USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 27
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 27
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 27
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abundant in the Humboldt valley. transplanted trees the county of Washoe alone sur- passes Humboldt. The assessed valuation of the county, real and personal, for 1884, was $3,152,692, which is a good showing for the population. The mining property of Humboldt county is of much less value than its farm property, a fact which I have endeavored to show in detail. Yet there are good mining districts, one of which, the Buena Vista, has yielded its millions in bullion 15
Unionville, which owes its existence to mining prospectors of 1861, was the first county-seat. A majority of its founders being confederates, it was originally called Dixie, but as union men became prominent, the name was changed. In 1873 the
15 John H. Hoppin, engaged in cattle raising in Humboldt co., was born in Lanesboro', Berkshire co., Mass., Feb. 9, 1821, and brought up on a farm in the town of Eldridge, Onandaga co., N. Y. He was educated at Monroe acdacmy, and taught school for a while after completing his studies. In 1844 his father and all his family removed to Niles, Michigan, where they resided until 1849, when John H. Hoppin set out for Cal., overland, and reached the Yuba diggings in the autumn, mining during the winter at a place now called Washington. The following year he started in merchandis- ing on the North Ynba at Goodyear's bar, in connection with Woodruff, Duncan & Co. Later he was joined by his brother Charles R., and they purchased 400 head of cattle from the immigration, which they fattened and sold. Ths brothers purchased a 6-league grant at Yolo, where they were joined by two more of their brothers, Henry L., and Thaddeus C., John and Charles going to Texas in 1870 to bny cattle to stock grazing land in Nevada. They own 15,000 aeres in Humboldt co., on which are from 12,000 to 15,- 000 sheep, and from 2,500 to 3,000 head of cattle. In 1872 John H. was elected to the legislature on the republican ticket, and helped to eleet John P. Jones for U. S. senator. He is laboring for the plan of storing water for use in farming, and believes Nevada will yet be a wheat growing state.
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
county seat was removed to Winnemucca, wnich until 1868 was known only as French Bridge or Ford. In that year it was named to commemorate the Pah Ute chief by C. B. O. Bannon, a nephew of the secretary of the interior.
The other towns and settlements in Humboldt county are Adobe, Barbersville, Bartlett Creek, Bata- via City, Brown's, Buffalo Station, Cane Spring, Cañon Station, Centreville, Clark's, Coin, Cumber- land, Derby's Dun Glen, Fairview, Fort McDermit, Gem City. Granite Creek, Grass Valley, Griggsville, Hardin's Ranch, Hillyer, Humboldt City, Indian Creek, Iron Point, Isabella, Jersey City, Junction, King River Valley, Lancaster, Little Humboldt, Lovelock, McCulley, Mason, Mill City, Mountain Spring, O'Connor Station, Oreana, Panther Canon, Paradise Hill, Paradise Valley, Pine Forest, Pleasant Valley, Queen City, Queen River Valley, Raspberry Creek, Rock Spring, Rockwell Station, Rocky Canon, Ross Creek, Rye Patch, Santa Clara, Scottsville, Smith Ford, Spring City, St Mary, Star City, Trin- ity, Tule, Vandewater, Varyville, Ward, Willow Creek, Willow Point, and Winnemucca Spring.
Lander county, created December 19, 1862, was cut off from the eastern portion of Humboldt and Churchill counties in obedience to the demand of a small army of miners, who, according to their tradi- tions, made a rush in the previous May for Reese river, hitherto unknown except to the Indians, the military, and the overland-stage and pony-express companies. The road crossed Reese river at Jacob station. Almost directly east of the station was a pass known as Pony Cañon, because the riders of this express often shortened their route by taken it instead of the usual pass through the Toiyabe range. Wil- liam M. Talcott, who had been a pony-express rider, being in this cañon May 2, 1862, discovered a quartz vein, some ore from which was sent to Virginia City to be assayed. Reese river mining district was imme-
265
LANDER COUNTY,
diately organized, and in the following December a county was also created, and named after F. W. Lander, in acknowledgment of his services to the government and the territory. From Lander county, which was enlarged by the change of boundary between Utah and Nevada, so many districts have been carved that it has been called the mother of counties.
