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Show The Developnient of Park CitV's . . . . i - . .. ; . values' of 45 percent lead and up to 600 ounces of silver to the ton he personally visited the property. In the paper's ; next issue he reported that a J vein five feet wide had been opened up and that six tons of high-grade ore were piled on the hillside ready for shipment. ship-ment. The 100 tons of ore shipped before winter set in returned over $8,000 to the leasers. From shipments made the following spring the leasers realized profits of $200,000 and when the tease was about to run out they sold opening the treasure vault that would soon be known to the world as the Silver King. During the time the events leading up to the Woodside strike were taking place, several things happened which changed not only Park City's course but also influenced influen-ced the economic and political fu t u re of t he state. The Woodside strike greatly increased in-creased mining activity on Trea s u re Hill, with every prospector who could get a grubstake searching its rocky, brush-covered flanks. Among a good job like Keith had done. He was advised by Keith that if he wanted to find a good claim he would do well to prospect on Treasure Hill and along Woodside Ridge where several promising claims had already been located, including Andy Lund-i Lund-i in's Northland, Jennie Lind, and Northpole claims as well as Doge and McGrath's Mayflower, May-flower, and the Silver King group owned in partnership by them with John Farrish and Con McLaughlin. On Jan. 12, 1889, Peter hired and the shaft sunk deeper." A horse-operated whim raised the heavy ore from the shaft until a 20-horscpower 20-horscpower sTeam hoist could be installed. . That first month of opera-tino opera-tino saw the beginning of an almost never-ending series of lawsuits that the Mayflower lessees and the claims' owner became involved in. Both claim owner Dodge and the lessees were sued by William Perego who claimed ownership of the property by an earlier location. The suit was later settled in Editor's Note: - - In observance of The Record's centennial year, we are pleased to be able to reprint re-print with permission, the following chapter from "Treasure "Trea-sure Mountain Home," a centennial history of Park City written in 1969 by Fraser Buck and George Thompson. Chapter 9, entitled "The Silver King" details the discovery of the great Silver King Mine and its development develop-ment into one of America's truly great mining concerns. The narrative also gives some insight into the character of Thomas Kearns who, accord-' accord-' ing to legend, arrived in Park City with only a pack on his back and left a multi-millionnaire. multi-millionnaire. Kearns would later become United States Senator from Utah and leading mining figure throughout the world. All applicable copyrights copy-rights are in force. THE SILVER KING There were quite a number of 'go-getters' in early Park City who were in on the ground floor of just about every new enterprise, whether in mining or the town's business life. R.C. Chambers. David Keith, D.C. McLaughlin, John Daly, John Judge, and the Ferry brothers were among those who let no grass grow under their feet. Sometimes, as in the case of E.P. Ferry's Woodside property, the immediate im-mediate returns were something some-thing less than spectacular. It will be remembered that the Woodside claims were located in 1873 in Woodside Gulch by John Nelson and sold to E.P. . Ferry shortly afterwards, to be ? worked hap-hazardly at best : by various leasors for the next , dozen or so years. Although several small shipments were made from the claims the Woodside was not at that time ,.' v ' t f: ;-! ' Dodge's favor but only after years of costly litigation. Meanwhile, the Mayflower strike increased to bonanza proportions and steady shipments ship-ments of high-grade silver ore were made by the lessees. The mammoth ore body attracted more prospectors to the area as well as a number of men who wanted to buy the lease. On Dec. 28, 1889, Boyce, Bennett and Hunt sold their interests in the Mayflower lease to W.V. Rice, John Judge and Albion B. Emery, leaving Kearns and Keith partners with the new owners. To say the new partnership partner-ship at the Mayflower was a strange one would be an understatement. Keith was the high paid foreman at the Ontario, while John Judge was making a fortune con-tracing con-tracing the running of the Alliance tunnel. Neither actually ac-tually worked at the Mayflower Mayflow-er since they were both kept plenty busy with their own positions. W.V. Rice was E.P. Ferry's secretary, .a full time job, plus the fact that considering all of Ferry's interests, plus the fact that Ferry was frequently so ill he was confined in hospitals. AI Emery, who was a $3 a day bookkeeper, was perhaps the straneest of the partners. Silver King Thomas Kearns and his bride Jenny Judge, one of Park City's most beautiful women; The two photographs were taken at Adams Studio in Park City and depict a young couple obviously beginning to feel comfortable with their new found and steadily increasing prosperity. Later they would occupy Utah's most gracious mansion in alt Lake City and Thom Kearns would go on to become a United States Senator, as well as owner of the Salt Lake Tribune. The photographs are a recent gift of Mrs. William D. James of Great Falls, Montana, whose grandmother was a valued friend of Jenny Judge Kearns. considered to be an outstand- -ing property and even the leasors themselves were less than enthusiastic about it. In 1888 the Woodside claims were under lease to James Drake, John Farrish, and Frank and James Well-man. Well-man. On Sept. 5, Drake and James Wellman decided to take a day off from their work to go fishing at nearby Morgan Lake. On their return to their diggings late that afternoon they crossed Walker and Webster Gulch and were following a