Eureka Consolidated Mining Company 97-03

A GUIDE TO THE RECORDS OF

The Eureka Consolidated Mining Company

Collection no. 97-03

EUREKA CONSOLIDATED MINING COMPANY

The Eureka Consolidated Mining Company was an underground, hard rock mining company operating about two miles from Eureka, Nevada, on Ruby Hill. Early mining in the region began in 1864. The Eureka Consolidated was formed when a party of San Francisco businessmen bought out the owners of the Buckeye, Mammoth, Sentinel and other mining claims in July, 1870. By the early 1870s the Eureka Consolidated Mining Company had purchased several additional mines, built five blast furnaces for smelting ore, and constructed a narrow-gauge railroad from the mines to its reduction works (later sold to the Eureka and Palisade Railroad Company).

The production of the district from 1879-1883 was enormous, second only to the Comstock as a source of precious metals in the United States. From 1884 the output dwindled to a very small amount; the Eureka Consolidated Mines closed in 1891. By 1922 all the mines at Ruby Hill had shut down, largely because of sulphide ores and the water level in the mines. The exhaustion of the charcoal supply as fuel for the smelters also had an impact. At the end of 1905 the Eureka Consolidated and Richmond Mining Company were taken over by the Richmond-Eureka Mining Company with the goal of extracting large bodies of low-grade ore left from earlier days and pumping water from the Locan Shaft. By 1940 that company was owned by the U.S. Smelting, Refining and Mining company of Salt Lake City, which did extensive development work. In 1950 the mine was owned and operated by Eureka Corporation, Ltd., of Eureka, and developement work continued. Nevertheless, not until the 1980s and 1990s did mining begin to really revive. Today the Eureka Consolidated properties are owned by Homestake Mining Company.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection contains photocopies of original documents created by the Eureka Consolidated Mining Company. The original records are owned by the Homestake Mining Company and were discovered in the attic of Homestake's Eureka office. Homestake graciously agreed to copy these records and donated them to the Special Collections Department in 1997. The collection remains in the order in which Homestake discovered them. Included in this collection are about 1500 pages, dating from 1900 to the 1950s consisting of maps, drawings, and letters. They document buildings, headframes, underground facilities, ore cars, and other mining equipment. Letters cover contract wages, mine safety, price quotes for equipment, and underground mining progress. One set of letters consists of correspondence between the Eureka Consolidated Mining Company and the Atomic Energy Commission. The AEC, with strong backing from Nevada Senator Malone, proposed the construction of a nuclear power plant for the Eureka mines and surrounding ranches.

Sources:

Arthur, Edward. Nevada Mines. Los Angeles: Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County, 1955.

Garrison, F. Lynwood. "Report upon the General Mining Conditions of the Eureka District, Nevada. Philadelphia: Sept. 1922.

Hall, Shawn. Romancing Nevada's Past. Ghost Towns and Historic Sites of Eureka, Lander, and White Pine Counties. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1994.

[Hancock, John, Sr.]. Mining and Other Resources of Eureka County, Nevada, Presented to the American Mining Congress. Goldfield: Sept. 27, 1909.

Lambert Molinelli & Co. Eureka and Its Resources: A Complete History of Eureka County,

Nevada.... San Francisco: H. Keller, 1879.

Mott, Leslie C. Mining Activities and Sales Opportunities in the State of Nevada. Los Angeles: Domestic Trade Report no. 94. Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County, 1940.

Processed by: Susan Searcy

Date: November 10, 1997

This collection has been divided into two sections based on the physical format of each. Items #1-58 are smaller than ledger size paper and have been placed in folders and an archival box. Items 59-100 are oversize maps and drawings which are stored in a manuscript mapcase drawer. Many of these drawings were originally part of the files in section one; cross references of the file numbers have been noted.

BOX 1

1. Correspondence of J. H. Rogers from letterpress copy book. Topics include mining claims, daily life, hardships. 1922

2. Drawings of machines (primarily underground): mining equipment, buckets, cages, hoisting, ore cars. 1946-1948. See also 97-03/64.

3. Drawings of underground installations: shaft framing, bins, pumps, chutes. 19461948. See also 97-03/65

4. T. L. Shaft auxiliary hoist plans. 1955..

5. Drawings of surface and surface installations: trackage, pipelines, hydrants, building locations and floor plans, Fad Shaft (Eureka). 1946.