4 and 5 May 1862 • Aurora, Calif./Nev. Terr. (MS: NPV, UCCL 00047)
(“Prospect” from “M. H.” ledge sticking to piece of yellow paper in middle of this page.) 1explanatory note
D—d— Well—Ⓐemendation if you haven’t “struck it rich”—that is, if the piece of rock you sent me came from a bona fide ledge—and it looks as if it did. If that is a ledge, and you own 200 feet in it, why, it is a big thing—and I have nothing more to say. If you have actually made something by helping to pay somebody’s prospecting expenses,Ⓐemendation it is a wonder of the first magnitude, and deserves to rank as such. If that rock came from a well‐defined ledge, that particular vein must beⒶemendation at least an inch wide, judging
gold sample
from this specimen, which is fully that thick. When I came in the other evening, hungry and tired and ill-natured, and threw down my pick and shovel, Raish gave me your specimen—said Bagley brought it, and asked me if it were cinnabar. I examined it, by the waning daylight, and took the specks of fine gold for sulphurets—wrote you that I did not think much of it—and posted the letter immediately. But as soon as I looked at it in the broad light of day, I saw my mistake. During the week, we have made three horns, got a blow-pipe, &c., and yesterday, all prepared, we prospected the “Mountain House.” I bo brokeⒶemendation the specimen in two, and found it full of fine gold inside. Then we washed out one-fourth of it, and got a noble prospect. This we reduced with the blow-pipe, and got about two cents (herewith enclosed) in pure gold. As the fragment prospected weighed rather less than an ounce, this would give about $500 to the ton. We were eminently well satisfied. Therefore, hold on to the “Mountain House,” for it is a “big thing.” Touch it lightly, as far as money is concerned, though, for it is well to reverse the code of justice, in the matter of quartz ledges—that is, consider them all (& their owners) guilty (of “shenanigan”) until they are proved innocent. If, without buying, you can get another interest in the “M. H.,” do so—put it in my name—and I will give it to Raish, and we will go and freeze to it and put it through astonishingly—that is, work a shaft on every claim in it.—Ⓐemendationand a dozen more beside, if the mills could keep up with us. Get another claim of 100 or 200 feet if you can, but don’t buy it. If the owners know knewⒶemendation R.’s talent for managing these things as well as I do, that theyⒶemendation would willingly give him 10 or 15 feet apiece to get him to take charge of the mine. Try them.
La Rue probably showed you a remarkably fine specimen from here. Raish and I, and Mr. Fowler,2explanatory note hunted for the ledge it came from, for 2 days, but we couldn’t find it. It probably came from a mere boulder, or piece of float rock;3explanatory note but that made no difference. If we could have found out what hill it was on, we could have found the ledge it came from. Which reminds me that if your specimen came from a boulder, the ledge is not far off, and can easily be found.
We have got interests in the first W. extension of the “Flyaway,” and in second E. extension of the same.4explanatory note Will get into the original if possible. Yesterday we took a spirit level and got the e angleⒶemendation of the celebrated “Antelope” ledge, and to-morrow we shall commence a hunt after the second E. extension of it.5explanatory note We may find it and we may not. The thing has often been tried before, but with no success. If we find it, our fortunes are made—if we don’t,—they ain’t. Of course. Unless the “M. H.” proves “all my fancy painted her.”6explanatory note If I had a few thousands (to spare) I would make this search with a tunnel—the only probable way of finding it.
Still progressing slowly with the “H & D.” tunnel. I had some notionⒶemendation of selling out this institution, but everybody seems to have so high an opinion of it that I concluded to “chance” it, and hold on, as it will cost but little to finish it now. It’sⒶemendation d—d slowness is what I dislike.7explanatory note
I have 75 feet in a spur of the “Antelope,” which promises nothing save that it is an offshoot from a good family—and I am aristocrat enough to attach some importance to that sort of thing.8explanatory note
Send me some money. If the article is scarce, $20Ⓐemendation will do. Send by Bagley. I want to try his system of charges first onceⒶemendation. However, if the Exp. won’t charge more than the ratio of $200 on $10000—that is reasonable enough—and send it that way.
Dont youⒶemendation own in those water powers? If so—well, I recollect, you do—it is bully. Isn’t confiscating ten miles of one of God Almighty’s rivers coming it rather strong, perhaps? The more the better, though, if the thing can be stood. Tell us something more about h thoseⒶemendation ledges—whether they are well defined—how wide they are—width of the pay streak, &c. Raish is a great manager, and wi mustⒶemendation be “corraled” into this arrangement. Finally—don’t sell or give away a foot of the “M. H.” until you at allⒶemendation. I will step over there one of these days, and look at the ledges—and then, if they prove worthless, we can sell out.
Please read this letter twice.
P.S.—Monday—Ratio & I have bought one-half of a segregated claim9explanatory note in the original “Flyaway,” for $10000—$50 down. We haven’t a cent in the house. We two will work the ledge, and have full control, & pay all expenses. If you can spare $100 conveniently, let me have it—or $50, any how. Considering that I own one-fourth of this, it is of course more valuable than our 1/7 of the “Mountain House,” although not so rich.
