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 By the end of March, with the Greenwater
Pasadena, the Greenwater Arcturus, the Greenwater Baltic and the
Greenwater Clinton mining companies hard at work, a local resident felt
safe in boasting that the
Willow Creek
section would prove up the richest
copper mines around
Greenwater.
As April passed and May began, the district
settled down, with its companies looking for the copper deposits, and
Willow Creek looked every bit the picture of a small suburb of
Greenwater.
However, in May, 1907, the picture suddenly changed, when the Greenwater
Baltic Mining Company discovered a high grade silver-lead streak on its
property.
Copper was one thing, but silver was quite
definitely another, and the
Willow Creek rush began all over again. Within
a week after the strike on the Baltic was announced, the Bullfrog Miner
proclaimed that a "Wild Rush Is On to
Willow Creek. Numerous new
locations were made and several more silver strikes announced, and another
wave of prospectors rolled over the country, looking for the silver
indications which had previously been ignored in the initial rush for
copper ground. The Greenwater Copperhead Company was formed, with
silver-lead indications on its claims, and numerous smaller silver mines
were opened. To help those rushing into the district, volunteers began
working on a wagon road to improve access to the camp.
As the new rush continued, the Bullfrog Miner
wrote in mid-May that Willow Creek Still On The Boom. The New Camp 15
Assuming City Proportions. Telegraph and telephone lines would be there
soon, the paper said, and a water company had been organized to pipe water
from Willow Springs up to the townsite. The Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad,
taking note of the amount of freight which was now going into the
re-booming area, included
Willow Creek as one of the freighting points on
its new timetable, with teams connecting the townsite with Tecopa Station.
The new rush also caused the older copper
companies of the district to re-evaluate their holdings, and new assays
were run on their ore, looking for indications of silver or gold which had
been ignored before. By the end of May, with both the new and old
companies working, the
Willow Creek District looked extremely prosperous
and full of promise for the future. A petition was being circulated in the
area for a new post office, and a movement was underfoot to use the pure
water of
Willow Creek to start a brewery. In summary, although the
Bullfrog Miner noted that the
Willow Creek excitement was taking many
people away from
Greenwater, it cautioned that there were "no deep
workings in the camp" as of yet, and more time was needed to demonstrate
the permanency of the
Willow Creek ores.
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 At the same time that the new gold and silver
finds were causing a new rush to the territory, some of the older copper
mines were beginning to close down, since the rich surface copper streaks
pinched out with depth, just as they did at
Greenwater. Thus, the
Greenwater Pasadena Copper Mining Company ceased work in late May and the
Greenwater Copperhead Company in early June. But the Greenwater Baltic,
the Greenwater Arcturus, the Nevada Greenwater, and the Greenwater Clinton
continued to work, as most of them discovered enough traces of gold or
silver on their properties to warrant further development work.
Even though some of the mines had ceased
operations, the
Willow Creek townsite continued to be described as looking
very prosperous especially after Harry Ramsey and O. B. Clover made a
surface strike of gold about four miles southeast of Willow Spring in
June. The gold, which assayed at $200 per ton, caused Ramsey and Clover to
claim that they had finally found the Real and only Breyfogle Mine."
Several more gold strikes were made within a
short period of time, and suddenly the
Willow Creek area was transformed
from a copper mining camp to a gold camp. With the new promise of riches,
the opinion was soon forthcoming from the Bullfrog Miner, that the
Willow Creek area would "undoubtedly distance
Greenwater in a short time." The
Inyo Register reported that the "Latest reports from the scene of the new
strike in the
Willow Creek District indicates that the surface showing is
the richest ever discovered in this desert region, if not in the world.
Gold Valley
The new rush, which soon resulted in numerous
small mines being opened up, also reintroduced the townsite battle to the
area. The Goldsworthy brothers, who were responsible for one of the
bigger gold strikes, announced the formation of Gold Valley townsite.
These brothers did not think small, and when the plat of their townsite
was approved by the Inyo County Board of Supervisors, it showed an immense
camp of ninety-six blocks, with over 1,200 lots surveyed and ready for
sale.
As August continued, more gold strikes were
reported, and two wise prospectors, taking advantage of the new rush
fever, sold their gold claims for $50,000. The rush to the new gold
section of the district threatened to entirely eclipse the older copper
section, and the Greenwater Arcturus closed down on October 5, 1907, as
did the Nevada
Greenwater Mining, Milling and Smelting Company. In the
meantime, the new gold section was booming and the Gold Valley townsite
was described as having a general store and a saloon, with more business
slated to come in soon.
By the end of that month, it was quite clear
that gold had replaced copper in the
Willow Creek District, "not because
they don't have copper," said the Bullfrog Miner, "but because copper is
down to 15’ a pound and gold is $248 a pound." The paper counted fourteen
gold strikes in the district, and noted that most of the miners and
prospectors, wary of the boom and bust cycle of the
Greenwater mining
companies, were attempting to work their properties without outside
financing. It was undoubtedly a wise move, for in addition to the
Greenwater bust, which was beginning to become quite apparent, the Panic
of 1907 was also making itself felt in the western mining regions, and
investment dollars for new districts and unproven mines was almost
impossible to attract.
Continued Next
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