Nevada Nugget Hunters

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

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COLUMN ONE
Gold or Just a Fever?
A 1930s prospector insisted that a Mojave peak hid an underground river flowing with the ore. Some are chasing that dream today.
By Ashley Powers, Times Staff Writer
September 11, 2006

KOKOWEEF PEAK, Calif. — The earthen ridge rises 6,038 feet from scrub brush and sand, an unspectacular summit were it not for the legend: a river underneath, overflowing with gold.

At least since the 1930s, leather-skinned prospectors have chased the tale to a mining shantytown at the base of the peak, on the edge of Mojave National Preserve, where the cheeriest structure is a pink shed that bears the warning "Keep Out."

Today a hard-bitten crew of treasure hunters huddles in plywood homes, enduring icy winters and roasting summers. Their big-city neighbor is an apt one: Las Vegas, about 75 miles away, which also welcomes dreamers happy to risk savings and sanity.

Kokoweef — a name believed to stem from Southern Paiute words meaning "gopher snake canyon" — lures its own kind of gamblers, though these days barely enough for a hand of seven-card stud: a military surplus merchant, a cocktail waitress, a retired construction manager and a few others.

Their quest, however, comes with this caveat: It consumed Earl Dorr, the brusque miner who fathered the legend — and who may have concocted it for his own nefarious ends.

The bleak sands of the Mojave conceal a bounty of treasure. Native tribes pocketed agate and turquoise long before Nevada's silver rush in the 1860s, which sent fortune-hungry miners scrambling into the Providence, Mescal and Clark ranges.

Tent cities sprouted in the sand. Some matured to communities of shelters cobbled from rocks and juniper poles — with most towns building the requisite general store and saloon and sometimes a brothel.

Ivanpah, among the largest on the California-Nevada border, boomed to several hundred residents, but it and most smaller outposts went bust when the silver, copper or tin markets crashed.

The mining rush slowed to a trickle by the 1930s. Into this desolate landscape wandered Dorr, a prospector with blue eyes, a shoulder-holstered gun and "immaculate table manners," said his nephew Ray Dorr, 78, a retired contractor in Cañon City, Colo., who is writing a book about Kokoweef.

Earl Dorr, born in the 1880s to wealthy Colorado cattle ranchers, traveled the Southwest in search of a mine that would make him rich. He would visit Ray's father in Pasadena, striding to the door in a Stetson hat with a sack of penny candy for the kids, whom he entranced with tall tales.

Along the way, Dorr either "discovered the richest gold deposit in the United States … or he was the most imaginative liar in the state of California," his nephew wrote in a 1967 article for Argosy magazine.

Dorr told The Times in 1936 that he came across Kokoweef when he checked into a Death Valley tale that three men who stumbled upon the golden river had deposited $57,000 in a Needles, Calif., bank.

Dorr told his nephew a different version: that he had befriended three Indian brothers who had discovered a river thick with ore in a Kokoweef cavern. After one brother plummeted to his death in the cavern, the other two refused to return to the mountain and told Dorr the tale.

The mountain, near the Ivanpah range, has three sizable, nearly vertical caves with limestone chambers: Kokoweef, Crystal and Quién Sabe — Spanish for "who knows." In 1934, Dorr produced a sworn statement that said he and an engineer, whom he identified only as Mr. Morton, descended several thousand feet into chambers he called "one of the marvels of the world."

On the floor of a half-mile-deep canyon, Dorr said, he came across a river, about 300 feet wide, that rose and fell as if it were breathing. The water receded to reveal black sand. Dorr said he panned it and found gold. Lots of it.

Dorr told The Times that upon returning to the surface, he dynamited the cavern's entrance to keep others from plundering his bounty while he filed a mining claim.

Within the next decade or so, cave explorers from Pasadena, curious about the tale, shimmied into a cavern and found "D-O-R-R" seared onto a wall.

Dorr's statement was published in the California Mining Journal in 1940, and it has been the source of endless speculation ever since. Why would he write up such a strike when he went to such lengths to hide it? Yet, if he were telling the truth, weren't untold riches just waiting to be rediscovered?

Larry Hahn opts for the latter.

In the 1980s, Hahn, who owns a military surplus store in Las Vegas, became the latest in a series of folks to entrance investors with Kokoweef. He is a partner in Explorations Inc., which has leased land from a company that owns 85 acres near the mountain and has mineral rights to 300 more and would share profits from any cache discovered.

Hahn, 68, said he had coaxed 300 to 500 investors to chip in for drilling, blasting and zapping the mountainside with electric current to pinpoint where to drill.

His newsletters promise gold like a televangelist promises salvation: "It only takes that one lucky hole that is connected to the big void to show us the way," one newsletter reads.

On a recent afternoon at base camp, Hahn said the search seemed as feasible as dredging for gold doubloons. "But in this day and age, we don't have buried treasure; all of it's been found. This is the last frontier," he said.

Only the most devout trundle up Zinc Mine Road, a tire-busting path that zigzags past boulders and Joshua trees about a mile from where long-extinct coelurosaurs imprinted what might be the state's only dinosaur tracks. The occasional hand-lettered sign reassures that the path peters out at "Kokoweef" — a graveyard of sagging buildings and rusting mining equipment.

At the plywood-and-pallet home that he built, one wall plastered with his great-grandfather's claim certificates for a gold mine, Randy Stenberg, 59, a retired construction manager, tends to his dreams.

His wife, Bernice, 50, a cocktail waitress at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas, had dismissed Larry Hahn as a huckster who had blinded her husband with a fable. But nearly 15 years ago, the Stenbergs descended from their 13th-floor condo near the Las Vegas Country Club for a tour of a tunnel that miners had chiseled.

Hahn's pitch was simple: "If you hit it, you're talking about the biggest thing that ever happened."

The couple threw in about $1,000, inspecting their investment on weekends and scraping rock and debris from the mine. It wasn't until four or so years ago that they settled at base camp, where electricity churns from solar panels and, for about two hours a day, a generator.

Residents fetch water from a pool that seeps from rocks in the Mescal range. One neighbor, a retired factory worker in her 70s, plans to spend the rest of her days staring at the spindly Joshua trees that hem in the hodgepodge of structures.

Randy Stenberg passes time slogging through one 1,200-foot tunnel into Kokoweef Peak and gazing at the zinc mine's ballroom ceilings and relics of miners past, such as a leather jacket and a V8 juice can ossified in dust.

