USA > Nevada > Eureka County > Eureka and its resources; a complete history of Eureka County, Nevada, containing the United States mining laws, the mining laws of the district, bullion product and other statistics for 1878, and a list of county officers > Part 6
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The following is a full and correct copy of the district mining laws of Eureka district, as taken from the books of the District Mining Recorder :
EUREKA VALLEY, Lander Co., N. T., Sept. 19, 1864.
LAWS OF EUREKA MINING DISTRICT.
SEC. 1. This district shall be known as the Eureka Mining District, and shall be bounded as follows, viz : Beginning at the place where Eureka creek or cañon crosses Simpson's old road, as laid out by him in the year 1859 ; thence following said road westerly to a spring in the middle gate ; thence
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
southerly, along the summit of the mountains, te th , first val- ley ; thence easterly, along the base of the mountains, to Simpson's old road ; thence northerly, and along Simpson's old road, to place of beginning.
SEC. 2. There shall be a Recorder elected at this meeting, who shall hold his office until the first Monday of September, A. D. 1865. He may appoint a deputy or deputies, for whose official acts he shall be responsible. The Recorder, or one of his deputies, shall go upon the ground at the request of the locator, and see that the locator measures and stakes off his claim or claims when visible. The Recorder or his deputy shall call all meetings, when requested by ten claim- holders of the district, and preside at the same. The Re- corder shall keep, in a suitable book or books, a faithful and true record of all claims brought to him for that purpose, if such claims do not conflict with other claims. He shall re- cord all claims in the order of their presentation, for which service he shall receive seventy-five cents for each claim re- corded. He shall record all certificates of work done on claims when he is satisfied that the necessary work has been done ; he shall give certificates of location, or abstracts of title, for which service he shall be entitled to receive fifty cents ; also to keep his books for the inspection of those inte- rested in the mines of the district. He shall deliver his books to his lawful successor. All examinations of his books and papers to be made in his presence or that of a deputy.
SEC. 3. Claims of mining ground shall be made by posting a written notice on the claimant's ledge, defining its bounda- ries, if visible. A notice of mining ground by companies or individuals, on file in the Recorder's office, shall be equiva- lent to a record of the same. Each claim shall consist of two hundred feet on the ledge, but claimants may consolidate their claims by locating in a common name, so that in the aggregate no more ground is claimed than two hundred feet for each name. Claimants may hold one hundred feet on
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
each side of their ledge for mining and building purposes, but shall not be entitled to any ledge within said distance by vir- tue thereof. Each locator shall be entitled to all dips, spurs and angles connecting with his ledge. All claims shall be recorded within ten days from date of location.
SEC. 4. Whenever one hundred dollars worth of labor shall have been expended on any company's claim, or twenty- five dollars' worth of labor on any individual's claim, the same shall be deemed a fee simple in the owner or owners thereof, and their or his grantee and assignees, and shall not thereafter be subject to relocation by other parties, except by producing to the Recorder a writing acknowledging the abandonment thereof.
SEC. 5. All persons holding mining ground at the present time in this district, and all persons hereafter and previous to the date herein mentioned, shall hold the same exempt from relocation until the first Monday of June, A. D. 1865.
These Rules and Laws may be altered or amended by a two-thirds vote of those owning claims or mining ground in this district, after twenty days' notice of such intention shall have been given in the Reese River Reveille, or some other paper published in Lander county, and shall have been posted in the most public place in this district.
SEC. 6. The Laws, Rules and Regulations of the Reese River Mining District, so far as not inconsistent with the fore- going Rules and Laws, shall, and the same are hereby ex- tended to and over this district, and made the Laws, Rules and Regulations thereof.
SEC. 7. Elections shall be held viva voce, unless otherwise determined by those present at the meeting. At an election held in the aforesaid district, on the 19th day of September, A. D. 1864, the foregoing Laws and Rules for the district were adopted, and the undersigned duly elected Recorder.
G. J. TANNEHILL, President. E. A. PHELPS, Secretary.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
EUREKA MINING DISTRICT, June 5, 1865.
Pursuant to notice, a meeting of the miners of this district was this day called. On motion it was ordered, that after this date, the recorder's fees for recording each claim or claims shall be one dollar, and also for issuing certificates of title, one dollar; and it is also ordered, that after this date no claims that are now on record shall be relocatable before the fourth day of September, 1865, if there shall be as much as one dollars' worth of labor expended on the same. All of which was unanimously adopted.
