Cox Canyon, Nevada

Cox Canyon is an engrossing ghost town to explore, but frustrating to document its history. I sit at the computer with the entire internet in front of me and a quickly expanding ghost town and mining library at my back, yet I find almost nothing other than the mining that occurred at Cox Canyon.

I have exhausted every source I can imagine. I cleaned my desk, completed dreaded paperwork and moved my Chapstick at least twenty times and still, no brilliant ideas have come to mind. Like much of Nevada mining history, Cox Canyon was likely a flash in the pan, a bright flame that disappeared moments later.

Cox Canyon fluorspar mines

The Cirac brothers discovered fluorspar in 1938 on the west side of the Stillwater range. The brothers patented four mining claims under the name Revenue Group. Their strategy was to extract, then hand-sort fluorspar for shipping. Unfortunately, no production was documented due to a lack of the mineral or difficulty with transportation.

Fluorspar has multiple uses, including lapidary work, optics and manufacturing products, refrigerants, aluminum and gasoline.

Mining in Cox Canyon ended in the 1940s. Cox Canyon had no post office, newspaper or stores, not even the precursor to the development of any mining town, a saloon. That is it, all I could find.

Cox Canyon sits above Lahontan Valley, the largest valley in Nevada. Unlike nearby Coppereid and Shady Run, Cox Canyon is well… in the canyon. A narrow road passes through a narrow opening and then opens to a broader canyon. Ruins are split into three sections.

Cox Canyon Ruins

Ruins are split into three sections and numbered from the canyon’s opening to the back. Debris litters all three sites: metal straps, cans and porcelain.

First ruins

The first ruins are just past the narrow opening. The remains of a rock foundation are on the south side, while a smaller rock wall is on the opposite hill.

Second ruins

The second section is a little bit of a hike to a side canyon. It contains a collapsed wood cabin and various living debris, including a broken bed frame.

Third ruins

The third ruin site is the most interesting. It consists of a well-defined rock structure, likely a cabin. Pictures from the early 2000s show it having a window frame, but that fell over the last twenty years.

Ghost Towning

I visited Cox Canyon with friends Shonna and Austin from Nevada Expeditions. We spent a day in the valley visiting Green and Wonderstone Mountains, Copperied and Clemens and Rockpoint Well. Don’t bother washing your vehicle before the trip; I had playa dust everywhere. We looked like we had been rolling in chalk after the drive around the playa.

We enjoyed lunch at the third set of ruins in the canyon. What says “Ghost Towning” more than a Costco bowl of shrimp and fresh fruit?

Honey Badger at the third ruins.

Visited 3-7-2021

WANT MORE GHOST TOWNS?

For information on more than five hundred ghost towns in Nevada & California, visit the Nevada Ghost Towns Map or a list of Nevada ghost towns.

Nevada Ghost Towns Map

---

References

• The Diggings: North Job Canyon Lead Occurrence
• Forgotten Nevada: Cox Canyon
• Gamett, James and Stan Paher. Nevada Post Offices: An Illustrated History. Nevada Publications, 1863. Page 52-53.
• Lincoln, Francis Church. Mining Districts and Mineral Resources of Nevada. Stanley Paher, 1982. Pages 8-10.
• Minedat: Cox Canyon
• Nevada Expeditions: Cirac Bros. Mine (Cox Canyon)
• Paher, Stanley. Nevada Ghost Towns and Desert Atlas. Nevada Publications, 2009. Page 24-25.
• Paher, Stanley. Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps. Nevada Publications, 1970. Pages 91-95.
• USGS: Fluorspar Statistics and Information
• Western Mining History: Cox Canyon Deposits
• Wikipedia: Fluorite

Follow me on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•