USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 28
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 28
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 28
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The towns and settlements not described in Lincoln county are Bristol, Bunkerville, Camp El Dorado, Clover Valley, Cottonwood, Dutch Flat, Eagle Valley, Farmington, Flag Spring, Freyburg Mines, Hillside, Homer, Lake Valley, Las Vegas, Logan, Long Val- ley, Lyonsville, Mayflower, Mesquit, Midey Valley, Montezuma, Overton, Panaca, Pahrock, Patterson, Potosí, Royal City, Silver City, St Joseph, St Thomas, Tem Piute, West Point.
Elko county, created March 5, 1869, was cut off from Lander, and combprises, esides a large extent of
10 acres, and Mr Carter 20 acres in this staple, which grows and yields well. At Washington, Utah, is a cotton factory. Pioche Record; Carson Appeal, July 22, 1873.
20 A man who has labored to improve Lincoln county is Eugene Howell, a member of the 11th session of the Nevada legislature, elected in 1882 on the democratic ticket. He was the originator of a petition to congress to appro- priate money for the improvement of the Coiorado river. The matter was not acted upon by congress, and Gov. Adams vetoed a bill introduced in the Nev. legislature by Howell and passed, to appoint a commissioner to gather statistics on the subject to be presented to congress. The navigation of the Colorado would be a great boon to the mineral and agricultural regions bor- dering on it. Howell was the democratic nominee for state senator in 1884, but was defeated. In 1886 he declined the nomination of state comptroller. As a mining man Howell has been connected with firms in Bristol, in the Pahranagat district, and the White Pine district. He was born in Eureka, Plumas co., Cal., on March 21, 1858, and was educated for a practical metal- lurgist, although he has been engaged in merchandising in Bristol.
275
ELKO COUNTY.
mineral land, a larger amount of good agricultural and grazing land than any other county in Nevada, 16,124 acres being under cultivation in 1880, or five hundred more than Douglas, the most productive county of the west tier. It should be borne in mind that farming in Nevada has no other object than the local supply, on account of the enormous railroad tar- iff, which places an embargo upon grain growing for distant .narkets. The different policy of the Northern Pacific has encouraged the cultivation of the grain lands of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, while in Nevada the management of the Central Pacific actu- ally prohibits it. For this reason a large proportion of cultivable territory lies idle, and what is cultivated is not made to produce as it might. The average product of farms in Elko county is 30 bushels of wheat, 35 of barley, 60 of oats, and 100 of potatoes to the acre. Elko county raised in 1880 of wheat 30,000, of barley 150,000, of oats 370, of potatoes 370,000 bushels, and of hay 50,000 tons were cured. The county contained upon its ranges 70,520 cattle, 17,200 horses, 4,150 mules, 10,000 sheep, and 1,400 hogs. In 1884 it had 3 flouring-mills, and made 5,470 barrels of flour. It had 460 miles of irrigating ditches, 21 miles of mining ditches, 9 quartz-mills, and 2 smelting-furnaces. There were crushed in 1884, 5,124 tons of quartz and smelted 1,412 tons. The population was over 6,000, and the county upon a good financial basis. Like all the other counties, it is divided into valleys with a general north and south trend, excepting the Humboldt, which is not an agri- cultural valley. Its mines of argentiferous galena and other metals are found in the ranges separating the valleys, and are numerous. There are no less than 26 mining districts in the county, of which Kingsley district, discovered in 1862, in the Antelope range, by Felix O'Neil, is the oldest. A furnace for smelting ore was erected here. The Tuscarora district, organ- ized in July 1867, lies 45 miles north of Carlin on
276
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
the headwaters of the Owyhee river, and is the next in point of time. It was discovered by the Beard brothers, who worked the placer diggings for gold. The quartz is free milling, and carries gold near the surface, which diminishes as depth iso btained. The Grand Prize mine is down 600 feet, and the Independ-
ence has a tunnel 1,500 feet in length. There are 500 miners in this district. Island Mountain district. 75 miles north of Elko, was discovered in 1873 by E. Penrod, one of the original owners of the Ophir mine on the Comstock. It is worked chiefly for the gold in the placers, and is supplied with water from a canal 10 miles in length, constructed by Penrod.
