The Mining Legacy of William S. Godbe

Abstract

William S. Godbe, a man who had a great cultural and religious impact on early Utah territory, embarked on a decades-long odyssey in mining in 1865, with little experience or training in mining. Godbe's eight sons followed him into mining as they came of age. Together, they bought and sold numerous claims, organized more than twenty mining companies, and built and operated concentrators and smelters. The Godbes sought their fortunes in mining, made fortunes in profitable ventures, missed fortunes when they sold valuable claims, and lost fortunes as metal prices plummeted. The family's mining activities and investments took place in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Godbe's contemporaries in mining activities included Matthew H. Walker, David F. Walker, Simon Bamberger, Samuel Newhouse, and Patrick Connor. In addition to Godbe's role in the cultural tensions of the early territory, his mining activities and those of his sons also demonstrate that the family had an economic impact on the Great Basin. This takes on added significance when considering that one of Godbe's most strident protests against Brigham Young related to the leader's rejection of metal mining.William Samuel Godbe arrived in Utah in 1851 at age eighteen as a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). He formed a lifelong partnership with another young convert, Benjamin Hampton. Godbe began work for a Latter-day Saint businessman, Thomas S. Williams, who sent him to northern California to act as his agent. This journey enabled Godbe to see the mining activity in California and possibly in Nevada. The young man opened his own sundry and drug store in 1854 and, by 1870, some estimates put his total assets at more than $300,000 (nearly $6 million in today's dollars).In 1868, Godbe and a handful of his close associates began criticizing Brigham Young and his policies in a publication they called the Utah Magazine, which eventually became the Salt Lake Tribune. Their group began a movement of reform for greater individual liberty, challenging Young's infallibility and temporal power. Young envisioned Utah as a self-sufficient community centered on agriculture—this at a time when the approach of the transcontinental railroad portended the opening of Utah to outside markets. Accordingly, he attempted to suppress some forms of economic development in the territory, including the mining of precious metals. Godbe and his cohort disagreed. After publishing an October 1869 editorial in the Utah Magazine in which he urged development of Utah's mineral resources, Godbe was expelled from the LDS church. His conflict with Young included the formation of a separate church known as the Church of Zion or the “Godbeites.” Godbe's mercantile business began to decline at once following his excommunication.1 He was soon in debt by $100,000, with interest payments of $1,000 per month. As a consequence of his rising debt and falling income, he decided to enter the mining business. Recognizing his scant experience and lack of training, Godbe purchased a pair of mules and a wagon and traveled the mining region for two years.2During the early decades of settlement in Utah, the LDS pioneers made a serious effort to determine the extent of mineral resources in the region. Men were sent to mine gold in California; lead near Las Vegas, Nevada, and Minersville, Utah; and lead and silver in Meadow Valley, Nevada, near Pioche. Prospecting the region and discovery of valuable ores began in earnest with the arrival of General Patrick Connor and his force of 750 volunteers from California and Nevada in 1862. Mining became a booming activity, despite the objections of Young.3 The first discovery was silver-bearing galena at Bingham in the Oquirrh Mountains west of Salt Lake City in 1863, and silver discoveries in the Wasatch Mountains east of Salt Lake City in 1864. Known mining districts increased from two in 1868 to forty-four at the close of 1871.4 By 1872, three thousand men were speculating in mines, five thousand were hunting for mines, and two thousand were working in mines.5 Within another year many hundreds of Latter-day Saint workmen were employed in mines or dependent on them.6William S. Godbe was a polygamist, married to Ann Thompson, Mary Hampton, Rosina Colburn, and Charlotte Ives Cobb. Ann, Mary, and Rosina bore a large family that included eight sons: Samuel T., William C., and Alfred (Ann); Frank and Fred (Rosina); and Anthony, Ernest, and Murray (Mary). At least some of the brothers received educations that prepared them for mining careers. At the age of eleven, Samuel and Frank were enrolled in the University of Deseret, which offered training in chemistry, geology, and mineralogy and employed a professor of analytical chemistry and metallurgy. Frank accompanied his father to England in 1873, where he entered Owens College, Manchester, until the end of 1874. Anthony and Ernest, at the tail end of