The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1909-04-17

"'' . NaDAt3
day, and its ruin carried down with
it the fortunes of some of the wealth.
est mobiles of England. The State Line
mill, as it has always been called, was
built and promoted by Whitaker
Wright. a wealthy Englishman, whose
spectacular promotions for a decade
made and lost fortunes for his back
ers in London. When he fioated the
company to build the mill he decided
that it should prove the greatest DO
nanza he had ever struck and he
straightway sold nearly a $~l,0O0,0Oo
worth of stock in his company. There
has always been a question whether
Wright spent that much money on the
property, but according to the legends
of the district he certainly tried his
best to establish a Garden of Eden in
the midst of the desert. He built com
Portable cottages and planted orange
and other fruit trees as well as many
different varieties of flowers. Even
today there are some sickly looking
orange trees to be seen there, ekeing
a stunted life out of the dry earth.
The mill and the timber for the
mine nearby was brought for several
hundred miles overland by team, over
a new and rough country and roads had
to be made nearly all the way. The
expense of bringing the mill there and
the lumber, which was the best grade
Of Oregon pine, as well as the erection
cost was enormous and dug a big hole
in the treasury of the company. No
expense was spared to make the ives
of the mine employees pleasant. The
local traditions tell of the blooded Eng
lish horses that the mine superintend-
ent and foreman used to ride around,
and of the nights that were spent IN
carousing when the popping OF cham
pacne corks was a much more common
sound than the dropping of the stamps.
These same traditions say that Wright
~squandered the money he had raised
as well as his own which he had put
into the venture, but still later history
has given him the credit for having had
a honest ambition, but of having been
too visionary to succeed under the con
ditions of that time.
The truth seems to be that the mill
which was a forty stamp affair and
not capable of making the close savings
in the values that the latter day mill
has, lost most of the values which were
carried AVA into the tailings and the
mine which today has plenty of good
milling ore was unable to supply a
profitable grade of ore under those con
ditions. And when, coupled with the
earelessness of the force at the mine,
these conditions brought the company
to failure and caused the closing down
for good of the State Line mill, its
failure swept away the fortunes OF
Whitaker Wright and his friends IN
England and he returned there, a dis
graced and discredited man.
Nothing more was heard from HIM
after this Inflated venture, but several
years ago he wrote "Finis' to the
last chapter of his life by committing
suicide in London. The saddest part
of Whitaker Wright s story is the fact
that the mill today is surrounded by
having an ample supply of milling ore
which is but waiting for a mill to be
erected in the district to release their
store of golden treasure-and yet his
mill stands today a monument to him
of the vision he had of that ore, but
which at that time had not been dis
covered.