Looking For Detachment

I recently drove across northern Nevada from Winnemucca to Gerlach to the NV-CA state line in the upper reaches of Smoke Creek, and while the temperature was holding steady at about 89°F, I stopped at Sulphur to take a few quick pictures. It turns out that Sulphur is a bigger place than I had realized on my several stops through the area, and so I spent a little extra time there.

In the first photo, you can see the roof of a building on the ground—this roof has been photographed many times and is easy to find on the internet—and you can see a well-built cabin. I'm not sure where exactly the cabin came from, because it, and the sign, were not present the last time I drove through the area, which was last May (2017). Although I didn't get photos last year showing this precise area, I do have photos from 2013 without sign or cabin, and Google also currently shows the area without either.
The sign says the town was at least 400 acres in size (about 0.625 square miles), and that claims for sulfur were first filed in 1875.
I wandered over to take a closer look at the "new" cabin, which has bars on doors and windows to deter entry.

Looking west toward the Black Rock Desert—not visible for the raised railroad bed—we can see the many remains of Sulphur in the foreground and the Granite Range near Gerlach (left) and the Calico Mountains (right) in the blueish background.
And then it was time to move on. I had 44 miles to get to Gerlach, and many more miles beyond that.

Strangely enough, very few of the Nevada or western ghost town sites have any information about the place; those with the most info are (1) the Sulphur and Sulphur Mining District wikis by the Friends of the Black Rock Desert, (2) the Black Rock Explorers Society's page on Sulphur, (3) a blurb at the Winnemucca Convention & Visitor's Authority, and (4) an article at Nevada Magazine. I'm not sure who has added the new sign and moved in the "new" old cabin (actually, the signs there are marked National Conservation Lands, part of BLM, and the sign says "Funded by the Hycroft Mining Corporation") but upon my Google search for new sign at Sulphur Nevada, the 6th hit is Zillow reporting it has 0 homes for sale in Sulphur, NV. I'll henceforth be excluding Sulphur from my new home searches!

I apparently haven't participated in the Year of Travel Meme since 2010, possibly because I traveled back and forth across the same old roads in 2011, 2012, and 2013 -- or possibly I was just too busy at the holiday time of year to get that kind of blog post together. This year, Evelyn Mervine got her Year of Travel 2013 post up right at the end of the year; I'm getting mine up before the end of January, 2014. What follows is a brief summary.

January: Returned from a trip to Alaska.

Spruce on snow.

February: Visited Unionville, NV, in scenic Buena Vista Valley, stopping to take a photo of a cabin that purportedly once belonged to Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).

Old cabin.

March: Visited Leach Hot Spring in Grass Valley, NV, and Kyle Hot Spring in Buena Vista Valley.

Leach Hot Springs.

At Kyle Hot Spring, looking across Buena Vista Valley toward Unionville.

April: Drove within sight of Wheeler Peak in eastern NV.

Wheeler Peak seen from Highway 50.

May: Drove by and contemplated the badlands near Rye Patch Dam several times.

Looking west from I-80 just south of Rye Patch Dam.

June: Drove several parts of old Highway 40 in Nevada, including this one near Humboldt House:

Old 40 looking northeast between Humboldt House and Imlay.

July: Crossed the Humboldt River, drove on the Applegate Trail past Haystack Butte, and visited Sulphur, NV, host to large piles of sulfur and scattered old junk.

Sulfur at Sulphur.

August: August was the month in which MOH and I rapidly toured parts of five western states. I blogged about the trip a little, but not as much as I hoped. Besides places already mentioned, we stopped briefly at the North Rim.

Distant view of the San Francisco volcanic field from the North Rim, with the cherty Kaibab Limestone in the foreground.

After so much travel in August, I apparently didn't go anywhere until the last day of October.

November: Family matters took me to Alaska, where I took very few non-family-related photos.

Mt. Susitna. A little more about the "Sleeping Lady," as she is often called here, and a bit about the Sleeping Lady brewpub here.

December: Another trip to points north.

