Tick Canyon Rockhounding

Photo taken on 10/30/2011.

The Sterling Borax Mine dumps were a popular collecting area for many years. Here are some of the hard-to-find magazines that published articles on collecting there, although I don't really know who to ask. Also, a chapter from one book. The mine area has always been on private property so you must obtain permission to collect there. In 2006, US Borax sold the mine and the property around it to developer Monterey Homes, but that development never happened.

Nobody will probably mind if you collect at the lower dump on the other side of Davenport Road from the mine. You can find nice, clean, small pieces of white howlite and an occasional piece of agate.

In February of 2022, the City of Santa Clarita received $1 million in grant funding for the future purchase of what is apparently now called the Borax Mine Open Space.