Beautiful certificate from the McCrackin Consolidated Mining Company in 1878. We have seen the company's name spelled "McCracken" Consolidated Mining Company. This historic document was printed by the Britton Rey & Co. S.F. and has an ornate border around it with the company's name in the center. This item has the signatures of the Company's President, Hon. Eugene Casserly and Secretary, H. August Whiting and is over 132 years old. Eugene Casserly (November 13, 1820 June 14, 1883) was a journalist and lawyer who served in the United States Senate from California. The following was reported in 1876: ARIZONA AS IT IS; OR, THE COMING COUNTRY. COMPILED FROM NOTES OF TRAVEL DURING THE YEARS 1874, 1875, AND 1876. BY HIRAM C. HODGE. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. BOSTON: H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. Cambrige: The Riverside Press. The McCracken Mine is in the southern part of Mohave County, thirty miles east of the Colorado River, with a good roadway back and forth. It is six miles north of Bill Williams Fork, and twelve miles west of Sandy Creek. This mine was discovered August 17, 1874, by Messrs. McCracken and Owen, who yet own a large interest in the mine. It is now incorporated under the laws of California, with the Hon. Eugene Casserly as President, I. C. Bateman, Vice-president, and H. Augustus Whiting, Secretary. The lode runs nearly due north and south, directly over a high mountain spur, known as McCracken Hill. This hill has an elevation of about two thousand feet above the surrounding valleys. It is an immense vein, being in places over eighty feet wide at the surface. It is traceable for about two miles by surface out-cropping, and out-crops at different places on the south for ten or fifteen miles. In some respects this mine differs from all others on the Pacific Slope, the formation being a spar gangue or matrix, in granitic or primitive formation. Not a particle of quartz has been found in the mine, and as quartz has ever been considered the true matrix of gold and silver, the mine is a curiosity, and well worth the study of the scientific. The out-croppings of the mine on the summit of McCracken Hill can be seen for many miles, the spar having a dark burned appearance, caused by the hot burning sun of thousands of years. At a distance it looks like a black volcanic dyke, and for many years prospectors had so considered it, and had passed by the mountain without an examination. The McCracken Company own two mining claims of fifteen hundred feet each in length, named the Senator and Alta. The mine is now the best developed in the Territory, having over seven hundred feet of shafting, and over twelve hundred feet of tunnels. The deepest shaft is three hundred and sixty-seven feet, and the shafts, and over one thousand feet of the tunnels are in vein matter all the way. The first class milling ore gives by assay an average of $96 per ton, and the company's ten stamp mill at Greenwood, on the Sandy, works this ore up to sixty-five per cent. of the assay. The bullion produced averages 985 fine. The second class milling ore, of which over five thousand tons are now on the dump pile, gives by assay over $65 per ton. Twenty samples, taken promiscuously by the author from the dump pile, gave by assay $67.54 per ton. There are small stratas of carbonate ore carrying much lead, and excellent for smelting, which has sold in San Francisco for an average of $237 per ton, in silver, and yielding in addition twenty per cent. of lead. In the different shafts, tunnels, and drifts, the ore has in no place been worked out from hanging to foot walls, and therefore the actual width of vein matter at one, two, and three hundred feet depth, is unknown. In seven different chambers, the workings are from twenty-five to forty-two feet wide, and there is sufficient assurance to pronounce the McCracken one of the great mines of the world. In addition to the ten stamp mill at Greenwood, the company are now making arrangements to erect a new and much larger quartz mill the present year. Cost of labor at the mine and mill four dollars per day. Wood, delivered, costs five dollars per cord. The cost of hauling ore from the mine to the mill is twelve dollars per ton. The amount of ore now mined, and working value, is, as near as can be ascertained, as follows: Two thousand tons of first class ore at sixty-five dollars per ton, working value, and five thousand tons of second class ore at forty-five dollars per ton, working value, gives a total of $355,000 of ore now mined. The great want at the mine at present is water, of which none has yet been developed in the mine, and for drinking, culinary, and other purposes, water is now brought from Castenado's well, eight miles distant. The company's office is at rooms 7 and 9 Hayward's Block, San Francisco, where further and full information can be obtained of the mine, etc. The first north extension of the McCracken is the San Francisco Mine, also incorporated, which is being opened successfully, and a large mill is to be erected the present year for working the ores, which are equally promising, both in extent and richness, to the McCracken. The extensions south are also being opened, and all look well. Six miles south the vein out-crops again, and at this point Messrs. Cory and Potts, and some other parties, have good prospects for valuable and extensive mines. The whole country to the north from the McCracken Mine, and from Greenwood for over one hundred miles, contains continued successions of mineral lodes of wondrous extent and richness. These mines are mostly argentiferous galena, some of them having a fair showing of gold. By a judicious expenditure of time and money, this whole extent of country will in due time become a source of great mineral wealth. In the river range of mountains to the northwest of the McCracken Mine, there are numerous lodes of gold and silver, some of which have been worked in former years, but are now lying idle. Among the number is the Moss Gold Mine, from which much rich mineral was taken in years past. This mine is fifteen miles east from Camp Mohave, on the Colorado River.
In 1874, "Chloride Jack" Owens and a party of prospectors made their way into the the mountains north of the Bill Williams Fork and found an outcropping of silver atop McCracken Hill. Soon after, a mill was erected. A group of senators bought the mill from nearby Greenwood City at a foreclosure price and put it to work producing $1.5 million in silver. Then in the winter of 1877-78, the McCracken Consolidated Mining Company erected another mill at the new Virginia City. The mines soon played out and by 1879 the place was deserted. Its peak population was about 100. The area is now a ghosttown.
In 1874, "Chloride Jack" Owens and a party of prospectors made their way into the the mountains north of the Bill Williams Fork and found an outcropping of silver atop McCracken Hill. Soon after, a mill was erected. A group of senators bought the mill from nearby Greenwood City at a foreclosure price and put it to work producing $1.5 million in silver. Then in the winter of 1877-78, the McCracken Consolidated Mining Company erected another mill at the new Virginia City. The mines soon played out and by 1879 the place was deserted. Its peak population was about 100. The area is now a ghosttown.
