Directions: Highway 50E from Fallon 40 miles; Turn N on Dixie Valley Road (121) for about 19 miles; turn NE and go about 29 miles; Turn SE about 5 miles

From Fallon: 94 miles

What Was

Antimony and silver mines. The old-timers pronounced it BUR' niss. Some of the early Rand McNally maps show Bernice west of the Carson Sink. Oops.

[Source: Nevada Bureau of Mines, 1940(?)]

The Bernice District on the west slope of the Clan Alpine Range in east Churchill County, 90 miles by road, a little south of west from Fallon and 70 miles southeast of Lovelock, both towns being on the Southern pacific R.R. From Fallon the district can be reached by automobile over the Lincoln Highway to Dixie Valley turn off, a distance of about 40 miles, and thence up Dixie Valley to the mines situated in Bernice and Hoyt Canyons. The last 25 miles of road is in poor condition, but with careful driving is passable.

Silver and antimony ores were discovered in the district in the late eighties [1880's]. The principal ore mined has been silver ore from the Williams mine; probably about 500 tons of antimony ore has been shipped. In 1939 the only activity in this area was by lessees on the Bluebird group of claims.

SILVER DEPOSITS
The Williams mine at the head of Bernice Canyon comprises two patented and three unpatented claims owned by the Warren W. Williams estate. This property was discovered by James Wardell in the late seventies [1870's] and was sold to Williams, who operated it from 1880 to 1809. A 10-stamp mill was erected below the mine in Bernice Canyon; silver produced is said to have amounted to $300,000. The ores contained considerable arsenic in the for of arsenopyrite, and the mill was equipped with two White-Howell roasters. The ore is in a series of narrow veins in shale. The outcrops carried considerable antimony, which decreased at depth. The mine has been inactive for many years.

The tailings pile below the old mill site, containing about 6,000 tons, is owned by C.M. Beeghly and L.T. Ellis, according to a location notice dated March 18, 1939.

The Bluebird group, comprising six unpatented claims owned by Albert Lofthouse, of Fallon, is in the other part of the district. In 1939 the property was under lease to D.G. Brunner, A.J. Cooley, and associates, who, up to April 1939, had made one small shipment of ore to the McGill smelter. here the ore occurs in a narrow vein in limestone.

ANTIMONY DEPOSITS
Antimony was first discovered in the district in the eighties [1880's] by H. Hoyt. W.W. an Reed shipped several cars of hand-sorted ore containing 62 percent antimony to the Star and Matthews smelter in San Francisco. A small quantity or antimony ore was produced in 1893 by Sanders and Young, and the last production of record was made in 1906, when 200 tons were shipped. C. Solomon, Jr. of San Francisco, identified with the Chapman Smelting Co., was active in the district during the [First] World War. Although considerable development work was done at that time there is no record of any production.

The Antimony King and Lofthouse mines are in the principal antimony properties. The former is at Bernice and the latter about 5 miles southwest. The deposits have been prospected by numerous superficial workings.

"About sixty people lived here at its peak." (Davis, Historic Site Studies in Churchill County, Nevada)

Post Office: June 1882 - June 1894
Newspaper: None

What is

Bernice is interesting in that it covers a lot of area, and a lot of time. As you travel the three or so miles up the canyon, you pass by mines, ruins and equipment from many different eras. It took us two trips, once in trucks and the second time in ATV's, which was a lot less nerve-wracking, to take it all in, and we still need to return.

Bernice canyon has a lot of mines, and they're all extremely dangerous. The rock in the area is very loose; you can pull it apart with your fingers. The timbers (when they used timber) used to shore up the mines are old, decrepit, and failing.

This is one of the oldest sites in Churchill County and, interestingly enough, also shows some of the most recent work. There are the remains of a mill foundation and a well before you even start up the canyon; these are believed to have been constructed in the latter half of the 1900's. Several large mines are passed before reaching the actual townsite above the second mill site, three miles distant. On the other end of the spectrum, there are the remains of three cabins which are probably from the latter half of the twentieth century. A several trucks and truck beds from the 1940's and 1950's punctuate the landscape. A road grader sits forlornly at the side of the road, which is unfortunate, because it could be put to good use on that crummy road. On the west side of the road, in the shadows of the pines, is an old cabin dug into the hillside. At the Blue Eagle mine, a circa 1920 compressor sits outside the mine on a rusty trailer.

The town site itself is unremarkable, sitting on a small sloping plain. Upon close examination, one can see the small pits and diggings that may have made up the foundations and dumps, along with the scattered bits of wood, metal, cans, ceramic, and glass laying on the ground. With the possible exception of the stone cabin, nothing from the original era remains standing, or even crumbled, for that matter.

This is one of the few sites we visited where the mines themselves have been worked fairly recently. In many, we could see shelves, barrels, clothing, and in one there were sacks of bentonite, which is used for drilling. As tantalizing as these items are to explore further, we caution you that all mines are extremely dangerous, could collapse without warning, and belong to someone else.

On 3 July Mr Petr Suchomel and I visited Bernice once again, after having supper with Dr. William Davis and discussing the things we might visit at the site. On our trip we learned several new things, among them (a) a Ford Escape cannot make it up the road without a great deal of effort, due to the fact that AWD does not equal 4WD, (b) the mouse in the stone cabin is now a rat the size of a puppy, and (3) at the remains of the three cabins together, the central cabin has finally collapsed. We also finally got to the cabin at the end of the road, although the famed ore chute remains elusive.