view of Anne’s Pride Mine
Uranium Mining
The small headframe located east of Anne’s Pride Mine
Uranium Mining
The vertical shaft below the small headframe is covered for safety

In 1956, Western Gold & Uranium built a flotation mill just across the draw from the Barbee & Walker site. It processed ore from both the Anne’s Pride mine and from the tailings laying around Silver Reef. The mill produced silver-copper concentrates, along with uranium-vanadium-copper concentrates. These concentrates were then shipped to another mill near Salt Lake City, where the next refining step took place to extract the pure metals (the silver and uranium).

The mill is still standing and can be closely examined on the walking tour. It’s the only example of an actual mill still existing near Silver Reef as of 2026. Just like the historic silver mills, this mill was also built on a slope. The ore bin can still be examined where truckloads of ore were dumped to begin the milling process. The next phase down was some type of rock crusher, then it went further down into the mill to complete the process. The concentrates came out at the bottom of the mill.

Uranium Mining
Remains of the mill as seen on the edge of the overlook to the Barbee & Walker Mine
Uranium Mining
Closer view of the mill
Uranium Mining
Where the trucks dumped the ore into the mill
Uranium Mining
Another view of the side of the mill ruins
Uranium Mining
Looking down into the ore bin

Related Information

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Virgin Anticline

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The mineral‑rich ridges mined at Silver Reef owe their very existence to the long and complex geologic history of the Virgin Anticline. An anticline, unlike its downward‑curving counterpart, the syncline, is a fold in the Earth’s crust that arches upward. This arching structure is clearly illustrated in the accompanying black and white diagram.

NOTE: This webpage loads two large animations and may take a few moments to load.

Virgin Anticline

Anticlines and synclines form when rock layers are pushed, stretched, or compressed by tectonic forces. Anticlines and synclines are common geologic features found all over the world. When a moving landmass encounters a barrier – much like a rug being pushed up against a wall – the layers buckle and fold.

Example of a anticline's formation - a rug being pushed up against a wall
Example of a anticline’s formation – a rug being pushed up against a wall

In the case of the Virgin Anticline, the crust between California’s Sierra Nevada and the Hurricane Fault was being pulled apart. The landmass stretching from central Nevada toward Silver Reef acted like the “rug”, moving eastward until it met the Hurricane Fault, which served as the immovable wall. Just short of that fault, the rock layers gave way and folded upward, forming the Virgin Anticline.

When this uplift occurred, the entire sequence of local rock layers – from the striped Moenkopi Formation to the massive Navajo Sandstone that shapes Zion Canyon – was pushed upward together. Over millions of years, erosion removed the upper layers, exposing the upturned strata we see today and leaving the hollow center of the anticline, now occupied by Quail Creek Reservoir.

The following shows layers above anticline before erosion and the anticline’s center behind Quail Creek Reservoir:

Virgin Anticline
Approximate location of upper rock layers before erosion
Virgin Anticline
Center point or axis of anticline on north side of reservoir
Virgin Anticline
Closer look at anticline’s axis
Virgin Anticline
Reservoir seen from atop anticline’s western edge or rib

Silver Reef Connection

As the anticline rose, the Springdale Sandstone – the layer that hosts Silver Reef’s silver ore – was tilted into long, narrow ridges. These ridges, which roughly parallel today’s I‑15 corridor, were called “reefs” by early settlers because of their sharp, wave‑like appearance. These reefs were barriers to their travel, just like coral reefs in oceans were barriers to boats. See the What is a Reef? article to learn more.

Many of Silver Reef’s mines were driven directly into the sides of these reefs, while others used underground shafts to reach the angled Springdale Sandstone beneath the surface. See the Silver Mining at Silver Reef article to learn more about the importance of Springdale Sandstone.

Without the formation of the Virgin Anticline many millions of years ago, the silver‑bearing sandstone would never have been exposed or accessible. The erosion that shaped the anticline’s modern form occurred gradually over the last 30 million years, revealing the ore-hosting layers that made Silver Reef a viable mining district in the late 1800s.

Interact with the following to reveal Silver Reef’s location in relation to the anticline and its various features by hovering your mouse cursor over each pulsating dot.

Virgin Anticline

Epilog

So, understanding the Virgin Anticline adds another essential piece to the story of how Silver Reef came to be. With a little geological awareness, the evidence of uplift, folding, and erosion is still visible today in the hills and ridges surrounding the historic mining district, a landscape shaped by deep time and revealed by the forces that brought Silver Reef’s mineral wealth to the surface.

