Cinnabar

specimen number:
2063581

location:
Chisos Mine, Brewster Co., Texas, USA

description:
Rich red masses of cinnabar throughout this matrix. Good reference example from this famous old mining district. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark. He collected the piece personally in 2008.

Located in the Terlingua Mining District of Brewster County, Texas, the Chisos Mine (originally known as the McKinney-Parker Mine) is a historic mercury property that was developed following the discovery of cinnabar deposits in the region during the late nineteenth century. The underlying geology consists of Cretaceous limestone host rocks crosscut by fault zones and igneous intrusions, where low-temperature hydrothermal fluids deposited rich veins of bright red mercury sulfide. Operated extensively by Howard E. Perry's Chisos Mining Company in the early twentieth century, the underground mine became one of the top producers of quicksilver in the United States, driving the boomtown development of Terlingua until operations declined prior to World War II. Collectors and mineralogists recognize the locality for fine specimens of cinnabar, native mercury, and associated secondary minerals, though much of the original site now consists of preserved historic ruins within a protected desert region.

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