The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-05-13
MISSED CHANNEL BY
TWENTY-0NE FEET

of Sierra county, California, and
heavily interested in other California
properties and in the Divide district
of Nevada. stopped over for two days
in Reno. says the Gazette. Although
his home is in San Francisco he has
made Reno his headquarters for some
time. owing to its convenient p-oxIm-
ity to his Sierra county properties,
and he expects to return there in n
few weeks.
De Bretteville is the owner o! the
famous Bunker Hill mine in Sierra
county and one of the principal own
ers of the Herkimer mine. Every
thing ne has undertaken in the min
ing industry thus far, his financial
associates in San Francisco say. has
proved a success.
The Bunker Hill property is n of
those old channel mines of the Cali
fornia Sierra Nevada mountains that
carry enormous values in gold and
4 are uBDOStu W Dt tlC oOuiNN VI Nv
old-time placers of the American.
Yuba. Bear, and Feather rivers. that
first attracted attention to California
as a gold-producing state in 184S.
The Bunker Hill had been worked
for years and finally the channel was
lost. Some twenty-five years ago
California bankers took hold of it and
had a tunnel run for 1865 feet on
| elaborate surveys, but the channel
was still lost.
De Bretteville, who had just sold
the Columbia channel gold mine to
the Du Pont Powder Company people
for s400, 900. was looking around for
a new property, and he went to the
Bunker Hill. He saw what he thought
was the matter, bonded the property,
ran a new survey, and found the
channel just t~wenty-one feet under
the tunnel run by his predecessors
in the mine. Mining men say it is all
immensely valuable property, and it
belongs to De Bretteville now.
For many years it had been impos-
sible to get a bond on the Federal.
South Diadem, North Diadem, and
Diadem properties, adjoining the ia
nous Tightner mine in Sierra county,
although dozens of capitalists had
been after the properties. The Fed
eral was owned by the late j. B. Hag-
would not part with while he lived.
Sentimental reasons led the heirs to
other claims to hold On to them, too.
De Bretteville went up to Forest City
and over the rough trail to the pat
ented claims. He kept his lips tight
ly closed and no one knew his inten-
lions, but he found that $4,000 in gold
had been taken from the first thirty
five feet of the tunnel or the prop
erty-two tons of arsenical pyrites
netting that amount. He wrote let
ters and he interviewed the heirs and
finally he had the title of the prop
critics in his inside pocket. Then,
consolidating the different mines, he
formed the Diadem company. The
corporation is capitalized for a mil
lion dollars.
He is heavily interested il the Gold
Trail Divide mine at Divide, in which
he is associated with Harry McNa-
mara, A. p. Raycraft, William A. Nye,
and NJ. A. Hill. He said he had never
in his life found a camp like Tono-
pah, where every one was so full of
confidence and where there was not
a "knocker" to be heard.
"The whole country is mineralized
there" he said, land Divide district
certainly will be a wonderful pro-
ducer. Men show their confidence by
refusing to sell outright. They will
take part cash, but they all insist on
being given a large share in the stock
issued"
De Bretteville is a brother-in-law
VI @tdOiph oPicthtio VI odh RAN
cisco, and his brother Oscar recently
married Maud Lillian Berri, daughter
Of the late Fulton Berry Of Fresno.
one of the pioneers Of the San Joa-
quin valley, who left a large estate.
Gustave is now in the mining bust
ness and has been for some years.
but it was he who started rice-grow-
ing in California, now one of the nose
important industries of the northern
part Of the state. After the fire in
San Francisco he invented a sand
blast process for cleaning smoke
stains from the walls of structures
that stood down town, and he made
a success of 1t. Several years ago he
invented a touring car that could be
taken to pieces, or could be opened
out like a telescona and no used for