P.S. Continued.—I saw “F.” rock taken to the mill the other day which I know ought to have paid $100 a ton—but it only yielded $38—from ten feet below the surface. If we strike the same kind of rock in our segregated claim, it will amply satisfy me. We’ll get more than $38 out of it—by taking it to Clayton’s. We may not find as good rock, but as we shall sink within a hundred feet of the “F” shaft, the probability is that we shall.
Hunted for “Antelope” to-day, and found a ledge—but hardly think it is the right one.
Crooker says, please sell his scrip for as much as it will bring, and send him the money. Send Dodd’s10explanatory note scrip to Crooker. (Deduct fees, of course.)
Four of us boys have dug two trenches, each 20 feet long and 6 feet deep, to-day, in the gravelly hill side. Finally, if we do find the “Antelope,” we shan’t care a d—n—any more. And if we don’t do that but do strike it rich in the “Flyaway,” we’ll not care a da d—nⒶemendation anyhow whether school keeps or not.
I don’t intend to pay Mrs. Derby that $75 until her share of feet in the tunnel are run.11explanatory note Let me know when your money comes.12explanatory note
Say nothing about what the “F.” yielded in the mill.
The gold sample from the Mountain House claim, near Carson City, remains attached to Clemens’s holograph.
Possibly B. C. or T. B. Fowler, residents of Aurora (Kelly 1863, 422).
“Float-ore,” that is, “water-worn particles of ore; fragments of vein-material found on the surface, away from the vein-outcrop” (Raymond, 36).
During the week following the writing of this letter, Clemens was especially sure that the Flyaway was a rich lode, more valuable than even the Lady Washington or Orion’s Mountain House. Before his hopes for it collapsed completely he owned substantially in the original claim and four of its extensions (deeds in CU-MARK). The Flyaway, on Middle Hill, was owned largely by William De Kay, from whose shaft (according to newspaper reports in May and June) rock was being taken that paid $150 a ton—and sometimes as much as $1 a pound. The Flyaway Gold and Silver Mining Company was incorporated on 22 September 1862, with capital stock of 600 shares valued at $60,000 (“Description of Esmeralda,” San Francisco Herald and Mirror, 14 June 62, 3; “Mining and Other Corporations Formed in 1862,” Sacramento Union, 1 Jan 63, 1).
The Antelope claim, on Silver Hill, was one of the earliest made in Aurora, located on 1 September 1860. Its owners incorporated on 31 January 1861 as the Antelope Silver Mining Company, with capital stock of 1,200 shares valued at $600,000. The Antelope was considered one of the richest mines in Aurora, and from 1861 to 1863 newspapers quoted the market price of its stock at $200 to $600 a share. When Clemens wrote his letter, the Antelope shaft was down over seventy-five feet, with hundreds of tons of extracted rock piled up; a second shaft was being started, and a mill would soon be purchased. Despite its promise, however, the bulk of the Antelope’s ore turned out to be low grade, averaging $50 a ton (“Mining Operations in Esmeralda District,” Sacramento Union, 25 June 62, 3, reprinting the Esmeralda Star of 21 June 62; “Mining and Other Corporations Formed in 1861,” Sacramento Union, 1 Jan 62, 2; Kelly 1863, 406, 408; Bunker, 6).
From “Alice Gray,” by English poet and journalist William Mee (Stevenson, 139, 2351).
The Horatio and Derby tunnel had been in progress since late 1861 (see 8 and 9 Feb 62 to JLC and PAM, n. 2click to open letter).
A “spur” was “a branch leaving a vein, but not returning to it” (Raymond, 81). The “good family” spur may have been the one described in the Esmeralda Star as “a vein shooting out of the main ledge; it is being worked and looks well. The First North Extension on the Antelope have got this ledge, and the rock resembles in character the Discovery; the owners feel highly elated, and value their interests in it high, none caring to sell for fear they might sell their fortunes” (“Mining Operations in Esmeralda District,” Sacramento Union, 25 June 62, 3, reprinting the Esmeralda Star of 21 June 62).
An individually owned section of a larger, jointly owned claim (Raymond, 75).
Possibly C. H. Dodd, a tinsmith, listed in Kelly’s first and second Aurora directories (Kelly 1862, 247; Kelly 1863, 421).
Only one Derby, William, has been identified as an Aurora resident at this time (Kelly 1862, 247; Kelly 1863, 421). Presumably he was Horatio Phillips’s claim partner in the Horatio and Derby mine and it was his wife who was Clemens’s creditor. It is not known how, or if, Clemens’s debt was related to the Horatio and Derby tunnel project.
Orion’s overdue salary (see 24 and 25 Apr 62 to OC, n. 5click to open letter).
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV).
L1 , 201–205; MTL , 1:76–78, with omissions; MTBus , 66, brief excerpt not in MTL .
see McKinney Family Papers, pp. 459–61.