April 27, 2006

Nevada's Online State News Journal

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Nevada History:

[From Third Biennial Report of the Nevada Historical Society, State Printing Office, Carson City: 1913, pp. 95-107.]

            From manuscript furnished by JOHN L. RIGGS[1] of Chloride, Ariz., March 18, 1912. Introduction written by the Secretary and manuscript edited by her.

            In history, also, this section of Nevada has been linked to the south and not to the north, for in the days of the Spanish explorations the routes which tapped the apex of the State from the southwest led away to the east across southern Utah, and the north remained still a terra incognito. And so thorough was the application of the physiographic law that a river is not a barrier or scientific boundary that when the Mexican Cession was parceled out into States and Territories both banks of the Colorado in longitude 115° fell to Arizona. Thus Octavo [sic] D. Gass of Las Vegas (Nevada) sat twice as a representative of Paiute County, Arizona, in the Arizona Legislature, while the Legislature still convened at Prescott instead of at Tucson. Not until 1866 was the State of Nevada extended to the southward so as to obtain an outlet upon the Colorado and to give to this Commonwealth an additional tract of territory for agricultural purposes, and for mining.[2]

and mining became more general and Nevada gained fame because of the Comstock Bonanza the mines of the south were worked continuously, but, unlike those of Austin, Eureka and White Pine, they were isolated and comparatively unknown. Miles of desert country, untapped by the railroad, intervened and made communication difficult, and the inhabitants of the two sections remained strangers to each other in thought and feeling, even as they were in a physical way.[3]

frontier. Always the settlement was in advance of organized government and the reign of feud preceded that of law. Crimes of lust, of violence and greed were not uncommon, and vengeance when meted out at all was speedy and severe. It is of this lawless regime that the present paper especially treats—a chance chapter in that large volume some day to be compiled as a chronicle of the days when the earnest but often unfruitful striving was upwards and onwards away from violence and bloodshed to the peaceful life of the settled and law-abiding community.[4]

            The mining camp of El Dorado Canyon is located about fifty miles below old Callville, at which latter place the Colorado turns east at the "Big Bend" and where the Grand Canyon begins. Today the road winds down from the desert beyond Searchlight through a cleft in the steep mountain wall until at the mouth of the canyon it comes out upon a rushing mighty river which could hold within its banks the combined streams of Nevada. As early as 1861[5] these mines were known to Americans. In that year were discovered the two important locations known respectively as the " Techatticup"[6] and the "Queen City; or, as later designated," The Savage."

            But not until 1863 did they excite interest, and then because of the  prospecting done by the California Volunteers, Capt. Chas. Atchinson, Company I of the Fourth Regiment of Infantry, which was stationed at Fort Mohave. The company consisted largely of miners and in scouting they overlooked nothing.[7] Neither were their finds confined to El Dorado Canyon. Mohave County, Arizona, was thoroughly explored, and Stockton Hill, Cerbat, and Chloride in the Cerbat Mountains, and Oatman, Gold Roads and Secret Pass in the River Range near the Old Post were discovered about this time.

            In consequence of the many discoveries a little mill was erected at El Dorado Canyon in 1865 or 1866,[8] but it was very defective and unsatisfactory. About 1870 a new mill was built by the El Dorado Mining Company, and this was really the beginning of successful operations in the district. This El Dorado Mining Company consisted of John Nash, who took over the property in 1870, and his later associates,

