Silver

specimen number:
2273004

location:
Creede, Mineral Co., Colorado, USA

description:
A cut slab rent or section from this famous locality. This shows very rich veins of native silver.

The Creede mining district, situated in Mineral County within the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, was a legendary silver-producing center exploited through a vast network of underground shafts, tunnels, and adits. Geologically, the district is nested within the Central San Juan caldera cluster, specifically focused along the structural graben faults of the Oligocene-age Creede Caldera where intense fracturing of rhyolitic volcanic tuffs provided pathways for deep hydrothermal circulation. These mineralizing fluids deposited low-sulfidation epithermal veins composed of silver-bearing sulfosalts, native silver, acanthite, galena, and sphalerite within a gangue of quartz, barite, chlorite, and rhodochrosite. Historically, the district exploded into existence following major silver discoveries by Nicholas Creede in 1889, leading to the incorporation of the town in 1892 and a massive boom that saw iconic mines like the Holy Moses, Amethyst, and Last Chance ship thousands of tons of high-grade ore. Production remained highly dynamic through the early twentieth century, surviving shifts in metal prices before experiencing a major modern revival when Homestake Mining Company developed the Bulldog Mountain vein system, which operated from 1969 until its permanent closure in 1985 due to low silver prices. This marked the end of large-scale commercial extraction in the district, leaving the area focused on historic preservation, environmental reclamation, and geological study through 2026.

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