Abstract
The Tonopah Mining Company Records derive from the office of the company’s general manager in Tonopah, Nevada and consist of documents directly generated by its mining and milling operations from 1901 through 1941. The collection includes daily work reports, assay reports and certificates, employee time cards, invoices and receipts for mining equipment and supplies, monthly stores reports, and the company’s numerous insurance policies. Several of the company’s annual reports, including an original typescript copy of the 1907 annual report, are included in the collection. Additionally, select records from the company's subsidiary, Desert Power and Mill Company, as well as the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad, which include overcharge claims, freight and repair bills, and delivery receipts are included in the collection.
Finding Aid PDF
Date
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Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
The Tonopah Mining Company Records derive from the office of the company’s general manager in Tonopah, Nevada and consist of documents directly generated by its mining and milling operations from 1901 through 1941. The collection includes daily work reports, assay reports and certificates on the tonnage and value of the ore, employee time cards, invoices and receipts for mining equipment and supplies, monthly stores reports, and the company’s numerous insurance policies. Additionally, there is a series of the company’s annual reports, including an original typescript copy of the 1907 annual report that contains original 8x10 photographic prints of the mining property, buildings, and interiors that were reproduced in the published report. Maps of mineral and ore zones, main stopes, and mine equipment as also in the collection. There are also select records from the company's subsidiary Desert Power and Mill Company, as well as the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad, which include overcharge claims, freight and repair bills, and delivery receipts. These records document the activity and production of one of the largest mining companies in Tonopah, Nevada during its most productive period.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged by subject.
Biographical / Historical Note
The Tonopah Mining Company was incorporated on July 12, 1901 in Delaware by a group of Pennsylvania businessmen headed by J. H. Whiteman, who bought six claims covering 160 acres from Jim Butler, who had first discovered silver in Tonopah, Nevada in 1900. The company made more than $48 million between 1902 and 1948, and between 1901 and 1910 the company accounted for over sixty percent of the Tonopah's total production. The company maintained their mining operations office in Tonopah under the management of Charles Miller, but the business office was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the corporate records were maintained and the annual meetings held. Like many mining companies in Tonopah and Goldfield, the Tonopah Mining Company was controlled and managed by eastern financiers and industrialists.
In 1902, the company began extensive development, and formed several subsidiary companies formed. The company’s original narrow gauge railroad connecting to the Carson and Colorado Railroad was extended and made regular gauge to Goldfield in 1905; it was then known as the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad. In 1906, the subsidiary Desert Power and Mill Company constructed a stamp silver mill in the neighboring town of Millers, Nevada, with its own steam-powered electric generator to process the company’s ore as well as the ore from other nearby mining companies. After 1910 when production in Tonopah began to wane, the company began exploration and development of metal mines in Colorado, Canada, and Nicaragua, most of which proved of limited success. Like many of the area’s mines, the company ceased development work during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I with only small returns through the 1920s. There was a brief recovery in the 1930s with the rise of gold and silver prices, but by World War II reduced tonnage, increased costs, and lower values of the ore, caused most of the Tonopah mines to close. In 1947, the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad was abandoned. In 1956, the Tonopah Mining Company filed for bankruptcy and was dissolved.
Preferred Citation
Tonopah Mining Company Records, 1901-1941. MS-00752. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were received periodically from 2013 to 2014; accession numbers 2013-20 and 2015-49. In 2021, materials were purchased from Vigilante Rare Documents; accession number 2021-039. There are no deeds of gift on file for this collection.
Processing Note
Collection was processed in 2015 by Joyce Moore. In 2019, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Sarah Jones revised the collection description to bring it into compliance with current professional standards. In 2021, Tammi Kim processed the 2021 addition and updated the finding aid in ArchivesSpace.