Onyx Mine

North of Trona, California, on the eastern slopes of the Argus Range overlooking Panamint Valley, are onyx deposits in the earth. This material is a form of quartz, and is distinguished by its colorful bands of white, browns, reds, and tans. When cut with a fine saw, onyx makes a gorgeous conversation piece. In times gone by, visitors used to be able to drive out to the Panamint Valley Onyx Mine and collect their own for a small fee. The mine saw its original development in 1957 by Hollywood actress Delia Marlo, a successful movie star. Delia’s father was a full blood Cherokee, worked as a geologist, and taught her as a child to read the mountains like most folks would read a book.

She discovered several tons of beautiful onyx in the Argus Range, west of Telescope Peak. In 1958, famous opera singer John Fletcher joined Delia in working the onyx mine, and two years later they married. They built a factory on the site to further their business interests, which included a large wire saw capable of handling fifty tons of Onyx at a time, two large grinding and polishing tables, a 12-foot long diamond saw, and a showroom for interested people. Buildings included living, jewelry shack, and a trailer park for living quarters of personnel. Rock hounds from all over the country would visit the mine, tour buses would bring tourists, and folks could even spend the night at the onyx campground on site.

The operation was about 216 miles northwest of Las Vegas, by way of Death Valley, so the National Monument also benefited from the influx of visitors. Highway 178 brought California rock hounds to the area, where they then drove the famous Remi Nadeau freight route for a few miles of dirt travel. This business continued into the 1970s. Today, all the structures have been removed by the Canyon Resources Corporation, which is the owner of the Briggs Gold Mine in the Panamint Mountains across the valley. It was part of a U.S. Bureau of Land Management agreement where the corporation would return area’s old mining operations back to nature, allowing the desert to reclaim the land.