What signs of the anticline can you spot in the hills around you today?

Virgin Anticline
Location of reefs behind Silver Reef
Virgin Anticline
White Reef with mines in center, Red Reef in the upper-left
Virgin Anticline
White Reef looking north – Silver Reef town in right center
Virgin Anticline
Back (west) side of White Reef – former mines in center
Virgin Anticline
Remains of Stormont Mill and Babylon amongst uplift of Virgin Anticline

Article content by Cliff Bandringa, edited by Kathy Powell

Related Information

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John Kemple

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Many stories circulate about who first discovered silver in Silver Reef, but the one figure consistently documented as finding silver ore was John Kemple. In 1866, Kemple rode into the Leeds–Harrisburg area during a prospecting journey from Montana. Though he never struck a major bonanza, he was an exceptionally skilled prospector and assayer, able to read rock the way others read a map.

John Kemple

Not far from where he was staying in Harrisburg, he recognized a specimen known to contain silver — with one complication. The ore was embedded in sandstone, a rock type widely believed at the time to be incapable of hosting precious minerals. That single contradiction set off a chain of events that would ignite the rush to Silver Reef.

John Kemple was born December 11, 1835 in New Jersey. He was the only son and second of six children of George Kemple and Hannah Foster. The family moved to West Virginia and then Marshall, Virginia, by 1840. His mother died when he was ten, and his father remarried and had seven more children. On the 1850 census, he was living with his family in Marshall, Virginia. He had difficulty getting along with his stepmother, so in 1850 he left for California’s gold rush at age fifteen.

John Kemple

A biography of John by his great grandson includes the following: “John followed up every new camp that was started but never found the big one. He joined the rush to Alaska and the Klondike gold fields but was also unsuccessful there. One year in Alaska he was so far north that winter caught his party on the polar ice pack. They would have starved, except that he discovered a mammoth, frozen in the ice. They managed to dig in far enough to cut meat from the pre-historic beast and eat it. He told also of another, smaller figure, deeper in the ice, which he said looked like a human. A few years later he tried to lead a scientific expedition back to the place but couldn’t find it again.”

In 1866, John rode into the Leeds-Harrisburg area with a small string of horses, on a prospecting journey from Montana. He rented a room with the Orson Adams family of Harrisburg for the winter. John had assay equipment with him, and probably assayed materials that seemed to hold possible ores. In the spring of that year, he left for White Pine (near Ely), Nevada. He sent some ore samples from Harrisburg to another assayer, H. H. Smith of Beaver County, Utah. Smith refused to assay it, claiming: “Kemple must be crazy to ask me to assay a sand rock”. John found silver float that assayed over $17,000 per ton. However, he didn’t seem to know its source.

  See the separate article on Harrisburg
John Kemple
John Kemple
This type of sandstone rock contains "horn silver", similar to what Kemple found
This type of sandstone rock contains “horn silver”, similar to what Kemple found

Reminiscing many years later, John visited David McMullin in his blacksmith shop at Leeds and told the story of his life. He asked, “Dave, you remember that soap-stone vein in the White Reef on the north side of the pass through which Quail creek flows, and is now covered with a swamp? You got soap-stone there and made slate pencils. That is where I got the ore from which I extracted the silver button I showed you nearly forty years ago. The soap-stone assayed 36 ounces in silver”.

Returning to Harrisburg to spend the winter again in 1868, Kemple made more silver discoveries. Most of the ore he found was in the flat area near Quail Creek and east of the White Reef. The ore was simply scattered around. Knowing that the ore probably fell and rolled down from a possible vein at a higher location, he started searching the area nearer the mountains to the west.

John Kemple

Makes First Mining Claim

Finally, in February 1871, after finding the source of the silver ore, Kemple made his first mining claim on a ledge just a half mile northeast from the current entrance station to the Red Cliffs Recreation Area. That same month, Kemple and several others organized the Union Mining District. Between February 1871 and October 1872, a total of 16 claims were recorded in the district. Shortly after, Federal mining laws changed, so they reorganized the district with a new chapter and renamed it the Harrisburg Mining District. This would be the district that Silver Reef was known for being in.

