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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