"Gambling's for fools," he said recently from a frontyard whose sole decoration was a pink flamingo. "I don't consider this gambling — looking for something that's possibly there. You'd go down in history with it."

The miners under Hahn's direction long ago abandoned the sometimes dodgy work of blasting Kokoweef with dynamite. They instead poke at the mountain with more inventive tools, including microphones that help measure sound from small explosions to see if it pings off ore.

The latest novelty is a drill. It is as tall as a two-story home and topped with a skull-and-crossbones pirate flag. Several miles from base camp, the machine labors six to eight hours a day, burrowing deep into the dirt. The rationale: When the drill hits nothing, it will have found the cavern, or the path to it.

Geologists scoff at the legend, saying Kokoweef Peak could never harbor such a deep cave or a raging underground river. The desert is too dry. The amount of gold said to be packed into the riverbed — at least 50 tons, by Dorr's estimate — is too great. Not even Gold Rush miners in the Sierra Nevada foothills unearthed such a cache.

Paleontologists working with the San Bernardino County Museum dug at Kokoweef Peak in the 1970s, recovering more than 200,000 animal remains, including fish bones. Birds had carried the fish from the Colorado River, scientists determined, but some miners took them as evidence that Dorr's golden river — and its mother lode — existed.

"If it would have been there, this guy would have mined it all and be rich as can be," said Ted Weasma, a Mojave National Preserve geologist.

Dorr's nephew and at least one prospector who has lived at Kokoweef are convinced that Dorr pulled a bait-and-switch on his fellow miners — signing the sworn statement to attract investors without giving up the gold's location or even guaranteeing that he had found it.

The prospector may not have shimmied through a small hole near Kokoweef's Crystal Cave but elsewhere in the Mojave, said Ralph Lewis, 54, an electrical apprentice who has distanced himself from Hahn's operation and is writing a book about the legend.

As evidence of such a subterfuge, both men point to a mining shack Dorr built, about 8 feet wide with a double bunk — not in the Ivanpah Mountains, but in the nearby Mescal range. Lewis, who lived in Kokoweef off and on for a quarter-century, is convinced that this is the so-called Dorr Peak, depicted on rudimentary maps as providing a second path to the underground river.

Dorr's lifelong search for another route to his treasure gnawed at him, especially after the legend piqued a mining company's interest in the 1930s. Its workers discovered zinc and gave up on the gold. Dorr claimed that the zinc mining had destroyed routes to his horde.

"I got the wrong class of men, all talk — the class we old desert prospectors call drugstore miners. It was too big for them — too big a thing," Dorr told author Howard D. Clark after the firm ditched its plans to find gold.

"I stuck as long as I could, until I was eating cooked watercress, chipmunk soup and sagebrush tea. I starved out and had a light stroke, which put me on my back for a whole year," he said.

After deserting the shack in the Mescals, he worked as a shipyard welder, then as a watchman at an Adelanto tungsten mine. The prospector died in the 1950s, his pan empty.

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ashley.powers@latimes.com

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(INFOBOX BELOW)

Treasure map?

-

Miners have flocked to Kokoweef Peak, a remote 6,038-foot mountain in the Mojave Desert, since at least the 1930's, when a man named Earl Dorr produced a sworn statement that he had discovered gold in a river underneath it.

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Source: "Adventure Is Underground" by William R. Halliday

(END TEXT OF INFOBOX)

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

September 23, 1922 Engineering and Mining Journal-Press

RESCUE CREWS at Argonaut mine recover bodies of forty-seven men trapped by fire on Aug. 27.

Finding of Forty-Seven Bodies Ends Twenty-Two Day Rescue Effort at Argonaut Mine
Probable That Miners Perished Within Five Hours of Start of the Fire — Temporary Bulkheads Could Not Exclude Gas—Story of the Disaster.

LATE Monday night, Sept. 18, Byron 0. Pickard, of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, and Ben Sanguinetti, underground boss for the Argonaut mine, at Jackson, Calif., broke down a crude bulkhead on the 4,350 level of the mine and found the bodies of the forty-seven miners who had been entombed since Aug. 27 as the result of a fire in the shaft.

Notes left by the dead men are interpreted to show that the gas from the fire overcame the miners within five hours of the time the fire started. Rescue crews in twenty one days of desperate work cleared 475 ft. of caved drift and solid rock on the 3,600 level of the adjoining Kennedy mine and 530 on the 3,900 level. Connection was made by the crew from Argonaut mine working the 3,600 level.

from our San Francisco correspondent

Jackson, Calif., Sept. 18.—This morning at 4:55 connection was made on the 3,600 level with the 4,200 of the Argonaut after slightly over twenty-one days of desperate work and the clearing of 475 ft. of caved drift and solid rock on the 8~600 level and 580 ft. on the 3,900 level. Connection has not been made on the 3,900, where eighty-six feet of rock remain. Air from the Kennedy workings rushed into the Argonaut, and the first rescue squads of six men each entered the 4,200 level of the Argonaut, penetrating to the top of the raise from the 4,350 level. Conditions indicated possibility of the men being alive.

Sept. 19.—Following entry into the level a bulkhead was constructed in the shaft above the 4,200 level and rescue squads led by Rodney Hickox and B. F. McDonald, of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, descended to the 4,850 level and found a bulkhead that had been constructed by the entombed miners, in the drift on the Kennedy side of the Argonaut shaft.

The compressed air line was extended from the Kennedy and the bulkhead was removed. A rescue squad led by Byron 0. Pickard entered and found all of the miners dead. A note burned by acetylene flame on the mine timbers indicated that the men had perished from the effects of gas four or five hours after midnight on Aug. 27.

The Argonaut miners had climbed from the lower three levels to the 4,350 and had constructed a bulkhead, using their clothes to make it tight. A second bulkhead had been hastily constructed within the first and a third had been started when the gas evidently overcame the men.

Few mining accidents have been so thoroughly brought to public attention as the tragedy at Argonaut. Profound feeling and sorrow are expressed throughout the nation. A thorough investigation will be made. Feeling is general that the committee directing operations, composed of E. C. Hutchinson, president of the Kennedy Co.; V. S. Gabarini, superintendent of the Argonaut, and F. W. Lowell, of the Industrial Accident Commission of California, used every facility at their command and did everything possible to expedite contact with the entombed miners

By T. A. RICKARD

THE Argonaut mine is situated a mile north of Jackson, in Amador County, California; it is about ninety miles northeast of San Francisco. This mine is on the Mother Lode, a gold-bearing formation, or belt, that runs along the western slope of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada with a strike N. 20’ W.

