[Nevada]. [Mining]. Clayton, Joshua E.

Abstract of a Report of Professor Clayton on a Set of Twenty Mines in the Eureka District, Nevada [caption title]

Eureka, Nv. July 3, 1871. [4]pp., on a single large folio sheet. Old horizontal folds, minor toning. Very good. Item #3384

A large-format mining report on the Eureka District of Nevada by noted mining and mechanical engineer Joshua E. Clayton. Joshua Elliott Clayton (1820-1889) was regarded as one of the nation's foremost mining engineers in the latter half of the 19th century. Self taught, Clayton worked in the mining fields of California, Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Nevada for a variety of companies for over fifty years. He was also innovative, inventing mining and milling machinery over his long career that he would market to the companies for which he was a consultant. Clayton was renowned in the west for his integrity and accuracy, once claiming in 1880 that Butte would eventually yield 40,000 tons of copper per year; nine years later, Butte was producing over 50,000 tons of copper annually. The idea was laughed at, until the mine A detailed biography of Clayton by Clark C. Spence, titled, "Joshua E. Clayton: Pioneer Western Mining Engineer" was published in the Autumn 1980 issue of Arizona and the West.

Beginning in 1867, Clayton consulted for a number of British and American firms in the mining fields of Nevada. The present report on "twenty mines in the Eureka District" in Lander County, Nevada was produced for an unspecified investment group, likely a British firm, many of whom Clayton was consulting at this time. In the report, Clayton details the overall state of the geology of the area, the ore deposits, lodes, veins, and other phenomena. He also goes into great detail on two area mines - the "Bullwhacker" Series and the 1,600-foot Dunderberger Mine. Clayton describes these mines in great detail, and characterizes them as can't-miss opportunities for his unnamed investors, writing that "the set of mines selected for the basis of your investment...is the finest combination of claims that can now be made in this wonderfully rich district." The last page of the document is a supplemental report by W.S. Keyes which confirms Clayton's assessment of the Eureka-area mines.

Though no item-level records of this report are listed in OCLC, there may be copies in the two collections of Clayton's papers at Yale and the Bancroft. Otherwise, the document is unrecorded.

Price: $650.00