In 1860 gold was discovered in Holcomb and Bear Valleys in the San Bernardino Mountains, and placer mining began in Lytle Creek. Silver was being mined at Ivanpah in 1870, and the rich silver mines of the Calico district were developed in the 1880s. Borax was first discovered in 1761 in the Searles Dry Lake area near Trona, and transported out by twelve-, eighteen- or twenty-mule team wagons.