The amount of surveyed land in Lander county is small, whence it may be inferred that the agricultural interest is small accordingly. It is, indeed, princi- pally as a mineral region that it is known, its wealth having been dug out of its quartz mines, which, unlike those of some other portions of the state, remain productive. Its total valuation in 1879 was given at $1,038,373, and its population at 3,624. The great cost of living, and of working mines so far in the interior has been the main difficulty to be overcome in Lander county, which, until 1880, when the Nevada Central railroad was completed to Austin, remained unchanged. During the eighteen years while freight-wagons drawn by horse or mule teams performed all the transportation to the mines of the Toiyabe range, quartz ledges that yielded no more than $100 per ton were almost worthless, the cost of extracting the bullion being equal to that for the first few years, and never having come down to the rates at which the Comstock mines were worked. With all these disadvantages, the Reese river mines have paid for working. Battle Mountain district furnishes galena ores assaying $400 per ton in silver and 70 per cent of lead. The average yield is $150 per ton silver and 50 per cent of lead. It has been found in some combinations to contain from $3,000 to $4,000 in silver. The copper ores of this district are also of a high grade. The same may be said of Jersey district, south-west of Battle Mountain station. The ores from these districts were concentrated and shipped east for reduction. Lewis district, distant 16 miles
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT
from Battle Mountain, was connected by rail with the Nevada Central and Central Pacific railroads.
Reese river district was the principal as it was the first organized in the county. Since it creation two other districts have been consolidated with it, Amador and Yankee Blade. The number of locations re- corded was over 8,000. The veins were contained in gneiss of granite, and run northwest and southeast, dipping northeast 35°. The ores were silver bearing, although a small percentage of gold was found in some mines ; also galena, antimony, copper, iron, and zinc. The chief mines of this district were King Alfred, Chase, New Pacific, Magnolia, Morris and Caple, Patriot, and the Manhattan company's claims. The King Alfred mines were owned by an English company. An English company also owned a copper mine in Battle Mountain district. The first mine lo- cated was the Pony. The deepest shaft in 1884 was 700 feet, and was on the Oregon, one of the Manhat- tan company's mines. The veins of this district were narrow but rich, two and a half feet being the widest, and all require chlorination. The gross bullion yield of this district, from its discovery to 1865, is estimated at $2,000,000, since which time it has yielded $19,- 591,551.18. ranking third in the state for productive- ness. 16
The amount of land cultivated in Lander county in 1880 was 2,700. The productions were 1,080 bush- els of wheat, 43,000 of barley, 775 of oats, 62,000 of
16 The Marysville mines in Lander co. were discovered by William Stanage Wilson, who, with his sons, owns the group. Mr Wilson is of Scotch descent, his grandfather arriving in America about 1775, and helping to fight the battles of the revolution. Mr Wilson was born in Logan co., Ohio, Dec. 30, 1821, but at the age of 11 years removed to Elkhart co., Ind. In 1848 he volunteered for the Mexican war, but peace being soon after declared, he was discharged. He came to the Pacific coast in 1852 along with the immi- gration to Oregon, residing in that state until 1874, when he removed to Carico valley, Lander co., about 60 miles from Austin. Having made a com- fortable fortune in mining and cattle raising, he left the care of the large Carico farm to his sons, and devoted himself to prospecting, which he fol- lowed for eight years before he found what satisfied him. He later became a resident of Reno, his large family being provided for, and all the result of his indomitable energy and sagacity.
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TOWN SITES.
potatoes, 9,500 tons of hay, and a few hundred fruit trees. Of live stock, ít owned 2,100 horses, 400 mules, 4,624 cattle, 23,000 sheep, and some other farm stock. The first town and county seat was Jacobsville, at the overland stage station. But Austin in 1863 superseded it. In December 1862 two men, named Marshall and Cole, were the sole occupants of the site, being engaged in running a tunnel on the south side of the Pony canon, on the Highland Mary claim, near the centre of the present town. In that same month John Frost, " Felix O'Neil, J. Q. C. Van- derbosch, and George Buffet located the Oregon, North Star, and Southern Light mines in the same lo- cality, and in the following spring erected a log cabin. 15
A survey was made of a town site, which was in- tended to secure the water and mill rights, but the property was sold in 1865 to a New York company, under the name of Manhattan, Frost being retained as superintendent, and having charge of all the ma- chinery put up on Lander Hill for many years. Mar- shall also located a town site, and another was taken up by D. E. Buell, W. C. Harrington, E. Welton, and I. C. Bateman. The citizens united to construct a graded road from the lower town, or Clifton, to the upper town, or Austin, and soon the majority of the population was at the higher point, and practically there was but one town, which was Austin. In April 1863 a hotel, newspaper, and post office were added to the new city. A pony express was started by G. L. Turner to the various mines, and Wells, Fargo &
17 John Frost, born in Monroe co., N. Y., in 1829, and educated at the common schools, came to Cal. in 1846 in a whaler, touching at Valparaiso and Monterey. He was 2 years before the mast, and 2 years 3d mate of the vessel, the voyage lasting 4 years and 8 months. In IS51 he made an- other voyage to Cal., and arrived, for the third time, in Dec. 1852, in the clipper ship Thomas Watson, when he went to the mines on Yuba river, re- maining there until 1860. In that year he erected a hotel in the Henness pass of the Sierra Nevada, but removed to Pony, now Austin, in 1862, in company with Vanderbosch, O'Neil, and Buffet. This company, known as the Oregon Mill and Mining co., erceted a ten-stamp mill, which ran for two years.