After the district was reorganized, Kemple made a more official mining claim in 1874. Others followed suit and, interestingly, many of the new claims were made in the names of wives from Harrisburg and Leeds. The reason for this was possibly a way men could make claims to potential riches, while not upsetting stern direction from the church’s leader, Brigham Young, who was against members of the church from practicing the extraction of valuable minerals (other than coal or iron) on account of it not being a sustainable way to make a living.

John married in 1874 and became a member of the Mormon Church. He and his wife moved to Silver Reef just as the rush was beginning the following year, where he was employed in the mines. In 1879, he moved his family north to Beaver County.

Still infected with the prospecting bug, Kemple moved his family again in 1891, this time to White Hills, Arizona, halfway between Hoover Dam and Kingman. It wasn’t long before he was broke and asking around for “grubstakes” to fund his next mining venture. Unable to support his family, which by now included five children, his wife divorced him.

Shortly after his divorce, Kemple really did strike it rich from a gold and silver discovery nearby. It became known as Kemple Camp and can be found on a map today. Kemple continued to live in this area and passed away in Kingman on October 14, 1918 and buried in the Kingman Cemetery.

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Harrisburg

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Harrisburg was a small pioneer settlement tucked into the foothills southeast of Silver Reef, where families built homes along the creek and tried to make a life in the shadow of the red cliffs. Though the town never grew large, its story is one of determination, faith, and survival in a rugged landscape. This article offers a welcoming introduction to the people who lived in Harrisburg, the challenges they faced, and the traces of their community that can still be found today.

Harrisburg

The Beginnings

The story of Silver Reef begins with the neighboring towns of Harrisburg and Leeds. In 1859, after spending the winter near the town of Washington (next to St. George), the Harris party, which consisted of nine families, selected a site near the confluence of Quail Creek. This site is now covered by Quail Creek Reservoir. This site proved to be unsuccessful because the land was only marginal and was difficult to irrigate. A disastrous fire added to the discouragement and, in 1860, the families moved away.

However, a year later, the families returned. This time however, they selected another site to settle three miles up the creek. They later called it Harrisburg. Today, this is the general area where Quail Creek passes underneath Interstate 15.

The site they picked was more level, the warm climate was ideal, and was located along a well-traveled wagon road, which would later become US 91 and, later still, I-15. By 1862, friends and family of the original party joined them, and the population of Harrisburg grew to 41. By 1864, the population grew to 16 families or 128 people.

Harrisburg Ditch

1865 or 66 a diversion dam was built about a mile north of current day Silver Reef. It diverted water out of Leeds Creek and into a 5-mile-long irrigation canal ending in Harrisburg. The water greatly helped farming but the soil was still too rocky and there wasn’t much room for the farms to expand.

By 1867, the Harrisburg settlers that a place called Road Valley, just to the north, was more suitable for farming and was closer to the water source of the Harrisburg Ditch. Slowly, families began to relocate to Road Valley, which would later become named Bennington, then in 1869, the town was renamed to Leeds.

The Adams Home

Today, two houses remain from Harrisburg’s heyday of the early 1860s. One is the Jolly Home that’s seen near the entrance of the Harrisburg Estate Community along Old Hwy 91. The other is the Adams House that’s seen along the road leading up to the Red Cliffs Recreation Area.

The Adams House, built in 1863, played a significant role in the discovery of silver at Silver Reef. This is the house that attracted prospector John Kemple to spend the winter. He would go on to dig one of the first silver mines in the area near the Adams House.

  See the separate article on John Kemple and his discovery of silver

Today, the Adams House is preserved by the BLM and the Red Cliffs Reserve. There are still fixtures in its interior.

Harrisburg
The Jolly Home located along Old Hwy 91
Harrisburg
The Adams House – Red Reef in background
Harrisburg
Ruins of Harrisburg and a movie set from the 1950s

Map

Location of Harrisburg, along with other nearby sites, in relation to the town of Silver Reef. Click points on map to reveal locations of Harrisburg-related places.

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Silver Mining

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The chain of events that led to the rise of historic mining towns in the American Southwest often followed a familiar pattern: valuable ore was discovered in predictable geologic settings, but Silver Reef broke that pattern. Here, silver was found in sandstone—a geologic surprise that set this district apart. Nowhere else in the Americas has minable quantities of valuable ore been found in sandstone.

