The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-06

| ne A11Zpah In1n6 the great
 camp of Tonopah. then a barren | waste in a little frequented part of | Nye County:
 Butler. in the meantime, had gone
 to his ranch. Oddie sent him the as- | say certificate and urged him to
 make haste to Belmont and go with | Oddie to the scene and make his To-
 cations. Buffers ranch was on a
 Star Route post office, hut he made
 down on the road. The days rolled l by and merged into weeks. with no reply. oddie greatly feared that
 find the ledge and locate it, while | waiting to hear from Butler. FL
 nally Butler, unexcitea by the as
 says, arrived with his wife in Bel
 camp equipment loaded upon rick ety wagon in which they made their l eo-nile journey. On Buffers return he took wtlse Brougher into the 1 then started for the scene of the dis covery where they put up their claim
 monuments and started to work. It was in November, the weather cold and blustery, their shelter the sky. They had no tent at the start, no stove and nothing but scrubby sage for the horses, which were turned out to rustic the dry bunch grass and frequently strayed away. Water | had to be hauled a distance of five miles. Oddie being the youngest of the trio fell heir to the extra jobs of | rus5ling the horses. hauling water and gathering fuel, besides doing the | heavy work of mining. The outcrop 'tpinched'' out. The men then start | ed to level off a place for a dindlass and in this work uncovered the top i of the Mizpah ledge
 Initial Capital was S25.
 They hauled the ore first extract n a long two-dayS trip from where 1t was sent 90 miles by wagon to Aus tin, thence by rail to snle1ter on the Paciftce Coast It took six weeks came for $500 etleered them in their 1 task and supIlied the funds for produced a sum that looked quite as big as that S600, which came on a. st ormy day to their dingy camp on 3 bleak hillside in a lonely corner of winter day when Oddie reached camp with the money, blue with cold but warmed within by visions of the fu ture. Dropping the reins to the ground, he left the tired horses standing and imparted the good news 1 to his partners.
 The combined money investment of these three men in this enterprise 1 was $25. This is probably the worlds record of big returns from small in vestme ents
 What followed Is history In the | myst erious way that news spreads of new strike in the desert reaches, it quickly became known that a great discovery had been made in Nevada. From everywhere came hardy spirits. covering the hillside with Tapping tents and filling the i air with the roar of dynamite from early morn until darkness. Leases | were let-over a hundred of them ore teams came from mysterious sources. and the wealth of the Mig pah was sacked and sent to the srnelters- Oddie was made business manager n and kept the books flor a i among freight haulers, 1essees and | the company and gave attention to l thousand details including the railroad shipments to H1e smelters and attending to the marketing of ores, etc. all in office the size of a piano box Other mines were de veIoped, a town was built and finally with the Southern Pacific at Soda | vile. 65 miles away
 | The Honor System Used.
 The conduct of the great business mine was unioue. Butler let the 1 leases, which were verbal contra els | running from date of the lease 1JntiJ ihldnlght of December 31, 1900. The pothoar1es were marked bv piles of rocK and determined by ststeDIne- orr allowing three feet to the ssten iessees being permitted to sele1+ tbe , piock Of ground they desired to 1 Suuer simply entered in a Ifttle ,,o4a- pook the names Of the lesssees ana I rne number of the lease. which he l nIicJtr- to oddie. The same sim ote and 1he money received in sa+o 1 ttIeLienl therefor. Oddie haDfIJe.5 ,5I | transactions and once a montb <rrr nr needed, he dis+nfby ni9nHy was available or iteSpecl1Ve leSsees. And if is ,,at
 ger or note that not a single CJisnr,t a saeS oetWeen the owners and les several million dollars. tHS l., stories of fabulousiv rich o-a bo
 ing Shlpped from Tonopah, the name lionet iT upon the camp, were not
 one West and they f1ocked to nc
 scene, a Heterogeneous crowd of rnen aso women, all looking for the main stores rude hotels" eatinr honseS
 saloons in great number and dsnce
 nails without limit. There was an
 sa11eIloing so,sta procession of vehicles of all SodaV1lie to Tonopah and hundreds or ore teams from Tonopah to Soda
 Vlue. By day and night a pillar of
 dust asceRded to the heavens mark ing the devious course of the trai1 l Wlth the crowd came smooth-taI Ik-
 Hns promoters. and ere the Indian
 summer or 19OO the Mizpah mine was sold for S35O,OO0.
 The story of how Jim Butler found fthe Mizpaih has been written and told
 until 1t has hecome legendary. The
 accepted version is that he had
 camped nearby while en route to
 klonGfke. In the pursuit the follow
 ing morning of his strayed and per
 verse burros he is said to have picked
 up loose rock to hurI at them along
 with the customary anathemas and
 that, attracted by it's weight, he in- spected it and found it to be silver
 ore. Oddie pronounees this as pure i bunk" and says that Butler was a
 wonderfully Sagacious proSpector with
 an almost uncanny instinct for ind
 ing ore He had noticed from afar
 indications of mineral on this range
 of hills years before and went there
 with the purpose of prospecting the
 quality with q very definite and fixed
 object in view.