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
Co. established an express office. Being directly upon the overland route, Austin had stage communication with the east and west, besides which special lines were established. The passenger traffic for 1865 was estimated at 6,000 fares between Virginia City and Austin, at $40 a fare. The freight carried over the road cost $1,381,800 for transportation from this di- rection alone, besides what came from Salt Lake. Lumber transported from the mills of the Sierra cost $250 per thousand feet, and that sawed out of the na- tive piñon, $125 per thousand. Brick manufactured at Reese river cost $12 to $18 per thousand, and other things in proportion. The treasure carried by the express company that year aggregated $6,000,000. Three banking houses were in operation. Men of the learned professions flocked there, and Austin was that anomaly of modern times, a city in the midst of a wilderness, grown up like a mushroom, in a night. It was incorporated in 1875, and disincorporated in 1881.
Battle Mountain, the town next in importance to Austin, is simply a shipping point on the Central Pa- cific railroad, and the northern terminus of the Ne- vada Central. Its position with reference to the Humboldt valley is favorable to its growth. Irriga- tion is converting the desert lands in its vicinity into fertile fields. 18
18 John Ansel Blossom, the first settler of Battle Mountain, was born in Ohio in 1836, went to St Louis in 1857, and remained there until 1860, when he came to Cal. In 1862 he went to Nevada with barley and hay, starting a livery-stable at Star city. In 1867 he removed to Dun Glen, where he mined, and went next year to French bridge, now Winnemucca. This bridge, the first on the Humboldt, was erected by the Lay Brothers, and a French- man named Frank Band. Burned out at Winnemucca, in 1869, he went to Battle mountain, Nathan Levi, a merchant of Winnemucca, assisting him to start anew. His house was the first in Battle Mountain, after the railroad buildings; and the town received its name from Robert Macbeth, a pioneer who was conversant with the early history of the spot. In 1871 Blossom be- gan stock raising on an extensive scale. He was the contractor who built the Nevada Central railroad from Battle Mountain to Austin.
Ancther early settler of Battle Mountain was John W. McWilliams, born in Ohio in 1835, and in 1854 came to California, and in 1863 to Nevada, set- tling first at Unionville, where he was county recorder. In 1870 he located himself at Battle Mountain, where J. A. Blossom had a tent, and Thomas
269
NYE COUNTY.
The settlements in Lander county, otherwise than those mentioned, are Addington, Amador, Ansonia, Argenta, Artesian, Bailey, Campbell, Cañon City, Canton's, Cooper's Canon, Curtis, Deep Creek Sta- tion, Dodgeville, Empire, Galena, Geneva, Grass Valley, Hallsvale, Helena, Lander, Ledlie, Lewis, Piute, Ravenswood, Reese River, Santa Fé, Skunk- town, Smoky Valley, Stoneberger's. Lewis has ro- cently become a well-known mining town.13
Nye county, organized in 1864 out of Esmeralda county, and named in honor of Governor J. W. Nye, occupied at that time all that portion of Nevada south of the thirty-ninth parallel not remaining in Esmer- alda, a large and almost unknown area. Its bounda- ries have been several times changed, and it remains a large county still, its present area being 18,432 square miles. The discovery of a new mining district, sixty miles south of Austin, in the Shoshone range, was the occasion of the subdivision, and the town of Ione, in Union district, became the county seat, which honor it enjoyed for three years, when the county records were removed to Belmont, a town founded in
W. Rule a small shop. E. T. George, J. H. Green, and a few others, had taken land claims. In 1872 he was elected county commissioner. J. C. Fall, with whom Mc Williams had been associated in business at Dun Glen, had presented his interest in the firm to his son-in-law, J. H. Kinkead, which interest was purchased from the latter in 1873, and the concern carried on by Mc Williams until 1880, when he sold to A. D. Lemaire, and retired.