The Argonaut adjoins the Kennedy mine; their workings extend to a depth of nearly a mile; to be exact, the Argonaut is 4,275 ft. deep and the Kennedy 4,150 ft., part of this difference being due to the fact that the collar of the Argonaut shaft is 112 ft. higher than that of the Kennedy, owing to the contour of the ground.

The Argonaut main shaft is 4,885 ft. long, because it is sunk on the dip of vein at an average angle of 63’. The Kennedy main shaft, which is vertical, starts at a considerable distance from the vein, on the hanging-wall side, and passes through it at a depth of 8,650 ft. The two shafts are 1,100 ft. apart.

The altitude above sea-level is 1,500 ft. The two mines are near the top of a ridge that commands a fine view southward over golden-brown foothills adorned with a parklike growth of evergreen oak. At I sat on the veranda of the Kennedy office yesterday, the manager pointed down the hill and said: “Do you see that patch of burnt grass; that is where they are.” He meant that 4,000 ft. vertically under that spot were the forty-seven -men whose fate was our sole subject of interest.

On the night of Sunday, Aug. 27, the shaft of the Argonaut was found to be afire. Shortly after the midnight lunch-hour, a shift-boss and two skip tenders at the 4,200-ft. station noticed the smell of smoke. They took the skip and went to the surface at once, and on their way up they noted that the fire extended for two sets just below the 3,000-ft. level.

Communication with those below by means of the telephone and electric bell-line is said to have been broken by the fire; No signal of warning was given to the miners, who were working at the bottom of the mine, chiefly between the 4,800-ft. and 4,650-ft levels. Nothing could be done to extricate them, because the fire prevented the use of the cage in the main shaft.

There is another shaft, the Muldoon, which is 450. ft. south -of the main shaft and is supposed to serve as a secondary exit, but it was not available because the draft was taking the smoke and gas into it from the main shaft. This was the established system of ventilation. The first thought appears to have been to ascertain the place and extent of the fire, and to check it.

On Monday and Tuesday efforts were made to extinguish the fire by the use of water from above, but this proved futile. On Thursday it was decided to prevent the fire from spreading upward, by building a bulkhead across the shaft at the 2,400-ft. level, for by that time the fire had reached to within a short distance of the 2,500-ft. level.

None of the men underground, of course, had been able to escape through the Muldoon shaft, and nothing was known concerning their fate.

It is necessary to explain that the Argonaut mine was on fire three years ago, in March, 1919; the fire spread into the Kennedy mine because the ventilation was from that mine into the Argonaut—and fire seeks oxygen. When the fire of 1919 had extended for a distance of 500 ft. northward into the Kennedy workings, the decision was made to cease pumping and to allow both mines to drown. To expedite this purpose, a large volume of water was admitted from the surface. That was in March, 1920. They remained under water until April, 1921, when they were unwatered and reopened. Only one life was lost in this fire.

Some of the upper workings of the two mines connect, or used to do so. The deep levels do not connect. This proved an unfortunate fact when it was decided, on the night of Monday, Aug. 28, to attempt a rescue by means of establishing communication with the men in the Argonaut through the Kennedy mine.

Early on Tuesday morning the work was started. The fire of 1919 had burned the timbers in the Kennedy workings nearest to the Argonaut, and the admission of water in 1920 had caused the round to cave so as to fill the levels with the mud and brown rock that had descended from the stopes as soon as the timbers were destroyed.

It was decided to try to reach the imprisoned men along two lines of approach, one on the 3,600-ft. level and the other on the 3,900 of the Kennedy. The lower of these levels was clear for the- longer distance, but to connect it with the Argonaut workings it would have to be advanced 140 ft. south through virgin rock.

Altogether 475 ft. of rock and waste would have to be penetrated. By the 3,600 the -total distance, would be 530 ft., but the conditions appeared likely to be more favorable than on the 8,900, because less stoping had been done immediately above that level, which therefore, it was~ hoped, would be less choked with debris. The 8,600-ft. drift would have to be extended in two places through virgin ground for an aggregate distance of 130 ft.; it would enter the Argonaut at a point 60 ft. below the 4,200-ft. level of that mine.

Thus the task of rescue - consisted partly of digging new drifts through debris and partly of blasting a way through rock.

The whereabouts of the imprisoned men could only be guessed; the superintendent of the Argonaut thought that some of them would have gone to the north end of the 4,200 because that drift is behind the shaft and nearest to the Kennedy workings, from which, it was believed, there was a leakage of air.

This place would be outside the line of the draft that was carrying the smoke and gases from the shaft into the workings below and southward. Others believed that the men would have made an attempt to escape through the Muldoon shaft and that they would be at the south end of the mine.

Ordinarily the miners work in shifts of eight hours; in order to hasten the rescue it was arranged for the men to work in shifts of six hours and in gangs of twenty men at each heading, two men working at the face for twenty minutes before being relieved by another pair. With good luck, an advance of 40 ft. could be made along a choked drift and 16 ft. could be driven in live rock in twenty-four hours. Everything was done to expedite the work of rescue and the staffs of the two mining companies cooperated loyally, despite the fact that litigation was pending between them.

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

CALIFORNIA

General Activity Is Apparent in Gold Mining Camps

~ Our Special Correspondent

San Francisco—Ten stamps were added to the Central Eureka mill, Sutter Creek, Amador County, recently. The 3,900 south drift in the mine has been repaired and development work has been started in the South Eureka.
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New operators of the Bush Creek mine, near Alleghany, will extend an old tunnel about 1,500 ft. to intersect the present shaft close to the bottom, or 800 ft. form the surface.
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A discovery of gold ore is reported from Coquett Creek, in Plumas County, five miles from the Butte County line and ten miles northeast of Merrimac.
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The Irelan Mines Co. has been incorporated to operate the Irelan mine, near the Tightner-Sixteen to One group at Alleghany, Sierra County. The incorporators are H. N. Yates, Pacific Grove;
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W. L. Waldron, Grass Valley; D. C. Smith, Meridian; F. L. Fisher, Meridian; and A. C. Irwin, Marysville. The Irelan mine has been in operation for several years and is fully equipped.
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The concrete foundation for the new hoist at the Brunswick property at Grass Valley has been completed. The shafts and workings of the mine are to. be unwatered as a preliminary to the resumption of operations.
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The American Bar Quartz Miniag Co., operating on the American River, is reported to have discovered a rich ledge between Michigan Bluff and the American River. The ledge is stated to be 4 ft. wide and to have been opened up for a length of 175 ft.
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The Black Oak mine, at Soulsbyville, which has been inactive for two years, has been financed by strong New York interests, who will resume operations at an early date.
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The Golden Gate mine, one mile south of Sonora, is being reopened by its owner, Andrew McCormick. The property, which has been shut down for about fifteen years, was formerly a heavy producer.
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The Chileno mine, on Jackass Hill, near Tuttletown, is being developed under bond by the Nevada Wonder Mining Co.
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The Crystalline and Alabama claims, near the Harvard mine, are being developed by the Tonopah Mining Co.

