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Open Ground · Open ground

The Virgin Valley Opal Fields

Fee dig · black fire opal, Virgin Valley, Denio, Humboldt County, NV
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

The Virgin Valley Opal Fields: still unexplained.

Black fire opal, the rarest and most valuable opal in North America

The law of this ground: Private fee mines (Royal Peacock, Rainbow Ridge, Bonanza), open roughly May, September; tailings or bank digging by day rate; all finds are yours.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Black fire opal, the rarest and most valuable opal in North America
The account

In a high desert valley near the Oregon line, ancient forests turned to opal, and the wood still comes out of the bank flashing red, green, and electric blue. The Royal Peacock, Rainbow Ridge, and Bonanza mines open the ground every summer: dig the tailings cheap or pay for the fire-opal bank, and whatever you free is yours. The catch every digger learns: Virgin Valley opal can be wet, and some of it crazes as it dries. Keep your best pieces in water and watch the light move inside them.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Black fire opal, the rarest and most valuable opal in North America. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Virgin Valley, Denio, Humboldt County, NV. Private fee mines (Royal Peacock, Rainbow Ridge, Bonanza), open roughly May, September; tailings or bank digging by day rate; all finds are yours.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Black fire opal, the rarest and most valuable opal in North America. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Virgin Valley, Denio, Humboldt County, NV. Private fee mines (Royal Peacock, Rainbow Ridge, Bonanza), open roughly May, September; tailings or bank digging by day rate; all finds are yours.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 41.860°, -118.740° (approx.) View on the Map