Geology

First, Silver Reef is in the original place
where silver was found in sedimentary rock.
Even to this day geologists argue the
matter, though most accept the idea that
volcanic gases brought it from the interior of
the earth, and, upon reaching the porous
sandstone strata, the metals were
deposited, the gases escaping or forming
other compounds. The metals found are
silver, copper, vanadium, and uranium.
Further, this is the only known spot where
silver and uranium occur together in
commercial quantities.
Second, the camp, is within the great
Hurricane Fault area, near the edge of the
Colorado Plateau. It has been a matter of
controversy whether it were originally one
strata faulted three times, or three different
strata. The one strata theory is generally
accepted. (Marietta Mariger)

Excerpt from an Engineers Report
by Charles M. Rolker
At the base of these encircling mountains
lies a belt of dull, brick-red sandstone, over
1000 feet thick. Its extent is seen on the west
side of the town, and its trend is for over 30
miles to the south. Underlying, as it formerly
did, the surrounding sandstone country, it
has since acted as a central wedge, around
which the other strata have been grouped.

On either side of this wedge we find a
series of superimposed sandstones. They
are best marked on the west slope of the
hill, where they follow in regular
series-white sandstones, underlaid in turn
by gray and red sandy shales separated in
places by green clay shales, and followed
in turn by the white sandstones, the first of
the second series. These white sandstones
being harder have withstood the
weathering action better than the softer
underlying shales, and their strike is clearly
marked by protruding ribs or reefs, the
intervening shales being washed and
carried away to a depth of over 100 feet,
three: the White, the Buckeye, and the Butte
Reef, overlying each other in the sequence
named. Like the red sandstone before
mentioned, which has the shape of a
horseshoe with the open side on the south,
so these reefs are grouped uniformly about
the wedge above, mentioned

forming a valley. Of these reefs, we note
three: the White, the Buckeye, and the Butte
Reef, overlying each other in the sequence
named. Like the red sandstone before
mentioned, which has the shape of a
horseshoe with the open side on the south, so
these reefs are grouped uniformly about the
wedge above, mentioned.

I have purposely been explicit in describing
the circuits of the reefs, because the theory
has been advanced that the Buckeye and
Butte reefs were in turn faulted from the
"original reef-the White Reef, on its west side,
and that only one reef existed on the east
side of the horseshoe. A side from the fact
that two reefs are seen on the entire circuit,
there are other reasons which speak against
a one-reef theory. With their sides 300 to 1500
feet apart, gradually widening until the gap is
about 4000 feet, or more, at the head of the
curve, it would be a very strange fault if we
assumed it to have fallen off the White Reef,
in the shape of a horseshoe. But, again,
underlying the White Reef is the Pride of the
West Ledge, a siliceous limestone, very plainly
marked, and to be seen distinctly at the first
glance, all along the White Reef. This marked
distinctive bed is absent in the Buckeye Reef.
Further, the character of the Buckeye and
White Reef ores is as different to the
experienced eye as dark blue is from purple,
and they act differently in the mill.

As to the age of the sandstone, little can be
said with certainty, since so far no
characteristic fossils have been found in
them. Reeds and rushes are plentiful, but no
leaf or shell has been traced to this locality.

The ore itself is what is known as cerargyrite
or chloride of silver, which however, below
true water-level will change to the sulphuret
of silver, with native silver in places. .