The Shawmut mine, near Sonora, had a disastrous wreck in its main shaft due to caving of the hanging wall. Both skips with their cables and much of the track and pipe lines are in the bottom of the shaft. A skilled crew has been brought from Tonopah to repair the damage. Operation of the mill will be suspended until October.
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The entire mine plant and mill of the Clio mine, near Jacksonville, was totally destroyed by fire on Aug. 19.
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The Harriman mine, on the river above Jacksonville, which was being operated under bond by Spokane parties, has shut down.
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The Parole mine, about six miles northwest of Tholumne, is sinking a new shaft.

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

Yellow Tiger Acquires Ancho
Preparations for additional exploration at its newly acquired Ancho property, situated in the Graniteville district of Nevada County, Calif, are being made by Yellow Tiger Consolidated, a Goldfield, Nev., company. The old workings will he cleaned out. This property was shut down in 1918. At that time several veins in the Calaveras slates were explored and low-grade ore was extracted. A ten-stamp mill, a compressor, and mine buildings are on the property.

Construct Mill at Hibernia
A ten-stamp mill is being constructed at the Hibernia property, near Greenville, Plumas County, Calif., recently acquired by Yakima-Mohawk Mining. This property was formerly known as Southern Eureka. A crosscut, 450 ft. long, intersects the South Eureka vein, which was stoped for a length of about 400 ft.

