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Castle Dome Mining & Smelting Co. Ephemera

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Castle Dome Mining & Smelting Co. Ephemera
SOLD
50.00USDto b*****s+ buyer's premium (12.50)
This item SOLD at 2018 Aug 26 @ 08:19UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Lot of 6. Includes: 1884 manuscript receipt for two bars of silver bullion, totaling over 2,300 ounces; manuscript promise to deliver to Whittier Fuller & Co. in San Francisco lead containing silver; two page receipt for boiler, steam drum and other hardware made in San Francisco for the company (date cut off); 1884 manuscript receipt for payment from the mine manager; 7 page 1884 statement of account with Whittier, Fuller & Col, San Francisco; and a carbon copy of an 1882 receipt for items purchased of the Pinal Cons. Mining Co. The Castle Dome Mining and Smelting Co. had a monopoly on mining operations in the district supported by William Miller, company superintendent. By 1884, though, the high-quality ore diminished and the company folded. Intermittent small mining operations continued using an arrastra to crush ore that was smelted locally in adobe furnaces, producing a product in the form of a lead bar called a “plancha,” composed of 95 percent lead, 0.5 percent silver and the remainder impurities.

The smelters were operated by Mexicans who charged miners $40 a ton for processing. Low-grade galena ore became sought after by Frank Vomocil and Paul Billicke, whose experience in silver mining was proven in the returns they got by eight old claims in the early 1890s. Capitalists continued to invest in the Castle Dome District throughout the 1890s. These included the Castle Dome Mining Co., composed of Chicago investors, and Yuma merchants John Gandolfo and Eugene Sanguinetti. Later investors included William and Eliza Luce, who saw an opportunity to extract gold and silver from the tailings at Castle Dome by use of the cyanide process. They, in turn, bought many of the nearly-exhausted mining claims, formed the Castle Dome Mining and Milling Co., and built a 200-ton processing plant. Financial difficulties led to insolvency and the demise of the Luce operation by 1906.

Castle Dome had its share of lawlessness at the turn of the century. Miner Barbaro Hernandez, while under the influence of marijuana, attempted to shoot several miners as they were descending a shaft. He later claimed the miners had stolen his windlass (a tool used for hoisting). The next day, the armed victims returned to confront Hernandez and both parties had a shotgun battle, with Hernandez wounding both miners. A grand jury exonerated Hernandez as having acted in self-defense. Another miner and co-worker of Hernandez, Trinidad Reyes, didn’t take it well when Castle Dome Mine superintendent Ed Mayes reprimanded him for being intoxicated. Reyes pulled a six-gun and fired at his boss, who immediately disarmed him — though he was unable to restrain Reyes, who escaped to Mexico. Date: 1882-84 City: Pima County State: Arizona HWAC# 77644