Death Valley Historic Resource Study A History of Mining

B. Emigrant Wash and Wildrose Canyon (continued)

2. Wild Rose Mining District (continued)

i) Sites (continued)

(21) Nellie Grant and Uncle Sam Mines

Little information has been found on these mines, permitting only a brief survey of what were some of the very earliest mines in the Wild Rose area. The Nellie Grant and Uncle Sam mines, in the vicinity of Emigrant Spring, were located by W.L. Hunter, whose early presence in the area is attested to by a newspaper statement to the effect that Rose Springs District was

the same where Messrs. Hunter & Porter have been operating for a long time past, and where we are satisfied from all accounts there are numerous silver ledges as promising as any in the whole country. Among them are the Nellie Grant, belonging to Hunter & Porter. . . . [307]

Hunter & Company were working the Nellie Grant Nos. 1-3 in 1874, as well as the Uncle Sam Nos. 1 and 2, North Corner Nos. 1 and 2, the Theodore Wibbeth, and the Silver Bluff. Several men were at work, with development being subsidized by proceeds from the ore. According to the Inyo Independent

The following assays, made by Mr. J.L. Porter and F.F. Thomas, will satisfy any judge of ores as to value: Nellie Grant No. 1, four assays, respectively, $459 62, $659 57, $754 and $479 11; No. 2, $274 81. North Corner, three assays, $212 05, $150 82 and $403 69. Silver Bluff, $180 84. Wibbeth, three assays, $801 33, $493 58 and $95 81, silver per ton. The ore was sold to M.W. Belshaw and Co.'s furnace on the 24th instant. The amount sold was fourteen mule loads, the product of three men for two days, and was from the different mines as follows: Nellie Grant, five parts; Uncle Sam, one part; North Corner, one part; Silver Bluff, two parts. The whole crushed and sampled as one lot yielded $323.54 per ton, silver. Mr. Porter has been at these mines for the last ten days, and he says as far as developed they are the best average prospect that he has ever seen. All are free milling ores, and the country is of such a nature as to admit of large teams going to the mines without any road making. [308]

Mining was facilitated by a plentiful supply of water, but wood had to be hauled about twelve miles from Telescope Peak. [309]

It has been a common occurrence and a prevailing frustration throughout this study that just when this writer feels some progress has been made toward sorting out the many disparate references to a mine, further information turns up that completely invalidates the conclusions. A Nellie Grant Mine appears on the 1877 Wheeler Survey Map Sheet 65D. An 1883 location notice states that an Argonaut Mine was "situated about four and one-half miles South, from the Mouth of Emigrant Canon at what is known as Hunter & Porters rock house near Emigrant Spring & is immediately South of the Jeannetta Mine and is a relocation of the Uncle Sam Mine." That same year a notice of location far the Jeanetta Mine was filed noting "This location is on the West side of Emigrant Canon . . . the same is near Emigrant Spring and is a relocation of the Nellie Grant Mine." [310] By 1884 a local newspaper was referring to the. "Mohawk, Blue Bell and Argonaut mines, formerly known as the North Star, Garibaldi, and Nellie Grant." [311] The Nellie Grant was described here as one of the properties owned by W.K. Miller, J.M. Keeler, and N.J. Medbury. According to Palmer, in Place Names the Nellie Grant was located south of Emigrant Spring. However, a notice of location for the Susan B. Anthony Mine, located on 1 April 1886 by M.M. Beatty and Jos. Danielson, describes it as being north of Emigrant Spring and formerly known as the Nellie Grant. Then on 1 January 1888 Paul Pfefferle and Jos. Danielson filed a notice of location for the Maud S. Mine, "on a line with Emigrant Springs in Emigrant Canon and was formerly known as Susan B. Anthony or better known as Nellie Grant. [312]

An 1889 article on mining mentions the Nellie Grant, "with its big body of free ores" and a nearby spring that furnished enough water for a large mill. [313] In 1896 a Nellie Grant Mine "situated in Emigrant Springs Canon in Wild Rose Mng. Dist. Formerly Known as Emigrant Springs Mine" was relocated by Charles Anthony. [314] In 1906 a proof of labor was filed on an Argonaut Mine owned by W.L. Skinner, but whether this has any relation to the Nellie Grant is conjectural. [315] Further records on the mine were not pursued by this writer.