Southeastern San Bernardino County

During its early history, the southeastern part of San Bernardino County was inseparably linked with the Colorado River. The early mines in the area were seldom more than a two days walk from this important transportation route. Soldiers stationed on the river are credited with the first discoveries in the Dead and Whipple Mountains, although it seems that they were not responsible for any serious mining.

There were flurries of activity in the 1860s and 1880s for copper and silver, but with the exception of the Ibex Gold Mine in the early 1890s, the most serious mining activity was for copper and gold early in this century. The centers of activity were the Whipple, North Sacramento and Turtle Mountains. There has been mining for manganese during both world wars. With the high price of gold, the Savahia Mining Company of Las Vegas in 1979 reopened the Savahia Mine in the Whipple Mountains, while ten million tons of copper ore, blocked out in the Copper Basin area, sit unmined.