the family, were educated in Utah institutions and also saw service as powder monkeys, delivering explosives to the miners before they were full-grown men. The two then developed into muckers, the lowest level of workman in a mine. Later they worked with the drill as miners and then were placed in positions of trust and responsibility.7William S. Godbe's first adventure in mining began when the news arrived in Salt Lake City in 1865 that a rich gold strike was discovered in the area of South Pass and the Sweetwater River, Wyoming. Gold was first discovered there in 1842; efforts to work the placers were followed by a great rush in 1869.8 Ore was generally crushed in a ten-stamp mill, and the gold was extracted on mercury amalgamating plates and a concentrating table. William S. Godbe and his partner Benjamin Hampton, the brother of his second wife, secured deeds or options on some mining claims in the area. Planning on mining lode gold rather than the placer gold then being extracted, Godbe went to San Francisco and purchased a five-stamp mill for crushing quartz ore and hauled it by wagon through Salt Lake City to Wyoming.9 All told the $25,000 investment produced no profit.10Godbe was then attracted to the nearby Wasatch and Oquirrh mountains, where silver deposits were discovered. Despite the promise of rich ore deposits in the Wasatch Mountains, Godbe's activities there met with disappointment. He was part owner of the Union Mining Company, which controlled a large number of valuable ledges in Little Cottonwood Canyon that were being opened in 1872.11 In the Galena Tunnel, owned by Judge G. W. Case and the Union Mining Company, workers found a vein fifteen-feet wide with a solid vein of high-grade silver ore four feet in width in 1874.12 The Belle also belonged to the Union Mining Company and had an inclined tunnel down 230 feet, with a vein two feet thick at the bottom in 1872.13 Following a few mining notices of expenditures, the Galena Tunnel was reported as abandoned, with a length unknown.14The ore deposit that came to be known as the Carbonate Mine lies on the ridge between Mill D South Fork (Cardiff Fork) of Big Cottonwood Canyon and Mineral Fork. The first mining claim, the Homeward Bound Claim, was filed in October 1870 and set off a boom with subsequent claims such as the Provo, Little Giant, Sailor Jack, and many more.15 Little ore was obtained from these claims until, in 1875, a prospector discovered the primary ore body. The Carbonate Company of Salt Lake City then purchased the claims. Much silver and lead ore were extracted and the mine was the largest producer of lead in the Cottonwood Canyons area in 1878 and 1879. Godbe became interested in this mine during the period of greatest production from the Carbonate Mine.Godbe filed an application for patent of the Daisy Mining Claim in 1877.16 The Daisy Claim was located in the area of overlapping claims adjacent to the Carbonate Mine. The following year, Godbe and others filed a complaint in Third District Court against Carbonate claim owners as defendants alleging that some areas of the Provo Lode (later the Carbonate claim) claimed by Godbe and others had been taken by the defendants’ owners of the Carbonate Mine. The claim was for $150,000 damages and interest and an injunction to stop the defendants from taking any more ore from the premises.17 Soon after this suit was filed, the Carbonate Mine was sold to the Kessler Mining Company of New York City and no further news reports of the disposition of the suit were made.Godbe then turned his attention to the Ophir District on the west side of the Oquirrh Mountains. Patrick Connor and his complement of California and Nevada volunteers prospected the Oquirrhs vigorously, beginning in 1865. Connor's volunteers made the earliest find of rich silver ore in East Canyon (now called Ophir Canyon) in 1865. The discovery, located high on the ridge separating Ophir Canyon from Dry Canyon, was first named the St. Louis Lode but was renamed the Hidden Treasure in 1870. The Chicago claim was located in 1871 on the same fissure as the Hidden Treasure but about 200 feet lower down. The Hidden Treasure, Chicago, and nearby Sacramento, about 600 feet east of the Hidden Treasure, would become three of the most famous mines of the early days. Successful exploitation of these mines began after completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and financial assistance of British investors.18Twenty British companies were incorporated to operate in Utah mines between 1860 and 1873. Included were the Flagstaff and the Emma mines in Little Cottonwood Canyon incorporated in 1871.19 Godbe met with his first successful mining venture in Dry Canyon where the Chicago claim was located in 1871 and was shipping ore at the time. He applied for a patent on the Chicago and nearby Rambler mines in 1872.20 British investors organized the Chicago Silver Mining Company; they purchased the Chicago claim in 1873 with nominal capital