19 B. F. Wilson, born in Canada in 1832, came to Cal. in 1854, and in 1SGS to Nevada, settling at Galena and looking for mines, in which he was successful, opening up some good prospects. On the Hamburg mine he erected in 1885 a mill with a capacity of 15 tons per day, running by steam power.
Thomas G. Morgan, locator of the Pittsburg Consolidated and other mining properties in Lander co., was born in Wales in 1845, and came to the U. S. in childhood, residing at Massillon, Ohio, from which state he came to Virginia, Nevada, in 1873. Subsequently he removed to Galena in Lander co., and engaged in mining, beginning operations in ISSO, and being associated with several others. He purchased the interests of his associates excepting that of J. A. Blossom, who sold the Pittsburg to a London com- pany for $160,000, and had left the Evening Star, Cumberland, Ida Hen- rietta, and Lady Carrie. These claims are gold bearing. In 1SS3 Mr Morgan married Miss Carrie Bertrand, whose brother discovered the Geddes Bertrand, near Eureka. He has faith in the resources of Nevada, both min- eral and agricultural, he has many important and valuable mining claims in the Lewis district, and steps are now being taken to work them.
270
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
1865, by Antonio Bozquez, the first settler, and A. Billman, H. G. C. Schmidt, J. M. Reed, C. L. Straight, R. Kelley, D. R. Dean, L. Martin, O. Brown, S. Tallman, J. Grover, D. E. Buel, William Geller, Charles St Louis, J. W. Gashwiler, S. M. Burk, and others. The situation was upon a plateau of the Toiyaba range, at an altitude of 8,000 feet, where wood and water were abundant, and the scenery picturesque.
There are several good mining districts in the county, which has produced $8,000,000 in bullion, and has a permanent population of two thousand, with an economical and healthy county administration, yet owing to its want of transportation the progress of any kind of enterprise has been slow.
The number of acres under cultivation in 1880 was 2,300 ; of bushels of wheat raised, 4,328; of barley, 33,212; oats, 5,000; potatoes, 18,000. It had com- paratively little stock, about ten thousand head hav- ing been driven away in the two previous years, owing to a failure of grass from over-feeding. Fruit does well in this region, and is extensively cultivated. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Nye county in 1880 was not much over $1,000,000, the decrease being in personal property, which, being largely mining property, has failed to hold its own, while farming property has not declined. The gross yield of the mines for the last half of 1880 and the first half of 1881 was respectively $273,881 and $188,908.
Mining having reached a depth at which capital and improved methods must be applied, a temporary abandonment followed, this being the history of the great majority of mining districts, just as hydraulic mining not being known or applied, the placer gold mines were deserted when the bars had been washed off. The settlements in Nye county to be named are Argenta, Barcelona, Blue Eagle, Centennial City, Central City, Cherry Creek, Cloverdale, Danville,
271
LINCOLN COUNTY.
Doyle, Duckwater, Dutch Flat, East Belmont, Ells- worth, Grant, Grantville, Jett, Junction, Kiney, King's House, Knickerbocker, Lodi, Logan, Milton, Morey, New Philadelphia, Northumberland, Peavine, Rattlesnake, Reese River, Reveille, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Augustine, San Juan, Seymour, Spauld- ing, Toyah, Troy, Tucker's Station, Tybo, Union, Ural Cañon, Washington, and Yokum.
Lincoln county, cut off from Nye February 26, 1866, is a mining county of much historic interest, having been first traversed by the white race when the Spaniards, between 1540 and 1775, made explora- tions through the interior of the continent. In 1863- 4, an Indian brought to William Hamlin, in Meadow valley, a specimen of silver ore, which on being sent to Salt Lake caused several expeditions to visit, that region, the first of which, under J. M. Vandermark and Stephen Sherwood, organized the Meadow valley mining district in April 1864. Not to be dispossessed by Gentiles, Brigham Young ordered Erastus Snow from St George to Meadow valley with a company of men, who in the temporary absence of the mining recorder, organized a new district with new rules. A third company, consisting chiefly of men from the California volunteers, followed, and the former rules were ultimately restored ; but the presence of so many Mormons making the place distasteful, the district was abandoned by the gentiles after some work had been done on the Panaca, the original discovery ledge, and on the Mammoth.
