Heading Down In The Mines

Fantastic and beautiful Greg

It's been a while since I added anything to this thread, but a new one arrived today.

The thread has been languishing needlessly, since there is a lot of mining material I can add.

Here's one of my latest pick-ups -- Alaska United Gold Mining. This one has a personal connection for me, as we visited the old mine site about a month ago.





Alaska United was part of the Treadwell Mining Complex in Douglas, Alaska, just across the Gastineau Channel from Juneau. Treadwell closed most of its operations after a massive cave-in in 1917. The buildings were mostly dismantled, but some still stand and the area is now a Historic Park. Everything is slowly returning to nature. A little spooky, but very interesting. You can still find bricks and pieces of ceramic mugs and plates in the sand along the channel.

Here's my latest addition -- from the U.S. Mining Co. I like how they integrated the initial cap with the top vignette.

I don't think I've posted this one yet. There may be more coming later in the month.

I appreciated seeing the Cripple Creek one earlier in this thread. My mothers maternal line was up there during its heyday before they carried on to SoCal. My great-great grandfather struck it kinda rich once, but lost it pretty quick re-investing those dollars back into his operation hoping for something even bigger. I think this was rather common.

Anyone have anything from Bodie, Grass Valley (Eureka Mine), or Virginia City / Carson City to post?

On my fathers side, his great uncle managed/leased the railroad up in Bodie for over two decades and that helped him go from a poor kid on a Napa area farm in the 1870s to one of those rich San Francisco moguls. He started his career a mechanic that came up with locomotive brake and cylinder patents and leveraged that into management. Then he started trading in real estate all over northern California.

And on my mothers side, her great grandmother Emma Goldsmith was an famous red-light worker and opium entrepreneur (as famous as one could be I suppose, not exactly a normal celerity there) who spent her final years in Bodie. She knew the businessmen and workers on a different level.

Emma had a son in the 1880s when she was more tied the post-Bonza Carson City and Virginia City with a very powerful San Francisco iron works mogul, ship builder, educator, and politician. This son worked as a "mining engineer" as he labeled himself in the Eureka Mine in Grass Valley for a while before just wandering the west trying to strike his own claims when not in the Southwest hoping to get lucky with Spanish treasure.

That mining vignette on the £1 note looked familiar to me. It also appears on a stock certificate of the Arizona Commercial Mining Co. but it was printed by a different banknote company, so I think they must be separate engravings.