ledge which would lead them back to their lease. At a point about 1 00 feet off their wagon raod and only 800 feet from their cabin they came upon an out-cropping boulder which appeared to carry ore values. They lost no time getting some tools and , soon had the out-cropping' uncovered. j It; proved to be one of the ' few" places in the Park City district where an ore vein was . exposed on the surface. When ; The Record editor heard of the newi discovery and learned thak assay reports showed the remaining time to Ferry for an additional $50,000. On June 23, 1889, the Woodside Mining Company was incorporated for $1 ,000,000 with E.P. Ferry as president, D.C. McLaughlin as vice president, and John J. ' Daly as one of the directors. The newly formed company lost not ime erecting a surface plant which included a boarding board-ing house where by midsummer mid-summer 72 miners were living. The mine proved to be a real bonanza right from the start and although there were start and although there was near panic when the vein was lost for a few days when it was found again at the shaft's 220: foot level, it was twice as rich as before. The Union Concentrator in Empire Canyon, built to mill ore from the Alliance Tunnel, started processing Woodside ore. The first month 6,000 tons, averaging $100 per ton, were shipped. The secret of Treasure Hill had at last been revealed, but the Woodside . strike was only the key the prospectors who came to search for the Leprechaun's treasure was Thomas Kearns, a Nevada miner and former acquaintance of David Keith, who was then foreman for R.C. Chambers at the Ontario. In the late 80s, Kearns left the failing mines of the Comstock and headed for Utah to find David Keith, his miner friend of Virginia City days whom he had heard was doing well in the new Park City district. v. . The story is told that Kearns walked into Park City with a pack on his back and only 10 cents in his pockets. If he walked he was "broke" for there was both a railroad and stage line serving the camp. It is also said that he stopped at Parley's Park where he ' pitched hay all day for a meal.' At any rate, when he arrived at Park City he looked up his friend Keith who gave him a job as a miner at the Ontario. While working at the Ontario, Kearns studied the geology and mines of the district hoping to locate a paying claim of his own or find Boyce leased one of the Mayflower claims, the number seven, from W.H. Dodge and in March was joined in the lease by Con Hunt and William Bennett. Bt April they had sunk a shaft 170 feet but were in need of more help as well as more equipment and financial backing. It was then that Kearns, who had been prospecting in the area as Keith had advised him to do, met them and believing they had a good property agreed to join them. Keith was also taken in as a partner but not as a working partner but to furnish the needed equipment and financing. finan-cing. The Mayflower lessees decided de-cided to run a drift from the shaft's 1 70-foot level to try to cut the same ore vein the Woodside strike had been - made in. Within only a few days after Kearns and Keith joined the lessees, a body of ore that assayed 30 lead and : 100 ounces of silver was found. The ore body became so rich and proved- to be so extensive that more men were Apparently he had no knowledge know-ledge of mining and where he obtained the large amount of money needed to buy his interest in the lease was at first a mystery and later a scandal. Kearns, the poor boy of only a few months before, had become not only part-owner part-owner of one of the. camp's richest claims, but also its actual operator. The Mayflower would make him a millionnaire before his 28th birthday and make Al Emery's wife a silver queen. Mrs. Emery's wealth would soon rival that of Mrs. Thomas Walsh, owner of Colorado's famous Campbird Mine and then acknowledged as societys leading figure, and her story would be stranger even than that of "Baby Doe" Tabor and the Matchless Mine. In 1890 the Mayflower, lessees became embroiled in t he first of v numerous law-r-suits alledging t hey h ad tunneled into adjoining proi. pcrties and. mined ore bodies . PtesTurnt3P;3 7 :X ...,.,...,..r..,:,......-. done in a somewhat unique manner since the shaft from the 700-foot level downward was made three compartments while above the level it was still a single compartment. The upper section was enlarged enlarg-ed to the I surface while the shaft was being sunk to the 1,100-foot level. In January 1894, the shaft hit a new ore body on the 900-foot level even richer than the famous Mayflower fissure. By then W.V. Rice had moved to Canada but the remaining partners, Keith, Kearns and Emery, seemed to have really acquired the Midas touch, everyting they touched turning turn-ing to gold, or as it was in their case, to silver! And then on June 13, 1894. Al Emery died unexpectedly in a California hospital, leaving Keith and Kearns as the giants of Treasure Hill. Emery left something else besides his intest in the Silver King, though: he also left the si range story of how a poor bookkeeper became part owner own-er of a multi-million dollar mine. His story is also the story of how his widow, the woman always known as Mrs. Emery Holmes, became Utah's famous Silver Queen. m Continued from Page 6A belonging toother claims. The story is told that Kearns once said "If the ore goes into another claim, buy it if you can, but if you can't buy it, take the ore anyway!" The story is without proof and may ' not be true but later events do give is some credence. For six months the lessees ou t he nearby Northland claim, Ezra Thompson, William Wil-liam O'Connell, Frank; White, and Dan - McDonald, had been following an ore chute and finally hit a fine body of ore on i he claim's 1 00 foot level. They worked on t heir new find lor only a couple of days however when to their amaze-m amaze-m ent they suddenly broke h rough