Pahranagat district was next organized, in 1865, hundreds of locations made, and one million feet of ground sold to W. H. Raymond for eastern capital- ists. The legislature having created the county of Lincoln, Governor Blasdel and suite proceeded to Pahranagat to complete the organization. On the way, having taken a roundabout course through Death valley, and become involved in barren wastes without food or water, they narrowly escaped destruc-
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
tion. As it was, one life was lost, and much suffer- ing endured by the party. The governor found that there was not the number of legal voters required in the county, which after all this trouble was not or- ganized until the following year. Its original boun- daries were twice changed, in March 1867, when a strip ten miles wide was ceded to Nye on the west, and in 1875, when it received some territory from Nye on the north. The county seat was first decreed to be at Crystal Springs, but in 1867 was changed to Hiko in the same district, and ultimately to Pioche.
This town was situated on a spur of the Ely moun- tains, and faced north. It was first settled by Joseph Grange and E. M. Chubard, who in 1868 erected a small furnace for the reduction of ore, but failing in their expectations, abandoned the location. In 1869 the Meadow valley district was reorganized and named Ely district, in honor of John H. Ely, who with W. H. Raymond, placed a five-stamp quartz mill, rented from a New York company, in Meadow valley, at the site of Bullionville, the nearest point where suffi- cient water could be obtained. A company consisting of P. McCannon, L. Lacour, and A. M. Bush laid out the town in the same year, which was surveyed by E. L. Mason, a civil engineer, and named by Mrs Carmichael Williamson after F. L. A. Pioche of San Francisco, who owned largely in the mines. In 1870-1 it was the most active town in Nevada, and consequently infested by the criminal element, which ever followed in the wake of honest enterprise in the mining districts. On the 15th of September, 1871, it was ravaged by fire, and $500,000 worth of prop- erty destroyed. An explosion of three hundred pounds of blasting powder killed thirteen men, and wounded forty-seven others. But the town was quickly rebuilt in a more substantial manner, only to lose another $50,000 by the same terrible agency in May 1872. On the 22d of August, 1873, a rain flood caused a loss of $10,000, and in 1876 a fire again
273
CASUALTIES.
destroyed $40,000 worth of property. Pioche reached the height of its prosperity in 1872-3, when the pop- ulation was estimated at six thousand, and there were one hundred and ten stamps crushing ore in the dis- trict, with a narrow-gauge railroad to Bullionville, to carry ore to the mills. Bullionville itself had a pop- ulation of five hundred, but it declined when, on the completion of the water-works, Pioche was liberally supplied with water, and the mills were removed to that place. A revival began in 1880, when new smelting and concentrating works were erected at Bullionville to work the tailings deposited by the mills. The nearest railroad station where goods are received or bullion shipped is Milford, on the Utah Southern, which renders Lincoln county a dependency of Chicago chiefly, though some trade is carried on with San Francisco. After producing $20,000,000 of bullion, the Ely district was almost deserted, Pioche having not more than eight hundred inhabi- tants in 1880. The Pahranagat, Colorado, Freyburg, Pennsylvania, Silver Springs, Silver King, Groom, St Thomas, Timber Mountain, Pah Ute, Wheeler, Southeastern, and Yellow Pine districts all contain good mines, which may yet be developed. Pahrana- gat, which means watermelon, has been the most noted of these, but is at present nearly deserted.19
The population of the county in 1884 was 2,200, an increase of four hundred over 1883, and the assessed valuation of real and personal property $488,004. The affairs of the county have been extravagantly managed, and the indebtedness in 1880 was $300,000. Of the several towns, nearly all of which are mining
19 Hiko Silver Mining Company's Rept, 1866, 1-22, 34-6; The Miner, i. 27; Quincy Union, June 23, 1866. There are several valleys which with Irrigation would produce good crops. Meadow Springs, Ash, Clover, Eagle, Dry Muddy, Rose, and Pahranagat valleys are all susceptible of cultivation. The best farmers are Mormons, who have several times been reealled by the church, when their improvements passed into other hands. About ISSO they commeneed to return and take up land, which is a promise of an inerease in agriculture. The soil and elimate in the valley of Muddy ereek, a tributary of Rio Virgen, are adapted to cotton raising. William Anderson in 1873 had HIST. NEV. 18
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
centres, one which is not a mining town is Callville, founded by Anson Call and a few associates from Utah, at the head of navigation on the Colorado river, in 1864. It is not a lovely situation, being among the barren sand-hills of this desolate region, with nothing to recommend it except its importance as a place of transfer and storage whenever navigation shall be permanently established on the Colorado. There are men who see evidences of a prehistoric race, possessing many of the arts of scientific civilization, bordering on the Colorado, and having large cities, canals, aqueducts, and highways, and who understood mining. As faith is given each one of us we will be- lieve. As with the footprints of a man of giant pro- portions in the sandstone quarry at the Carson stato prison, more is suggested than proved.20
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