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Linda M Weirather's avatar

Very interesting article. I've researched an uncle who was killed in a car crash outside Winnemucca, Nevada in 1940. He was working at a "quicksilver" mine somewhere in the area. I think I've traced the location, thanks to a U.S. Bureau of Mines publication, to the Bottle Creek District in the mountains about 65 miles northwest of town. I also learned from an oral history transcript from a miner's wife that the cinnabar was refined on site, trucked to the railroad and shipped in 76 pound flasks to California, where it went into munitions manufacture. This woman also reported that the mine had pretty much played out shortly after Pearl Harbor.

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Josh Art's avatar

Good article Richard, I often drive by Sulpher Bank Mine in Clearlake Oaks, CA where they mined Cinnabar for mercury. Red soil, smells like rotten eggs, I always wondered about its history...looks like it too was one of the biggest sources of mercury in the world...also located just north of the biggest geothermal field in the world at The Geysers which I always thought would be cool to take a tour of if they allow that. Looks like geologists think the whole area is underlain by a magma body which makes sense. Here was wiki's article. Thanks again for another neat geology history lesson! The history of these mines boom and bust cycles are so fascinating to me as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulphur_Bank_Mine

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