Furnace Creek Copper Company shaft prospect (Furnace Creek Copper Mine), Furnace, Greenwater District, Greenwater Valley, Inyo County, California, USAi
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
36° 10' 44'' North , 116° 38' 51'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Köppen climate type:
Nearest Settlements:
| Place | Population | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Tecopa | 150 (2011) | 52.8km |
A Cu prospect located in sec. 34, T24S, R3E, SBM, 2.0 km (1.3 miles) SE of Furnace (site), on National Park Service wilderness land (Death Valley National Park/Death Valley Wilderness). Owned by the Furnace Creek Copper Company. MRDS database stated accuracy for this location is 10 meters.
In the early 1900's, Patrick Patsy Clark of Spokane was one of the best known copper magnates of the United States. As noted before, when two prospectors made their initial copper discoveries in Greenwater, they immediately notified Clark's agents, and Clark became interested in the new district. In May of 1905, Clark visited the virgin Greenwater territory and purchased the claims. By the middle of the next month, he had already opened up a mine, and by the end of June had eight men working in a shaft which was thirty-five feet deep. Clark was the first major operator in the district, and hoped to reap a quick fortune by finding the immense underground copper deposits from which came the rich surface croppings of Greenwater.
By March of 1906, although the copper lode had not been found, Clark had decided that the indications on the ground warranted permanent and extensive exploration and development, and his young mine was upgraded into a mining camp by the arrival of tents, camp supplies, working tools, etc. By this time his working force had been expanded slightly to nine, and the shaft was sixty feet deep. The Greenwater rush was now starting in earnest and numerous prospectors and rival promoters were on the ground. Taking advantage of the initial wave of excitement which was sweeping the mining world, Clark incorporated his company in March, and named it the Furnace Creek Copper Company. The company was formed with a capital stock of$1,250,000 and shares in the company were put on the market at 50¢ each, one half of their par value. Clark offered 125,000 of these shares to the general public, in order to build up development capital, and within three hours every share had been sold. The Mining, World explained the phenomenon by noting that "Mr. Clark's success as a mining operator has been so great, and Butte as well as Spokane people have such confidence in any property that he backs, that they eagerly purchase what stock he has to offer.
With the success of his capitalization, Clark stepped up work at the mine, and by mid-April had fourteen men employed and was sinking two shafts, down to fifty and one hundred feet, respectively. Arrangements were made to purchase a small 15-horsepower gas hoist to speed up the work, and by mid-May, the new hoist had arrived and was installed. By this time, with the Greenwater boom well under way, prices of Furnace Creek Copper, the earliest and best-known mine in the district, were leaping through the roof. One bold investor in New York city purchased an entire block of 100,000 shares at the price of $3.25; 1,500 more were sold in the same city for $4.25 per share; and the price at Los Angeles went even higher to $4.50. These were totally unheard-of prices for stock in a company which had yet to extract or ship a single pound of ore.
With the money roiling in, Clark discarded his 15-horse power hoist and replaced it with a larger 40-horse power model, which would enable him to sink to a depth of nearly 1,000 feet. Clark also began buying up adjacent claims and had soon extended his company's control to an area of approximately 400 acres. Both the Tonopah & Tidewater and the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroads offered to build a spur line to his mire, upon request, and Clark mentioned that he was considering the construction of a 300-ton smelter. But for the time being, these ambitious plans were laid aside until the copper body could be proven. The staff was expanded to sixteen miners, and the shafts went deeper and deeper) reaching the 150-foot point in mid-July. The Bullfrog Miner, suitably impressed by the rapid development of the company, commented in July that the "Furnace Creek Copper company, owned by Patsy Clark, is developing into one of the biggest things of its age known in copper mining."
During the summer of 1906, small pockets of high grade ore were occasionally found in Clark's mine, but no bodies large enough to mine commercially. Still, it was much too soon to expect much, and development continued. By mid-August, the shaft was down to 220 feet, and three shifts were working around the clock in the mine. The shaft had been sunk to 265 feet by early September, the work force increased to eighteen men, and another large hoist was procured. By this time, stock in Clark's company had leveled off somewhat, and was being sold and traded at a steady $4 per share, tour times its par value.
But as the Greenwater boom reached its most violent phase in the fall of 1906, there was no holding down the price of stock, regardless of the lack of any ore yet produced. Furnace Creek Copper stock rose to $4.50 in late September and then up to $5 and $5.25 per share by mid-October. Some of this flurry was caused by prevalent rumors of a consolidation between Clark and his chief competitor in the district, Charles Schwab, but even after that rumor proved false, stock prices remained unrealistically high.