Silver Mining

There are many “pieces to the puzzle” that together form the Silver Reef mining district. As you scroll through this article, you’ll learn how each piece came to be and how they ultimately combined to create the landscape and mining history you see today when visiting Silver Reef.

In This Article

To fully understand the unique silver mining process here at Silver Reef, we suggest you read this article in its entirety, plus the related articles. If you are looking for a specific topic, select on of the options below to jump to that topic.

Setting the Stage

Several geologic processes needed to take place before silver was created and then found by prospectors. The following explains each of those processes.

Transition Zone

The Silver Reef mining area is located inside a transition zone of two well-known geologic provinces in the Southwest – the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range. Geologic influences from both provinces can be found all around the St. George area. See the article covering Southwest Utah’s Triple Junction of Landscapes to learn more about this specifically.

Location of Colorado Plateau and Basin & Range Provinces
Location of Colorado Plateau and Basin & Range Provinces

Hurricane Fault

The boundary between these two provinces is the Hurricane Fault. East of this natural divide lies the orderly, horizontal sedimentary layers of the Colorado Plateau. West of the fault, those same layers have been bent, tilted, and distorted by tectonic forces that acted long after the sediments were originally deposited. This deformation has tipped some layers upward and exposed them at the surface, making it easy to examine their outcropped rocky composition.

Silver Reef sits just west of the Hurricane Fault. The fault line is visible by looking east out of the museum’s front door. See the article on the Hurricane Fault that explains more of its significance to this area and how it set into motion the geologic events that would lead to the creation of silver.

Location of the Hurricane Fault in relation to Silver Reef
Location of the Hurricane Fault in relation to Silver Reef

Springdale Sandstone

One of those sedimentary layers on both sides of the fault is called the Springdale Sandstone. It’s named after the town of Springdale at the foot of Zion Canyon. The layer is about 100 feet (30 m) thick. In Springdale and in the beginning of the canyon, it can easily be made out as a short reddish vertical cliff just above the base of the mountains. The Springdale Sandstone is a subunit of the larger Kayenta Formation. The other subunit of the Kayenta lays above the Springdale Sandstone and consists of thinner, rocky layers and typically erodes into cliffs that are not as vertical.

Silver Mining
Springdale Sandstone
Silver Mining
Springdale Sandstone at mouth of Zion Canyon, Utah
Silver Mining
Springdale Sandstone above the town of Sandstone – arrows point out location

That same Springdale Sandstone layer extends west across the Hurricane Fault. The layer takes on a more white or cream color tint and is often seen tilted at a roughly 30 degree angle. Long ridges can be seen all around Silver Reef that are tilted up in similar directions. These ridges are known as reefs. See the article named What is a Reef? to learn more about how reefs have historically influenced Utah.

Virgin Anticline

Most of the other sedimentary layers above and below the Springdale Sandstone were also tilted. This tilting was done by yet another piece to Silver Reef’s geologic puzzle, the Virgin Anticline. This was an upwarp in the Earth’s surface that was created by crustal extension between the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California and the Hurricane Fault. Just like what happens when one pushes a loose carpet into a wall, a portion of it folds up. The same thing happened with the Earth’s surface as it was pushed against the Hurricane Fault. See the article on the Virgin Anticline to learn how it too has influenced everything going on at Silver Reef.

Silver Mining
North end of Virgin Anticline – Quail Creek Reservoir in foreground
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Center point of Virgin Anticline
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Eroded layers above Virgin Anticline

Hover mouse over red-pulsating dot to reveal a location the Virgin Anticline

Silver Mining

Finally, after all the geologic processes described above, the silver‑bearing ore somehow formed within the Springdale Sandstone through chemical reactions that are not yet fully understood. The best current interpretation is that, before the sandstone was uplifted, tilted, and exposed, it was influenced by heat from magma beneath the Earth’s surface—possibly related to the nearby Pine Valley Mountains—and later altered by circulating groundwater. Whatever combination of forces was responsible, the result was remarkable: Silver Reef became one of the only places on Earth where precious metals formed inside sandstone.

Where the Silver is Mined

Rocks with silver chloride from these exposed reefs tumbled off them and on to a flat surface, where a prospector named John Kemple discovered them in 1866. Kemple was puzzled because, as a prospector, he knew finding silver in sandstone wasn’t possible, or has never been found before. After further searching, and with considerable effort to convince others, the source of those silver‑bearing rocks were traced to those uptilted reefs.

