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Mariposa Land & Mining Company - Preferred Stock

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 USD
Mariposa Land & Mining Company - Preferred Stock
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Certificate No. A192 for 57 shares made out to A. M. Dobecki dated Feb. 10th, 1880. Incorporated in California in 1874 and signed by vice president, Solomon Heydenfeldt and secretary, Robert Cranford. 12 ½ X 8 printed in blue and black with a vignette of miners allegorical woman warrior and a bear. Four assessments on reverse. Printed by the National Bank Note Co. Sealed in a PMG plastic sleeve – 40 extremely fine. John C. Fremont spent six years after California statehood attempting to have his Mexican Land Grant validated under American Law. Finally, in 1856, the Supreme Court restructured and approved of his original claim. Known as the Rancho Las Mariposas Grant this included the mineral rights not previously obtained over a property area of over 70 square miles. Fremont then reclaimed the property which had been illegally claimed and developed by others. He tried to obtain financing to continue to develop the mines on the property. See full story online.

However, the Civil War had started and in January 1863, Fremont, then a Major-General in the Union Army, sold Rancho Las Mariposas with its mines and infrastructure to Morris Ketchum, a New York City banker, who formed a public corporation, the Mariposa Company incorporated in 1863, and sold stock. Later that year, Frederick Law Olmsted, noted New York architect, came to Mariposa as superintendent for the Mariposa Company. Olmstead was not a mining expert however, he administered investments in stamp mills, tunnels, shafts, and the other infrastructure related to nearby mining towns. The Mariposa Company was incorporated in 1863 and by the next year had five mines and five mills operating. The richest gold quartz ore came from the Princeton Mine. By 1865, the Mariposa Company was bankrupt, Olmsted returned to New York, and mines were sold at a sheriff's sale. (Ref. Newell D. Chamberlain, 1936, The Call of Gold: True Tales on the Gold Road to Yosemite, Gazette Press, Mariposa, California and The Mariposa Estate: its past, present and future. Comprising the official report of J. Ross Browne (U.S. commissioner) upon its mineral resources, transmitted to Congress on the 5th of March, 1868)

The estate encompassed Bear Valley and was encircled by Mount Bullion on the east and the lower foothills of the Sierra Nevada on the west. The Merced River ran along the northern line of the property. The Mariposa Mining Company operated, with some difficulty and constant litigation over title to the estate, until 1874, when it was bought out by the newly formed Mariposa Land and Mining Company of California, which assumed complete ownership of the Mariposa Estate. This new company owned and managed all facets of life on the estate, including the mines, water power, quartz mills, mill dams, engines, ore houses, dwellings, and stores. The principal mines on the estate were the Princeton, Josephine, Pine Tree, Linda, Green Gulch, Mariposa, and Mount Ophir mines. Ore was treated at the Ophir Mills, located on the Merced River and powered by means of the Benton Dam (and, after 1900, by the Benton Mills hydroelectric power plant). (Ref. HK 8-15-10-21 P350)
State: California City: Mariposa Date: 1880 FHWAC#: 41814