            In 1879 a Minneapolis company took over the property of the El Dorado Company under the new name of the Southwestern Mining Company. The first superintendent, R. G. Knox, was superseded in the spring of 1880 by W. S. Mills who held the position for some years[9] until it was transferred to Mr. Wharton, now deceased.[10] In taking over

the property of the El Dorado Company the Southwestern Company assumed the debts of the former and eventually paid them off at 50 to 75 cents on the dollar. With regard to the location of new mines in the district, it may be said that up to 1880 no mines had been found except in the immediate vicinity of the Techatticup and the Savage, and no attempt has been made to operate elsewhere. Up to that time in all that part of the mineral belt lying south to west of the old mines and familiarly known as Knolb Hill there was not a sign of a man's breaking rock on any paying claim, nor had a location ever been made in that region. The formation was radically different from that around the old company's mines and hence was considered barren. In January, 1880 my brother in-law, Mr. John P. Weaver,[11] found two prospects about five miles southwest of the Techatticup mine. They were small, but showed  some good grade ore, and when, on the 1st of February, I, a boy just arrived at 20 years of age, dropped into the camp, Weaver was moving up onto the mountain where my sister and the baby were already. We had been associated together in business before and he now insisted on my taking an interest with him in working the claims. Since water had to be brought in from four miles distant and supplies from ten, the help of a boy was indeed needed. About the last of February while hunting for the burro to "pack water" I discovered the Lone Star mine, from which later on the first shipment of ore from Knolb Hill was made. This ore was "packed" on mules across the desert sixty miles to Ivanpah and was worked in J. A. Bidwell's mill—one and one-half tons carrying $150 silver to the ton. A few days after the discovery of the Lone Star, Mr. Weaver found the Silver Eagle, which we subsequently sold to Wooley, Lund & Judd of St. George, Utah, for $2,500, and the same day Weaver found the Silver Legion, from which considerable value was later taken and which is being worked even now.

            A couple of weeks after we established our camp on Knolb Hill we were joined by four other men who also built a cabin and established a camp known as the "1880 Camp." The miners who thus joined us were Hans Godfritzen,[12] James Yocum,[13] Hank Parish[14] and Thomas Jennings.[15] Of the six pioneers Weaver and myself alone survive. In 1880 my sister, Mrs. Weaver, was the only white woman in El Dorado Canyon.[16] In February, Mrs. Ned Menly arrived, and in March, Mrs. Charles Ely, wife of the son of Ely of Pioche, arrived.[17]

            Previous to 1880 all mining in our section had been done through a company, paying cash for day labor. Now, because of the many new discoveries, our settlement was transformed into a "chloride" camp.[18] In the summer of 1880 Andy Fife, ex-Sheriff of Lincoln County, and

George M. Goodhue brought in a mill and organized the Lincoln Mining Company which was subsequently purchased by Wooley, Lund & Judd in 1881, who in their turn in 1888 sold to the Southwestern Mining Company.[19] The latter built a new and improved style of mill, the one which stands there today.[20] It is a dry crusher, using the old reverberatory roasting process and pan amalgamation without concentrators. Before 1879 the records of production in the district were unreliable but after the Southwestern Company took possession they were more accurate. They show that the Techatticup, Savage and Wall Street, located six miles west of the river, yielded $3,000,000 from ore which was a spar and ran $50 to $100 a ton in gold and silver with no by-products. In the Knolb Hill chloride camp the ores were quartz, free milling, horn silver and chloride, mostly silver values, and ran from 100 to 800 ounces per ton. The formation here was badly faulted by seismotic fracture and owing to the bad and wide faults it w. impossible to follow the veins to any great depth.

            Such then was the mining district where in early days there was never a Deputy Sheriff nor a Justice of the Peace, nor even a semblance of law—a purely outlaw camp.[21] The mining law, at best, was a vague, iridescent thing, about as open as a sieve; the real issues in equity were usually decided by "Winchester's amendment to the Colt statute"; possession was always nine points of the law and usually all ten of them.

