Virginia Dale-Pinto Basin Mining District

The Dale or Virginia Dale gold-mining district is in southern San Bernardino and northern Riverside County about 18 miles east of Twentynine Palms. It includes the area known as the Pinto Basin mining district. The first claims here were apparently located in the early 1880s, but the district was not too productive until the 1890s. There was moderate activity during the early 1900s and 1920s, increasing in the 1930s and early 1940s, when the Gold Crown, Supply, Virginia Dale, and Carlyle mines were active. A little work has been done since.

The district is underlain by a variety of rocks, which includes granite, quartz diorite, banded gneiss, andesite porphyry and schist. The quartz veins contain native gold, varying amounts of sulfides and iron minerals, and silver is abundant in some deposits. The veins are up to 10 feet thick and have been mined to depths of as much as 1200 feet. Several high-grade pockets have been uncovered.