start in to mining on a larger scale. The eight claims were consolidated into one group which is now owned by the Tonopah Mining Company of Nevada. The entire capital that Butler, Oddie and Brougher began work with was less than twenty-five dollars, and it is a noteworthy fact that that small amount is the only capital that has ever been brought in from the outside to develop the Tonopah Mining Company's group of mines; they have paid their way ever since.

During the fall of 1900 the news reached the outside world that a rich strike had been made at Tonopah, and during the winter a number of men came into the camp from Carson, Reno and other points. Butler and his associates decided to let leases on their property, and during the winter and spring one hundred and twelve leases were given to the new comers. Henry C. Cutting of Reno took the first lease on the Mizpah ledge, in January, 1901, and began operations in March, just below the present working shaft. All leases were oral, and the owners received twenty-five per cent of the gross output. Leases were let on the Burro, the Valley View and the Mizpah. Of the one hundred and twelve leases twenty-five paid well and five or six made their holders rich. Nearly all made wages, not more than half a dozen failing to pay expenses. The majority of the leasers started work about the 1st of June, and the leases expired December 31, 1901; so that the period of active operations was about seven months. There were about eight hundred men at work at the time the leases expired.

The most productive lease was that of Lynch & O'Meara. This lease was secured by them in June, by purchase, the price paid being $9000. The first body of ore struck on this lease, which was No. 44, was five feet in width, eighty feet in depth and sixty feet in length,

and ran from $150 to $500 a ton. A winze on the 150-foot level opened up an ore shoot from sixteen to eighteen feet wide that averaged $250 a ton. On the 200-foot level a body of ore six feet wide and ninety feet long averaged $300 a ton. This lease produced 3500 tons of ore of an average value of more than $100. After the expiration of the leases Lynch & O'Meara took a contract to sink the Mizpah shaft, and in seven months they took out under this contract about 4000 tons averaging about the same as that taken out under the lease; so that in a little over a year these young men made considerably more than half a million dollars.

The lease of Brown & Cutting produced about $300,000; that of Golden & Sinclair about $280,000, and that of Brougher Brothers about $250,000, while there were a number that produced from $25,000 to $100,000. The total production up to the expiration of the leases on December 31, 1901, is conservatively estimated at $4,500,000.

In the meantime a number of experts representing capitalists had been attracted to the camp, and as early as December, 1901, several tempting offers had been made for the Mizpah group. Several bonds were taken on the property during the winter and spring, but in every instance the parties failed to make the first payment at the time agreed upon. An expert representing the De Lamar interests at the last moment concluded that the ledges "wouldn't go down," and retired from the field to pass his remaining days in seclusion, the prey of vain regrets. Finally, in June, 1901, the property, consisting of the eight original claims, was purchased by O. A. Turner for Philadelphia parties for $336,000. Butler's interest in the property was five-eighths, the remaining three-eighths being divided among Oddie, Brougher and Gayhart. Butler, Brougher

latitude where there are so many days of unbroken sunshine as in Tonopah.

As already stated, Tonopah now contains a population of more than 4000. It is a well-built town, up-to-date in every respect. At this writing (March 22, 1903), there are more than fifty buildings in course of construction, some of which would do credit to a much larger town. The place is lighted by electricity and the new water company has just laid a main which furnishes an abundant supply of pure water for do

mestic purposes. Fire plugs are now being put in, which throw an inch stream over the highest buildings on Main street. There are two churches, good hotels, a first-class graded school with over one hundred pupils in attendance, two newspapers that are an innovation in Nevada journalism, and a sufficient number of saloons to supply the demand, somewhat. The incoming stages are crowded to their full capacity, and all indications point to an enormous influx of population during the coming sum

mer. Already two railroads are assured in the near future, the surveyors now being on the ground and running the preliminary lines for a narrow-gauge branch from the Carson and Colorado Railroad and for a broad-guage road from Daggett, California, on the Santa Fe. The first named of these roads will in all probability be completed by September, and the other by midsummer of 1904.

1650 feet in length and is in ore the entire distance. The ledge is in no place less than five feet in width, and in many places the ore body is from ten to eighteen feet in width, with no walls. This ore will average more than $100 a ton, and much of it shows assays running from $300 to $1000. At the eastern end of this level, 800 feet from the shaft, a ledge has recently been opened up that is ninety feet in width, and this entire