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Bodie Bluff Consolidated Mining Co. Stock with Leland Stanford's Signature [188106]

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Stock & Bond - Mining Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:4,000.00 - 7,500.00 USD
Bodie Bluff Consolidated Mining Co. Stock with Leland Stanford's Signature [188106]
FINAL AUCTION RECORD The Auctioneer’s podium notes serve as the final, legally binding record of the auction results, superseding any electronic bidding records. See Terms and Conditions
# 372 for 50 shares. Datelined Aurora, Mono County 1863. Signed by secretary FK Bechtel and Governor Leland Stanford. Incorporated January 26, 1863. Unique vignette shows the 11 mines under this company's umbrella: Cumberland, Bunker Hill, North America, St. Charles, New Mexico, Main Top, Osceola, Mizzen Top, Fore Top, Oneida, and Isabella (with a backwards 'S'). Yellow background with white box. Black print with red underprint of two allegorical women and $1,110,000. Agnew & Deffebach printers. The Bodie Bluff was the forerunner of the famous standard mine. Standard was located under the name of The Bunker Hill Mine, the original locators selling out their interests for twenty thousand dollars to an actor named James Stark and a jeweler named John W. Tucker. They soon ran out of money and were forced to sell their “Opera House Mill” as it was called. A geologist Professor J.D. Whitney gave a good report on the property, and new capital was brought in. A new consolidation of claims took place. Leland Stanford, then Governor of California, was elected President, and Judge F. T. Bechtel, Secretary. The new company was called “The Bodie Bluff Consolidated Mining Company”, and was incorporated for over a million dollars. Governor Stanford brought a mining expert up with him to Bodie. The “expert”, in looking over the property advised Stanford to get out, saying he himself would not give five hundred dollars for the whole district. (The fact was that there were millions just beneath the place where they were then standing). The Governor took his advice and decided to abandon this seemingly worthless mining ground. The so-called “expert” lived to regret the day he gave this advice. Only two known, last one sold for $4400. [ Bodie California 1863