Lost Burro Gold Mine
The Lost Burro Mine lies in the Cottonwood Mountains between Hidden Valley and Racetrack Valley, about three and a half miles northeast of the Racetrack. It was the Ubehebe District's principal gold mine in a district otherwise better known for lead, copper, and silver.
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On April 18, 1907, prospector Bert Shively was rounding up stray burros when he discovered rich gold-bearing outcrops in a remote canyon. The story that he picked up a rock to throw at a burro, then noticed gold in it, has endured because it fits the mine's name so perfectly. Shively quickly filed six claims with partners W. D. Blackmer, W. B. Morris, Charles N. Garden, and Jack McCormick. Early surface assays reportedly ranged from $40 to $1,000 per ton, exceptionally rich figures for the time. National Park Service historic resource study
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The mine attracted a series of investors, options, leases, and proposed sales during the 1907-09 boom. By 1909, development included a 120-foot shaft and underground workings along the vein. Several thousand tons of ore were reportedly stockpiled, though isolation, lack of water, and the cost of transport made sustained production difficult.
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In 1915, the Montana-Tonopah Company began building a fifty-ton, five-stamp mill. Its plan was ambitious: machinery had to be hauled over rough desert roads, with the final 22 miles handled by Caterpillar tractor at about three miles per hour. Water was to be brought from Burro Spring on Tin Mountain through a pipeline roughly seven and a half to eight miles long. The mill and cyanide plant were never fully completed as planned. National Park Service historic resource study
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The Lost Burro was worked intermittently into the 1970s. Official records list 255 ounces of gold produced from 1935 to 1942, but the Park Service historian believed lifetime production may have approached $100,000 in value. Remains of the cabin, ore bin, shafts, tunnels, mill foundations, machinery, and pipeline still make it one of the more tangible mining sites in the Racetrack country.
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And, as far as the record shows, the burro's final fate remains unknown.
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Sources: Linda W. Greene and John A. Latschar, Death Valley: Historic Resource Study: A History of Mining (National Park Service, 1981), section III.C, "Lost Burro Mine"; James F. McAllister, Geology of Mineral Deposits, Ubehebe Peak Quadrangle, Inyo County, California (California Division of Mines, 1955).
Cottonwood Mountains Ecology
This subsection contains steep mountains, moderately steep hills, gently to moderately sloping alluvial fans and pediments, and nearly level floodplain and basin floor.
Burro.