The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1910-09-24
Political Announcement
Sketch of Tasker L. Oddie

supply OF food. aud working under "a.
most adverse and discouragius co.ss
lions.
Later he took mp q small mine al.
to the town of Belmont and worksa .
alone; he was practically the only ma.
working in that district at the tin.
Being without money. he secured n.
appointment as Deputy Recorder. .,s
by working nights In that office he 81
cured just about enough bacon .,s
beans to carry him through; IL on .ou.
weeks business was better than u.,.,
he managed to secure enough to "a.
can Of condensed milk. He had A lin.
cabin and did his own cooking ana
washing. but early every morning \.
was up working at his little min.
sharpening his W steel, pounding ii.
drill all day and doing all the vot
himself. Working this little mine vu
no easy job. as he had to climb up ana
down a seventy-fve-foot incline eysr
time he hoisted out a bucket Of roei
He often worked as many as fifteen
hours a day, aud kept up this record for
over a year.
While engaged in this work hi,
friend Jim Butler. started on his famou,
prospecting trip In 1900, and together
they talked over the section Of ,hs
country which has since become one Of
the most famous regions that the world
has ever known. Butler returned
shortly after to Belmont with hi.
samples. showing them to a number and
asked some OF his friends to have them
assayed. These friends. however, ridi.
culed him and laughed at the samples
he had brought in; Oddie. however,
who had been studying ore and lorna.
tons recognized the fact that the rock
gave much promise. and 30 it fell to
Oddie's good fortune. coupled with his
business sagacity to have them assaysd.
Unfortunately. Oddie had no money to
pay the assayer the price. which would
have been IS. so he took them to a
friend and offered him an interest in
the property il he would make the as
says. promising him that il the ore did
not run well. that some day oddie would
pay for the assays made. The assaying
Of these samples cost Oidie in the end
$32, 500, this being the amount which
the assayer received for his trouble.
Butler had agreed to give Oidie an
interest in the property II he would
have the samples assayed. al he knew
that Oddie was one Of the few men 10
that part Of the country who would and
could work hard. and who could endure
hardships. and he also knew that Oddie
was absolutely square. Butler never
had any cause to regret his action in
giving Oddie an interest in the prop
erty, as the latter took hold. and from
the start was its manager for the first
five years. Never has a man worked q
hard OF as faithfully for his associates
and all the people Of the camp as did
eddie in Tonopah.
He did the first mining in the CAM
himself with his other partner, Will
Brougher, but as eddie was the young
est OF the trio, the heaviest part OF the
work fell on him.
The camp Of Tonopah grew with as
tonishing rapidity for the first two years
and Oddie managed all the affairs
There were 1870 leases on the property
with many partners in some OF them
and Oidie kept the business affairs o
practically all of them. All of thes
leases were oral, and every detail wa
left to Oddie. Several million dollars
worth of ore was shipped from thes
leases and Oddie had to keep track O.
the hundreds of thousands OF sacks o
ore from the mines-on the sixty milt
road, on the ore wagons. oil the narrow
gauge and broad gauge railroads, and q
the smelters. He did all this alone. ant
at the end settled with every n OF thu
hundreds Of men, and there were only
sixteen sacks OF ore short, and absolute
ly no disputes or controversies Thu
was probably one Of the hardest task
ever undertaken by my one man, and
the successful accomplishment OF Il
proved Oddie to be a nan of phenome
nal executive ability and tact. Oaly
those who were in Tonopah in the early
days can realize what he went through
then.