Yerington Monday: The Mines of Lyon County: Blue Jay Mine, Bluestone Mine & Thompson Smelter
(Posted on Facebook January 4, 2016)
It was discovered in 1917. Cornetite is a rare secondary mineral in some hydrothermal
copper deposits.
World Mines Register
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BLUE JAY MINE. A mile north of the Yerington mine, on the same side of the ridge, is the Blue Jay mine, in a band of dark rock which is distinctly visible from town and was supposed in the field to be a dike cutting the granodiorite. ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, 1908
Intermountain Industry and Engineering
Ostrander house on West Street in Yerington was moved from Blue Jay Mine
Claims that became the Bluestone Mine properties were some of the oldest in the Yerington Mining District. Several of the mines were patented before 1890. Records show that in the early 1900's, Captain J. K. Delamar owned the Bluestone Mining and Smelting Company which encompassed the Bluestone Mine and a cluster of twenty claims that adjoined the Mason Valley Mine.
Prior to 1907, operations throughout the district were intermittent and never attained much importance, and the area did not yield much copper until after 1912. The most important of the early activities appears to have been the mining of 'bluestone' from the Bluestone Mine (Tetra Tech, 2010). Located in the hills above the railway center of the Nevada Copper Belt Railroad at Mason, the copper veins were sufficiently profitable in 1916 to constitute construction of a magnetic concentrating plant and furnace with a 100-ton capacity.
In 1916, production was estimated at 600 tons of copper per day. Output increased in 1917 to 1,000 tons per day. From 1917-1920, total production is believed to have been approximately 0.4 million tons, grading 1.5% - 3.5% Cu.
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Records show that in the early 1900's, Captain J. K. Delamar owned the Bluestone Mining and Smelting Company which encompassed the Bluestone Mine and a cluster of twenty claims that adjoined the Mason Valley Mine.
Captain J. K. Delamar
Birth:
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Sep. 2, 1843
Amsterdam
Noord-Holland, Netherlands
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Death:
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Dec. 1, 1918
New York
New York County (Manhattan)
New York, USA
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This is the classic ‘rags to riches'-story of a poor boy who made it. Joseph was born in a banker's family, When his father Maximilian died, his mother and her seven children became poor. Joseph ran away from home and was put in a reformatory. When he was eighteen years old he went to sea. After a short time on sea he became captain, but when the gold fever struck Leadville (Colorado) he went West and bought several claims. This was the start of a successful career as miner and after that as a banker. Joseph became a multimillionaire. In 1906 he builded his townhouse on 233 Madison Avenue, now the Polish Consulate, and in 1916 his second home Pembroke was built in Glen Cove.
He died in the Roosevelt Hospital in New York of pneumonia, which developed during the night following an operation for gallstones. Joseph was buried on Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, in a beautiful mausoleum.
Half his estate of 34.000 dollar was given to the Universities of Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Columbia for medical research.
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BLUESTONE MINE. The Bluestone mine is situated 4 miles southwest of Yerington, halfway up the east slope of Singatse Ridge, at an elevation of about 5,300 feet. It was worked about thirty years ago, and for a time supplied natural bluestone (chalcanthite) to the amalgamating mills at Virginia City. A. small smelter was built at the mine and ran for a few years on partly oxidized ore stoped above the 100-foot level; but no great production was attained and operations of late have been restricted to systematic exploration and to experiments in ore treatment. . . The mine is opened on three levels, approximately 100, 200, and 275 feet below the surface.
Remains of Bluestone Mill & Smelter
- Land patented in 1883, one of the oldest mineral patents in the US
- Owned by Joseph DeLamar in 1907
- Thompson bought mine and put into production until Great Depression of 1929
- Owned by GRG International since 2009
Bluestone Mine Trail
Bluestone Mine Trail is a 7.4 mile point-to-point trail located near Yerington, Nevada that offers scenic views and is good for all skill levels. The trail is primarily used for hiking & off road driving and is accessible from May until September.
This trail begins in the town of Mason and travels past the remains of the Bluestone Mine and then through a narrow but scenic canyon within the hills of the Singatse Range. It ends at the intersection with Western #27:
Enstatite is a common mineral in meteorites. Crystals have been found in stony and iron meteorites, including one that fell at Breitenbach in the Ore Mountains, Bohemia.
Enstatite is a mineral; the magnesium endmember of the pyroxene silicate mineral series enstatite (MgSiO3) - ferrosilite (FeSiO3). The magnesium rich members of the solid solution series are common rock-forming minerals found in igneous and metamorphic rocks. The intermediate composition, (Mg,Fe)SiO3, has historically been known as hypersthene, although this name has been formally abandoned and replaced by orthopyroxene.
Bluestone Mine, on an uphill spur West of Mason, had its own horsepower to pull the hill.
Bluestone Mine, on an uphill spur West of Mason, had its own horsepower to pull the hill. If the Baldwin 2-8-0's on the NCB line where the 'oxen,' then Bluestone's 37 ton Heisler was the 'bulldog' of rails. This is the original loco, but it can't be found at the Bluestone Mine, nor in Mason any more. After some migration, it wound up at Willits California in the Roots of Motive Power museum. On selected occasions, volunteer engineers pull it out, and carry happy passengers in a circle.
Bluestone copper mine 'glory hole' measuring 150m x 120m x 60m deep with underground development surrounding and below the 'glory hole'.
View from Copper Hill mine looking north towards Bluestone mine 'glory hole'.
One of the oldest in the Yerington District, the Bluestone was mined between 1890 and 1930 and utilized a sophisticated system of electric ore carts on narrow gauge tracks. Unfortunately, all that remains today is the heavily vandalized, burned out, shot up and spray painted foundations of the old mill…
Bluestone Mine ruins near Yerington
Bluestone Mine ruins near Yerington
Just below the old mill site, there is a large area where sediment runoff from processed ore had collected for 40 years and then started to erode. If not for the odd color and metallic taste you have in your mouth while walking around this place, you would think that it was natural and formed over thousands of years…
Sediment runoff from processed ore had collected for 40 years and then started to erode.
On top of the hill looking out toward the old transformer building that provided electricity to the mine…
Driving out to them, this is the first of two buildings…
This the main transformer building. With the exception of the vandalism, it really was an amazing sight to see..
Interior of the main transformer building.
Bluestone view looking over Mason Valley.
Thompson Smelter
William Boyce Thompson
Mason Valley was where he opened old copper mines and built his smelter town, which was named Thompson, Nevada after him (now a ghost town);
The Bluestone Mining Company operated a concentrator near its underground mines 3 miles northwest of Mason. The town of Mason was built in 1908 as part of William Boyce Thompson’s Mason Valley Mining company’s operations in the area.
Was once a very large milling site for the Yerington Nevada area and what they called the copper belt. Over the years people have come and gone most leave the place with a little history some have to leave their marks. Its life began in 1910 and ended in 1914 although there was some tries at revival, after that nothing has been operating at the site since 1923.
Thompson was a fascinating man with an amazing life. To read more on him follow this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Boyce_Thompson
Thompson Smelter - Lyon County
Thompson Ghost Town
Ghost Towns and Mining Camps - Thompson
https://vimeo.com/88489084
