By Harold Fuller
Things sure happen fast in the mining industry and what happened a little over eighty years ago in Mineral County proved no exception. Last week I related the fact that a 50-ton floatation mill would, be erected in Alum Creek, dated July 22, 1922. Apparently they put up, or at least moved into the area, a 100-ton float mill and in less than a year’s time decided to move it.
Here is what the April 7, 1923 edition of the Walker Lake Bulletin reported:
“Tentative arrangements have been completed for amply financing the further development of the famous Lucky Boy mines, six miles south of Hawthorne. Senator John H. Miller will leave here Monday to complete the details for the resumption of work.
J.B. Scrimger, local manager of the new company, will begin the work of hauling the new 100-ton flotation mill from Alum Creek to the portal of the long tunnel at Lucky Boy next Monday, the mill site having been already selected and approved. It is planned to have the mill running by July 1.
While it is the intention of the company to confine its work to the upper levels for the present development below the tunnel level will be prosecuted in the near future.
The resumption of work at the Lucky Boy will be cheerful news not only to Hawthorne and Mineral County but to the State at large as systematic and intelligent mining is almost certain to expose new bodies of the rich ore for which this property has become noted.”