Abstract
The Blue Diamond Mine Corporate Records (1918-2005) consist of operational and organization records of the gypsum mining and milling operations located in southwest Clark County, Nevada. Materials include operational records related to individual boring sites at the mine; milling operations and statistics; and equipment operations and statistics, including maps, field notebooks, and photographs. There are also daily, weekly, and monthly organizational records related to employee work schedules and safety reports for the mining operations, including accident reports and a safety education training program.
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Date
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Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
The Blue Diamond Mine Corporate Records (1918-2005) consist of operational and organization records of the gypsum mining and milling operations located in southwest Clark County, Nevada. Materials include operational records related to individual boring sites at the mine, milling operations and statistics,and equipment operations and statistics. Also included in these records are field notebooks, maps, and a small number of site photographs.
Organizational records include daily, weekly, and monthly records related to employee work schedules, safety reports for the mining operations, including accident reports, federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) "Fatalgrams," and a safety education program with photographic slides and audio-cassette tapes.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See
xlink:href="http://www.library.unlv.edu/speccol/research_and_services/reproductions" xlink:show="new" xlink:title="Reproductions and Use"> Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
These records are organized into two series:
Series I. Organizational records, 1947-2005;
Series II. Operational records, 1918-2004.
Biographical / Historical Note
Gypsum mining at the Blue Diamond Mine began when prospectors discovered the mineral deposit atop a hill outside of Las Vegas, Nevada in 1905. In 1923, the Blue Diamond Materials Company of Tehachapi, California, purchased the claim and more intensive mining operations began. By 1941, the company had built a processing mill at the foot of the hill, and turned the small community of Cottonwood Springs into a company town, renaming it Blue Diamondville.
The mine and milling operations were purchased by the Flintkote Company in 1959 as part of their wider expansion efforts. In 1987, the Flintkote Company sold the operations to James Hardie Gypsum, Incorporated; this company continued operating both mine and mill until 2004, when the mine was permanently closed. In 2005, the mine and mill were purchased by Jim Rhodes, operating as Blue Diamond Hill Gypsum. Milling operations continue at the Blue Diamond site.
Sources:
Geary, Kim. “Gypsum Production at Blue Diamond, Nevada, 1924-1959,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 26, no. 2 (Summer, 1983): 111-121
"The SEC News Digest 05-21-1959," accessed December 6, 2018, https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1959/dig052159.pdf
"Our History," Blue Diamond Elementary School, accessed November 30, 2018, https://www.bluediamondes.com/our-history
"The Nevada Mineral Industry, 1987," Nevada Bureau of Mines & Geology, Special Publication MI-1987 (1988): 25
"Developer Jim Rhodes Ups Mining Investment in Blue Diamond Hill," Las Vegas Review-Journal, accessed December 6 2018, https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/developer-jim-rhodes-ups-mining-investment-in-blue-diamond-hill/
Preferred Citation
Blue Diamond Mine Corporation Records, 1918-2005. MS-00505. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 2005 by the Blue Diamond Historical Society; accession numbers 2005-15, 2006-07.
Processing Note
These records were roughly processed by Joyce Moore in 2016 and a basic description was added to ArchivesSpace by Hana Gutierrez in 2017. In 2018, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Melise Leech processed, rehoused, and arranged the materials, and revised the collection description to bring it into compliance with current professional standards.