G. J. TANNEHILL, Secretary and Recorder.
EUREKA MINING DISTRICT, Sept. 4, 1865.
Pursuant to notice, a meeting of the miners of Eureka dis- trict was this day called. On motion, it was ordered, that after this date the recorder's fees shall be one dollar, and also for issuing certificates of title, one dollar. And it is also or- dered that, after this date, no claims that are now on record shall be relocatable before the fourth day of June, 1866, even if there shall be as much as one dollar's worth of labor ex- pended on the same.
It was also ordered, that G. J. Tannehill be re-lected Re- corder of this Eureka district.
All of which was unanimously adopted.
DENIS KENELY, President.
ELISHA BREWER, Secretary.
DEPOSIT LOCATIONS.
EUREKA DISTRICT, February 27, 1869.
At a meeting of the miners of Eureka district, called on the 27th of February, 1869, S. J. Hope was chosen chairman, and C. A. Stetefeldt, secretary.
On motion, the following resolutions and amendments to the old laws of the district were adopted :---
Whereas, explorations have made evident that the mineral in
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
Eureka district is found more freqently in the form of deposits than in true fissure veins or ledges, and the laws of the dis- trict do not provide for the location of such deposits; and
Whereas, this deficiency in the law may give rise to expen- sive litigations, as it is the case in White Pine, a district of similar character, the miners of Eureka district have adopted the following amendments to the old laws of the district:
SECTION 1. Claims of mineral ground may be located as deposits.
SECTION 2. A deposit claim shall consist of a piece of ground one hundred feet square, and such a piece of ground shall be designated as a " square."
SECTION 3. The locator of a " square " claims all the min. cral within this ground to an indefinite depth.
SECTION 4. The discoverer of a deposit shall be entitled to two squares.
SECTION 5. The claims taken upon one deposit shall not cover more ground than eight squares.
SECTION 6. A prospector shall be allowed to make a de- posit location and have the same filed for record without having discovered ore on the surface; but his location shall not be finally recorded if he does not find and expose mineral within thirty days from the time of filing said location for record.
SECTION 7. The corners of deposit ground shall be desig- nated by stone monuments or stakes.
SECTION 8. Ten dollars' worth of work for each square shall hold the ground for six months.
On motion, A. Munroe was elected Recorder.
SAMUEL J. HOPE, Chairman.
CHARLES A. STETEFELDT, Secretary.
STATE OF NEVADA, COUNTY OF EUREKA, SS .:
Lambert Molinelli, being first duly sworn, deposes and says:
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
that he is the Mining Recorder in and for the Eureka min- ing district; that as such officer he is the proper custodian of the records of said district; that the foregoing is a true, full and correct copy of the district mining laws, as passed and adopted on the days on which they bear date; and that said laws are now in full vogue and effect.
LAMBERT MOLİNELLI.
Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 10th day of April, A. D. 1879.
JAS. W. SMITH, [L.S.]
Notary Public, Eureka county, Nevada.
FORM OF NOTICE OF MINING LOCATION.
The following form of notice of mining location will be found reliable and useful to parties making locations in the district :--
NOTICE OF LOCATION.
"Notice is hereby given that the undersigned, having complied with the requirements of Chapter Six, Title Thirty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and the local customs, laws and regulations, has located linear feet on this lode, ledge, vein, or mineral deposit, situated in the. Mining District, County of State of . to be known as the . mine, and more particularly described as fol- lows: (Describe the claim as accurately as possible by courses and distances with reference to some natural ob- ject or permanent monument, and mark the boundaries by suitable monuments.)
Located.
Locator.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
CHAPTER X.
General Review-Conclusion,
The decade beginning with the year 1870 will ever be memorable in the annals of Eureka; memorable because of the spirit of enterprise, the impetus given to exploratory researches, the courage, the will, and the undaunted spirit with which the pioneers of those early times entered upon those wide-spread developments inaugurated in that year. Those adventurous spirits came to us from every quarter of the coast, their coming hither having been, of course, very materially facilitated by the rapid transit afforded by the Central Pacific. Without the aid and facilities of travel afforded by that great highway, it is not improbable that not only Nevada, but the greater portion of the great inter- mural basin bounded by the Rockies and the Sierras, would, even at this day still be luxuriating in their native wild- ness, barren, alkali-covered, unproductive wastes, which might as well have been altogether eliminated from the territorial possessions of Uncle Sam, for all the good they would be to him without the aid of such highway. Rail- roads are blessings to any country through which they pass. Take, for instance, our own little narrow-gauge, which links us in indissoluble bands with that great road, and note what it has already been instrumental in accomplishing for the interest of not alone Eureka, but for all the country south of it. Extended to the Colorado, who can estimate the prosperity which, as a natural sequence, would ultimately flow from the opening up of so large a stretch of country, rich in almost all the treasures of the mineral kingdom.