Engineering and Mining Journal — Vol.126, No.16

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

for MARCH 30, 1929 THE MINING JOURNAL

CALIFORNIA

Five Santa Ana, California, men have organized the Santa Ann Mining Company for the purpose of developing a quicksilver mine in the Tehachapi Mountains. Papers of incorporation were filed through 0. A. Jacobs, attorney at Santa Ana. The names mentioned are C. P. Holmes, 1408 North Main Street; E. P. Holmes, Jr., 12181,4 North Broadway; Cleve Sedoris, A. J. Visel and Frank C. Freeman. The capitalization is $250,000.
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F. B. Brown, former manager of La Grange hydraulic mine, has been placed in charge of the Dutton Creek property of the Fortuna Mining Company at Douglas City, California, and arrangements have been made for the installation of additional machinery. It is said that large deposits of commercial gold-bearing gravels exist in the property. William J. Warren of San Francisco is president of the Fortuna Company.
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It is understood that Lloyd L. Root at Grass Valley, California, has taken an option on the properties of the Ganim Gold Mining Company in the Whiskeytown District in northern California. The consideration is $100,000. J. C. Hess of Schilling is foreman at the mines.
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The Zenda Gold Mining Company, Barstow, Califoraia, Oscar 0. Engelder, general superintendent, has sunk its shaft to a depth of 355 feet and work is in progress on the 340-foot level. Judging from present operations the 340 drift should enter ore some time in April and if the showing meets expectations the mill will be moved from Caliente. In shaft sinking a flow of water was released at a depth of 315 feet and a larger pump is being installed in the station on the 340-foot level. No report has been received of the annual meeting held in New York on March 11. The Zenda is said to have good financial backing.
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The Sugarman Mine, Inc., Arthur Deleray, superintendent, Sonora, California, has installed a mill at its property and expects to double the present capacity of the mine. Principal development is being done at the 300-foot level and is to be continued several hundred feet farther. Since January 22 of this year, the company has shipped about $10,000 in bullion and has about $20,000 worth of ore ready for milling and about six months’ supply blocked out in the mine. B. H. Nelson, 533 Roosevelt Building, Los Angeles, California, is president and general manager of the organization.
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It is understood that the Ord Mines, Inc., operating near Daggett, California, has brought a 40-stamp mill from Tonopah and will be on a production basis in the near future. The Ord mine contains a large deposit of ore averaging $10 per ton. Capt. J. L. Carder, 3656 South Van Ness Street, Los Angeles, is manager.
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The Camzo Consolidated Corporation, 1323 Pacific Finance Building, Los Angeles California, has built a bridge over the south Fork of the Trinity River, for the purpose of bringing in hydraulic pipeline to the company’s placer diggings, near Salyer in Trinity county. It is planned to start hydraulic operations and gravel washing at this point within the next two weeks.
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Surveys have been completed for a ditch to the upper channel in the Hayward properties near Big Bar on the main Trinity River, and it is anticipated that the recovery of the gold content found in these properties will be under way within 60 days. Major Bernard Day of Los Angeles is consulting engineer.
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B. F. Mack is drifting to tap the old shaft in the Halyard property at Camptonville, California. He is operating the property under lease and bond and has six men engaged in the project. About 800 feet of the distance has been covered and the objective will be reached within a short distance. The Halyard property comprises 280 acres in Sierra County and was operated by St. Clair and Halyard about 40 years ago.
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Roads are being repaired and the workings cleaned out in the property of the Stewart Gravel Mines, Inc., at Gold Run, Placer county, California, according to James P. Stewart of Auburn. It is planned to start drift placer operations this spring.
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General Manager Charles Manker has purchased a mill of between 50 and 75 tons’ daily capacity for the property of the Neocene Gold, Inc., near Scales, California. Excavation of the millsite has been started and the plant will be set up immediately upon its arrival from San Francisco. Gravel is being stoped at five faces and approximately 35 cars are being run through the sluices daily. Considerable ore is being piled on the dump for milling. Edward Nolan, engineer, has charge of the work at the mine.
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The Westgard Silver-Lead Mining Company will begin making regular shipments about May 15, according to Mark Bradshaw of Tonopah, Nevada, general manager. About 30 tons a day will be shipped to the Midvale smelter in Utah. The ore will be trucked to Big Fine, California, from which point a basic rate of $3.90 per ton has been secured. Bradshaw estimates values will run around $50 per ton, made up of 25 per cent lead, 17 ounces silver and $2 gold.
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The Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Company, W. F. Allen, Jr., general manager, Box 341, Randsburg, California, plans the installation of an additional 20 stamps. This company is producing and already has a plant of 30 stamps, using amalgamation plates and the tailings are retreated using Wilfley tables. The leaching plant has a capacity to treat 200 tons of ore daily. An average of 43 men are engaged in present work. Albert Ancker of Los Angeles is president of the Yellow Aster.
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The Mammoth Mine Corporation of Nevada has been incorporated to take over the assets and mineral holdings of the Mammoth Consolidated Mines Company, 50 miles north of Bishop, California. The company is capitalized at 1,500,000 shares of $1 par. Its officers and directors are C. F. Bumpus, Orange, California, president; Harley Harmon, Las Vegas, Nevada, vice-president; A. C. Mahan, Jr., 1241 Subway Terminal Building, Los Angeles, secretary-treasurer; A. C. Mahan, Sr., F. D. Surge, William B. Cilroy and L. C. King. Arrangements have been made for the payment of debts and ample funds provided for development and equipment. [rehab notes, mine is on top of a hill, about 3 miles wnw of Mammoth Lakes, CA]
M. D. Rossiter is to be in charge of operation, with whom will be associated F. W. Solomon, formerly associated for 15 years as millman on the staff of the Miami Copper Company. Work is to commence about April 15.
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The Western Merger Mines Company, Nevada City, California, H. B. Skewes, superintendent, has shipped $5,000 worth of concentrates representing three months’ accumulation of that part of the values not recovered by amalgamation. The ore is coming from the 400-foot level and a nice reserve is being developed so that it is probable that two shifts will be engaged in milling soon.
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The Belmont Metals Corporation. L. Everett, general manager, Mariposa, California, has developed an ore body from three to four feet in width for 141 feet in the Coolrado mine. The values in the ore average $30 per ton. This is considered to be one of the most important showings made in the district in many years. J. C. Kempvanee, 381. Hush Street, San Francisco, is president and manager of the organization.
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The 20-stamp mill of the California Premier Mine. Corporation at Colfax, California, will be placed in commission soon and the power plant enlarged, according to E. C. Klinker, president and general manager. The company operated both the Rising Sun and the Big Oak gold mines.
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Mining is picking up in the vicinity of Forks of Salmon in northern California, according to Milton R. Dunphy of Sawyers Bar. Some work is being done at the Black Bear and King Solomon mines and a strike has been made near the Forks of Salmon. A wagon road is being built to the latter two properties. A party has acquired an option on the old Ball mine, near Rollin, and expects to start work in the spring. Mr. Dunphy is one of the trustees of the Ball mine.
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It is reported that ore from the Desert Gold mine, 12 miles southeast of Goffs, California, has assayed as high as 800 ounces silver and 3 ounces gold in addition to its copper values. A shaft has been sunk 100 feet in the Desert Gold mine and a stope is being run to intersect a vein of ore. This property is owned by C. S. Craw, 845 West Twelfth Street, Riverside, California, and is in the same district as the Gold Turtle claims.
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Official announcement has been made that the Shaherald Mining Company made a 20-hour run on low-grade ore from its property in the Kramer Hills and realized $500 in gold. The high grade has been sacked and has not yet been run through the mill. The ground is owned by the Herkelrath Brothers, C. T. McDonald of Rialto, C. F. Shaw and H. C. Spring of Fontana, California.
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J. H. Sharpe, 1212 Humboldt Bank Building, San Francisco, and C. A. Jackson of Portland, Oregon, are considering exercising their option on the Banner mine, near Oroville, California, which is owned by William Livesly. If plans materialize, the new owners will spend about $25,000 in its development.
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The California Rand Silver, Inc., Randsburg, California, C. S. Meroney, general manager, has suspended dividends. The only ore in sight in the mine now is low grade, worth about $9 per ton, but work will be continued as long as the discovery of ore is considered possible. The company has moved some of its equipment to a property north of Yucca, Arizona, for exploration purposes and pending favorable showings may take over that property.
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It is reported that a Vandercook mercuric cyanide plant will be built at the Vandalia mine at Shingle Springs, California, as soon as it can be financed. The officials connected with the operation of this mine are Lela C. Geddes, 1115 McAllister Street, San Francisco, president; Gordon S. Cranmer, general manager; William Pugh, mine superintendent, and A. E. Vandercook of the California MacVan Company at Sacramento, California, chief mine engineer.
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rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

THE MINING JOURNAL for APRIL 15, 1929

CALIFORNIA MINING NEWS

The report of the North Star Mining Company at Grass Valley, California, for the year 1928, shows that the company produced $836,567. Operating costs were $734,831 and development work performed cost $147,891, resulting in a deficit for the year. Approximately 108,000 tons of ore, averaging $7.70 a ton, were crushed. A promising ore-shoot has been opened on the 8,600 level of the incline shaft and at several other points in the mine. A. B. Foote is general manager and about 375 men are employed.

It is understood that the Ophir mine, 12 miles north of Trona, California, has been reopened and it is probable that a mill will be erected shortly to treat the silver-lead ore. This property has been worked by the Engineers Exploration Company and the high-grade ore that was mined was trucked to Trona.

Ira Thorp, who is working the Centennial Mine near Auburn, California, under lease, has opened some high-grade ore in the Conrad vein and about 300 feet from the portal of a tunnel. He has mortared out by hand about $8,000 worth of ore in drifting 45 feet on the showing.

The fifth carload of copper ore has been shipped from the Greenhorn copper mine to the Tacoma smelter, according to Manager Albert Hanford, Redding, California. The ore carries about 25 per cent copper and specimens of pure copper have been found, although not in any large quantity. Storage bunkers and loading platforms are 7 built for the more economical handling of the ore and it is planned to ship about 5,000 tons of ore to the smelter at Tacoma.

During 1928, the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company of Los Angeles, California, mined about 18,000 tons of feldspar from its property at Campo, Between 30 and 50 men are employed and two shifts are working in both the mine and mill. This is the largest mine of its kind in the state. The plant has a capacity of about three and one-half tons per hour and the resulting products are pottery, enamel and glass materials. The pottery is shipped to the company’s plants at Kokomo, Indiana, and Tiffin, Ohio. Enamel is shipped to the company’s plant at Richmond, where it is used for enameling bathroom fixtures, and glass is sold to various manufacturers on the Pacific coast.