of 150,000 pounds. With sale of his Chicago claim to the company, Godbe agreed to become general manager for two years at a salary equal to 2 percent of any dividend paid. The company paid a dividend of 31,380 British pounds from 1874 to 1876 (about $174,000).21 Outside capital played a major role in the development of the American West and, as the historian W. Turrentine Jackson noted, the territory relied on British investment during these years. Given his rebellion against Brigham Young's push for economic self-sufficiency, Godbe's sale of the Chicago claim to the British was certainly significant.22The Chicago Silver Mining Company first shipped valuable silver ore to Liverpool, England, for smelting where its shares sold at a premium. Then a smelter was erected on the shore of nearby Rush Lake, along with steam hoisting works at the mine. In June 1875, the Chicago Silver Mining and Smelting Company purchased half interest in the Queen of the Hills and Flavilla claims for $350,000.23 By 1876, the Flavilla announced a quarterly profit of $80,000.24 Godbe shipped 1,300 carloads of silver-lead bullion to eastern refineries with a value of more than $3 million from his fifty-ton per day lead smelting furnace at Rush Lake.25 Ore taken from the Shamrock Mine in East Canyon (Ophir Canyon), owned in part by William S. Godbe, assayed as high as $27,000 per ton. Mine shipments were made that were valued at $1,800 to $5,600 per ton.26Near the time of Godbe's activities at Ophir, Samuel Hawks and James Ryan discovered the enormously rich Horn Silver deposit in the San Francisco Mining District, about fourteen miles west of Milford, Utah. Godbe, who was not an owner of the Horn Silver Mine, first attempted to build a smelter to refine the Horn Silver ore in 1874, but the attempt failed. He then made a second attempt to smelt the ore that also failed. The Frisco Smelting Company was reorganized as the Frisco Mining and Smelting Company with principals William S. Godbe, Benjamin Hampton, and Frank Godbe (William's eldest son) as secretary. William S., along with Hampton and Frank, built a third and successful smelter in 1877.27 Hampton also directed construction of five distinctive beehive charcoal kilns that remain as landmarks to this day. The charcoal was necessary fuel for the furnaces in the smelter, which consisted of a Number 5 Baker blower, two boilers, one engine, several pumps, a shaft furnace, and a reverberatory flue-dust slagging furnace.28 This custom smelter refined the Horn Silver ore from about 1877 to 1885, when mining was interrupted by a major cave-in in the mine. Aggressive mining of the large and rich silver ore body had caused the ground to settle for some time, and then on February 12, 1885, the mine caved to the seventh level and closed the shaft. The mine eventually reopened, but the ore was processed at a smelter in Salt Lake Valley.29The second Carbonate Mine near Carbonate Gulch about three miles northeast of the Horn Silver, discovered in 1878, was sold to Benjamin Hampton and Frank Godbe for $50,000, and the nearby Rattler claim was patented by Godbe in 1881.30 These two mines produced silver and lead ore that was refined at the Frisco Smelter. Total production was 2,593 tons of lead and 553,910 ounces of silver.31William S. Godbe also acquired the Cave Mine in the Bradshaw Mining District, located about eight miles southeast of Milford. The mine on the west slope of Bradshaw Mountain near Cave Canyon was discovered in 1859 and claims were located in 1871. The ore was processed at the Frisco smelter. Samuel Godbe, at age twenty-six, became superintendent of the Cave Mine in 1884.32 William S. Godbe and Hampton sold the Rattler and Carbonate mines to M. P. Gilbert for $100,000 in 1901.33In 1871, Godbe had his name on a stake in one of the veins of high-grade ore, as well as an interest in the celebrated Montana claim on Eureka Hill, just west of the town of Eureka, Utah, in the Tintic Mining District.34 The Tintic Mining District lies about sixty miles south of Salt Lake City. The first mineralization was discovered there in 1869, resulting in the location of the Sunbeam claim. The Eureka Hill deposit was located soon after in February 1870. Within days of the 1870 report, the Eureka Mining Company was organized with mines on Eureka Hill made up of 12,000 feet of rich assays under control of the new company.35 The Montana claim, formerly owned by Godbe, was a central claim in the Eureka Mining Company holdings. John Q. Packard, the principal stockholder, became wealthy from the proceeds of this and other mines.36Following the mining activities at Frisco and surrounding areas, Godbe turned his attention to mining at Osceola, Delamar, and Pioche, Nevada. There, Godbe and his eight sons actively pursued mining activities in several districts and mines.In 1880, Godbe attempted to develop gold placers at Osceola, Nevada. Osceola is the most famous of the White Pine County, Nevada, gold districts. A