The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1915-12-30
ROMANCE OF THE
HUMBOLDT Range

The following is a portion Of an ar
tiele written by Graham West and pub
lished in the Rochester Mining News,
May 5. 1913:
Standing on the outcroppings which
led to the discovery of the rich Roch-
ester mining district, right at the sum-
init of Rochester Hill and looking to
the north and east, one sees lying d.
rectly below the two American canyons
from which white men and Chinese
have for the past 40 years taken mil.
lions upon millions through placer min
ing. This is all the more remarkable
in view of the fact that the Humboldt
range has been a consistent silver pro-
Queer and the rich discoveries made
by Nenzel are of silver ore. Yet in
the canyons lying directly below the
summit Of Rochester Hill, untold
wealth in gold has been mined and the
valleys are honeycombed to bed rock
from mouth TO head through the opera
tions of these placer miners.
Unfortunately there were no facili-
ties through which records of ship
nients could be traced and it win al
ways remain a mooted question as to
row much gold was actually shipped
out of the two canyons by the tireless
| workers. It is placed at anywhere from
SIC, 100000 to $40, 600, 900, but even the
conservative estimates of government
geological researchers fixes the mini
mum at si0,G0G,000.
Operations began in the American
canyons about the year 1881, and were
prosecuted actively until 1895. The
placers were first worked by Americans
who were reported to have taken out
gold to the amount of over a million
dollars. The ground, however, soon
passed into the possession of Chinese,
| who formed considerable settlement
| in American canyon and mined the
| gravels with skill and assiduity by
drifting from countless narrow shafts
ranging from 40 to S5 feet deep. How
much gold they extracted is, Of course,
unknovgn, but careful and conservative
| figures place the value at 10000, 900.
These Cinnamon, industrious in the
extreme, were won't to spend their
evenings in gambling, and If the true
history of the great placer mining beds
could be written, it is safe to estimate
that millions of dollars in gold mug
gets, taken from the gravel beds after
arduous hours of toll, changed hands
in the course of the life Of the canyons.
/ It would be inexcusable to write the
STORY of the mining activity of the re-
gion about Rochester in the Humboldt
range and omit reference to the Ken
nedy district. IL was in 1890 that this
first attracted attention and the story
OF the excitement engendered at that
time is not unlike the history Of other
mining camps that have enjoyed
"booms" and faded away, leaving q
trail of disappointed wealth seekers
and men financially down and out.
It was Jim Wardner, mining man
of idaho, founder of the town of Ward
ner in that state, who started the Ken
nedy boom. The district had been dis
covered by Charles Kennedy and look.
ed promising. Kennedy still lives
there. Wardner became acquainted
with George 8. Nixon, at that time
cashier of a modest bank in Winnie
mucca and a man of small financial
resources. Nixon afterwards became
United States senator. He became i'm
r"ensely wealthy through his partner
ship with George Wingfeld, the mining
king Of Nevada. This wealth was ac-
| cunuIhtcu IN lOnOpdn ana GOiQuelQ,
where they formed the Goldfield Con-
sclidated, which proved to be one Of
the greatest gold mines in the world.
i Wardner ingratiated himself into the
confidence Of George Nixon and held
out such alluring promises that Nixon
took what money he possessed and put
il into Kennedy. Kennedy soon became
a fourishing town, mills were built
and the district assumed all the ear
marks Of vast mining center The
boom struck the community with an
intensity that attracted the attention
ef the entire mining world It was,
in fact, the only really great mining
excitement between the days of the
Comstock and the discovery of Tono.
pah. But it was very unlike either.
From the Comstock lode over seven
hundred millions of dollars have been
taken and today Tonopah is great
mining camp. On the contrary, only
about 100000 was taken from the
Kennedy district and with the exhaus.