Tule River Indian reservation discovery, Tule River Indian reservation, near Porterville, California

In November 1957 Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, said that Kenneth McDarment, LeRoy Kunert and George A. Heintz, all of Porterville, had made "a point discovery of industrial crude asbestos" on the Tule River Indian reservation in Tulare County, California.¹ The outcrop was "found in a schist formation, about 4,000-feet elevation," and Heintz reported amphibole asbestos "found in fibrous form up to 3 feet long and 4 inches thick."¹ Operating as the "Suerra Shan Ri La Company," as the journal printed the name, the three men were working "on a special prospecting permit issued by the Tribal Council of the reservation, the U. S. Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs."¹

The documents describe this as a deposit or prospect: they report exploration or describe the deposit, not mining for sale.¹

Location

Year by year

Every statement about this mine in the documents, in each document's own words, by the year it is about.

1957

• Description: “The asbestos outcrop was found in a schist formation, about 4,000-feet elevation” (Suerra Shan Ri La Company), as reported by Porterville dispatch, p. 56¹
• Ownership: “Operating as the Suerra Shan Ri La Company, the three men are working on a special prospecting permit” (Suerra Shan Ri La Company), as reported by Porterville dispatch, p. 56¹
• Exploration: “A point discovery of industrial crude asbestos has been made on the Tule River Indian reservation” (Suerra Shan Ri La Company), as reported by Porterville dispatch, p. 56¹
• Fiber: “Amphibole asbestos, found in fibrous form up to 3 feet long and 4 inches thick” (Suerra Shan Ri La Company), p. 56¹

See also

• Asbestos exposure sites in California
• All asbestos mines

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1957, November 1957 (November 1, 1957), p. 56.