The board of directors of the National Silver Corporation, composed of John D. Fields, Max Socha, L. Lindsay, George E. Riley and Harry E. Williams, is making an inspection of the company’s property in Inyo county, California, for the purpose of deciding upon improvements to be made. These consist of the installation of an electric power line and water pipe line system and the construction of a 250-ton daily capacity milling plant. Company engineers have prepared plans and specifications for these improvements and they will be submitted to the board at its next meeting. Offices for the organization are maintained at 1107 Financial Center Building, Los Angeles.

Plans are to reopen the chrome mines of the Noble Electric Steel Company on North Elder Creek in Tehama County, California. These mines have been dormant for some time and, according to our most recent information, J. E. Windhain of Heroult, California, is superintendent.

A newly organized company, known as the Magalia Treasure Box, Inc., has been formed by W. L. Leland for the operation of mining property in the Magalia and Nimshew Districts in California. Mr. Leland, who is president and general manager of the new company, holds the same position with La Porte Mines, Inc., operating successfully in Plumas County. The Magalia Treasure Box has let a contract to Seattle parties to test the ancient river channel with drills and to run a drain tunnel to eliminate the necessity of pumping.

It is understood that the stockholders of the Jenny Lind Mining Company have decided to sell its property at Grass Valley, California, on the terms offered by L. S. Wincapaw, representing the Cooley Butler interests of Los Angeles. These holdings are in the northern part of the district.

Repair work has been finished on the Garden Valley dredger, near Camptonville, California, and it is in commission during two shifts daily.

B. C. Gibson and Frank U. Lassen of San Francisco, California, who are operating the Pioneer Mine at Grass Valley, California, under bond and lease, have opened a six-foot ledge of milling ore on the 700-foot level. The drift entered the ore at distance of 800 feet from the shaft and assays will be made to determine the value of the ore. A drift is to be run to the vein at a depth of 100 feet below the present showing.

It is planned to equip both the Sadie Ann and the Black Warrior gold mines, near Carrville, California, with amalgamation mills. Both of these properties are being operated by J. L. Hamilton and have large tonnages of $12 and $15 free-milling gold ore available for mill treatment, although zones of high-grade occur in the ledges running into thousands of dollars per ton. Ten stamps will probably be installed at the Sadie Ann and 20 stamps at the Black Warrior.

Control of the Vallecito Central placers, near Vallecito, Calaveras County, California, has passed to a group of southern California people, known as the Old Gold Extension Mining Company. The property embraces 60 acres and mining has been started under the supervision of Robert Mack. He will repair the shaft and put in foundations for a hoist, compressor, pump and other equipment, which is expected to arrive shortly. Electricity is available from lines crossing the property. The pay streak is from nine to twelve feet wide and is worth from $5 to $20 a cubic yard. The present shaft is 225 feet deep and is expected to reach bedrock in another 75 feet.

Stephen K. Ligday of Redlands, California, made what is believed to be an important gold and copper discovery in Wallace Creek, 14 miles east of that town and 8 miles north of Beaumont. The ledge is about five and one-half feet wide and has been traced for 2,000 feet. Some of the ore assays as high as $108 in gold and 19 per cent copper. Ten claims have been staked out and work has been started in the exploration of the ground. Mr. Ligday is a retired engineer and was formerly with the Guggenheims. In this venture he is associated with Herman Yorker.

Two shifts are working in both the No. 2 and the No. 8 tunnels in the German Bar property of the Sunnyside Consolidated Mining Company, Thomas E. Stephens, manager, Auburn, California. An assay plant has been completed at the mine and samples from the tunnels are being handled so that the milling ore left between the old stopes where enrichments were found in former development can be mapped out for mill installation during this summer or early fall.

The Paramount Mining Corporation, which has acquired the Mayflower mine, near Onion Valley in Plumas County, California, and the Pride hydraulic mine on the North Fork of the Yuba River, will begin active operations this spring on both properties. The Mayflower is said to have approximately 1,000,000 yards of gravel proven. Six men are getting it in shape for work. The Pride mine has about 1,500,000 yards of 50-cent gravel and storage rights in Bullard’s Bar Dam. E. A. Stent is president of the company and W. A. Hunter is general manager.

The Gruss Mining Company, J. H. Collier, manager and consulting engineer, 838 Kearny Street, San Francisco, is making good progress in the Finney mine, near Downieville, in an 1,100-foot tunnel and a raise and winze on the ore-shoot which assays from $24 to $50 a ton. The vein is two feet wide. J. R. Stark is superintendent at the mine.

Shares of the Amalgamated Gold Mining Company, owning properties in California and in Oregon, have been listed on the Salt Lake Stock and Mining Exchange. Harold E. Goodenow, 1059 Chamber of Commerce Building, Los Angeles, California, is president.

The Acme Mines and Mill, Inc., expects to produce even more quicksilver this month than during January, when production was 128 flasks, according to Henry W. Gould, vice-president, Mills Building, San Francisco. The winze being sunk from the 800-foot level is still in good ore, the values remaining as strong as in the stope above the tunnel level, where the ore has been continuous for 185 feet. Foundations are nearly completed for an ore bin and 10-ton furnace at the Oat Hill mine at Oakville. Edward Leister is superintendent at the mine.

The Black Mountain Mining Company, F. C. Hopkins, general manager, Escondido, California, is unloading machinery for installation at its property nine miles southwest of that town, according to Sydney Mayer, president of the San Diego Chamber of Mines. Arsenic is the leading mineral and it is planned to be operating at full capacity within 90 days. The project is backed by Los Angeles capital.

Pacific Coast Mining Activities
Concentrated mining news from California,
Nevada. Oregon and Washington.

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

SPLENDID RECORD AT YELLOW ASTER IN TAILING TREATMENT

For the last 12 months Carwyniac Incorporated of Los Angeles, George H. Wyman, Jr., manager and consulting engineer, has been succeasfully engaged in the treatment of old mill tailings at the famous Yellow Aster mine at Randsburg, Kern county, California. It is consigning a gold brick to the United States mint every 10 days.

The company is operating a 250-ton daily capacity cyanide leaching plant of modern design, handling auriferous tailings of an assay value of less than $1 per ton, a total cost, including all overhead, of 20 cents a ton. The capacity of the plant is being increased to 300 tons daily, at 7 which time the company expects to be able to reduce costs to 17 cents per ton, making a notable record in the economic handling of old mill tailings.