Carlin is the oldest town in the county, having been settled in July, 1868, by J. A. Palmer, and soon after by S. Pierce, C. Boyen, and James Clark. A town sprang up with the completion of the Humboldt division of the Central Pacific railroad, and the loca- tion of the company's round- house and shops. Elko, the county-seat, was first settled by George F. Pad- dleford in December 1868. In the following year it became the point of disembarkation for White Pine and Tuscarora mines.21
The towns and settlements not before mentioned in Elko county are Antelope Station, Aurora, Arthur, Blythe City, Bradley, Brown, Bruno, Buel, Bullion, Cedar, Cloverdale, Columbia, Coral Hill, Cornucopia, Deeth, Dolly Varden, Elaine, Excelsior, Fair Play, Falcon, Fort Halleck, Friend's Station, Golconda, Gerald, Good Hope, Heenans, Hicks District, High- land, Hoolon, Huntington, Independence, Island Mountain, Kinsley's Springs, Lamoille, Lamoille Val- ley, Lone Mountain, Lorav, McPeters, Marshall Sta- tion, Moleen, Montello, Moors, Mountain City, Nat-
21 A town was laid off by William T. Ballou, Ballou's Adv., MS., 24, and had a rapid growth. In 1885 it had a population of 800 taxable property to the amount of $341,400, a daily and weekly newspaper, the state university, a good common school building, a church, several lodges of different socie- ties, a brick jail, mineral soap factory, flouring mill, water company, and other useful institutions. It sustained a loss of about $100,000 by fires.
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WHITE PINE COUNTY.
chez, North Ruby, Osino, Otego, Owyhee, Peko, Pequop, Robber's Roost, Ruby Valley, Salmon City, Shoemakers, Stickney Town, Tacoma, Toano, Toll Gate, Tulasco, Tuscarora, William, and Wyoming.22
White Pine county which was created out of Lander, April, 1869, consists of a succession of val- leys between high ranges, Diamond range on the west being tipped with snow. In the autumn of 1865 a party of prospectors from Austin being attracted to the region east of this range by the view of moun- tains covered with white pine timber, discovered some mines of silver, lead, and copper, and organized the district of White Pine October 10th of that year. Robert Morrill and Thomas J. Murphy were promi- nent in these proceedings. The first discovery was in the region near the present town of Hamilton, others following in its neighborhood. The succeed- ing year Murphy and Crawford went to Philadelphia with ores from mines in White Pine district, and formed the Monte Cristo Mining company, which sent out a superintendent in 1867, who put up a mill and proceed to work the ores. In the autumn, after snow had fallen on the mountains, an Indian, for some trifling favor bestowed by A. J. Leathers, the black- smith of the original company, gave him a piece of ore which being melted produced a button of silver. He was induced to show the place from which he had brought the specimen, which proved to be the Hidden Treasure mine from which Treasure Hill near Hamil-
22 An important man at Tuscarora was Americus Vespuccius Lancaster, born in Belfast, Me, Sept. 5, 1835. He came to the Pacific coast in 1855, and after mining in various localities in Cal. and British Columbia, visiting Cen- tral America, and his former home in Me., where he married, he returned to this coast, and in 1867 settled at Tuscarora, then a new place, where he took contracts to supply wood and ties to the C. P. R. R., and with the proceeds set up in the grocery business, and also bought gold dust of the miners, making a profit which enabled him in a few years to improve some valuable mining property. The Young America and Young America south were located and patented by Lancaster and others, and the town of Tuscorora is on their ground. He owned in the Navajo and North Belle Isle, both of which produced well; and also greatly enlarged his mercaatile interests. In ISSO he removed to Alameda, Cal., to give his children the advantages which his liberal means enable him to bestow,
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
ton took its name. The Hidden Treasure was located January 3, 1868, by Leathers, Murphy, and March- and, and sold in January 1860 for $200,000, to G. E. Roberts & Co. Soon after the discovery of the Hid- den Treasure, T. E. Eberhardt of Austin, discovered the famous chloride deposit on Treasure hill, which was known as the Eberhardt mine, although in mak- ing locations with some friends the richest portion did not fall to him. The Eberhardt mine was disposed of in 1868 to a company which took several tons of the ore to Austin for reduction, where it was found to yield from $450 to $27,000 per ton. Ore working $3,000 was constantly taken from the Eberhardt, Keystone, and Blue Belle mines, which was banked up for smelting, when furnaces should be erected. On the 25th of September the Defiance mine produced in one day ore that would yield $40,000 worth of bullion, and had $75,000 in sight. These prodigies of wealth created the greatest fever of excitement known since the discovery of the Comstock. Thou- sands of men hastened to White Pine, rich and poor alike, and the prospector's pick was heard in all direc- tions, while every canon of the bare and rugged mountains about Treasure Hill had its sides adorned with miners' cabins, hanging like bird cages from its rocky sides. The excitement culminated in the win- ter and spring of 1868-9. A question in mining law was raised which was never before brought up, and arose out of the discovery that the Eberhardt group of mines were not upon any ledge which could be measured off and its extensions taken up, but were a single horizontal deposit, the chloride layers being separated by layers of limestone, and bounded by walls like a vault. These deposits have since become familiar in Colorado and are called contact, or blanket lodes. Supposing that this arrangement of ore must continue downward to the depth of other silver mines, a movement was made to compel those in possession, after working out one deposit, to allow another claim-
279
HAMILTON COUNTY.