Mt. St. Helens, Spirit Lake, and the Toutle River.

It is, perhaps, a little too late for this post to be considered part of a 2013 travel meme, but if you haven't posted a travel compilation for the year yet, feel free to take my cue and give yourself til the end of January!

While at Lassen Volcanic National Park on our first recent visit, which was early last month, we noticed that the sidewalk near the boiling mud pot at Sulphur Works had lots of mineral (and extremophile?) growths in many of the cracks.

Gray, white, and yellowish growths, some of which might be Sulfur crystals.

Closeup of some of the growths.

While bending over to examine these flowery structures or growths, MOH noticed that the sidewalk was hotter than it should be, even for a bright, warm, sunny day. We didn't have our laser IR thermometer handy, so we made plans to revisit the area.

To be continued...

Minerals and other growths at Sulphur Works.

Once again we are at Sulphur Works, Lassen Volcanic National Park, on the side of the road near the boiling mud pot, where MOH and I spotted some very neat greenish yellow crystals, which might be sulfur (upper right, center, and lower left).

A somewhat closer view of crystals in the upper right of the first photo.

The crystals seem a little long and pointed to me for sulfur, and copiapite, a sulfate known to occur in the area, usually occurs in scaly masses or crusts, so copiapite seems unlikely.

Greenish yellow crystals from the lower left of the first photo.

Because of the location right next to the boiling mud pot, I couldn't just walk over to examine the crystals. People have been known to break through thin crusts at the hydrothermal areas in the Lassen area, burning themselves, so I didn't even think about it!

Close up of pointed, needle-like crystals.

These crystals may be elongate versions of the Sulfur no. 1 shape shown at mindat.org. If you can't see the java applet at mindat (for some reason, I can't see it at the moment), go here to Sulfur at The Mineral & Gemstone Kingdom; it's the "Sharp Bipyramid" on the right. Or, view the applet at the source, smorf, by searching for, or using the dropdown menu to get to Sulfur. It's the second of the four crystals listed.

Photo examples of similar Sulfur crystals: 1) elongated crystals from the Jemez Mountains, NM, and 2) needle-like crystals at TheodoreGray.com, also shown here.

So, is it Sulfur or something else?

UPDATE 14Oct2012: In the comments, Ron Schott added a similar picture of Sulfur crystals from a fumarole at Nisyros Volcano, Greece, if anything, even more needle-like than these.

Related Posts:
Mud Pot at Sulphur Works
Fumarole at Sulphur Works
Views of Lassen

Old fumaroles at Sulphur Works

Here we are, back at Sulphur Works in Lassen Volcanic National Park, having walked across the road to view the current state of fumaroles (as of about 3 weeks ago. The shadowed, small holes above the large indented or concave area, approaching the top of the triangular upper face is where numerous fumaroles have been active during many of our previous visits to the area (visits by MOH and I, only one visit on this blog, with photos from October, 2006).

A couple videos on YouTube (2007, 2010) show the old vent steaming away, and the first one shows just how pockmarked that little hill was with fumaroles!

Active fumarole surrounded by large orange circle

Now we've moved down the road from the viewing area, to get a clearer view of the fumarolic vent that was steaming, that pock-mark in the center of the large orange circle. I suspect the circle may be formed not only by iron oxides, but possibly some jarosite, a sulfate mineral, and some native sulfur.

Close up of the active fumarole

Here we've zoomed in on the active fumarole, a small hole in the ground emanating steam that is no doubt adding to the pervasive, sulfurous stink of rotten eggs.

One interesting thing about the location of Sulphur Works, including this fumarole and the boiling mud pot across the road: Sulphur Works is near the center of ancient Mount Tehama (or Brokeoff Volcano, as it is sometimes known), a large stratovolcano that was active between about 600,000 and 400,000 years ago.

More Reading:

“Hot Water” in Lassen Volcanic National Park—Fumaroles, Steaming Ground, and Boiling Mudpots - U.S. Geological Survey

Explore the Hydrothermal Areas - Lassen Volcanic National Park