It is estimated that there are in excess of 3,000,000 tons of accumulated mill tailings at the Yellow Aster mine, which are being handled by a combination of drag and slackline scrapers. The fiowsheet and equipment were designed by Mr. Wyman, who states that similar plants will be installed shortly in a number of places in the southwest for the handling of old mill tailings of low grade.

The Yellow Aster Mining Company, with millions in gold production to its credit, is increasing the capacity of its ore reduction plant from 20 to 50 stamps. Forty have received their finishing touches and are now in regular commission.

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

for JUNE 30, 1929 THE MINING JOURNAL

CALIFORNIA

The building of a power line to serve the mines in the Poorman Creek and Gaston ridge sections of Nevada County, California, is expected to materially aid development in that region. The line will be built by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, from Alleghany, to the Spanish Group, and from that point branch lines will be run to the Ancho, Twin Sister, German Bar and Gaston properties.
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Following the collapse of the Georgetown Mines, Inc., on October 15, 1928, Thomas H. Berry and W. F. McMahon were arrested, on alleged failure to pay labor claims amounting to approximately $4,000. They were taken into custody at Los Angeles and are at liberty on $1,500 bail. The Georgetown Mines, Inc., was operating the Woodside-Eurcka mine at Georgetown, California.
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The Rescue Eu!a Mining Company, O. B. Schiffner, general manager, Washington, California, has been operating its Gaston mill since May 6 on a good grade of ore during one shift daily. It is not known how long the water supply will be available for power, but is adequate to meet the company’s needs at the present time. The hardness of the ore has slowed progress somewhat in both drilling and crushing. Work is being carried on through tunnels, the lowest of which is 1,900 feet from the outcrop. On the 1,500-foot level a 16-foot width of milling ore has been opened and carries a streak of high-grade.
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A $5,000 gold brick was recovered in the second cleanup from the quartz mill at the Colorado mine of the Belmont Metals Corporation, L. Everett, general manager, Mariposa, California. The ore body has been opened for 860 feet on the 200-foot level and below that depth is all virgin ground. Three shifts have been engaged in sinking this shaft another 100 feet and should finish the job in 80 days. J. C. Kempvanee, 881 Bush Street, San Francisco, spent a few days at the mine to witness the cleanup. W. Marsh is mill superintendent.
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The new dredge of the Madrona Dredging Company, B. L. Smith, president and general manager, Junction City, California, is running smoothly. Its construction covered a period of two years and entailed an expenditure of approximately $150,000. There are 71 buckets, having a capacity of nine cubic feet each. Twenty-five men are employed. This is the third dredge operating in Trinity County.
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The Whitlock Mines Corporation, M. T. Tresidder, general superintendent, Mariposa, California, has unexpectedly opened high-grade milling ore in sinking the shaft from the 200 to the 800 level. The ore averages from $40 to $50 per ton, but the extent of the deposit has not been determined. Seventeen men are employed on two shifts and the force will be increased by the middle of this month, at which time it is expected that the mill will be placed in operation.
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The working force of 15 men of the Santa Mines Company, Masonic, California, has nearly completed the repair of the ditch and flume for supplying water to the power plant. Good progress is being made in repairing the mill. Frank W. Stall of Winnemucca, Nevada, is manager of the work.
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Between 15 and 16 tons of travertine were shipped to Los Angeles a few days ago, from the property of the ‘California Red Travertine Company, Bridgeport, California, Fred Bailey, superintendent. Additional machinery for use at the quarries was brought back on the return trip. Twenty men are employed.
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The Poker Pot Mining Company is prospecting the Dogtown placers, near Bridgeport, California, using a dredge and shovel. The company’s washer is working also. Quiney Stephens, 1940 Outpost Circle, Hollywood, California, is president of the Poker Pot company.
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A four-foot body of $500 ore has been exposed in the face of a 60-foot crosscut by the Mammoth Mines Corporation, Bishop, California, according to A. G. Mahan of Los Angeles, secretary and treasurer to the company and who is now at the mine. The ore is a free-milling gold product and 600 feet from this discovery and presumably on the same ledge, the 680-foot crosscut has opened’ a body of ore of about the same size and gold content. If the tonnage blocked out will justify, the company plans direct smelter shipments pending mill construction. A 125-horsepower Diesel engine is en-route to the mine and its installation will speed up mine operation. Ten men are employed under the management of M. D. Rossiter.
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The Reorganized Silver King Divide Mining Company, Shand Smith, president and general manager, 7874 Plymouth Street, Oakland, California, is considering the erection of a 50-ton mill, near Ivanpah, California. Seven men are employed in development of the mine. H. G. Humes is purchasing agent and mine superintendent.
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With a force of 10 men, the Parnall Gold Mines Corporation, B. C. Leadbetter, general manager, Placerville, California, is drifting on a six-foot vein of quartz from the 150-foot level of the shaft. The high-grade ore is being sacked awaiting shipment direct to the smelter and the milling ore is being stored on the dump awaiting the construction of a 10-stamp mill. C. L. Salmon is mine superintendent.
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The five-stamp mill at the Keyes mine in Kern County, California, of the Minaret Mines Company, has been running since the last of May on ore removed from the 100-foot drift on the 525-foot level, and stoping is now in progress. Within a few days, the mill will be operating on a 24-hour schedule. Superintendent H. L. Lee reports ore values increasing as stoping progresses.
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A crosscut from the face of the No. 10, or transport, tunnel of the National Silver Corporation, W. B. Johns, superintendent, Darwin, California, has exposed the vein at an additional depth of 400 feet, thus verifying the opinion of engineers that a body of shipping ore would be opened at the intersection of the No. 1 vein with the Merry Widow fissure. The vein is an 80-foot width of high-grade argentite and silver glance penetrating the quartz vein filling. The recent development gives 1,000 feet of backs on ore to the surface and it is planned to start shipping as soon as further development has been done.
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The Ethel Quicksilver Mining Company, William Elwood, president and principal owner, has opened a deposit of high-grade furnace ore in its property 10 miles west of Bodie, California. The property is one and one-half miles north of the Bridgeport-Bodie stage road and was located last summer by Clyde Garrett of Reno, Nevada. A station has been established on the 50-foot level on the hanging wall side of the vein and a crosscut has been advanced 175 feet in 3 per cent ore.
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The Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Company, Randsburg, Kern County, California, is increasing the capacity of its ore reduction plant from 20 to 50 stamps, 40 of which have received their finishing touches and are in regular commission. The mine is being operated on a much larger scale than for the past few years. W. F. Allen, Jr., Box 341, Randsburg, is general manager.
