Ghost Town of Carrara and Quarry - Summary Page

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This page last updated on 06/19/2019

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Directions: From Las Vegas, follow US-95 North for approximately 104 miles (approximately 10 miles south of Beatty, Nevada). Turn right onto an unmarked dirt road on the right side of the highway (heading northeast) (Fig. 01). You can see some visible ruins from the highway. This road runs almost straight up the desert valley to the base of Bare Mountain and the old Carrara marble mine site, refer to (Fig. 02).

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Description of Area: From highway 95 there is a relatively flat desert baja that stretches to the base of the Bare Mountains. A rough dirt road stretches about three miles up to the location of the marble quarry itself. Mill foundations are found near the highway, while the Carrara townsite is located about a quarter mile east of the highway. About a quarter mile out there is the visible remains of a chimney (Fig. 03). The chimney was of the hotel. This spot was the approximate location of the down of Carrara. Though it once enjoyed several years’ worth of hustle and bustle in the mid-teens and early 20s, the town's only remains today are a few cellars, slabs, building foundations (Figs. 05-07). In the old picture of the town, there is a building in the very center that appears to have a chimney, possibly the one in picture (05), The town's main attraction was a marble fountain that was 18 feet across, and 3 feet deep that supported a 6 foot column of water. The pictures in (Figs. 08-10) even shows some of the pipe that provided water to the fountain. The old picture in (Fig. 11) shows two unknown persons sitting on the edge of the fountain. The fountain got its water from a nine mile pipeline that ran down from the town of Gold Center to the northwest.

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Town Background and History: May 8, 1913 brought about a grand dedication of the townsite, complete with a ball, music by a band brought down from Goldfield, baseball game, swimming in the town pool. A newspaper, the Carrara Obelisk, was published (published May 8, 1913 - September 1916), and the post office opened shortly after (May 24, 1913 - September 15, 1924). A hotel, store and restaurant also served the town. Due to the completion of the mines’ railroad in 1914, Carrara’s peak years were 1915 and 1916. Some buildings were actually moved to Carrara from Beatty and Rhyolite to make the town look more finished than it really was. Circa 1914, a hotel was opened that featured electric lights, running water, and telephones, along with a store and restaurant. Around this time, there were more than forty buildings at the town site, which eventually inflated to about 100 residents.  It even had a newspaper, the Carrara Obelisk, which published between May 8, 1913 and September 1916, and a post office that was opened shortly thereafter on May 24, 1913. The post office remained open until September 15, 1924. Unusual for the desert, Carrara could even boast its own town fountain. Water came from near the site of Gold Center, a few miles across the valley.

Quarry Background and History: Though some records indicate that the marble deposits were first located in 1904, it wasn't until 1911 that some prospectors ended up forming the American Carrara Marble Company. The economy of Carrara was based almost entirely on the marble quarry (Figs. 12-13). Because the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad was three miles below the mine site, a three mile unpowered cantilevered railroad that involved a single standard gauge track upon wooden ties was built to get the marble blocks, sometimes weighing up to fifteen tons, down for shipping. Motor power was a full car that pulled the empty one up the hill. At the midway point, a turnout track allowed the cars to pass each other. Begun in 1913, it was completed in 1914. After the marble slabs were processed, they were shipped out over the Las Vegas & Tonopah until that company failed. Later, the nearby Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad built a spur to the marble mill at Carrara and thereafter shipped out tonnage. After the failure of the marble quarry, the owner tried to build a cement plant. Concrete structures a mile and a half north are of a 1930's failed cement plant. Sometimes referred to as the Elizalde Cement Plant ruins, the shell of this abandoned complex was officially called the Carrara Portland Cement Company Plant. Carrara Portland Cement Company was incorporated in November of 1940. It was slated to produce two grades of cement: gray construction cement, and a high quality white cement using the crushed white Carrara marble from the nearby quarry. Production was estimated to be at about 80 tons a day once the plant was completed, sometime in August 1941. Unfortunately, a fire in July 1941 swept through the complex destroying numerous buildings. Despite all of the time, money and effort invested, the cement plant was never put into operation.

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Trip Notes: I visited this place three times. The first two times were in 2013 with Harvey Smith when we visited the quarry processing site near the road (Figs. 14-16 below) and the area of the original town site (figs. 03-10 above). Refer to (Fig. 01). The last time was on 19 June 2019 with Jim Herring, Bob Croke and Ron Ziance when we drove out to the site of the marble quarry and the mine of the cement mine. On today's visit, driving up the rock, rocky road leading to the marple quarry proved to be much more difficult than I expected. It became so rough and washed out about 3/4 of the way out, we had to park the jeep and hike the remaining distance to the mine and the quarry. At a point the road kind of split.  Going left led to the mine up on the north side of the canyon (Fig. 20). Bob and Ron took this route which turned out to be a higher climb and a little more difficult. Jim and I followed what appeared to be the old road that ended up at the site of the marble quarry (Figs. 21-23). Off to the side of the relatively deep quarry pit, there was a large pile of unused pieces piled up (Figs. 24 & 25). Though it was still a pretty rough road, it was easier than the route that Bob and Ron hiked. The hiking made the trip more difficult than we had expected, but finally seeing the quarry made the trip worth it. However, on the way back, the rough road caused me to tear off the right front wheel flare molding (Fig. 26).

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Note: Every attempt is made to provide accurate information, but occasionally depictions are inaccurate by error of mapping, navigation or cataloging. The information on this site is provided without any warranty, express or implied, and is for informational and historical purposes only.

Crystal Pass (Prospect) Mine - Goodsprings Mining District

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This page last updated on 12/03/2018

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Directions: Leaving from the Stratosphere, get on the I-15 South. Go 24 miles and take NV-161 (Exit 12) toward Jean/Goodsprings. Leaving Jean, head west on Route 161 towards Goodsprings. Continue through Ivanpah Valley on the left and Goodsprings Valley on the right, until you reach a dirt road on the left about a half mile before Sandy Valley Road. You will be able to see the the Goodsprings Energy Recovery Station on the left. Turn left onto the unmarked dirt road and follow this road to the Crystal Pass (Prospect) Mine site (Fig. 01) as indicated on the map in (Fig. 02). The picture in (Fig. 03) on the right is an overhead view looking down onto the site from above.

Area Description: For a more detailed description of the Goodsprings Mining District, go to my page titled, Goodsprings Mining District (South). There are literally dozens of prospects, mines, shafts and adits in the Goodsprings' Mining District in the southern end of the Spring Mountain Range south of the town. The majority of these are accessed from two 4WD roads that run off of Sandy Valley Road and Nevada 161. Table Mountain Road which runs south off of Sandy Valley Road, provides access to, among others, the Surprise, Columbia, Argentena, Lookout and Mountain Top mines.  An unnamed 4WD road opposite the Goodsprings Bypass Road on Nevada 161 runs south through the Goodsprings and Ivanpah valleys', and provides access to the Crystal Pass Mine, Lincoln, Ireland, Houghton, Star, Monte Cristo, Portor, Accident, Bullion and Valentine mines, as well as dozens more prospects, adits and unnamed mines. The vast majority of the mines in this portion of the Goodsprings Mining District are in the mountains west of Porter Wash as seen in the (Fig. A) below.

Crystal Pass (Prospect) Mine Description: This mine is located in the northern portion of the Goodsprings Mining District [see Goodsprings Mining District - Summary Page]. The reason that I found it so difficult to find any information on this site is because it was only registered as a prospect, and not as a mine. The prospect shows signs of mineral deposits, but was never advanced to an actual mining site. Though the primary mining in this area included: copper, lead, silver, gold and zinc, the primary products of this mine are listed as silver and lead. When I first visited this site back in 2013 with Harvey Smith, we were surprised at the structures, many levels and depth of this mine. From what we've been able to survey, there were three levels to this mine. One up and one down. There isn't much to see on any of the three levels except for the small gauge rails in the last opening on the upper level used to cart the ores out. Refer to the pictures in the "09/16/2013 Trip Notes" below. Refer to the "12/01/2018 Trip Notes" for an update of this mine.

12/01/2018 Trip Notes: On this visit, Jim Herring and I visited the mine to do some more exploring. After driving to the site and climbing up to the upper levels, we were extremely disappointed. Sadly, in late 2015 the BLM saw fit to close every entrance thereby sealing the mine forever. Using a foam and boulders they blocked every opening. Other than the pictures of my first visit in the section below, no new images of the interior will ever become available again. We spent some time touring the site and documenting what the BLM had done (Figs. 04 thru 06). Due to the elevation of this mine, roughly 3,860 feet, there are some outstanding views of the surrounding area (Figs. 07 & 08). Looking southwest from this site we spotted what looked like another mine in the wash below that leads to the ridge of Crystal Pass (Fig. 09). Refer to the spot listed as "Mine Shaft" on the map in (Fig. 02). The shaft of this mine was fenced off with barbed wire. After "hopping" the fence pictures indicated that it was quite deep (Figs. 10 thru 12). From here we drove south to the Lincoln Mine noted on (Fig. 02).

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09/06/2013 Trip Notes: Today we spent over 6 hours driving around this area locating, hiking and exploring a handful of the many mines located in this region. Towards the end of the day, we finally reached the area in (Fig. A below) and it's many mine sites, the majority of which required strenuous hikes, 400-500 feet up mountainsides in order to reach them. Because our time appeared limited due to impending storms, we surveyed the landscape and picked out one of the largest, the Bullion Mine, and headed in its direction. Even if we spent another full day here, we still wouldn't have enough time to adequately explore all of the many mines located here.

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Notes on (Crystal Pass Mine): About 2-1/2 miles in from NV-161 we made two right turns (Fig. 02) that led us up a wash (Fig. 13) towards a saddle known as Crystal Pass and the large mine site of Crystal Pass (Prospect) Mine (Figs. 03 & 13) located three-quarters of the way up the mountain on the east side of the wash. As it turned out, this mine, now a total of about 4 miles out, turned out to be the find of the day. From its lower opening (Fig. 14) (elv 3,754 feet), it tunneled upwards 125 feet along the ridge-line to a final elevation of about 3,875 feet. Shortly after entering the lower tunnel (Fig. 15), I observed sunlight coming from the roof of the tunnel up ahead (Fig. 16). Shortly, I was able to look skyward through an opening (Fig. 17) that appeared to have been the result of a cave in many years ago. As we worked our way through the various tunnels, we found no less than three side shafts that led to the outer edge of the ridge. It appeared that these may have been created to make it easier to get the ore and excess materials out of the tunneling operations. The last two tunnel sections still had the remains of some small gauge ore cart rails (Figs. 18, 19 & 20). When we reached the end of the longest tunnel it split into two separate tunnels (Fig. 21); The one to the right was rather short, so Harvey decided to venture a short distance into the one on the left. After scaring up a few bats that flew by us at amazing speed and out the opening (Fig. 22) behind us, we decided it was time to leave.  Because this final opening was so high, we were unable to exit the mine here and had to backtrack until we were able to find another ground level opening (Figs. 23 & 24). The view in (Fig. 25) is looking south from the main entrance. Located to the southeast of Primm, notice the dry Ivanpah lake-bed in the distance. Considering the extensive operation that went on here, I am surprised that it was never filed as a mine.
                            

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For additional pages on mines around the Goodsprings Mining District also visit the following ... 

Goodsprings Mining District

 Index of Nevada Mining Districts

Glossary of Mining Terms

Note: Every attempt is made to provide accurate information, but occasionally depictions are inaccurate by error of mapping, navigation or cataloging. The information on this site is provided without any warranty, express or implied, and is for informational and historical purposes only.