The Unique Silver Reef Mining District - Leeds, Utah
The Silver Reef Mining District near Harrisburg and Leeds is the only mining district in the U.S. that produced silver ore from sandstone. The total metal production in modern-day prices was $141 million.
Even though John Kemple was the first to discover silver ore in sandstone near Leeds in 1866, it was William Tecumseh Barbee's wagon wheel that dislodged a piece of ore-bearing sandstone while he was hauling wood between Quail Creek and Leeds that provided the impetus for the promotion of the Silver Reef Mining District.
Soon, the population of the town of Silver Reef grew to 1,500, with a post office, hospital, churches and schools. Most of the silver was produced between 1878-1882. By 1903, Silver Reef was deserted due to the more profitable surface ore was mined out and the deeper ore's quality was not as good. At that time, the price of silver on the international market had decreased.
Geology
Silver Reef lies in the transition zone between the Basin and Range province to the west and the Colorado Plateau to the east. Silver Reef is on the Sevier-age (160 Ma) Virgin anticline (folded rock layers that arch upwards).
The ore was hosted in the Lower Jurassic Springdale Sandstone Member of the Moenave Formation. This sandstone contains rock that has gray-green rinds on pink clay galls (mud curls that have detached and blown or rolled into sand and buried in the rock) that was bleached by reducing fluids.
A sandstone hogback (reef) is a long, narrow ridge formed by erosion of sandstone layers that dip steeply. There are four major reefs in this district.
The Silver Reef Mining District near Harrisburg and Leeds is the only mining district in the U.S. that produced silver ore from sandstone. The total metal production in modern-day prices was $141 million.
Even though John Kemple was the first to discover silver ore in sandstone near Leeds in 1866, it was William Tecumseh Barbee's wagon wheel that dislodged a piece of ore-bearing sandstone while he was hauling wood between Quail Creek and Leeds that provided the impetus for the promotion of the Silver Reef Mining District.
Soon, the population of the town of Silver Reef grew to 1,500, with a post office, hospital, churches and schools. Most of the silver was produced between 1878-1882. By 1903, Silver Reef was deserted due to the more profitable surface ore was mined out and the deeper ore's quality was not as good. At that time, the price of silver on the international market had decreased.
Geology
Silver Reef lies in the transition zone between the Basin and Range province to the west and the Colorado Plateau to the east. Silver Reef is on the Sevier-age (160 Ma) Virgin anticline (folded rock layers that arch upwards).
The ore was hosted in the Lower Jurassic Springdale Sandstone Member of the Moenave Formation. This sandstone contains rock that has gray-green rinds on pink clay galls (mud curls that have detached and blown or rolled into sand and buried in the rock) that was bleached by reducing fluids.
A sandstone hogback (reef) is a long, narrow ridge formed by erosion of sandstone layers that dip steeply. There are four major reefs in this district.