ant to take the next under it, and so on. The move- ment, however, did not prevail, and the Chloride Flat group of mines was suffered to remain in the hands of its fortunate owners, who sold or worked them as seemed best. Suits at law grew out of the peculiar formation after it was discovered that there had been different locations made, by croppings, on what proved to be the same body of ore, that is, not divided by any wall. One of these cases, brought in the courts of Lander county to which the district then belonged, was among the causes célèbres of that country. The bank of California made haste to secure the manage- ment as in the Comstock mines, purchasing several claims, but it never obtained the controlling interest. In the autumn of 1869 the mines of White Pine were producing monthly about $500,000 in bullion. The rich deposit which set the world agog proved not to be a deep one. Some millions of dollars were taken out, but at the depth of 100 feet the body of almost pure silver was exhausted. The Eberhardt was purchased in connection with the Aurora mine by an English company, by which it was worked with energy and varying fortune. A shaft was put down 1,400 feet, and over a mile of tunnelling made into the heart of the mountain. There were about twenty- four mining districts in White Pine county which were sufficiently tested to prove the value of the mines, which were of silver, gold, lead, copper, and other metals. In most of the districts wood and water could be obtained with little difficulty.
Agriculture was neglected for want of transporta- tion, more than 2,500 acres being under cultivation in 1885. There were in the county in 1884 of stock- cattle 3,000, cows 2,000, calves 900, sheep 10,000, lambs 8,000, hogs 400, horses 1,200, and mules 150. The amount of good farming land was estimated at 12,000 acres. Of grazing land, much of which, with irrigation, would produce crops, there are 4,776,160 acres; of timbered land, 500,000 acres, and of min-
280
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
eral land, about the same amount. The population of the county was 2,500, and its assessed valuation $864,870.
Hamilton, the county seat of White Pine county, is situated on the northern slope of Treasure Hill, near the foot. Its altitude is 7,977 feet above the sea level, and the site commanding. It was laid off for a town by W. H. Hamilton, Henry Kelly, and E. Goben, in May 1868. Previous to this, and while only a rendezvous for prospectors, who dwelt in turf- houses quite as often as anything, it was called Cave City, but since received the name of Hamilton. Such was the rush of population in 1868-9 that houses could not be provided for the 10,000 inhabitants, but canvas was made to do duty for wood and brick. Hamilton was incorporated in 1869, and disincorpo- rated in 1875. A brick court-house and jail was erected in 1870 at a cost of $50,000. A water com- pany was formed which supplied Hamilton and Treas- ure hill with water brought from Illapah springs, in Momoke Hill, three miles east of Hamilton, where 2,000,000 gallons of water per day flow out of the rock. Steam pumping-works had to be used to force the water two miles through a 12-inch pipe and lift it to a reservoir 1,000 feet high. This cost $380,000, and the original company sold to the Eberhardt and Aurora Mining companies in 1878. In 1873 a fire destroyed $600,000 worth of property at Hamilton, this devastation having been caused by the owner of a cigar store who set fire to his premises to get the insurance, having first turned off the water to disable the fire company. In Applegarth's Canon, at the foot of Treasure hill, on the south side, is Eberhardt, with 100 inhabitants. On the western slope, near the top, and often above the clouds that overhang Hamilton, is Treasure City. It had 6,000 inhabitants in 1869, and 50 in 1885. Shermantown, situated at the mouth of a canon dividing Treasure Hill from White Pine Mountain, five miles south of and at a
281
EURERA COUNTY.
much lower altitude than Hamilton, was the seat of two saw-mills, five quartz-mills, and four furnaces in 1868-9, and had 1,000 inhabitants. It was incorpo- rated in 1870, and had a newspaper of its own, but is to-day deserted by all but a single family. Swansea, three-fourths of a mile north of Shermantown, had two quartz-mills and smelters, and several hundred people, of whom none remain. Such was the rise and decline of White Pine district, the most remark- able of any in eastern Nevada.
