Manuscripts

Sonora, Mexico, mining contracts

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Description: Group of contracts for mining interests mainly in the state of Sonora, Mexico, including those in Cumpas, Moctezuma, Huepac, Hermosillo, Nogales, and Cananea. Mines discussed include El Archipielago Mine, Saitilla Mine, El Sapo Mine, Vinaigron Mine, and Tarantulita Mine. Mining companies involved in the contracts include the Transvaal Copper Mining Co., the Minneapolis Copper Co., the Minneapolis Copper Development Co., and the Archipielago Mines Co. The contracts are in Spanish.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1904-1916.
Call number: mssHM 74976-75001
Provenance: Purchased from William Reese Company, December 13, 2010.
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Section IV: SAN MANUEL MINES COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARY MINING COMPANIES IN MEXICO

Manuscripts

Deals with the San Manuel Mines Company and several subsidiary mining companies in Mexico: Las Mercedes Copper Mining Co., Julia Copper Mines, El Plomo and Esperanza Lead and Zinc Mines, and others. Keller entered the firm as a partner of Jackson A. Graves (q.v.), whose son-in-law E. S. Armstrong had developed the mines. The collection contains letters from 1914 to 1962 concerning the operation of the mines and the company's attempts to sell the properties to various American firms.

mssKellerh

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William Hammond Hale diary

Manuscripts

The first five months of this diary were written in Minneapolis (except a week long trip to Washington D.C. for President Roosevelt's inauguration in March). Hale left for the mines on May 24, first stopping at Seattle. He arrived at his father's mine on June 7. Hale spent June through October at the Atlin and Willow Creek Mining Company in Discovery, British Columbia. Hale writes in detail about the mines, his work there, his fellow miners, and his social life. On his way home, Hale stopped at the Coppermount Mine run by the Alaska Copper Company on Prince of Wales Island (another mine in which his family was invested). He spent a month there observing the copper smelting operations. He was back home in Minneapolis for Christmas.

mssHM 81275

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Mining experiences, 1932-1985: the memoirs of Allan H. James

Manuscripts

Autobiographical account of Allan H. James' fifty years in the mining industry, transcribed from audio recordings made shortly before his death in 1985. The memoir begins with his going to work in the mines at Grass Valley following his graduation from Stanford, and follows his experiences mining in California and Nevada, including humorous and tragic anecdotes about his fellow miners. The memoir largely focuses on his time at various mines in South America and on the friends and co-workers he had while there, as well as his marriage in Costa Rica. James also describes the atomic bomb explosion at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in 1945; his various mining jobs with M.I.T., at the Mt. Hope Mine, and with the Kennecott Copper Corporation; and his impressions of Canada and rural Alaska. Includes 29 pages of photographs of James, his family, and various mining enterprises.

mssHM 73672

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Diary, Sonora (Mexico)

Manuscripts

The diaries contain descriptions of mines, notes of mine surveys, and accounts of trips to survey mines in California, Nevada, Japan, and Mexico. Five of the volumes deal with Janin's 1873 stay in Japan, and include details regarding the management of mines in Japan. The diaries also include some personal and family information.

HM 64294

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Nevada Mining materials

Manuscripts

This group contains material related to mining activities in the White Pine Mining District, Nevada. Included are a handwritten memo of the costs of a proposed "Smelting and Mining Company" along with a list of shareholders, a memorandum of agreement signed by Jeremiah Wilbur and relating to his purchase of "St. Paul" silver mine in White Pine, and a variety of printed prospectuses from the Pinto Consolidated Silver Mining and Smelting Company, The Pinto Silver Mining Company, the Hamilton Mining and Smelting Company, and the Hamilton Smelting Company, all based in London, England. Mines mentioned in these documents include the Maryland Mine, the Buckeye and Champion Mines, the South Aurora Mine, the Eberhardt and Aurora Mines, the Silver Star Mine, the Massachusetts Mine, the Marion Mine, the Eureka Mine, the Ethan Allen Mine, and the Ebenezer Mine. Several blank applications for shares are also included.

mssHM 72275-72277

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Louis Janin photographs of Australian mining

Visual Materials

This collection contains 41 mounted 6 x 8-inch photographs of gold and copper mines, miners, and mining facilities in Australia, approximately 1895, including close-up scenes of miners working with tools and equipment inside mines. Other images depict overviews of mine buildings and surrounding land, smelters, mine interiors with walls of timber, and miners wearing helmets with oil lamp lanterns. The photographs were taken by American mining engineer Louis Janin, who traveled to the Australian mining districts in 1895 to identify uses for American mining methods and equipment. He contributed a report, published in 1897, for the prospectus of Australia's Cobar Chesney Copper and Gold Mining Company. Most likely these photographs are connected to one or both of these projects. Handwritten captions on the photographs identify the following mines: C.C.C.; the Peak; Chesney; Mount Pleasant; Young Australian; and Cobar, as well as Fort Bourke Dam and Fort Bourke Cyanide Works.

photCL 203

Sonora, Mexico, mining contracts

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Section IV: SAN MANUEL MINES COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARY MINING COMPANIES IN MEXICO

William Hammond Hale diary

Mining experiences, 1932-1985: the memoirs of Allan H. James

Diary, Sonora (Mexico)

Nevada Mining materials

Louis Janin photographs of Australian mining