into workings already mined out by the Mayflower V lessees. v.'V- On July 26, 1890. Ezra Thompson, representing the Northland, sued David Keith, as representative of the . Mayflower, for mining Northland North-land ore. Both men claimed the apex rights which would allow them to follow the ore but by a court order based on a pending underground survey Keith's miners were ordered io cease mining through the Mayflower workings. While an appeal was pending the Maylfower lessees continued " working through the "adjoining "adjoin-ing Nonhpole claim owned by Andy Lundin. A legal decision handed down in 1892 finally aljpwed he Mayflower to follow the ore into the Northland ground. An interpretation of the mining laws at that time allowed a claimholder to follow a vein beyond his claim if it extended outside his claim's sidelines but not if it crossed the endlines. The Northland countered Avith another suit which was settled in 1893 with the Northland Company being paid $45,000 for the Northland, North-land, North pole, Nevada, Jennie Jen-nie Lind and Central Hill claims. The price was probably probab-ly cheap since it was estimated that the value of the ore ' already taken from the Northland North-land alone was many times that figure. During the time the Mayflower May-flower and Northland were in litigation feeling in town ran J high and tempers often flared in arguments over who was in the "right. On Sept. 13, 1890 while Kearns was in town with W.J. Moss, a friend of his ana engineer at the Ontario, he was accosted by Alex Landon who accused him of being a thief for stealing the Northland North-land ore. An argument quickly erupted with Moss standing up for his friend Kearns. In a sudden burst of temper Muss drew a pistol and shot Landon. Landon turned and ran for Dr. LeCompe's house .which was nearby but fell before he could reach it. Dr. LeCompe, assisted by Dr. Wilson, tried to save Landon's life but he. died within a few minutes. Moss was hurried to a Salt Lake City jail. where he was kept in protective custody t o save him from the same kind of justice a lynch mob had dispensed to "Black Jack" Murphy only a few years before. A' coroner's jury later found him guilty of willfully killing" the unarmed Landon : and he was sent to prison. By the fall of 1890 it became apparent to Kearns that the M a y flowe r ' s ore v ein was dipping into the adjacent Silver King claims. The Silver King-claims had no particularly particular-ly impressive surface showings show-ings of 'ore so when the owners. Dodge, McGrath, Farrish and McLaughlin were approached by Kearns with a good offer they readily agreed to lease the claims to ; the Mayflower lessees. Just as soon as the lease on .the Silver King claims was obtained, Kearns lost no time following the ore body into that property. Kearns now had over 100 men working for the Mayflower and many of them were moved to the Silver King shaft where a new hoist was installed to allow it to be sunk cleepe.r than its 210-foot depth. Day bv day the shaft was sunk deeper and to the owners of t he property it must have looked like a useless expense for no ore was found but Kearns and his partners knew well what they were doing. When the shaft reached 800 feel a drift was started towards the Mayflower claims a nd just as expected, i n January of 1892. the rich Mavflower vein was cut. 4 On April 23, 1892, the partners purchased the Silver King claims according to the bond and lease agreement thai had been made with the owners. By spring the new property was shipping fabulously fabu-lously rich ore to the Mingo Smelter near Salt Lake City and had returned profits great enough to pay for the purchase of the adjoining Park Ciiv Mining Company. On Aug. 23. 1892. The ' Silver King Mining Co. was incorporated incorp-orated for $3,000,000 with David Keith as president, Thomas Kearns as vice president, and John Judge. W.V. Rice! W.H, Dodge and' Albion Emery as directors, i Profits from the new company com-pany were so great that a fine new hoist which allowed the shaft. to be sunk to the 1.300-fooi 1.300-fooi level was purchased and a whole new surface plant consisting of shops, steam plain and bunkhouses was built. In ; September 1892. John Judge died in a Salt Lake City hospital from miner's con- sumption, Keith had been apointed superintendent of the Anchor Mining Company in addition to numerous other responsibilities, and Emery and his wife were on an unending tour of parties in .California and Hawaii. Kearns was left to "mind the store-as store-as the company's active manager, backed by Keith, always the shrewd and careful watchdog over the holdings. The Silver King Company had been organized in a period of rapidly declining silver prices and tight money. Silver had been $1.13 an ounce when the company was incorporated by by mid-1893 the price had fallen to only 80c. The Crescent. Anchor and Daly properties had been forced to close down and in July when silver dropped to 70c the Silver King followed them. The decline of silver brought about a revision of wage scales being paid by the mines. Most of the men accepted a 50c to $1 cut in pay a. day. compensated in part by a cut of 10c a day in the cost of board and room at the company boarding houses. The new wage scales combined combin-ed with the Silver King's rich ore soon allowed the mine to be reopened and on Sept. 13. 1893 while most of the other mines were still closed, the Silver King was not only operating but paid its first dividend .of $37,000. That amount might not have looked' like much compared to the millions already paid by the Ontario but it wouldn't be long before the Silver King would be boasting dividends equal to i he Ontario's. No doubt about it. the Silver King was a great producer. Ore specimens were displayed in Park Ciiv business houses and at the Salt Lake City Stock Exchange. A decision was made to enlarge the shaft to three compartments. This was |
