Prospectors flooded into the southern Black Mountains during the Greenwater mining boom of the early 1900s, scouring every canyon and wash. The Rhodes Spring area as well as Virgin Spring Canyon saw intermittent activity, with limited productive mining resulting (See Lost Rhodes Mine). The remote location with its subsequent high shipping costs meant that few claims would be profitable to mine.
In March 1908, W.P. Graham, Thomas McMurry, and Lewis Rice established the Graham Mine after they discovered rich gold ore near the head of a wash north of Rhodes Springs. The ore initially assayed at an astonishing $25,000 per ton in gold, but it soon became apparent that they had merely discovered an isolated high-grade pocket. After further exploration and limited excavation, everyone gave up and abandoned the area. The last known activity at the Graham Mine took place in 1974, but that also appears to have been very limited.
