2489

Virginia Truckee Railroad Company Stock Signed by Sharon [163589]

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Stock & Bond - Mining Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Virginia Truckee Railroad Company Stock Signed by Sharon [163589]
NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER), HIGH BID WAS
1,150.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2023 Mar 31 @ 08:00UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Virginia Truckee Railroad Company - Stock Certificate No. 34 for 500 shares made out to Thomas Bell dated June 21, 1869. The Company was capitalized at $3,000,000; 30,000 shares at $100 each and incorporated in Virginia, Nevada in November of 1850. Signed by William Sharon, President and Tritle, Secretary. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad Company was incorporated in Nevada on March 5, 1868, by principals of the Union Mill and Mining Company and the Bank of California: Darius Ogden Mills, William Sharon, and William C. Ralston, all Comstock barons. The Board initially had Wm. Sharon, W. Ralston, Bonner, Fry, Bell, Baldwin, Sunderland, Barron, Tritle as directors. The stock issue was very tightly held with probably never more than 50 shareholders. Thomas Bell was with Barron & Co. (Langley's Pacific coast Business Directory 1871-72, p.522 and Langley's San Francisco Directory 1872 p. 86). The line was completed by the end of 1872 at a cost of about $3.4 million. The standard gauge railroad was conceived to provide more efficient and economical transportation between Comstock ore producing mines around Virginia City, quartz reduction mills along the Carson River below Dayton, and lumber yards located near Carson City. The initial twenty-one-mile track between Carson City and Virginia City was completed in January of 1870 and the remaining thirty-one-mile line was finished in 1872 between Carson City and the Central Pacific tracks in Reno. The V&T RR short circuited much of the revenue stream that Sutro's Tunnel had envisioned. A scarce combination of stamps: A red-brown 25-cent 'Bond" Internal Revenue stamp and a salmon colored 25-cent Nevada State Revenue Stamp affixed to the lower left corner with the Company seal impressed over them. Vignette of two men watching steam train on mountainside rail. Small vignette of a spread-winged bald eagle at lower right. Cancelled. Black print on cr'me paper. Lith. Britton & Rey, S.F. printers. 7"x 10'. Very Rare. Some discoloration on left edge otherwise fine condition. KHWA 4-16-2009 P-2750. As soon as Sutro revealed that his Tunnel project could be used to transport Comstock ore more cheaply to the mills along the Carson River, the 'Bank Ring" headed by William Sharon and D.O. Mills reversed their previous supportive position for the tunnel and at once pursued a Railroad alternative which of course they would control and reap the benefits. Sharon immediately recruited Isaac James, a leading mining surveyor to start building. Ground was broken on February 18th, 1869, two miles below Gold Hill on American Flat. At Carson City, the railroad built a massive complex of repair shops which serviced the needs of not only the V & T but also of hundreds of mines, mills, railroads, and small concerns throughout the west coast of the United States and Mexico. With headquarters at Carson City, Vice-President Henry M. Yerington directed the activities of the V & T and several dozen affiliated companies, including the 300-mile narrow gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad. V & T dividends also funded the establishment of Hawthorne, Nevada; lumbering operations at Lake Tahoe; the Columbus Wagon Road from Carson to Bodie; one of the country's first natural soda products plant at Owens Lake, California; and dozens of mines and mills at Aurora, Bodie, Candelaria, Hawthorne, Cerro Gordo, and Columbus. The last track construction took place during 1905-1906 when a line was built from Carson City to Minden in order to tap the fertile agricultural resources of the Carson Valley. With the decline in Comstock mining activity and the influx of auto and truck competition, the Virginia and Truckee started a gradual decline during the early 1920s. The tracks between Carson and Virginia City were removed late in 1941. Each year from 1932 to 1949, the management of the V & T was forced to seriously consider total abandonment of the line in the face of continuing debt. On May 31, 1950, the V & T made its last scheduled run from Minden to Reno and the famous line has since become a legend as the "Queen of the Short Lines."

Date: 1869
Country (if not USA):
State: Nevada
City: Virginia City
Provenance: