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Noonday Mine & Others
1870s. In 1875, brothers William D. and Robert D. Brown discovered rich lead and silver ore deposits in what became the Resting Springs Mining District. The Browns established a mining camp called Brownsville near Willow Creek and began developing claims, including the Noonday. A small boom followed as prospectors arrived; by the late 1870s, a camp had formed at the Noonday Mine site. Promoter Jonas Osborne soon bought out the Brown brothers' interests. He renamed the budding town Tecopa (after a local Paiute leader). A post office opened in 1877 as Tecopa grew into a modest mining town servicing the Noonday and nearby mines.
Scrip Vault
Osborne had ambitious plans for the district. By spring 1877, he secured Los Angeles investors to work the ores on a larger scale. They incorporated the Los Angeles Mining and Smelting Company in May, with Osborne as superintendent. Osborne transferred the Brown claims (including the Noonday and the neighboring Gunsight mine) into the company in exchange for stock. These Noonday and Gunsight lodes soon proved to be the district's leading mines. In 1878, the company built a new smelter and infrastructure at Tecopa. The smelter was fired up with a crew of about 30, producing 67 bullion bars on its first night of operation. By 1880, owners erected a ten-stamp mill and three blast furnaces to process ore on-site. Before this, the ore had to be hauled to processing plants at Resting Springs or Ivanpah, significantly improving local milling. At its peak around 1881, the Tecopa camp had roughly 40 miners working to extract ore, and a 1,000-foot tunnel was driven into the hillside to tap a promising vein at the Noonday.
Despite early successes, the first boom was short-lived. The remote desert location posed serious challenges. The smelter operation was labor-intensive-over 40 men were needed to gather fuel, mine ore, and perform constant repairs. Water was in short supply in the arid Tecopa hills, causing the furnace to overheat and crack, leading to costly shutdowns. As the owners developed the Noonday/Gunsight, the character of the ore changed; miners noted that the easy-to-smelt galena (lead sulfide) near the surface gave way to different lead carbonate ores at depths that were more difficult to process. These technical and logistical problems and fluctuating metal prices hindered profitability. By mid-1879, many miners had drifted away, and the original Tecopa townsite began to decline. The first mining phase essentially wound down by the early 1880s (some accounts note production petered out by 1882). The Tecopa post office closed, and the camp nearly emptied as attention shifted to other regional strikes. The Noonday Mine would lie primarily dormant for the next two decades.
Tecopa Consolidated Era (1906-1928)
A second, more substantial boom at the Noonday Mine began in the early 20th century. In 1906, new investors reassembled the district under the Tecopa Consolidated Mining Company, breathing life back into the old mines. This revival was partly catalyzed by regional mining excitement (such as the Greenwater copper rush to the north) and the arrival of railroad transportation. In 1907, the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad (T&T) built its line through the Amargosa Valley to Tecopa, reaching the old townsite as new mining activity was ramping up. Tecopa station became the shipping point for ore and connected the mines. A private standard-gauge spur, the Tecopa Railroad, was constructed around 1909-1910. This 11-mile railroad line ran from the Noonday and Gunsight mine area down to the T&T mainline at Tecopa, overcoming the remote location that had plagued earlier operations. An aerial tramway was built to lower ore from the mine adits on the hillside down to the railhead. This engineering feat underscores the mine's productivity at the time. In one early shipment, Tecopa Consolidated filled a 30-car train with high-grade Noonday ore averaging about $40 per ton, sending it off to the smelter-a dramatic indication of the mine's output.
Once rail transport was secured, large-scale production became economically feasible. Tecopa Consolidated developed the Noonday, Gunsight, War Eagle, Columbia, and other claims in a unified operation. Ore was hauled by the company's railroad to Tecopa and then shipped via the T&T to smelters in Murray, Utah, for processing. By 1912, the district was hitting its stride, producing substantial lead and silver. The period during World War I was exceedingly prosperous: between 1917 and 1920, the Noonday and its sister mines made Tecopa Consolidated the leading silver-lead producer in California. During this boom, the company reportedly produced roughly $3,000,000 worth of silver and lead (in early 20th-century dollars) from the Tecopa mines. Lead was the primary commodity (used in munitions and industry during WWI), with silver as a valuable co-product. Mining operations continued at a high level into the early 1920s, supported by a workforce in the hundreds across the various Tecopa properties.
By the late 1920s, over 148,000 tons of ore had been extracted from the Tecopa group of mines, averaging about $24 per ton in value. Approximately two-thirds of the recovered value was in lead, and the rest in silver (with minor traces of gold). Cumulatively, the Noonday, War Eagle, and related mines yielded nearly $4,000,000 in metals by 1928, making them the most significant metal producers in the entire Death Valley-Amargosa region up to that time. However, global lead prices began to fall, and the wealthiest ore zones were gradually exhausted. The combination of declining metal prices and diminishing high-grade ore forced the company to shut down operations in 1928. The private Tecopa Railroad spur was abandoned around this time, and the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad itself would cease operations shortly after (by 1940). By the onset of the Great Depression, the Noonday Mine and its neighbors were inactive. They essentially left as ghosts of a bygone boom.
Present-Day Status
Today, the Noonday Mine site is abandoned, with the echoes of its past still visible in the desert landscape. Extensive tailings dump spills down the hillside at Tecopa Pass and the dark mouth of a tunnel in the carbonate cliffs where ore once emerged. Scattered around the site are ruins of early-1900s mine structures-collapsed ore bins, timbers from the old tramway, rusted iron tanks, and machinery parts half-buried in the sand. Notably, the wooden trestle that once supported the aerial tram or loading bins has fallen to ruin, and its timbers are now a jumble on the slope. No active mining has occurred here for decades, and the workings are unsecured, making the site dangerous to enter (many shafts and tunnels are unstable or flooded).
In recent years, the Noonday Mine and its associated claims have passed into private ownership. The current owner is interested in preserving the site's heritage and sometimes grants access to guided tours or supervised exploration. Mine enthusiasts and historians occasionally visit with permission to photograph the extensive tunnels and artifacts left behind. The remote location is accessible by desert roads. It has become a point of interest for those exploring the Tecopa area's rich history. The mine has no ongoing removal or reclamation projects, so its weathered structures and tailings piles continue to mark where fortunes were made and lost. Visitors today can stand amid the ruins of the Noonday Mine and gaze across the empty desert valley, imagining the clatter of the stamp mill and the whistle of the ore trains that once echoed through these now-silent hills.
Between the late 1800s and the 1970s, the Noonday Mine in Tecopa Mining District of Inyo County was producing lead and silver. It was busiest during World War II, providing lead and zinc. The ore was treated at the Tecopa smelter. There are mine tunnels, waste dumps, and buildings remaining today, testifying to the richness of mining history in the area.
Most ranches and mines are under private ownership. DO NOT TRESPASS! Obtain permission from the property owner before entering any private property for any activity.
Ecology 322ac
Tecopa RR
Tonopah and Tidewater RR
Tecopa
Resting Springs
Shoshone, CA.
Kingston Range Wilderness
Stampmill