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BUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
That road is a necessity, and it will be built some day. Without the facilities afforded by rail, of what value to us would be our mines. Those roads, by the rapidity of transit they furnish, enhance in a measure the value of our products, which the former bear to the two leading marts of the continent; the one facing Europe, while the other looks across the Pacific upon the wonders of the Orient. Had we had the E. & P. R. R. to aid in the early days of our camp, when difficulties innumerable had to be borne with, who is there who will not reiterate the assertion that with it the resources of our district would have been long since more largely, and probably more effectively developed than we find them even at present. From those resources have already been realized and added to the world's wealth an amount of treasure so vast in the aggregate that we are sometimes tempted to doubt whether the accounts which have from time to time gone abroad of it, could have found ready credence among people strangers to the wealth of our hills, and who could not be expected to possess much accur- ate knowledge of the importance of our mining interests.
The beginning of the year 1877 was ushered in by the commencement of mining litigation between the Eureka Consolidated Mining Company, as plaintiff's, and the Rich- mond Mining Company of Nevada, as defendants; the conse- quence was that for a time our prospects have been clouded, and a general stagnation of business the result. The magni- tude of the interests at stake, and the value of the property involved in the dispute, overshadows all former mining law suits that have occurred on the Pacific coast. Injunction and counter-injunction locked up by edicts of the courts the rich deposits on Ruby hill, and for a period of eight months these rich bonanzas lay idle, until the legal battle was settled. Now that a decision has been arrived at, its effects can be seen in in the revival of all the business interests of the county, the
PINTO MILL-FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY LOUIS MONACO.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
employment of a large number of miners, and a greatly increased bullion product. The operations of the furnaces call into being another local industry, that of the burning of char- coal. Its preparation and production affords a field for the laborer; vast quantities of the article are used at the reduction works, and the hills and mountains for a radius of fifty miles are being rapidly denuded of their growth of timber. When all the furnaces are at work, over sixteen thousand bushels of charcoal are consumed daily, involving an expense of four thousand dollars per diem.
While the cry of " hard times " has crossed from ocean to ocean; while. business has fallen prostrate in commercial centres, Eureka and its mines have grown strong in wealth and general prosperity.
The extent and value of those exploitations have been long · sin e demonstrated, and they form a well-known and not uninteresting chapter in the history of our district and our town, which to-day stand a shining, irrefutable witness of the great results which have accrued from them.
CONCLUSION.
In the foregoing pages we have endeavored to give fairly and impartially the vast resources of Eureka county. We have not, like the founders of Duluth, sought to make our district appear the hub of the universe, nor shown by our illustrations, converging radii centering in the Base range. " The untamed buffalo has no part in our book; the Piegan Indians have given place to the mild Piutes ; fact not fiction has been our guide; imagination has been overcome by reality. Shorn of lavish encomiums, and almost stern in its descriptions, our work can be relied on as a true, fair, and temperate statement of the resources of our county. Beauty, Eureka has none ; her scenery is rugged and wild, but the drear hills that environ her contain the germs of untold
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
treasure. Her growth has been steady, not mushroom, and her prosperity is more assured to-day than that of Virginia City. That we have done but scant justice to our subject we are aware, but trust that our readers will not, like us, rejoice to see
THE END.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
APPENDIX.
MODE OF REFINING.
THE RICHMOND REFINERY.
In connection with the Richmond works there has been in operation for a number of years, an industry devoted to the refining and separating of the precious metals from the crude bullion turned out of the smelting furnaces. Its establishment at this point was due to the wisdom and foresight of Mr. E Probert, the managing director of the Richmond Company, and its successful operation to the co-labor of Superintendent Rickard. In the face of many obstacles, both here and in London, the works have been carried on and improvements introduced, until its great success has been demonstrated be- yond cavil or doubt, both in a practical and economical view. The method employed is known as the Rozan process, and the Richmond Company control the right for the United States.
CALCINATION.