In mid-October, excitement prevailed at the company's headquarters, as copper ore was struck in a crosscut from the 200-foot level of the main shaft. Development was spurred by the discovery, and by the middle of November, in addition to the numerous crosscuts and drifts which the company was sending out from the 100 and 200-foot levels of its shafts, the main working shaft was still going deeper. By the end of 1906, the company had two large hoists working on its shafts, the main one of which was down to 385 Feet, and forty men were employed by the firm. No ore had yet been found, but the company was in tremendous financial shape, and there was plenty of time for development work.
Almost as an afterthought, Clark also entered the townsite business late in 1906, due more to public pressure than desire. Since supplies and accommodations throughout the district were in such shortage at the peak of the boom, miners and prospectors naturally flocked towards Clark's camp, where stores had been established to cater to the needs of the miners he employed. Realizing that the only way to control his camp in the face of the unwanted crowds was to organize a townsite, whether he wanted one or not, Clark entered the townsite battle in October. Shortly thereafter a townsite company was incorporated and by December advertisements were printed in the Rhyolite newspapers, advertising losts for sale from between $250 and $750 apiece.
As 1907 opened, the Death Valley Chuck-Walla reported that Patsy Clark had one shaft down to 300 feet in depth, and others were on the way. In addition, the young townsite of Furnace (sometimes called Clark) was bustling with a store, a restaurant, a hotel and other business firms, and a Post Office had been applied for. Sinking continued rapidly during that month, since the cold weather forced companies working near the surface to shut down, end Clark for once was able to hire all the miners he needed. By the middle of the month the main shaft had broken the 400-foot level. When the growing townsite threatened to interfere with the operation of the mines, it was bodily moved away from the main shaft down the slope to the north, and replatted there. Town lots began to command a premium, especially since the consolidation of Kunze's and Ramsey's townsites made Furnace the only reasonable place to live for miners employed by Clark and other nearby companies. As development continued, and the problem of obtaining supplies for the mine and townsite grew, a road was surveyed to the site, in order to ease deliveries.
During February, work continued on the main shaft, although several other exploratory shafts and cuts were being run. By the middle of that month the main shaft had been sunk to 480 feet, another crosscut was started at the 250-foot level, and the growing town of Furnace counted a population of 500. By March 1st, with the shaft at the 500-foot level, new crosscuts were started and ore was discovered. Although the copper deposits uncovered were not large enought to crow about, they were large enough to mine, and the Furnace Creek Copper Company began sacking its best ore for shipment to the smelter. To get there, the ore had to be hauled over fifty miles across the sandy desert to the Las Vegas & Tonopah station at Amargosa.
By mid-March, the company was still stoping ore for shipment, and the shaft had been continued below the 500-foot level. Only ore which averaged above 12 percent copper, a very high figure, could be profitably shipped. At the end of that month, the company was still assembling a shipment, which indicates that it did not have a great abundance of 12 percent ore. Nevertheless, with the main shaft down to 550 feet, the Death Valley Chuck-Walla felt justified in calling the Furnace Creek Copper Company the very best mine in the entire Greenwater District.
Sometime in April, the first shipment of ore was sent out, which represented the first shipment from the Greenwater District. The shaft was now down to 600 feet, and the Bullfrog Miner reported that 150 men were working in the vicinity of Furnace, most of them for the Furnace Creek Copper Company. In mid-May, the company was still shipping ore, but no returns were received from the smelter until late in that month. Those returns showed that one carload of hand-sorted ore sent cut contained 22.58 percent copper, which was of profitable level, but two other carloads (of approximately twenty tons each) had not yet been heard from.
Despite these shipments, which represented the closest anyone in the Greenwater District had yet come to becoming a real producing mine, the Death Valley Chuck-Walla noted on June 1st that the Furnace Creek Copper Company was not looking good. Formerly one of the best in the district, it was now running out of development funds, in the Chuck-Walla's assessment, and for some reason it had taken its biggest hoist off the main shaft and replaced it with a rather useless 5-horsepower hoist. That hoist could have no hope whatever of raising rock over 600 feet from the bottom of the shaft The magazines' presentments were correct, for shortly after that the mine shut down. The management implied that the shut-down was to avoid the extremely hot weather of the summer months in Greenwater, but everyone knew better, and no one was particularly surprised when the mines were not immediately reopened in the fall.
The company definitely had problems, for it had expended enormous sums in fruitless development work, and now it faced the problem of whether to give up completely, or to continue to look for the elusive green ore. At the annual meeting, held in early October, some of the problems were ironed out, and a picture of the company's financial condition emerged. According to the Bullfrog Miner, the company had experienced some "internal difficulties" which meant that the directors were undecided as to who to blame for past failures. These difficulties are easy to understand when it is pointed out that stock prices in the company had slipped over $4 in less than a year. Stock which was eagerly sought for over $5 less than one year ago had slumped all the way to 20¢ per share by the end of October, 1907. Although the decline of the Greenwater boom and the Panic of 1907 were contributing factors, still the basic reason for the stock slump was the essential fact that after spending thousands of dollars on development work, the company had no ore to mine for future profits.