It wasn’t until 1875 when actual mining began. Shortly after, the word was out and the silver rush was on. People from all over, mainly from the nearby silver mining town of Pioche, Nevada, came to Silver Reef and began filing their own mining claims. Most of those claims were made on top of the reefs described in the What is a Reef? article.

Inside the layers of Springdale Sandstone is where the silver-bearing rock formed. It formed into what miners call a “lens”, simply because it’s shaped like a glass lens. Lenses are also referred to as “seams” and “ore bodies”. It’s these lenses that miners would ultimately dig into and extract silver-bearing rock.

Cross section of White or Buckeye Reef
Cross section of White or Buckeye Reef

Silver Reef sits near an odd junction of where three reefs somehow got geologically separated. The main or primary reef is called the White Reef and can be traced from behind the Silver Reef museum, then south paralleling I-15 for six miles. The reef that broke off is called the Buckeye Reef. Next to the Buckeye is the Leeds Reef. All of these reefs are layers of Springdale Sandstone and tilted in the same direction on account of the Virgin Anticline.

Below is a short repeating video showing the location of all three reefs.

Silver Mining

After Kample’s discovery, mines would be developed in all of these reefs. Mines were later developed a few miles southeast of Silver Reef, on the other side of the Virgin Anticline, where similar reefs were tilted up in the opposite direction. This would become known as the Babylon section of the Silver Reef mining district.

How the Silver was Mined

In order to extract the ore, miners dug shafts (tunnels) into the reefs, usually horizontally. These horizontal shafts are called adits. Miners also dug vertical shafts, some straight down and others at steep angles. These were called vertical shafts and inclines, respectively. Below are examples of such mine openings that can be found around Silver Reef.

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Inclined shaft (not vertical)
Silver Mining
Adit – horizontal mine entrance
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Headframe – usually placed over a vertical shaft

Where the ore body or lens was located inside the Springdale Sandstone, a “stope” would be dug, which is basically a large cavity inside the sandstone. The rock that was inside the stope would be carried out, using ore cars that were pulled by mules, and deposited into a rock pile outside the mine.

The following diagram shows the various features of a typical mine, including either an adit or a shaft, a stope, different horizontal diggings referred to as “levels” where a lot of the digging work took place, and headframes that hoisted the ore from the stope out to the surface.

Silver Mining

Below is map and cross-section of the Barbee-Walker Mine showing it’s various levels and stoped out areas. It was published in newspapers and mining journals of the day (in the 1880s). The deepest level of the mine was the 500 Level, which meant the mine went down 500 feet (150 meters). This cross-section can be found in the book described below.

Map and cross-section of the Barbee-Walker's underground workings
Map and cross-section of the Barbee-Walker’s underground workings

Rock that did not contain silver ore was dumped near the mine entrance. These piles of discarded rock became the tell‑tale clue that a mine opening of some kind is nearby. They are often mistakenly called “tailings,” but the correct term is “waste piles”. Tailings are similar accumulations of leftover material, but they form at mills, where ore is crushed and processed—the next stop for any silver‑bearing rock.

How You Can Learn More

Much of the information about the mining in Silver Reef was obtained from the book Silver, Sinners and Saints, A History of Old Silver Reef, Utah. To learn more about the mining that occurred here, as well as the history behind Silver Reef in general, purchase your own copy of this book at the Silver Reef museum book store.

Silver Mining

How Miners Dug Ore

In the 1870s, digging the shafts, levels and stopes required cutting into solid rock using either “single-jacking” or “double-jacking” methods. Many miners that immigrated to the USA specifically to work in the mines were Cornish (people of Cornish descent from Cornwall, England). Cornish miners earned the name “Jack”. This is where the “jacking” term came from.

Single-jacking consisted of one man (a single “Jack”) working alone with a short hammer and a hand-held drill bit. The miner would strike the drill with the hammer, rotate the drill a few degrees, then strike it again. This process was repeated again and again. Even the hardest of rocks yielded to these persistent poundings and turning of the bit.

Double-jacking consisted of two men (two “Jacks”) working together. One would hold a longer drill bit and the other would use a sledgehammer to strike the bit. Although this required two men instead of one, it resulted in cutting into more rock faster.

