The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1914-04-18

the Meadow valley district. But the
reports of increasing trouble with the
Indians throughout the west had
reached New York, doubtless in a.
grossly exaggerated form, and the in
vestors, frightened, refused to put up
any more money. Vandermark closed
down and returned to New York His
going marks the end of the first pc
riod in which a systematic attempt
was made to open up the Phoebe
mines. He and his associates might
well be called Pioneers before the
Pioneer days" of Phoebe. They gave
up, not, like the desert prospectors,
through any frivolous lack of continu
ity of purpose; but because the diff
culties they had to contend with
seemed insuperrable.
The following spring, however. that
of 1866, witnessed a typical exhibit
tion of that kind of futile short-sight-
edness, when Thomas Leavitt and
Charles Hawkins came from the Cache
valley, in Utah, to the claims staked
by Hamblin, Vandemark and others,
and hauled several wagonloads of sill
ver-lead ore to Round valley, just
above the upper end of Condor can
yon, where they put up Mexican
furnace" for treating the ore, and took
the resulting bullion to Salt Lake
City, but never went to the trouble to
return. Apparently, money was no
object to them.
By 1867 and '6S prospectors began
to drift into the Meadow valley dis
trict and to look it over in way that
seemed to mean business. In the latter
year, F. l.. A. Phoebe, Frenchman
who had gone to California in '49,
and grown rich there, sent Charles E.
Hoffman to make an examination OF
the new district, and, If he was IA
vorably impressed with it, to purchase
, property in his name. Hoffman ac-
cordingly negotiated a deal by which
his employer, Phoebe, came into pos
: session of the ground which was after
wards known as the Meadow Valley"
He brought forty Mexicans from the
quicksilver mines of New Almaden
Cal, where he had formerly resided
and built a smelter on the hill above
the spot where the Lincoln county
court house now stands. The fire brick
for this smelter, brought from Glas-
gov, Scotland, to San Francisco and
from there shipped by rail overland to
some point on the Central Pacific near
. Elko, and thence, by wagon, to the
new camp, are said to have cost, laid
down 81 apiece. And yet people say
that Phoebe, today, with a railroad
built to the very mouths of the shafts,
has difficult problem in handling its
ores.
, Bullion by Pack Train.
For year Hoffman shipped out
I bullion from Pioche's furnace by pack
J train. In 1869 he added another fur
mace, securing. as it's foreman, Fitz-
r hugh Lee, of Virginia, who in 1870
: succeeded him as manager of Pioche's
, interests, Hoffman going to Silver
: Reef, Utah. Meanwhile, the name of
y f. l.. A. Phoebe had come so to dom
i mate the mining industry in the dis
, trict that the camp itself was called
!. "Pioche's," and in 1870, when a post
). office was established, the present
J, name OF the camp was given to it
q Phoebe.
A To go back little in the story.
! The beginning of the year 1869 was
i signalized by one of the most import
Q ant events that ever occurred in the
s history of Phoebe. 1t was just about
a that time that John Ely and Jaw
Q bone Billy" Raymond walked into
Q camp-flat broke. They had run an
8 ambitious but unsuccessful course on
b Irish mountain, near Hilko, in the Pah
}, ranagat valley, where the ''Hiko Sill
/ yer Mining company" organized and
e promoted by the pair. had erected a
Q Ifive-stamp mill and sunk all the money
/ they could be wrung out of the stock
L holders in vain effort to keep it in
9 ore. Ely and Raymond, however, had
t been ION the lever in their dealings
:, and they say no reason why a little
a mistake in Judgment. which was only
A natural to men of their buoyant and
t. optimistic temperament, should cause
talents as rare as theirs to be perma
t nently laid ON the shelf They be
!. lieved Phoebe needed them. and they
If were very sure they needed Phoebe
It Faint heart ne'er developed big
II mine, and they were in the market fol-
.. just such mine. To pay for it they
It had abundant gall, which is usually
c the next best thing to money in the
D. bank Edward and Pat Burke owned
o claim 900 feet east of the original
Is "Panacker." Raymond and Ely want
q ed 1t. Moreover. they got it. The
II price. was $4,000. but what matter. Be
If tween them they had a silver watcl