Cherry creek became the principal town in White Pine county. It was situated at the mouth of Cherry Creek cañon, on the eastern slope of the Eagan range, at an elevation of 6,300 feet. It owes its rise to the mines of that district, which were discovered in 1872. Ward is another mining town whose growth began in 1876. It is 62 miles south-east of Hamil- ton. Both towns support newspapers of their own. The settlements of White Pine county not above named are Aurum, Centreville, Clayton, Cooper, Diamond, Eagan, Ely, Glencoe, Hendrie's Mill, Hunter, Indian Queen, Kingston, Lehman, Maryland, Mineral City, Mosier, Newark hill, Osceola, Pianum, Picotillo, Piuma, Queen's Station, Rubyville, Schell- bourne, Shoenbars, Simpson, Tiermont, Warner, West Ely, and White Pine City.
Eureka county, created out of Lander March 1, 1873, owes its separate existence to its mineral re- sources. These began to be known immediately after the settlement of Reese river, which formed a base of operations and supplies. The district was located on Mt Tenabo, the highest elevation of the Cortez mountains, thirty miles south-east of Beowawe, or Gravelly ford, where one of the largest mineral- bearing belts ever found in Nevada was discovered. The formation consists of granite and limestone.
A dike of quartzite 500 feet in width was named The Nevada Giant,' and excited great expecta- tions. This mineral belt was subsequently developed
282
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
and its promised wealth realized, under the owner- ship of Simeon Wenban,23 one of the original discov- erers. It appears 3,000 feet above the valley, and stretches its enormous body diagonally down the mountain in plain view for about 19,000 feet, the south end dipping down and disappearing in the val- ley below. The district has proved one of the most important in the state.
The first mines were located in the granite on what was called 'Bullion Hill'; an eight-stamp mill was erected in 1864 by the Cortez Company for the pur- pose of reducing the ores found in the granite forma- tion, and was operated by this company until 1867, when it was purchased by Wenban, who increased the capacity to ten stamps, and continued to operate it on ore taken from his mines located in the lime- stone formation, of which there were many, the most prominent being the Arctic, Idaho, Garrison, and St Louis. These mines have proved of great value.
In 1886 this mill was superseded by works to re- duce ores by the leaching process, having a capacity of about fifty tons per day, erected under the per- sonal supervision of Wenban. In the granite forma- tion the veins running through the quartz were found to be rich but narrow. The whole mineral zone was productive, but it was in the limestone that Wenban found his great wealth. The ores required roasting before amalgamating, and carried both gold and sil- ver. Wood and water were brought a distance of eight miles. Eureka district, discovered in 1864, produced great wealth, which increased the population of Lander county, and caused a division of the same.
23 Mr Wenban was born in England in the parish of Hawkhurst, county Kent, May 18, 1824, and was the son of a wheelwright. In 1828 his parents immigrated to the U. S., residing in Utica, N. Y., and later in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1854 he came to the Pacific coast, mining for a while in Cal., but removing to Nevada in 1862. In 1863 he made one of a prospecting party which discovered the Cortés district, in which he owns about thirty mines. Mr Wenban has done everything to prove the wealth of that region, and in doing it has made himself a millionaire several times over, and without prac- tising any selfish greed to the injury of his neighbors. His character stands as deservedly high as his success has been deservedly great.
283
EUREKA TOWN.
The town of Eureka, which was founded in 1869 by W. W. McCoy and Alonzo Monroe was made the county seat.24
Eureka town, nearly 7,000 feet above the sea, is situated at the head of a cañon four miles long and 200 yards wide, from the sides of which parallel lines of steep hills rise one above the other to a height of from 500 to 1,200 feet, from whose crests numerous smaller cañons run down to the main one. Where this gorge spreads out among the lesser hills and ravines at the top the town site was located. It rapidly acquired population. A line of stages from Austin to Hamil- ton passed through it, and a post office was established in 1870. In the same year the town obtained direct connection with the Central Pacific railroad by Ennor and Woodruff's stages from Hamilton to Palisade. A fast freight line to Palisade was established in 1871, and in 1874 the Eureka and Palisade railroad was begun, which was completed the following year. With its completion Eureka became the centre of freight and passenger traffic for a large area of country. By a steady growth the population had increased to 5,000 in 1880. Stone quarries adjacent to the town furnished superior material for building, the public edifices as well as residences being partly constructed of this material. Brick was also much used in build- ing. In 1879 a court house costing $53,000 was erected. There were two daily papers, two banks, and good schools. All the ores of this district were brought to Eureka for reduction in its sixteen fur- naces. They carried from 15 to 60 per cent of lead, and sufficient iron and silica to obviate the necessity for importing foreign flux. The yield of Eureka dis- trict for 1879, was $10,000,000, and the total yield for the seven years, including 1879, was $20,000.000. The town of Eureka has been three times visited by
24 This section has been thought of sufficient importance to justify the publication by Molinelli & Co. of a bound volume of 109 pages entitled Eureka and its Resources, 1879.