The crude bullion, as received from the smelter, at an assay value of from $250 to $300 per ton, is first purified or im- proved in the large calcining furnaces or pans, of which there are four-one of fifty tons capacity and three of forty tons each. In this operation, the bullion being brought to a mol- ten heat, the antimony, arsenic, zinc, and such metals capable of volatilization and oxidation, are driven out, and other impurities, iron, etc., rising to the surface are skimmed off.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
This operation lasts but twenty-four hours, while in other processes of de-silverization almost double this time is required for calcination, in order, necessarily, to free the bullion en- tirely of antimony; but in the Rozan process it is not neces- sary to calcine so closely, as bullion containing two per cent. of antimony can be successfully treated. After twenty-four hours' calcination, the mass is drawn off and moulded into large four-ton circular blocks. These blocks are then hoisted by steam derricks into the melting-pans of the crystalizer and again melted, when the bullion is ready for crystalization.
CRYSTALIZING.
There are four crystalizing furnaces-one of fifty tons ca- pacity, the largest ever built, and three of twenty-five tons each. Each apparatus consists of two cast-iron melting-pans holding twelve tons apiece, and the crystalizing pan. This last, also of cast-iron, is capable of holding the entire charge of fifty tons, being six feet in diameter and six feet in depth. It is so arranged that the bullion, after being melted in the melting-pans referred to above and run into it, is partially cooled and kept in constant agitation by a jet of steam forced up into it from the bottom of the pan. The steam is convey- ed through a two-inch steam pipe passing on the inside of the pan, horizontally, to the center of the bottom ; here the steanı is projected against a circular iron disc, three feet in diame- ter, placed, horizontally, fourteen inches above the orifice of the pipe, this serving to equalize the distribution of the steam, the discharge of which is regulated by a single-action valve at the mouth of the pipe, worked by a threaded rod passing through its center to the interior. At the same time the cool- ing and agitation is progressing on the bottom, a stream of cold water is kept pouring in on the top, and this cooling has the effect of crystalizing the lead in the bullion into a semi- liquid or mushy mass, while the gold and silver remain in a liquid state, thus separating the metals.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
CONCENTRATING.
Before crystalizing, fifty tons of bullion containing 150 ounces of silver to the ton, is thus placed in the pan. After crystalization, an operation taking, on an average, one hour and a quarter to perform, sixteen tons of the richened bullion remaining liquid, or one-third of the entire mass, is drawn off into four-ton cakes and put aside. This bullion is increased to about double its original value, or three hundred ounces to the ton, by the separation, the first crystalization thus con- centrating about one-half of the silver and gold in the whole mass, and diminishing the remaining thirty-four tons in the pan to one-half the original value, or seventy-five ounces per ton.
The sixteen tons drawn off is replaced with 75-ounce bull- ion on hand, and the mass again crystalized and one-third withdrawn as before ; this, in turn, doubling itself to one hun- dred and fifty ounces and diminishing the residue to thirty- four tons of about thirty-five ounces. Sixteen tons of thirty- five ounce bullion is again added and the mass again crystal- ized, and the operation thus continued until passing through ten crystalizations, when the silver and gold are all extracted and market lead remains, containing only one ounce of silver per ton.
The sixteen-ton draft of richened lead produced by the first crystalization is kept until a charge, or fifty tons, is accumu- lated, when it is again crystalized, further enriching it to from five hundred to seven hundred ounces per ton. It is then refined down to silver from 996 to 999 fine by the ordinary cold blast English process of cupellation. The litharge ob- tained from the cupellation is reduced in ordinary reverberatory furnaces, and the lead obtained, containing still a small quan- tity of silver, is used as feed bullion in filling out the crystal- izing pans and replacing the portion lost in oxidization.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
ITS ADVANTAGES.
The special value of the process over the ordinary Pattinson method, as employed elsewhere, is the economy of time, labor and the more thorough separation. Instead of stirring the melted lead with iron paddles or flyers, the direct agency of steam is employed, the action of which is essentially mechan- ical, although it also has a slight chemical action, as proven by the fact that it does away with much of the work of pre- vious calcining. The market lead produced at the Richmond refinery is noted for its purity and commercial qualities, and commands a better price than the production of other refin- eries. The time will come when all of the crude bullion pro- duced west of the Rocky Mountains will seek Eureka for a market.
Bullion product, taxable property, and other statistics of the county, for the year ending June, 1878 :-
Bullion product of all mines.
$8,000,000
Value of real estate.
1,057,227
Value of personal property
1,385,498
Value of improvements.
757,188
Population
6,500
Registered voters.
1,800
Acres of land assessed.
53,800
Acres of land enclosed
3,500
Acres of land cultivated.
1,500
Number of horses and mules.
