Tonopah Mining Co Nevada A.M Kidder 500 Shares Super Mining Vignette 1955 Ornate

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Tonopah Mining Co Nevada A.M Kidder 500 Shares Super Mining Vignette 1955 Ornate:
$22.99

Tonopah Mining Company of Nevada...Beautiful Stock Certificate issued toA.M Kidder & Company for 500 Shares on January 26, 1955at $1 a Share..Capital was $1,000,000...\"Super Mining Vignette of Miners With 2 Men Drilling in Front & 2 Miners with Jacks & Hammer Behind\"...Printed by Security Bank Note Company, Philadelphia....A.M Kidder & Company was at #1 Wall Street, New York, NYis stamped on back...Mines were Incorporated in Delaware...

The community began circa 1900 with the discovery of gold and silver-rich ore by prospector Jim Butler when he went looking for a lost burro he owned. The burro had wandered off during the night and sought shelter near a rock outcropping. When Butler discovered the animal the next morning, he picked up a rock to throw at the beast, but instead noticed the rock was unusually heavy. He had stumbled upon the second-richest silver strike in Nevada history.

While Butler may have been responsible for the first ore strike, it took men of wealth and power to consolidate the mines and reinvest their profits into the infrastructure of the town of Tonopah. George Wingfield, a 24-year old poker player when he arrived in Tonopah, played poker and dealt faro in the town saloons.

..The Tonopah Mining Company of Nevada was incorporated on July 12, 1901 in Delaware for the purpose of developing and operating a gold and silver ores property at Tonopah, Nevada. The company was formed by a group of Philadelphia businessmen; throughout Tonopah\'s history, it was managed by Eastern capitalists. The company maintained a mining operations office in Tonopah, Nevada and a business office in Philadelphia where the records were kept and the annual meetings were held.

Within several years, subsidiary companies were formed to operate a mill for ore treatment, a steam plant to generate electricity for the mine, and a railroad to transport the ores. The Tonopah Mining Company of Nevada began exploration and development for additional metal mines in 1910. Over several decades, properties were purchased in Colorado, Nevada, Canada, and Nicaragua. Most of the subsidiary mining companies proved unsuccessful and the operations were limited. The parent company provided all funds for preliminary development work, plant installation, and working capital.

The work at the Tonopah mines was hampered by labor shortages and development work was stopped during 1917-1919. Mining costs increased due to decreased tonnage from the underground workings, and the increase in the wage scale and the cost of supplies. The company saw mixed results in the 1920s.

Mining operations at Tonopah were closed for several months in 1930 but the mines were reopened under the leasing system. During 1933 and 1934 the number of lessees at the Tonopah mine increased due to the rise in the price of gold and silver and total net profits increased during those years. However, by the 1940s, the company was clearly on the decline The grade of ore at the Tonopah mine and the number of lessees had consistently decreased. Net profits continued to fall due to reduced tonnage, increased costs and lower values of silver ore. Leasing had remained profitable until 1944; the shortage of lessees reduced production so that the company was just breaking even......

Tonopah

The discovery of silver in south-central Nevada produced a major mining boom that revived the state\'s mining industry in the first decade of the twentieth century, and fueled a fierce economic recovery across the region. The Tonopah bonanza re-galvanized Nevada\'s status as a mining empire, organized a railway through its center, and may have preserved its status as a state in the union. For the next decade, Tonopah–together with Goldfield–served as a nucleus for state politics, and sparked the careers of some of the state\'s most powerful men. For the first time since the fall of the Comstock Lode, Nevada had reclaimed the nation\'s respect....

The boom started in 1900 when James L. Butler, a full-time rancher, part-time miner, and district attorney of Nye County, stumbled upon an ore sample while prospecting in Warren Averill Springs, south of his ranch in Belmont. Butler made a practice of mining in his spare time, and may have learned of the rich, black outcroppings from members of the local Shoshone tribe. It is generally accepted that Butler renamed the springs Tonopah after a Native American word meaning \"greasewood water,\" but several other interpretations exist.

Many difficulties surrounded the initial discovery. First, Butler did not have the financial resources to pay for a professional assay of his samples...\"He enlisted the help of Tasker L. Oddie, an attorney,\" who forwarded them to Walter Gayhart, a schoolteacher. Both received stakes in the claim in exchange for their services. The partners had additional problems raising capital for development because of the pessimism that surrounded Nevada mining after the faded Comstock. Finally, the extraction of the ore was made difficult due to its remote location. There were no railroads nearby, and the water and timber necessary for a successful mining operation were scarce. Despite these difficulties, word of the discovery spread quickly, and a frenzied search for more deposits led to a major find in Goldfield, and smaller ones in Bullfrog, Manhattan, Rawhide, and Round Mountain.

Butler and his partners began exploiting the claims by granting verbal leases to miners. The leases included a 10,000-square-foot piece of land, and by 1901 over one hundred leases had been issued. This strategy lasted only a short time....\"On July 1, 1901, Butler and his partners sold the claims to a group of Philadelphia capitalists, who in turn formed the Tonopah Mining Company\".... A second company, the Tonopah-Belmont, also was established. By the end of 1901, Tonopah had grown to support thirty-two saloons, two dance halls, a newspaper, and two churches.

Freight routes were soon established to Sodaville, a small railroad station sixty-three miles to the west. The journey between the two towns was an arduous, two-day trek, and transporters quickly fell behind in moving ore and other necessary supplies. As a result, the Tonopah Railroad Company was formed, and a narrow-gauge railway was completed to the Carson and Colorado Railroad in Sodaville on July 23, 1904. But even that did not adequately relieve the congested supply lines. Work to complete a standard-gauge railroad soon followed, and the new track for the Tonopah Railroad was completed in August 1905. During this year Tonopah replaced Belmont as the seat of Nye County.

With the exception of a depression that hit in 1907, Tonopah grew steadily between 1901 and 1910, and the census recorded a population of 3,900 people at the end of the decade. Throughout these years a modern town emerged, with permanent buildings, electricity, and a town government. Many mining companies were formed, and in April 1905 the Big Casino opened, featuring a restaurant, saloon, and dance hall. In November 1908, the Mizpah Hotel held its grand opening. It featured oak furnishings, hot and cold running water, and an electric elevator. The population of Tonopah between 1900 and 1910 fluctuated between 5,000 and 10,000.

Tonopah, along with Goldfield, cultivated two generations of Nevada leadership. Key Pittman, a U.S. Senator and resident of Tonopah, convinced the U.S. Congress to pass the Pittman Act in 1918, which buoyed the town\'s economy by guaranteeing silver producers a minimum price of one dollar per ounce. Patrick McCarran came to Tonopah from Reno in 1905, and quickly developed a reputation as a feisty and capable defense attorney. McCarran later served on the Nevada Supreme Court between 1913 and 1918, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1932 to become the state\'s first native-born senator. Another, George Wingfield, leveraged his wealth from Tonopah and Goldfield to become one of Nevada\'s most powerful men.

Mining in Tonopah underwent several highs and lows until the 1920s, when the Pittman Act expired and production began to steadily taper off. At its peak in 1918, the district produced 622,364 tons of ore worth $9,311,560, but had reached a new low in 1930 when it yielded only $162,841. By 1940, the town had fallen into a deep depression. Yet between 1901 and 1941, Tonopah produced a staggering gross yield of $147,564,015.