2S1
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
fire, the first, in 1872, causing the organization of a fire department ; the second, in 1878, which destroyed $1,000,000 worth of property ; and the third in 1880. A cloud burst in July 1874 destroyed considerable property, with the loss of seventeen lives. From these disasters the community recovered with the vigor imparted by conscious resources. Ruby Hill, two and one half miles west of Eureka, in 1880 had a population of 2,165. It was the residence of about 900 miners, who had a miners' union, and supported a newspaper, churches, schools, a theatre, and other popular institutions. Palisade, the northern terminus of the Eureka and Palisade railroad, had 200 inhabi- tants. It was furnished with water from the moun- tains to the north. The railroad company's shops + were located here for manufacturing cars.
Although specifically a mining county, Eureka is self-supporting, and might be made productive of agricultural wealth to a much greater extent. The amount of land enclosed in 1885 was 27,940 acres, of which 9,255 were in hay, grain and vegetables. It had 18 miles of irrigating ditches. The average yield of wheat was 40 bushels to the acre. It raised, in 1884, 10,000 tons of hay, made 15,000 pounds of cheese, 50,000 pounds of butter, 55,335 gallons of beer, and sheared 74,000 pounds of wool. Its live stock was 2,425 horses, 466 mules, 7,577 stock cattle, 12,400 sheep, 366 cows, 210 hogs. The valuation placed upon real and personal property was $3,099,- 429. The product of the mines in bullion was $1,- 647,289, the net yield being set down at $218,286. Charcoal burning was carried on to a considerable extent. In 1879 the mine superintendents at Eureka rebelled at paying 30 cents a bushel for this indis- pensable article, and fixed the price at 27 cents. The Charcoal Burners' association immediately declared war, refused to permit any to be delivered at the smelters, and took possession of the town of Eureka, threatening destruction to their enemies, the mine
285
CHARCOAL BURNERS' RIOT.
managers. Governor Kinkead was informed by tele- graph of the danger to the public peace, and " a suffi- cient force of the second brigade of the state militia to insure a restoration of order " was authorized to be called out. On the 18th of August, Deputy-sheriff J. B. Simpson attempted to arrest some persons be- longing to a coal camp at Fish creek, thirty miles from Eureka. Five coal burners were killed, and six wounded severely, in resisting arrest. Much excite- ment followed; but the coroner's jury brought in a verdict of justifiable homicide. Little doubt existed that the charcoal burners had suffered injustice at the hands of the contractors who delivered coal at the smelters, and made their measurements to meet their own interests. Added to this, a reduction in price brought on the riot which culminated so sadly in what is known as the Fish Creek war. The price of char- coal was reduced subsequently to 22 cents. In 1884, 165,000 bushels were burned. The nut pine wood, from which it was produced, yielded 28 bushels to a cord. The towns and settlements not above named are Allison, Alpha, Antelope, Beowawe, Blackburn, Boulder, Bullion, Cedar, Cluro, Colman, Cortés, Corwin, Devil's Gate, Diamond, Evans, Garden Pass, Goodwin, McLeod, Mineral Hill, Newtown, Oak, Pine Station, Pleasant Valley, Shipley, Shoshone, Silverado, Spring, Springville, Sulphur Spring Sta- tion, Summit, Vanderbilt, and Willards.
To sum up the condition of the state in 1883-6, it ranked third in the production of gold and silver, coming next after California and Colorado. It pro- duced in twenty years about $600,000,000 of the precious metals. There was in the state $27,625,- 257 in real and personal property, at the assessor's valuation, distributed among 62,000 inhabitants. The state sold of its land grants 85,000 acres, showing the prospective increase of farming. It had been rather the custem to disparage Nevada, because with only
286
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
inhabitants enough to make one small city, were they all gathered together, it did not go on producing at the rate of $600,000,000 in twenty years from the mines, in addition to its other products ; but the sub- ject was coming to be better understood, and in every ordinary sense the state is yet only in its infancy. Oregon had in 1860 about the same number of inhabi- tants that Nevada had in 1880, and raised of the dif- erent cereals 1,820,278 against Nevada's crop in 1880 of 782,519 bushels ; but Oregon was preeminently an agricultural state, and her wheat fields stood in the place of Nevada's mines; and while it is impossible that the latter should ever compete with the former in grain raising, it is also improbable that Oregon should ever show much more wealth per capita than it does at present, which is, at assessors' valuation, $402, while in Nevada at the same valuation it is $444, notwithstanding the wastefulness which attends mining in new countries, and which for the future must be overcome.
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