gold-bearing quartz belt, found in 1872, was twelve-by-seven miles; there, placer gold was discovered in 1877. The deposit is forty-five miles from Ely, just west of Great Basin National Park, where some of the placer installations are still visible. The gold occurs in thick deposits of gravel on the west flank of the Central Snake Range. Godbe constructed thirty-eight miles of ditches and flumes, at a cost of $400,000. Placer development began in Dry Gulch, and between 1877 and 1880 three hundred to four hundred miners worked there.37 The important placers in Dry Canyon were the property of Osceola Gravel Mining Company, later known as Osceola Placer Mining Company.38 These companies were organized in 1885, with Godbe as vice president, and reorganized in 1891.39 Nuggets as large as twenty-four pounds were found in Dry Canyon, and the area produced 95,000 ounces of gold by 1900.40 Yet Godbe failed to make a profit on the venture. Placer mining in Dry Canyon ended in 1900 because of an inadequate water supply, and Godbe was defeated by Nevada's arid climate.The family also became involved in the Pioche, Nevada, mining area, which is located about 240 miles southwest of Salt Lake City at the northern base of the Ely Mountain Range and near the east flank of the Bristol Range. Most of Pioche is near the southeast end of the Bristol Range; the Ely Range is smaller, with a northwest to southeast trend. The first silver production from Pioche was valued at $20,000 from the Meadow Valley Company in 1869, and the Raymond and Ely in 1870. Production peaked at $5.5 million in 1872 with high grade silver ores. The ore from the Raymond and Ely and the Meadow Valley mines was transported south to Meadow Valley, where sufficient water was available for processing the ore. Additional smaller mining areas near the Ely District at Pioche included the Bristol and Jackrabbit districts, which were organized in 1876. But by 1876, the boom in Pioche had petered out and most adventurers in the area were moving on.41William S. Godbe saw an opportunity in recovering additional silver from the mine waste. Extracting silver from the ores at this time required the Washoe process of pan amalgamation, which left 15 to 25 percent of the silver in the waste tailings.42 In 1879 to 1880, after the production peak had passed, Godbe purchased the tailings in Meadow Valley, now renamed Bullionville, with the intent of recovering the additional silver in the tailings. He and his eight sons played a role in Pioche from then onward. William S. Godbe erected a fifty-ton per day smelter and a 100-ton per day concentrator. The concentrator and smelter worked 40,000 tons of tailings and produced over $1,000,000 in silver-lead bullion.43 Bullionville became a lively community, where fifty men were employed.William S. Godbe organized the Pioche Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company in 1885 in collaboration with New York investors. The company filed articles of incorporation in Salt Lake City in 1886 with William S. as president, Samuel Godbe as treasurer, and Anthony Godbe. It then acquired many of the Pioche-area mines, including the Raymond and Ely, Meadow Valley, Jackrabbit, and Yuba mines. The Godbe family organized the Yuba Mining and Reduction Company and took over the American Flag, which produced steadily in 1888. The Godbe companies constructed two new smelters, constructed a railway that covered the sixteen miles to the Jackrabbit property, and improved mining shaft access to the Raymond and Ely workings.44The price of silver had remained relatively constant for decades at about $1.30 per ounce until 1872, when William S. began his first successful mining operation at the Chicago Mine near Ophir, Utah. Successful mining enterprises throughout the American West were increasing the supply of silver; meanwhile, demand for the metal was determined by government purchases, such as in China and in British India for monetary use, industries, and arts. Then in 1873, Germany demonetized silver; France, Belgium, and Holland limited coinage of silver; and the Scandinavian countries abandoned the silver standard. The United States dropped the silver dollar from its coinage system. India suspended free coinage of silver in 1893.During the years of Godbe's mining ventures, then, the price of silver steadily declined from near $1.30 per ounce during the Chicago Mine work at Ophir to $1.10 per ounce during Frisco and the beginning of the Bullionville operation. When the Pioche Mining and Smelting Company operations began in 1886, the price of silver stood at $1.00 per ounce; then, with a brief bounce in 1890, the price began a steep decline to $0.64.45 In 1892, work in one mine after another was suspended until only the Yuba was left operating. Then, even the Yuba closed when the miners quit because of low wages. At this stage, the global silver market defeated the Godbe expansion of mining ventures in Pioche. The Godbes returned to Bullionville and built