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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1936)
ft v at .... . t Poori' HinerH urlsRock At Burro, Finds Riches Millions In Silver Removed From famous Mizpah Mine, Discovered By Prospector Chasing Donkey By El! Norton Richardson and F. W. McReehnia, Jr. : BSPECTOR JIM BUTLER picked up a piece If quartz rock to throw at one of hia burros had wandered front camp and discovered lamous Mizpah mine, one of the greatest sil- ijrpoeits in the world. A stubborn, restless bl, and an irritated man began the Tonopah mz boom. iiat is the legend of discovery told since by prospectors the world over. If it rivals at least much of the tale is authentic. Butler, accompanied by his wife, was camp- Enorth of Tonopah at night; their fire died and one of the pack animals vanished into Uarkness. The place of the rich discovery is ate the slope of the hill later named Mount k. after former Senator Tasker L. Oddie of liia. The bit of rock was streaked with sil- later, when the mine itself was found, But wife named it the Mizpah. lew yearsbefore his death Jim Butler relat- true story in detail, which is as near as ft will ever know of the beginning of the strike. Moments of excitement are invari- imbellished by repetition and by the teller'' nation. as camped three miles north of Tonopah," Butler said, "and the next morning while ring up my string of burros, I picked up a o float in a wash below the hill, we after- named Mount Oddie, that looked good to took a sample to an assayer at Klondyke, miles south of the present site of Tonopah, asked him to test it. He reported it worth- 1 kept some of the rock and showed it to Butler on my return home. She liked the ot it and sent some of it to Oddie. at that located at Austin. Imagine our surprise Oddie wrote us that the sample assayed in silver. Later we set out to locate the M, Sirs. Butler goine with us. We went Bid by way of Klondyke and while there fd that assayer to admit that he had not a careful analysis of the sample. In a pile fcute outside his window we found some of wk and the assayer ran it through while we fd. the result tallying closely with the assay nad made. e left at once for the north and were hardly of sight before the assaver and a party of friends were on our trail. fhey bat our trail, but when they arrived on ne we had about all the ground we wanted Pi out. firs. Butler helned hnilrl the location monu- N and stake out the corners and suggested fames for the original eight claims." was these cieht claims that formed the f us of the Mizpah mine, which with the other opened later, has produced approximately 000,000 and paid dividends of around $35,- mi ---rr - Flat cars were pressed into service to haul rich ore shipments to the smelters. tr was a scarce article, the nearest spring sout four miles distant and reached by a (' and rocky trail, but the efficient Mrs. But cas equal to the occasion nd every day she ? a team tn the Bnnnff and hrmicrht in water fecamn frTKlt doing their location work the Butler's drove to Belmont, now a near ghost town, n they met Oddie and Wilson Brougher. Tak- UMie and Rroinrher in m partners they re- H to Tonnpah. Ole leuvinir Tlnlm.,nt tlinu hurl more SSSaV.- F- the highest returning 540 ounces of silver .vu in gold. The three men sank a snait lo th of a few feet and took out two tons of "hicli they took to Belmont, and from there 'les to the railroad. From two tons they '"I MOO, which, they used to hire a few rs. O'lrlie was made business manager, In n role he acted until the property was sold to " :P of Philai'clnhia capitalists, who organ the Tnnonnh Minino- mmiunv. nresent own- 1' the pronertv. of the rich discovery soon reached the : world. A town of shacks and tents np- like magic, and the big boom was on. first lencA nn u MInah 9i granted to IT Cutting, who took out a fortune and later e a nrominrnt ritWan nf Richmond. Calif. The ore was mined in such quantity that the smeltera were unable to take the ore as fast as mined. At ono time over a half million dollars worth of ore was piled up in sacks awaiting shipment. Oddie and Butler each took a fortune from the Mizpah. Over 100 leases were granted the first year. In one year the lease owners took out $4,000,000, the ore averaging $154 per ton. No written leases were given. The miners trusted Butler and never even thought of asking for a written lease. Josiah Edward Spurr, in his report on Tonopah In 1905, comments on the way Butler handled leases: "It is worthy of record that leases given by Butler were verbal, not a scrap of paper being used. The agreements were observed to the letter by Butler, who on selling control of the mine ex pressly stipulated for the fulfillment of all prom ises. A similar spirit, worthy of emulation by all engaged in mining practice, was obser.ed in other respects. The Austin assayer, for example, received $32,000 for the assay he made." In 1901 Tonopah had 32 saloons, six faro games, two dance halls, two weekly newspapers, a public school, two daily stage lines, two churches. "It ii a very orderly community and there has been only one stage robbery thus far," stated Spurr in his report. THE original directors of the Tonopah Mining company were Charles Miller, Clinton A. Hig bee, Arthur Brock, R. H. Sanders, C. Daniels and W. G. Mendenhall, all of Philadelphia. Thayer Lindsey is now president of this company, which is operating on a leasing basis with about 100 miners working. Horace A. Johnson is general manager, a position he has held for the past 20 years. The Tonopah Belmont Mine first attracted at tention In 1906, when its shares made a sensa tional advance from $1 to $7.50 a share follow ing the discovery of bonanza pre. The Tonopah Extension mine, at one time con trolled by Chas. M. Schwab, was the most sensa tional feature of the Pittsburgh stock markc', the shares selling up to $15 a share. The West End Consolidated mine was for many years controlled by the late F. M. Smith, the borax king. This mine has produced approximate ly $8,000,000. It is now controlled by Herman A. Budclman and Fred C. Ninnis of Tonopah. It was in Tonopah that the colorful career of George Wingfield had its beginning. Landing in Tonopr.h with