178 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEKIT UNITED STATES. 



Humboldt R i ver on the west and the West Humboldt R ange on the 

 east. (See PI. XXXYII.) Beyond Rye Patch is Zola. 



Nenzel, which until recently was called Nixon (see sheet 21, p. 184), 

 is near the site of the old town of Oreana, noted as being the place 



where silver-lead smelting was first successfully 

 Nenzel. carried on in Nevada. Oreana has been referred to 



Eievatiom,i85 feet, ^^g ^-^^ birthplace of silvcr-lcad smelting west of the 



Omaha 1,424 miles. ^,^,. ■,, ti ii 



Rocky Mountams, but some lead was produced 

 earlier at Argent a, Mont. The Nevada ore that was first smelted at 

 Oreana in 1867 came from the Montezuma mine, in the Trinity 



L 



Mountains, west of the railroad, 



Nenzel is now a supply station for the new camp of Rocliester. A 

 branch railroad, the Nevada Short Line, extends from Nenzel for 5 

 miles to the mountain foot, but the mines and settlement are high 

 up on the Star Peak Range. As late as August, 1912, Joseph Nenzel 

 relocated some old claims in this district and discovered the ore which 

 has made it a producing district. A small shipment of ore made in 

 August was followed by the discovery of larger bodies later in the 

 year. In less than a month the hitherto desolate canyon had a 

 population of more than 2,000 people and contained many substantial 

 two-story buildings. The total production to September, 1914, is 

 reported to be over $1,200,000.^ In the early days Rochester 

 Canyon and the adjacent ravines yielded considerable placer gold that 

 must have been derived from the disintegration of the gold-bearing 

 veins on the mountain slopes above. 



The West Humboldt Range is divided southeast of Nenzel by a low 

 pass, Cole Canyon, which crosses the range obliquely. This pass 

 separates the Star Peak division of the range from the lower Hum- 

 boldt Lake division. The pass probably marks the place where a 

 fault, which runs along the west base of the Star Peak Range and 

 has caused the elevation of that block, swings across the range to the 

 south. If so, the Star Peak and Humboldt Lake ranges are distinct 

 in structure as well as in form. Traces of recent fault movement can 

 be found also along the alluvial slopes at the west base of the Hum- 

 boldt Lake Range. 



Below Nenzel the train again approaches the river, and the deep 

 trench cut by the river into Lake Lahontan clays is well exhibited to 

 the traveler. Some of the artificial cuts along the raHroad arc also 

 in these lake-deposited clays, which are capped by gravelly beach 



* The ores of the Rochester district are silver-lead orea containing antimony were 



found 



the early geologic surveys as Triassic 

 ^Koipato) sedimeutarj^ rocks, but which 

 have now been identified as mainly lavas 

 (rhyolite and some other varieties). The 



deputed along zones of parallel cracks 

 in rhyolite. The valuable metals occur 

 with quartz, in the form of argentite, 

 cerai^Tite, proustite, and pyrarg>Tite 

 (all silver minerals), and native sold. 



