Beautiful Mine by Enss Chris

Author:Enss, Chris
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461746812
Publisher: TwoDot
Published: 2015-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

To enter desert land water was necessary. Away up in the White Mountains twenty miles from the coal deposits nature had cunningly hid away a stream of pure mountain water by dropping it into the earth at the head of a canon known as ‘dry canon,’ where but apparently few white men had ever been. This water right of 1,000 miners’ inches, sufficient to irrigate twenty thousand acres of land, Dr. Williams secured and recorded.

Another area newspaper, the Tonopah Miner, called Frances’s potentially lucrative business venture “a sensational feat.” Investors she approached in New York, Boston, and California were eager to provide the money needed to build up the promising section of the state. For many years Frances had dreamed of owning several hundred acres of land and transforming the property into a city. Her idea was to populate the newly formed town with laborers and business owners who “could and MUST own his own home and have a voice in the management of the business which furnishes him a livelihood.”

According to the Pueblo Chieftan, Dr. Williams’s plan was fully explained in the business prospectus she presented to investors. Of the 1,280 acres available for development, 320 were to be set aside strictly for mining coal and 960 acres were to be used for town site purchases. “Dr. Williams has valuable options upon developed coal lands which can be made income producing at once. Only one of the six quarter sections constituting the town site has been plotted as yet, but this has been laid out with a view to the development of a model city, additions to which can be made at any time.”

Stock in the mining company Dr. Williams and William Groezenger established was advertised for sale in newspapers from St. Louis to Boston. The initial $11 million in capital she raised came from a variety of investors. They were listed in the Tonopah Bonanza and referred to as “affiliated corporations. The Coaldale Mining Company invests $5 million; the Nevada Electric Power and Transmission Company, $5 million; and the St. Frances Mining and Smelting Company, $1 million.”

The prospectus—authored by Frances—offered “buy-in” opportunity for under $1,000. “To every person investing $500 in the development of these enterprises,” the proposal read, “whether becoming a resident of Coaldale or not, a lot not exceeding one-fourth of an acre in the town site together with two thousand shares of the stock of the Coal Mining Company, two thousand shares of the Electric Power Company stock, and two hundred shares of the Smelting Company’s stock will be given.” Frances promised investors that they would receive a full quarter-acre parcel in Coaldale and see a return on their investment within the first six months. She also offered “life employment to skilled artisans in any department.”

Many community leaders in Tonopah and surrounding areas objected to Frances’s aggressive fund-raising campaign and warned potential investors to be careful. William Booth, editor of the Tonopah Bonanza newspaper, felt Frances was overconfident of success and was promising too much for an untried area.

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