Treasure Hill by W. Turrentine Jackson

Author:W. Turrentine Jackson [Jackson, W. Turrentine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, United States, 19th Century, Technology & Engineering, Mining
ISBN: 9781943859160
Google: 7CuVDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Published: 2016-07-04T03:16:18+00:00

A few months later the Nevada State Mineralogist reported an increase in the number of mills to seventeen, with a total capacity of 214 stamps.443 At one time twenty-three mills were running simultaneously.444 In addition to the mills located in Hamilton, three other milling centers of importance had developed. Capitalizing on her bountiful water supply, Shermantown had provided facilities for five quartz mills and four furnaces by the end of 1869. The camp of Swansea, near Shermantown, had also been selected as the site of two mills and a furnace during the summer. Six wagons arrived in the town bringing a portion of a third mill all the way from Alpine County, California.445 Eberhardt had the largest mill of all, the Stanford, with thirty stamps. In 1870, the Eberhardt and Aurora Mining Company was erecting a sixty-stamp mill there.446

In the mountain range immediately west of Treasure City, large quantities of low grade silver ore which was refractory had been discovered. It contained enough carbonate of lead so that heating in a furnace was necessary for the silver to be reclaimed. The ore from this Base Metal Range, yielding from $60 to $100 a ton, could be processed at a profit only with adequately equipped furnaces.447 Soon a smelting business grew up separate from milling operations in the community. Rothchild’s Smelting Works at Hamilton operated three furnaces. The works were housed in a brick building with smoke stacks forty-five feet high.448 In the district there were eight additional smelters of various capacities.449 White Pine did not suffer from a lack of knowledge about milling and smelting techniques. The ways and means of dealing with chloride and carbonate ores, unlike sulphurets and more complicated geological combinations, was both simple and well-known.

After all the disparagement of the district during the spring of 1869, the mining press of San Francisco reported a renewed interest in White Pine during the summer, partially because of the discoveries in the Base Metal Range. Money was more available in the Bay City and the mills had produced convincing proof of the presence of precious metal in the shape of silver bricks. The Mining and Scientific Press proudly announced, “A great majority of the producing properties are already owned in this city as well as a large minority of the non-producing and ‘untamed feline articles.’”450 Mills were reportedly overrun with ore and had contracted with mine owners for all they could handle in the next three months. Teamsters refused to visit out-of-the-way mines because they had all they could haul from the claims easily accessible to the mills. Sizable shipments of bullion continued throughout the summer months. The Hamilton paper warned, “Look out, Comstock, your laurels are in danger. For August we will ship at least one and a half millions.”451

Like all frontiersmen, residents of White Pine were primarily concerned over their material well-being. Owners of mining claims undoubtedly were asking themselves whether their footage was worth working and if so, whether the legal costs to hold on to it were justified.

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