a new reduction works at a cost of $175,000, but within three months, in early 1893, fire totally destroyed the facility.46William S. Godbe, his sons, and his partners persisted in the Pioche area, with a portion of their efforts focused on chemical and other means for obtaining silver. For example, following experiments with various processes for extracting the silver from the Bullionville tailings, a trial run of Raymond and Ely and Mountain Meadow tailings by a cyanide process was reported “a grand success in 1892.” Godbe and his associates had at least a million dollars as a reward after he reconstructed the Bullionville mill using the cyanide process.47 Each of Godbe's sons played a separate role in development of mining properties in the area. William C. Godbe had the shortest tenure at Pioche. He managed the smelter company's affairs at Bullionville for about four months in 1885. Then after traveling to Milford for a visit with family, he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of twenty-three.48Frederick Godbe began his work at Pioche in 1882 as a clerk in his father's company offices in Bullionville and supervised concentration tables in the mill at Bullionville. Fred, along with Frank, purchased the Fred Mine at Hiko that displayed a promising ledge containing 400 ounces of silver per ton. Hiko is located seventy-four miles by road southwest of Pioche. Fred opened and tended the company's store at Bullionville, made contracts for wood for fuel to roast the Bullionville tailings, and prepared carloads of concentrates for shipment to Bullionville.49 In 1884, Fred received orders to sell everything belonging to Bullionville Smelting Company and then resumed his position as clerk at the new smelter.50 Later, he took the place of an engineer who was injured at the smelter.51 Fred Godbe also helped put men to work on the Godbe's iron mine at Stampede Gap in the southern Bristol Range about eight miles northwest of Pioche.52In 1887 Samuel Godbe commenced work on the American Flag (Yuba) Mine owned by his father and Hampton and soon made a rich strike there.53 Within a year, Samuel became the superintendent of the Yuba Mine.54 Samuel and Ernest then began experimenting with the cyanide extraction process on ore from the Yuba Mine. Ernest was the inventor of an effective agitation-cyaniding process where the silver was extracted with a sodium cyanide solution.55 The brothers continued exploring the Yuba, crushing the ore with a stamp mill, and concentrating the silver using the cyanide process.56 In 1898, a really fine body of high-grade ore was reported in the Yuba and the owners, using a cyanide extraction process, stood to make a fortune.57 The Yuba Mine produced ore valued at $178,000 from 1888 to 1914. For five years, Samuel also had charge of the Day Mine, and in 1919 the mine shipped thirty tons per day, containing twenty ounces of silver per ton.58Ernest Godbe continued the mining legacy of his father. He was active in mining affairs in Pioche beginning with his report of the success of the Russell Process at Bullionville in 1887.59 Then in 1889 he partnered with his brothers in purchasing mining claims at Tramway and the Enamel claim. He advertised his services as an assayer at Bullionville in 1893.60 He became active in operating the Day Mine in 1898 (also known as the Jackrabbit) at the foot of the east slope of the Bristol Range about fifteen miles north of Pioche, and reported 100,000 tons of ore in sight containing forty to fifty ounces of silver per ton and 20 percent lead.61 He reported success with utilizing cyanide to extract silver at Bullionville in 1901, about the time of his patent on the process.62 He became the manager of the Meadow Valley, the Raymond and Ely, the Day mines, Mezappa, American Flag (Yuba), Hillside, Onondago, and others at Jack Rabbit, Zero claim, Deerfoot, Index, Williams, and Goodspeed from 1907 to 1910.63 The Yuba, Day, and Hillside mines were the only substantial producers during this time.Frank Godbe began his activities in 1881 along with his father with the organization of the Bullionville Smelting Company. Frank was secretary of the company and general manager of the smelter.64 Bullionville Smelting Company soon had a small furnace operating and shipped fourteen car loads of bullion, which Frank valued at $30,000 while they were still experimenting with the mill process. He was appointed superintendent in 1887.65 In the spring of 1889, the Godbe payroll consisted of one hundred men and, in May, the group reached the 1,200-foot level of the Raymond and Ely Mine and found the pumps that had been abandoned in 1879. They began pumping and lowered the water level to the 1,400-foot level to look at the Black Ledge and found lead-zinc ore of little value. The family had a record of experimenting with and speculating on processes and methods that sometimes yielded a profit and other times failed to do so.In the early 1890s, William S. built a new smelter two miles