plenty of pluck but little cash, Wingfield hunted up a dice game in one of the many tentR and began rolling the ivory cubes. Luck was with him. and he won a half interest in the place. Later Wingfield acquired the fam ous Tonopah Club, which he operated until he went to Goldfield, where he made several millions during the boom days of that historic old camp. Tonopnh's first newspaper was the Reman.", published by W. W. "Bill". Booth. It was Booth who during prohibition days achieved front pa-re position when he wrote a sizzling editorial in which he declared: "Tonopah makes the be?t moonshine in the world." Later Sam C. Dunham and T. D. Van Devort established the Tonoprh Miner, later taken over by Walter C. Lamb and Vail Pittman, brother of Key Pittman, senior senator for Nevada. The Tonopah Miner sus pended publication some 15 years ago. The I! nanza was taken over some years ago by F. F. Garside and consolidated with his Daily Times. ON MORE than one occasitii during the past 20 years some pessimist has declared: "Tonopah mines are about worked out." and pre dicted "Tonopah will soon be Just another Neva da ghost city." In almost every instance, following one of these pessimistic outbursts, a strike of rich and new ore has been made in virgin terri tory until today Tonopah Is mining from 4.900 to 5,000 tons of silver and gold every month with a gross value of $140,000 to $150,000. It is Tonopah'a boast that the sun 'has never gene uown on a day in Tonopah that some silver and gold was not hoisted from its underground treasure vaults. When silver nose-dived to 30 cents an ounce (it touched 25 cents later) among the few silver mines of the country to continue were the Tonopah mines, although the companies suspended work and turned the mines over to leasers on a royalty basis. It is true that only a few leases operated until the price of silver ad vanced to 77 cents an ounce'aml gold to $35 an ounce, but those few kept on digging, managing to make day wages, sometimes pitifully small. The reason they were able to do this is the fact that Tonopah ore carries along with its silver content an average of one ounce of gold to every 100 ounces of silver. Very often this ratio of gold to sil.er runs much higher. It was not long ngo that a 50-ton car went to the smelter that car ried over two ounces of gold to every 100 ounces of silver. At present excitement prevails over a recent strike made in the Valley View claim of the Ton opah Mining company almost in the heart of the town, within a few hundred feet from the town's main street and the five-story brick Mizpah hotel. The rich ore was opened by Pete Mokaimovich while excavating for a cess pool a few feet back of his house. It has been named "the backyard mine." Moksimovich is now engaged in taking out 50-tons that ranges in value from $60 to $100 a ton. often lead to tremendous an Impatient prospector, Small vagaries events. A burro, chunk of ore rock sent through the air after the pack animal, and millions were added to the na lion's treasure of silver and gold. Within a few weeks after Jim Butler's rich strike, Tonopah became a roaring mining camp. COMSTOCK LODE A HARD rock mine superintendent drove hit rig down Virginia City's C street, stopped in front of the Territorial Enterprise newspaper office and loudly demanded, as if he wanted all the world to hear, Dan DcQullle. DeQuille, in real life William Wright, respond ed. He was the Nevada town's foremost writer on mining. "Those city papers have been abusing us long enough," said the miner. "I won't stand for it. I want you to go down into the mine and I'll show you what we are doing." The year was 1873; the miner, James 6. Fair. The Comstock lode has often been likened to a plum pudding. Bonanzas are its plums, and a number had been found. But Fair waa announc ing the greatest plum in the world's greatest mineralized fissure. Following his announcement came the wildest possible orgy of speculation and most distressing poverty. Huge fortunes were created and even the history of the nation affected. The stage had been well set for the drama of Fair's announcement; the audience in a mood for what was to come. Virginia City, perched on Mount Davidson's steep slopes, had been founded only 15 years be fore and had helped supply the gold and silver which maintained the nation's credit during the Civil War. Thousands swarmed its streets, day and night. RECORDS show that 16,000 mining claims had been staked out within a 30-mile radius in 20 years following 1859. Other towns, fed by the -surplus of Virginia City enthusiasm, had been started nearby, but today only their graveyards remain. Some mines were producing millions annually, others were digging through barren country rock, assessing hopeful stockholders more millions. Alpha mine shares sold for $1,570 in a February and dropped to $33 by September. In such a hectic scene as this Fair made his announcement, which was to bring even wilder speculation, even higher hopes and Inter, even blacker despair. Four years after Fair drove down C street and made his dramatic announcement to Dan De Quille there came the final crash. The big bonan za really had been worked out. Thousands who had considered themselves wealthy were sudden ly paupers. Families which had built fortunes on what they considered firm foundations, had man sions and fine horses, were begging handouts. Hundreds of business houses were forced to close. Fair returned to California, built railroads, en tered politics, was elected to the United Stntes senate. Social ambitions of Fair and his wife, the former. Theresa Rooney, who had been a board ing house proprietor, reached their climax when their daughter married Herman Oelrichs of New York. the big bonanza has been mined. The pioneers, who had to dig $50 ore to break even, are gone. For a time it seemed that Virginia City, ones city of 40,0(10. would sink Into the 600 miles of tunnels, shafts and winzes which underlie it. But today modem machinery and modern processes are making possible the comeback of the Com stock and hundreds of men are digging ore of lower grade and feeding It to a dozen mills. And, who knows, but that another plum may he hidden in the Comstock pudding. ' . Pjgc I'ivt-B
