IS THERE MERCURY IN CITY CREEK CANYON, SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA? THE LEGACY OF A CLASSIC MINING HOAX

The first historical accounts of a mercury mine located in City Creek Canyon, San Bernardino, California, date to an 1856 report which attributes the discovery to Theodore Turley. Turley was reported to have produced over a pint of mercury per day, for several years. Additional reports of the relocation of this “lost mine” in the 1860's and 1870's, confirm neither production nor location. In this work, we combined searches of historical records with a geochemical field study in an attempt to confirm the existence and location of this supposed mercury mine. Sample concentrates were panned along the length of City Creek, with the assumption that dense mercury minerals and mercury compounds associated with weathering of the deposit and retort operations would be evident. None of these gravity-concentrated samples contained anomalous concentrations of mercury in comparison to local countryrock, and no sediment sample contained >0.25 ppm mercury (all others were <0.08 ppm). Similarly, water samples from the creek contained less than our detection limit of 0.22 ppb Hg. We obtained no geochemical evidence that mercury mining and processing ever occurred within the canyon. The geology of City Creek Canyon is vaguely similar to that of documented mercury deposits of northern California, but air photos and field inspection do not reveal development workings or mine dumps consistent with the vast quantity of mercury that Turley reportedly mined and refined on site. Furthermore, historical records indicate that Turley, a convicted counterfeiter, was poisoned by mercury while in northern California prior to his arrival in San Bernardino. Frequent trips back north followed the discovery of the purported mercury mine, suggesting that he may have used the San Bernardino “mine” as a front for disposing of stolen mercury from real mines in northern California. Individuals seeking investors made subsequent reports of relocation of the mine site in the 1863's and 1872's as recorded in local newspapers. Following these investment drives, the record is strangely silent with respect to the deposits, suggesting a community which still felt the sting of being swindled of their funds.