2,500
Number of cows and stock cattle
14,500
The Central Pacific has thirty-five and a half miles of track running through this county, affording a revenue of $290,800 of taxable property.
The E. & P. R. R., a line entirely within our borders, hav- ing a length of ninety-five miles, including the Ruby Hill branch, affords a revenue of $500,000 of taxable property.
EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
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LIST OF DISTRICT, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL OFFICERS OF EUREKA COUNTY.
District Judge,
Sheriff,
Under Sheriff,
County Clerk,
Deputy
County Recorder,
· Benjamin C. Levy. W. P. Steickleman.
Deputy
District Attorney,
- George W. Merrill. Hank Knight.
County Assessor,
Deputy
County Treasurer,
Deputy
Superintendent Public Schools,
Public Administrator and Coroner,
County Surveyor, -
Justice of Peace, Eureka Township,
Constable,
L. W. Cromer. F. O. Gorman. - G. Griswold.
Justice of Peace, Mineral Hill Township, Constable,
A. P. Murdock.
Justice of Peace, Palisade Township,
- J. P. Hickey. T. R. Jewell.
Road Supervisor, Eureka, 66
- John Horn.
F. A. Parry.
County Commissioners,
· T. D. Page, A. W. Campbell,
Mining Recorder,
- B. J. Turner, Lambert Molinelli.
Hon. Henry Rives. . Matthew Kyle. James F. Mason. . E. R. Dodge. E. M. Bell.
. C. C. Wallace. Samuel Cooper. H. T. Hoadley. G. J. Scanland. - James W. Smith. Thomas J. Read.
Constable 66
Palisade
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ADVERTISEMENTS.
LAMBERT MOLINELLI.
JAMES W. SMITH.
LAMBERT MOLINELLI & CO. EUREKA, NEV.
CONVEYANCERS
AND
REAL ESTATE AGENTS.
Mines Sold and Bonded, Loans Negotiated, and Houses and Real Estate Bought and Sold.
Life and Fire Insurance Agencies.
Notary Public, Coroner, and Public Administrator, and Mining Recorder, in this Office.
A
AGENTS FOR HALL'S SAFE & LOCK CO.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
F. H. HARMON,
Attorney at Law,
EUREKA, NEV.
ALEXANDER WILSON,
C. J. LANSING,
Attorney at Law, Attorney at Law,
EUREKA, NEV.
EUREKA, NEV.
JOHN T. BAKER,
Attorney at Law,
OFFICE, BATEMAN ST.,
EUREKA, NEV.
G. M. SABIN.
W. W. BISHOP.
BISHOP & SABIN,
Attorneys at Law,
BRICK BUILDING,
N. E. Cor. Buel & Gold Sts.,
EUREKA, NEV.
FRANK C. ROBBINS,
Assayer and Metallurgist,
EUREKA, NEV.
GEO. R. AMMOND,
Attorney at Law
And Notary Public,
EUREKA, NEV.
WM. H. DAVENPORT,
Attorney at Law,
EUREKA, NEV.
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ADVERTISEMENTS.
R. M. BEATTY. T. LASPEYRE.
LASPEYRE & BEATTY, Attorneys at Law,
Office, Ryland's Block,
EUREKA, NEV.
GEO. W. MERRILL,
Attorney at Law,
NOTARY PUBLIC,
Court House Building,
EUREKA, NEV.
A. L. FITZGERALD, ATTORNEY AT LAW, Office, Odd Fellows' Building, Eureka, Nev.
R. SADLER. E. R. DODGE. J. H. MUNDY.
E. R. DODGE & CO.,
Business and Insurance Agents.
Buy Hides, Pelts and Wool, and Advance Cash on Consignments.
ODD FELLOWS' BLOCK, EUREKA, NEV.
SAMUEL COOPER,
Fire Accident Insurance Agent.
Scottish Commercial, of Glasgow, Continental and Niagara, of New York, and Commonwealth, of Boston-four sterling Insurance Companies.
Also agent for the Travelers' Accident Insurance Co., of Hartford, Conn. Insurance against accidents of all kinds arising from outward causes. If you are not insured against accidents call at once and insure yourself. Travelers tickets can be purchased for from I to 30 days, at 25c. per day. AO MINING STOCKS Bought and Sold on Commission Only. San Francisco Correspondents: LATHAM & KING.
Also agent for the celebrated MacNeale & Urban Fire and Burglar- Proof Safes.
Office at Wells, Fargo & o.'s.
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EUREKA AND ITS RESOURCES.
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