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During the past year the Carwymac, Inc. of Los Angeles, George H. Wyman, Jr., manager and consulting engineer, 305 Hibernian Building, Los Angeles, has been treating old mill tailings at the Yellow Aster mine at Randsburg, California, and is consigning a gold brick to the United States mint every 10 days. The company’s 250-ton cyanide leaching plant is of modern machinery and is running at full capacity in the treatment of auriferous tailings assaying not less than $1 per ton.
Cost of production, including all overhead, is not more than 20 cents a ton and when the capacity of the plant is increased to 300 tons daily, it is believed that production costs will be reduced to about 17 cents per ton. It is estimated that there are more than 3,000,000 tons of mill tailings at the Yellow Aster mine, and they are being handled by a combination of drag and slackline scrapers.
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Work has been resumed in the Gracey Mine, Nevada City, California, R. N. McCormack, superintendent, with three shifts engaged in sinking a winze on the ore-shoot developed on the 170 level. This mine was flooded last year from seepage from the canal of the Nevada Irrigation District, but preventative measures have proven successful.
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La Grange Placers, Inc., A. S. Beaudette, manager, 3989 West Twenty-Seventh Street, Los Angeles, California, is operating two giants, near Weaverville, in tearing away the rich gravel banks. Water has been developed for a four or five months’ run. Several million cubic yards of gravel, averaging better than 10 cents, are available for washing.
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With new buildings and improved equipment instilled, the Elgin mine in the Coast Range Mountains, Colusa County, California, has renewed operations and is getting out quicksilver, sulphur, and some gold. Its backers are mainly interested, however, in sulphur. The property is being worked from the top of the hill and the ore is passed through a new process on its way down the hill. This new method is said to be the most efficient for the purpose that has been developed in recent years.
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Since C. D. McGonigal and Riley W. Self, took over the Mt. de Oro mine at Woodleaf, California, they have run 600 tons of ore, averaging $16 per ton, through the mill. The equipment they are using includes a new 1,250-pound stamp mill, driven by a semi-Diesel engine. The property has a crosscut tunnel 600 feet to a four-inch vein. Along this vein there is a 100-foot drift and a raise of 150 feet to the surface.
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At Pulga, California, W. H. King recently began working his soapstone mine, a new enterprise in that section. He has made a contract with a San Francisco firm to ship as much soapstone as he can under present conditions, agreeing to increase the amount to 400 tons a month as soon as facilities will permit. In places, the soapstone ledge is only six inches under the surface and use is being made of rainwater in removing the intervening soil.
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W. I. Leland and associates, operating the Magalia mine at Magalia, California, expect to bring the mine to production by means of driving a tunnel to tap the gold-bearing channel. This will eliminate the cost of pumping and reduce hoisting and other expenses. The project has been under consideration for nearly a quarter of a century.
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The stock of the Premier Metals Corporation has been listed on the Salt Lake Stock and Mining Exchange. This organization is working three properties in California, namely, the Mahoney quicksilver mine, 20 miles west of San Luis Obispo; the Belden silver mine in Plumas county, six miles from Belden, and the Granite Hill mine in Butte county. Donald Woodrum is president; James Kenna, treasurer, and H. W. Turner, consulting engineer. The principal office is 315 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California.
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The Sugarman Mine., Inc., Sonora, California, is making good progress in mine development and the 20-ton daily capacity milling plant is in regular commission treating ore ranging from $23 to $26 per ton in gold, with a 95 per cent recovery of the assay value, according to Vice-President H. L. Dennis, 523 Roosevelt Building, Los Angeles.
The amalgamating plant is also treating occasional lots of high grade from the mine, ranging from $500 to $150,000 per ton in gold. The mill product, a gold amalgam, is retorted on the ground and consigned direct to the United States mint. Twenty men are on the payroll. Production since last January has amounted to more than $18,000. B. H. Nelson is president and general manager of the organization, and Arthur Deleray is general superintendent at Sonora.
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The lower tunnel in the Reed quicksilver mine, Lower Lake, Calif., has reached a length of 571 feet from its portal, having passed through conglomerate, and is in sandstone, believed to be the footwall of a ledge 50 feet in width.
On May 10 a flow of about 75 gallons of sulphur water developed in this tunnel and the two shifts working were forced to discontinue work. The flow has diminished to about 10 gallons per minute and one shift is engaged at the present writing. In the main working tunnel, work has been discontinued from the left to the right fork and it is believed that the worst part of the caving has been passed. J. H. Collier, 383 Kearney Street, San Francisco, is general manager.
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The Engelt Copper Mining Company, W. I. Nelson, general manager, Engelmine, California, will start systematic underground development of the known ore bodies in the Calaveras Copper property at Copperopolis, shortly. Medium of development will be through existing shafts. In the meantime the mill will be closed and repaired so that upon resuming operation it can treat between 400 and 500 tons of ore daily.
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Under the management of Clyde E. Coblins, the Aladdin Divide Mining Company is driving a 283-foot tunnel, 24 miles east of Chico, Butte county, California, through lava and serpentine to cut the bedrock below the ancient Whiteside Channel. All muck is hydraulicked out of the tunnel through a sluice box. At the mouth of the tunnel a 68-foot head of water is hooked up to a Pelton wheel and a compressor that runs two jackhammers. The cost of handling the gravel is estimated to be only about 30 cents a yard. About 200 feet of tunnel will be required to reach the channel, which is from 40 to 50 feet wide and from 10 to 15 feet deep.

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

THE MINING JOURNAL 9 30 1929

CAMPTONVILLE PAYS TRIBUTE TO PIONEER INVENTOR

Camptonville, Yuba county, California, a noted mining town in the Sierras since early days, recently dedicated, with appropriate ceremonies, a large concrete monument, 11 feet high, 10x10 base, to Lester Allen Pelton who invented the Pelton Wheel there in 1878. The Pelton Wheel has been of great service for a long period of years to many mining companies in their operations, thus the news of the monument to this pioneer inventor should be of interest to the mining industry at large.
The beautiful and heavy bronze tablet, which marks the monument, was donated by W. M. White, manager and chief engineer of the Allis Chalmers Manufacturing Company, which, “has constructed many hydraulic power plants of design resulting from Pelton’s genius,” as White wrote when sending the bronze tablet.
The monument is located in the lower part of town on the site of Pelton’s old workshop on Main Street and fronts on the old ‘49 trail, which passed through the town in early days. An early model made by Pelton of his famous wheel is still preserved with care by town residents.