An analysis of the balance sheets showed that $135,303 had been spent in such work in the past year, including $59,250 for labor and supplies, $1,857 for legal expenses, $4,927 for machinery and plant, $4,409 for buildings and fixtures, $5,181 for surveys and patents, and $9,000 for stable expenses, chiefly water. Exactly 228,600 shares of treasury stock had already been sold, bringing in $131,687. Receipts from ore shipments totaled $2,625.09, and money value of equipment and supplies on hand was placed at $20,536, including timbers, mine and boarding house supplies, gas hoists, wagons, teams, tanks, and office buildings. Over 2,800 feet of work had been done, including eleven shafts totaling 850 feet, one crosscut of 764 feet, six drifts of 652 feet and nine surface cuts of 332 feet, two stopes of 30 feet and one tunnel of 161 feet.
But what really mattered was that the company had only 21,400 shares of treasury stock left to sell, which would raise only $4,280 at present prices. This, coupled with 50,000 shares of personal stock donated to the company by Clark for development purposes and $16,110 remaining in the company's treasury, meant that the Furnace Creek Copper company had left no more than $30,390 to spend in the search for ore. Nevertheless, the company hired eight men and resumed work, announcing that the shaft would be sunk to the 1000-foot level before giving up. With the revival of work, which continued through the rest of 1907, Furnace Creek Copper stock rebounded somewhat, and closed out the year at 25¢ per share.
As the first months of 1908 passed, the Furnace Creek Copper Company continued to work with a "good force of men," as the Clarks were determined to either prove their holdings immensely valuable or demonstrate the utter failure of the property as a producer." Early in March a new 60-horsepower hoisting plant arrived and was installed, and by the beginning of April the main shaft was approaching the 800-toot level. Sinking and lateral exploration continued through April, May and June, and occasional small pockets of copper ore were found. Although all these pockets soon pinched out, the presence of some ore at these depths was just enough to keep the company's hopes alive, and it confirmed that the shaft would he sunk to 1000 feet in depth before giving up.
Work continued through the summer, although the work farce was not large enough for very rapid progress to be made. As August approached, the best assessment of the company was that the development results were encouraging, "but nothing out of the ordinary has been reached." Still the company continued to sink, and steady progress was reported through the fall of 1908, but still without finding any commercial ore bodies.
As 1908 turned into 1909, the work at the Furnace Creek Copper Company became slower and slower, and the company began giving up hope. Finally, in mid-March of 1909, the mine was closed. The Rhyolite Herald sadly announced that the company had "finally given up hope of developing satisfactory ore bodies without going to great depth" and after several years of effort, "work was entirely suspended a few weeks ago." Miners were discharged and soon even the watchman was given his notice. The elusive ore body, which had been followed sporadically down to 200 feet below the surface, had been completely lost at that point, and although the shaft had been sunk below 800 feet, no more ore had been found.
For a few months, the Furnace Creek Copper Company, held on to its property, waiting to see what would happen to the Greenwater Death Valley Copper Company's property, whose shaft was below 1,000 feet and still sinking. If that shaft hit the copper ore which everyone in Greenwater had been looking for, there was a possibility that the Furnace Creek Company would be able to resume operations. But such did not come to pass, and the Furnace Creek Copper Mines were abandoned. The entire collection of claims belonging to the company was allowed to lapse, and reverted to county land status in June of 1910, when the company failed to pay $10.51 in Inyo County taxes.Latschar, 1981
Local rocks include Tertiary volcanic flow rocks, unit 16 (Northern Mojave Desert).
Workings include unspecified underground openings.
Select Mineral List Type
Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical ElementsCommodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.Mineral List
2 valid minerals.
Detailed Mineral List:
| ⓘ Baryte Formula: BaSO4 Description: Occurs as a gangue mineral. References: |
| ⓘ Quartz Formula: SiO2 References: |
Gallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
| Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ⓘ | Quartz | 4.DA.05 | SiO2 |
| Group 7 - Sulphates, Chromates, Molybdates and Tungstates | |||
| ⓘ | Baryte | 7.AD.35 | BaSO4 |
List of minerals for each chemical element
| O | Oxygen | |
|---|---|---|
| O | ⓘ Baryte | BaSO4 |
| O | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| Si | Silicon | |
| Si | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| S | Sulfur | |
| S | ⓘ Baryte | BaSO4 |
| Ba | Barium | |
| Ba | ⓘ Baryte | BaSO4 |
Other Databases
| Link to USGS MRDS: | 10115004 |
|---|
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
North AmericaContinent
North America PlateTectonic Plate
- Basin and Range BasinsBasin
- Mojave DomainDomain
- Southern Basin and RangeWide Rift
USA
- Death Valley National ParkNational Park
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