The Lost Ivanpah Silver Vein is the story that was told to me by John, who I mention in my book, and which I devoted a chapter to. 

The story was told to John by his father, who was a mining surveyor and directly involved in the story. The story takes place close to Sandy Valley, Nevada which is about 30 miles south of Las Vegas.

Miguel, who ran the stagecoach station on Mesquite Lake, a dry lakebed, and John’s father were good friends. While on his way to complete a surveying job he stopped by to visit Miguel and Miguel told him of finding a silver vein in the mountains. Miguel believed it to be a high-grade silver vein such as that of the Ivanpah Mine which was in the same mountains. He told John’s father that he wanted him to file a mining claim on it for him and pointed up the slope into the canyon saying, “It was just around the corner, and you can’t quite see it from the station.” 

Miguel said he would give him 50% of everything that came out of it if John’s father would put the claim in his own name. The reason was that Miguel wasn’t a U.S. citizen and couldn’t file the claim paper on it and he trusted John’s father. 

John’s father said he would but first he had to finish a survey job and would be back in a week or so to file the paperwork for Miguel. When he returned, Miguel was not at the stagecoach station and had taken sick and died in town. John’s father never knew exactly where the silver vein was and passed the story on to John. 

I searched sporadically over a ten-year period looking for the silver vein that Miguel had found. On my last visit to the area, after many years, I finally found what I believed was Miguel’s silver vein. 

Join me as I tell you the story and take you up the canyon to where I think Miguel found the high-grade silver vein or what he thought was a high-grade silver vein. 

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