Today, few people know about the Tarshish and the Advance, adjoining mining claims in Monitor Canyon. But once they were famous — two of the earliest and most productive mining claims in Alpine County.
The Advance is the westermost of the pair, perched slightly lower in the canyon. Just to its east and uphill sits the Tarshish, likely named after the Biblical source of King Solomon’s vast wealth.
Both mining claims may have been discovered originally by L.L. Hawkins about 1857, though active mining for both didn’t commence in earnest until about 1863. It was perhaps no accident that the townsite of Monitor also sprouted about that same time (1863), just east of the promising pair.
In 1866, the Tarshish claim was purchased by the Schenectady Gold & Silver Mining Co. of New York, and thereafter went by an assortment of names: the Tarshish; the Schenectady; and later, the Colorado No. 2. By 1867 some 21 men were hard at work at the mine, with assays at $200 per ton. And that was only the beginning.
In April, 1867, Judge Henry Eno shared an exciting rumor: the telegraph operator was reporting that the Tarshish had hit a mammoth ledge some 12 feet wide, with ore assaying at an astronomical $1400 per ton. Seven and a half tons of ore were quickly shipped to the Ophir Mill at Washoe, yielding $350/ton. A big silver brick was worth $1,203 was the result, measuring 10 x 4 x 4 inches in size, and the entire town turned out to celebrate. A grand ball was held “in honor of Monitor’s first brick” on May 3, 1867, with the silver brick proudly displayed for all to see on the music stand. In nearby Silver Mountain City, the Alpine Chronicle newspaper bragged that Tarshish was the “biggest thing in the mining line on this side of the mountains.” Nevada, it announced smugly, is “no where.”
As time went on, however, it became clear that while there was high-grade ore in the Tarshish, it appeared only in pockets, and the technology of the day struggled to refine the high-sulfide ore. By mid-January, 1868, the Mining & Scientific Press was the bearer of glum news. Another 16 tons of ore from the Tarshish had successfully produced some small bars worth $2,040, but work at the Tarshish had been suspended due to “bad air.” Financial problems arose, the shareholders began quarreling, and for several years the Tarshish workings fell dormant.
Interest in the mine bloomed again in 1871, and a 20-stamp mill was completed in 1872 at an astronomical cost of between $60 and $75,000. This new mill, however, featured a “White’s revolving roasting furnace” which proved a “total failure,” recovering less than half the assay value of the ore. An effort was made to convert the mill to a wet-crushing process, but this, too, turned out to be unsuccessful. By the end of 1872, work at the Tarshish had largely stopped again. The national demonetization of silver in 1873 sank the mine’s prospects further.
The Tarshish/Colorado was sold at Sheriff’s auction in November 1876 to satisfy a $6,500 judgment for the former mine superintendent’s unpaid salary, and the claim went through a succession of owners after that. In the 1880s, Peter Curtz briefly tried refining the recalcitrant ore using chloridation, and this, at least, seemed to work. Although the raw ore averaged only $12 a ton, concentrates averaged $585 – 38% of which was gold, and the rest silver. Even so, however, the endeavor apparently didn’t pencil out.
By 1888, the old Tarshish mill was still standing, though the original tunnel was described as inaccessible (possibly caved in). The State mineralogist’s report estimated that, all told, some $100k had been taken from the mine. Although sporadic small-scale mining continued, the Tarshish mill was finally taken down about 1921.
Much like the Tarshish, the Advance claim experienced similar ups and downs. An 1868 sketch showed the workings of the Advance, including its dump and a tramway across Monitor Creek.
By September 1876, the Advance tunnel had reached the 320 foot level, but pumps were struggling to fight water intrusion. Like the Tarshish, the Advance, too, built an early mill to work its ore, though theirs was initially situated by the river at the foot of Monitor Canyon. But by January 1878, dissatisfied Advance shareholders were holding angry meetings in San Francisco and threatening criminal prosecution against officers of the company. “The affairs of this company seem to be badly mixed,” sighed the Chronicle.
The following month, however, the mine struck “rich ore” assaying over $2,000/ton and claimed to be “working out of its financial difficulties.” In August, 1878, they successfully shipped three silver bars to San Francisco, valued at $2,600. But on August 24, the operation shut down due to “want of funds.”
A sheriff’s sale took place in March 1879 and a succession of owners followed. Adding insult to injury, a snowslide in the heavy winter of 1890 damaged the Advance’s hoisting works.
During the Great Depression, both the Advance and the Tarshish/Colorado attracted renewed interest, and from 1931-1941 the mines were worked continuously under the consolidated name of the “Zaca.” A newer flotation mill closer to the Advance portal was built about 1939 or 1940.
By the early 1960s, the Zaca mines were owned by the Siskon Corporation of Reno. Test holes were drilled in 1963-64 at the top of Colorado Hill by a Reno-based option-holder interested in a possible cut-and-bench quarry, though the results apparently didn’t justify going further, as nothing came of the plan.
But from 1962 to 1973, substantial mining at the consolidated Colorado/Advance took place under the supervision of Claude Lovestedt, who leased the pair of Zaca mines from Siskon. Although not incredibly rich, the ore was said to average from $40 to $300 per ton. Lovestedt built a newer mill slightly higher in the canyon sometime about 1970. Tailings from this mill are still visible in the canyon.
Zaca ore was trammed from the portals to ‘surge piles’ nearby. From there it was taken by 10-ton truck to the Advance mill on the south side of Monitor Creek, and after milling and concentration, the resulting product was shipped to a smelter in Montana for further refining. Waste rock and water were discharged into settling ponds to filter slowly into the ground; no water was discharged into Monitor Creek.
In the early 1980s, Cal Silver acquired the mines and planned a large open-pit mine that would process the ore through heap-leaching. Roads were pushed in, and drilling and blasting opened a tunnel. A 50′ x 100′ building was constructed, its floor sealed with both local clay and a synthetic barrier, and twelve-foot deep “pools” each 12′ x 16′ in size were dug to hold the leached material. But in the end that operation, too, did not yield enough to keep going. The mines were purchased in 1990 by Western States Minerals.
Perhaps someday there may be a resurgence of interest, with miners eyeing Monitor’s mineral wealth once again. History does, after all, have a way of repeating itself. And the rest of the story? Well, that’s still waiting to be written.
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Material above copyrighted by Karen Dustman. Please do not reproduce the text or reuse illustrations without the prior written consent of the author.