north of Pioche and improved the Panaca shaft to the Raymond and Ely. Frank also took over the Jack Rabbit property.66 Frank became part owner of three claims in the Chief Mining District in 1905 as a stock holder in the Advance Gold Company. The Chief Mining District produced 189 tons of ore with a value of $7,306 long after formation of the Advance Gold Company.67Alfred Godbe became well known with the Godbe mining activities in Pioche, beginning with testing and measuring tailings in Bullionville and proceeding with his sampling work at the furnace and the tailings in 1883 at the age of nineteen.68 He reported a big strike at the Raymond and Ely Mine in Pioche four years later.69 Alfred collaborated with his brother Ernest to purchase the Tramway Mine in the nearby Highland District in 1889, and then along with Frank and Samuel, he located the Enamel claim in the Ely District.70 In 1890 Alfred left his position as superintendent of the Pioche water works to concentrate on the Bullionville tailings.71 In 1891 he took charge of the Pioche Weekly Record, and in 1892 he opened an assay office in Pioche.72 Alfred later became an engineer for Pioche Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, a position he held until his death in 1916. His son Ralph Godbe was assistant superintendent of the Chief Consolidated Mine in Eureka, Utah.73Anthony Godbe's activities reached Pioche in 1890 when he became active in overhauling the old Flag tailings at Bullionville for quicksilver (mercury).74 An enormous amount of quicksilver was wasted by the pan amalgamation or Washoe mill process and made its way to the tailings—and, just so, a small fortune could be secured by recovering the quicksilver from the tailings. In 1892, Anthony and his father acquired the Highland Queen and Tramway property in the Highland Mining District, neither of which reported production.75 Anthony later became general manager for the Ohio-Kentucky Mining Company of Pioche in 1908.76 Working for that company in 1906 and 1907, Anthony was successful with the development of the Susan Duster Mine, which had a huge deposit of silver-lead-ore zinc. He could report that the “Susan Duster ledge is a big one,” and that the Ohio-Kentucky shaft went down 200 feet.77Murray Godbe began his experience at Pioche in 1886 at the young age of sixteen when he went there to take photographs.78 A few years later he found employment at the assay office of Pioche Consolidated Mining Company.79 He later became general manager of the Hamburg Mine located eight miles north west of Pioche. The mine was reported to have produced $110,000 by 1917.80The Prince Mine became one of the most productive of all of the Godbe brothers mining ventures in the Pioche area. Anthony, Ernest, and Murray were the principals involved in the Prince. The first step in acquiring the Prince property was organization of the Phoenix Reduction Company, which Sam Newhouse, H. L. Hackett, Ernest, and Anthony owned. Ernest realized the Prince was one of the best and biggest properties in the district, and the Phoenix Reduction Company acquired the Prince mining claims in 1907.81 The Prince deposit was first located in the early 1860s and was formerly owned by Raymond and Ely.Ernest Godbe became the manager of the Prince in 1907.82 The mine began to recover ore from above the water table, which was at about 500 feet down. The Prince Mine, under control of Anthony, Ernest, and Murray, produced ore containing nearly two million ounces of silver, 2.4 ounces per ton, from 746,000 tons of ore; the gross value of its lead, silver, and gold totaled $7,000,000 before 1920. Some exploration drilling located ore at about 850 feet deep, and deepening the mine, along with pumping the water, began under the management of Murray. When the mine reached the 850-foot level, an accident shut off the pumps and the mine was completely flooded by 1922. Work was suspended in 1923.83 The company was reorganized as the Prince Consolidated Mining Company with no Godbes in management positions, although they probably still owned stock in the company. By 1938, the Prince had produced only an additional 36,000 tons, valued at $872,728. The Godbes, then, participated in both periods of large output at Pioche. The first period, peaking in 1872, produced the tailings at Bullionville and the second period, beginning in 1906, included the Prince. During the low-production period, which lasted from 1885 to 1905, Godbe properties produced eighty percent of the total district production.Ever mindful of new mining investment opportunities, William S. and his son Samuel became aware of a gold discovery south of Pioche, on the west slope of what is now named the Delamar Range. John E. and Alvin Ferguson first discovered gold there in 1891, and the Magnolia claim was discovered by John E. Ferguson, Frank Wilson, and D. A. Reeves, who also located the April Fool Group of claims. The mining district was first called the Monkey Wrench or Ferguson Di