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Darwin Dev. Corp., New Coso Mining Ore Bag, c1870s [193388]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 USD
Darwin Dev. Corp., New Coso Mining Ore Bag, c1870s [193388]
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An historic burlap ore bag with bold black 1.5" tall printing on front: "Darwin Dev. Corp," with "New Coso/Mining Co/Darwin, Cal." printed in black 1" tall letters (upside down) above it, and a 2.25" wide black line down the side, c1870s. It is apparently a reused bag originally from the New Coso Mining Co., a company which formed in the 1870s. The approximately 14.5" x 22" coarse burlap bag would have held silver or lead ore from Darwin Development Corporation, which formed after the Darwin Development Company consolidated the Lucky Jim, Promontory, Lane, and Columbia mines and began the construction of a mill on the Lane property in 1915. It is not known what the black stripe signifies, but some mining engineers used color coding to indicate the grade of the ore. A few frayed areas front and back, otherwise in very good condition for its age. See photo(s) for more details.
Mining had begun in Darwin, California, in the 1870s with three smelters built in the town between 1875 and 1877. The largest of these, stated to have had a capacity of 100 tons a day, was erected by the New Coso Mining Co., which owned the Christmas-Gift and Lucky Jim mines. The New Coso Mining Co. smelter site was in Keeler, Calif., and had a connection to the Carson & Colorado Railroad. There was a furnace in Darwin, but ore had to be shipped from Darwin to Keeler to get to the railroad. For a map of the District, see p. 165, Burchard, 1884. The New Coso Mine was 500 feet deep by 1884 and produced $1.5 million in rich ore (at $72-90 per ton) by 1888. But, by the 1880s and '90s mining had become practically dormant due to lack of transportation, outdated mining facilities and some litigation, and very little activity was reported into the mid-1910s. Consolidation by the Darwin Development Company in 1915, and the addition of two more mines in 1917, the Defiance and Independence mines purchased from the Keddy Estate, led to more modern equipment, roads and camps. The Anaconda Company has operated the Darwin mines since 1945, except for brief shutdowns in 1948 and from March 1954 to January 1955. Info: Academia.edu
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Date: 1870s
Country (if not USA):
State: California
City: Darwin
Provenance: