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This is the story of how Allen Hardin (or Harding) while in route to California in 1849 found an outcropping of silver ore but failed to recognize it for what it was. According to the available information, Allen Hardin and two other men, were hunting off of the Lassen emigrant trail and found what they believed was a slab of lead but was actually raw silver.
They wagon train that they were working for had arrived at a point that was somewhere between Black Rock and a place known as Mud Meadows. Hardin and the two others went hunting for food. They had traveled along the western edge of the Black Rock desert and several miles north of Double Hot Springs, when they noticed something shining in the bottom of a ravine. They picked up the heavy ore and took it back to camp. There they melted some of it down to make bullets thinking it was lead. Hardin took a small piece of the ore with him. There is some question as to whether or not the ore was officially assayed but the people who saw it claimed that it was indeed silver.
Hardin settled in Petaluma, California but in July of 1858 he managed to put together an expedition to the Black Rock area to search for the elusive mine. It was never seen again. Many people supposed that the ore was washed out of the ground in the small ravine and may have been just as easily covered again. As a side note, a city called Hardin City was established with much fanfare on the tremendous wealth of ores in the area. This proved to be so much hype. Several mills were built to process rich ore that did not exist.
The story varies slightly depending on the source of information but the main facts remain the same. The only point that doesn't make much sense is that the ore was "shining". As most people know, silver will tarnish very rapidly in the presence of air and moisture. If it had been buried and recently washed out of the surrounding material, that could explain its appearence. I found this story included in a reprinting of the History of Nevada by Thompson and West which was published in 1881. This was the earliest mention of it that I personally found.
REFERENCE: Nevada's Black Rock desert by Sessions S. Wheeler and History of Nevada 1881 by Thompson and West pages 54-55.
Try the atlas by Paher, Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps Atlas.