            In the summer of 1874 John Nash, founder of the El Dorado Company, conceived the idea of "jumping" the Queen City[22] since it was known to be as valuable as the Techatticup itself. On his own responsibility he employed three fighting men to aid him in taking possession of the Queen City.[23] They were promised $5,000 each if they would hold the mine for a certain length of time, which they succeeded in doing. Meantime the owner, Senator George Hearst, sent a man to the mine to perform the annual work. He was run out of the country.[24]

of Indian in the blood; his mother was a full-blooded squaw. The family had come from Kansas, from the neighborhood of the famous murder joint of the "Bender" family. The third of the trio was Jim Jones, a half-breed Cherokee from Pioche. So far as was known the worst that could be said of him was that he had served a year in the Carson State Prison for horse stealing. He was known as a cool, courageous man who would fight with a gun. Harrington was a cold-blooded treacherous man, so dangerous in fact that Nash paid him off according to agreement and he left the country. Then Nash " soft-soaped " Piette, who was by nature a weak sycophant and could be used as a tool for any sort of a purpose—a black-hearted coward who liked to pose as a "bad man" without principle or conscience. Him Nash made mine foreman and paid him in "paper" talk which he never meant to redeem.[25] Next Nash tried to "paper" Jones, but was unsuccessful. The latter said: "I have fulfilled my part of the contract, now you fulfil yours; either pay me cash or I will hang onto my fourth interest in the mine." Then Nash deliberately planned to murder Jones. He first sought to poison the minds of Jones's friends and associates against him, saying among other things that Jones had threatened to poison the drinking water and kill off the entire camp. No calumny was too vile for his use. William Piette, thirsting for the fame of a "bad man," proved to be a good tool. He was delighted to undertake the murder of Jones, although personally he had nothing against him, for they were partners and friends.

behind the mountain he said that Jones would appear and walk beside him. This he repeatedly told me. But still he went to his night work for some months until the haunt became too much for him and he left the place forever.[26] In Lane County, Oregon, he married and raised two children, a boy and a girl, but when they were nearly grown, his wife left him, and old and broken-hearted he died alone. Of the other participants in the murder of Jones the story runs thus: Perry Tuttle, horse-thief, was arrested somewhere out towards Utah, together with another man. The Deputy Sheriff, Jim Pierson of Lincoln County, serving under "Fat Mack,"[27] stopped Tuttle's team, took Tuttle and his companion out of the wagon, handcuffed them and shackled them together and then shot them to death. Thus Tuttle "got his."

            Mr. Fuller, the other partner of Nash's in the mine, at this time had a camp up the river where with some Indians he was taking driftwood out of a large eddy.[28] A few days after the death of Davis, Piette, who had no business on the river, was sent by Nash to cautiously look the situation over. After an inspection of the mill he went in the evening to Fuller's camp and remained over night, then hurried away. That day Fuller, alone with the Indians, died in great agony and, as they described his sufferings, the case was similar to that of Davis. Nash's henchman had adopted a safer plan, with less personal danger, than had been used with Jones. Nash gutted out and appropriated the treasure of the "Bridal Chamber."[29]

had taken the firm's spare money and gone to San Bernardino to buy Techatticup stock because of a new strike in that mine. They said had started down the river after dark in a boat, expecting to reach Hardyville in time to catch the stage to San Bernardino. Subsequent inquiry developed no trace of him at Hardyville nor as a passenger on buckboard nor at San Bernardino. He was doubtless murdered by Piette. Soon after the firm closed out their store to the company.[30]  This happened during the Nash régime.[31]

            Not long after my boy friend and partner, Charley (Kid) Garrett slapped Piette's face across a card table and dared him lift a hand, so he could find an excuse to shoot him. Piette begged for his life; meanwhile Charley reviewed the man's crimes to him. I was camping alone on Knolb Hill at the time and carrying my life in my hands. Before I learned of the Garrett episode, one day I met Piette alone in the wash and we had it out; he would only lie like a cur and I could not murder him in cold blood. But he saw that his days would be short if he remained in our community, so he left us forever.[32]

above the canyon. He was eventually hunted down and killed. Only a year and a half ago Indian Queo killed several men in the same vicinity. Dr. Gilbert, the watchman at the Gold Bug Mill, was one; Mr. Woodworth at Timber Mountain was another. Still another man was missing and Queo was held responsible. This Indian is still at large,[33] neither was Indian Loco ever apprehended for killing Jennings.