Example of single jacking
Example of single jacking
Example of double-jacking
Example of double-jacking

The purpose of both single and double jacking was to drill holes into the rock. Once the holes were deep enough, they were loaded with blasting powder, fused, and lighted. The miners would then exit the mine quickly to safety. Often, this would signal the end of a miners’ shift. After the dust settled, the next shift of miners would go in and do the job of “mucking”. This process would remove the broken rock, known as muck, created as a result of the blast. This loosened rock would be transported out of the mine by both ore car through an adit or an ore bucket out of a vertical or inclined shaft.

As the rock was brought out to the surface, mining engineers would be constantly testing or assaying the rock for its silver content, as well as other valuable minerals that may exist. This told the engineers if they were either digging in the direction of the ore body described above or not. If they were, the single and double jackers were told to continue digging their course. If they weren’t, then they were instructed to dig in another direction.

Rock that did not contain silver ore was dumped near the mine entrance. These piles of discarded rock became the tell‑tale clue that a mine opening of some kind is nearby. They are often mistakenly called “tailings,” but the correct term is “waste piles”. Tailings are similar accumulations of leftover material, but they form at mills, where ore is crushed and processed—the next stop for any silver‑bearing rock.

Supporting & Supplying the Mines

Once mines were developed, different types of supplies were needed to support all the different trades involved in keeping the mines going. It was known that the people that provided those supplies and services made far more money than the miners themselves, including the mine’s owners.

Supplies included:

  • Mining tools such as shovels, picks, hammers, chisels, rope, and other assorted hardware
  • Blasting material, such as dynamite and black powder
  • Livestock such as mules and horses, plus supplies to support them such as tack and feed
  • Metal goods, such as ore cars and rails
  • Lumber for buildings, wagons, supporting mine shafts, rail ties, ore bins, etc.
  • Miners’ needs such as food, water, candles, etc.

Services included:

  • Teamsters for managing and handling livestock
  • Blacksmiths for forging all the metal hardware that was needed
  • Assayers for measuring the silver content or value of ore taken out of each mine
  • Living quarters and hotels
  • Cooks, bakers, farmers, and more…

All these supplies and services needed to be available in Silver Reef for the silver mining to thrive.

Mining Needed Timber

Underground mining usually consumes a lot of lumber, not only for cutting cord wood to power the steam engines and fire furnaces inside the mills, but also to shore up the mining tunnels to protect the miners from possible rock falls and collapses. To fulfill this need, trees from nearby forests needed to be harvested.

In the area around Silver Reef, a lot of trees have already been cut down by then for fuel and building materials. A large stand of trees grew on the west side of the Pine Valley Mountains. Some of them were already harvested to furnish lumber for the grand organ of the Morman Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. In 1880, the owners of the Barbee & Walker Mine recognized the need for a dependable source of good timber, so they secured government permission to cut trees on the west side of the mountains. The lumber had to be transported around the mountains to Silver Reef, adding more cost to the overall mining operation.

There was also a large forest of trees at the top of the Pine Valley Mountains, a mere seven “crow-fly” miles from Silver Reef. Cut timber from here could literally be dropped down a very steep incline to a newly constructed road up to what is now known as Oak Grove. From the end of the road, the lumber would only need to be transported by wagon for a short distance.

Road to Oak Grove - steep incline of the Pine Valleys in background
Road to Oak Grove – steep incline of the Pine Valleys in background

Sometime in 1880, an enterprising individual named Bob Rickard built a chute to carry logs from atop the Pine Valleys, several thousand feet down to Oak Grove. The chute dropped almost 4,000 feet in less than a mile. Rickard planned a grand celebration for everyone to come up and watch the first logs come down from the mountain above. Drinks were passed around a toast was made. Guests at this special event watched breathlessly as the first log came sliding down the chute at terrific speed and successfully made its precipitous journey to the bottom. However, the second and third log wasn’t as successful. The second log jumped out of the chute and damaged it. The third log damaged it more and a rapid destruction of the chute followed as more logs came down. In a cloud of wood splinters and dust, the entire chute was destroyed. Minutes after celebrating the opening, Rickard proclaimed another round of drinks to toast and celebrate the closing of his chute.

Milling the Silver

The story of silver mining continues with the milling process. A separate article explains how the mills around Silver Reef operated, along with details about its seven mills. See the Mills of Silver Reef.

There’s also a separate article about the Mines of Silver Reef that explains more of the mining process and shows the locations of most of the Silver Reef mines on an interactive map.

Silver Mining

Related Information