| [Volcanic Ridge hike] |
Minarets Mining Company has been permitted to issue $150,000 per value of its shares to F. J. and Maggie Eddy in exchange for six unpatented mining claims in Madera and Mono counties, and to sell 100,000 shares at 10 cents a share. All certificates evidencing shares issued to F. J. and Maggie Eddy are required to be placed in escrow.
San Francisco Chronicle, June 3, 1917, p.42:
Permits Issued
Commissioner of Corporations H. L. Carnahan has authorized
the issue of shares by the following companies:
Minarets Mining Company--To issue 100,000 shares to F. J. Eddy
and Maggie Eddy in exchange for six mining claims. 150,000 shares
to J. W. Starkweather in partial payment for six claims, and
150,000 shares at 10 cents...
Van Nuys News, August 24, 1917:
Brings Glowing Reports of Minarets Claims
J W Starkweather who originally located the claims now being owned by the Minarets Mining Company was in Van Nuys Tuesday... He brought with him a number of samples of the ore being taken out of the properties, and is highly enthusiastic over the future ot the company operations. He is here in Van Nuys and will not return to the claims until September 1st.
Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1927, p.5:
Park Land Annexation Discussed
State Officials Confer on Yosemite Project with
Stephen T. Mather
Sacramento, Nov 2 (AP)--Taking the position that California must be assured the proposed annexation to Yosemite Valley of 30,000 acres of land in the Mt. Ritter and Banner district will not interfere with development of natural resources in that area, State officials today discussed the plan with Stephen T. Mather, national park director, but declined to go on record either in favor or in opposition to the move....
The State officials before they land their support to the plan desire to know whether the district contains any valuable mineral deposits, and also whether the several lakes there are valuable as water storage sites and whether development will be restricted entirely if the land is made part of the park.
The area it now is proposed to add to the park was a part of the playground prior to 1906, when it was excluded to allow its exploitation for mineral deposits. It also contains several lakes, among them Thousand Island Lake, Garnett Lake and Shadow Lake.
One mining company, the Minaret Mines Company Anaheim, has filed a formal protest with Gov. Young against the annexation of the territory on the ground that it will interfere with its development work.
Los Angeles Times, October 15, 1928, p.16:
Mine Plans for Winter Operations
Anaheim Group to Push Work on Madera County Mining Property
C. C. Randall and associates, of Anaheim, operating the Johnston group of mines in the High Sierras of Madera county under the corporate name of the Minaret Mines Company, have completed arrangements for an active campaign of mine development during the winter.
In the summer and fall the company completed twelve miles of auto truck road from the mine to a point near Mammoth [the road to Devils Postpile over Minaret Summit!], the nearest postoffice, and already has taken in twelve tons of provisions and supplies, and 14,000 gallons of gasoline. A carload of lead-silver-copper ore, valued at $60 per ton, has been shipped to a Utah smelter, and the company expects to be on a regular and heavy shipping basis by early spring.
Surface buildings have been completed at the mine, including bunk and boarding houses, office and storeroom constructed of logs, piped with running water, and equipped with baths. The living quarters have a sending and receiving radio set, with a wave length of its own[!], establishing direct communication with the company office in Anaheim.
The management is now deepening the No. 2 shaft from the 100 to the 400-foot level, in a solid body of ore four feet in width between walls. Stations will be established on each 100-foot level, and drifts run out on the ledge in ore development and in the performance of exploratory work. Thre is an abundance of heavy timber on company holdings, and water for all purposes is plentiful; being sufficient in volume for hydroelectric power purposes.
Los Angeles Times, November 19, 1928, p.16:
Minaret Mines Still Sinking on Ore Deposit
Frank (Chuck) McGovern, manager for the Minaret Mines Company of Anaheim, developing a lead-silver-copper mine in Madera county, reports that sinking is being continued in the same large body of shipping ore encountered in the forty-six foot level.
In sinking from the 100-foot level of the mine, it is planned to deepen the shaft to the 400-foot horizon, establishing stations at each 100 feet and cross-cutting the ore body and drifting on the vein in development work and in blocking out the ore reserves of the mine; the intention and expectation being that by spring a large tonnage of marketable ore will be available for regular shipments, in the crude, to some outside smelting plant.
Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1928, p.14:
Mine Forging Ahead
Minaret Prepared to Operate During Winter Months
Harry L. Squires, engineer for the Minaret Mines Company, returning from company holdings in Madera county, reports a light snowfall in the high Sierras and that the work is progressing satisfactorily in mine development; sufficient supplies and mine equipment having been taken in during the fall to maintain an operating force of ten men during the winter months.
At No. 2 shaft, where sinking is in progress below the 100-foot level, Mr. Squires states, the ore in the bottom is now carrying native copper in addition high-grade lead-silver values. Shipping ore, he says, is being stored on the dump preparatory to early spring shipments. This ore, according to tests made on large samples, runs about $50 per ton.
Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1929, p.13:
Radio Set Helps Run Mine
Amateurs Handle Minaret Reports
(with picture from inside of a cabin at the mine. Caption: Cecil Yates operating amateur radio outfit in log cabin at headquarters of Minaret Mines, Madera county)
An amateur radio outfit which was built at Anaheim is used at night to carry on all sorts of radio communications along the Pacific Coast and serves the useful purpose by day of transmitting operating orders and reports between the Minaret Mines, 10,000 feet above sea level, in Madera county, and the company's offices in Anaheim.
C. C. Randall, head of the company, has he amateur operators transmit orders to Taylor Johnson, mine superintendent, and the latter sends back progress reports day by day to keep the company informed. The mine is kept in operation all through the long winter, high up in the mountains, where a heavy blanket of snow covers everything for many months, and where it is necessary to maintain the supply train with sleds drawn by dog teams.
The mine... is a lead and silver property. The radio set was built for a radio show in Anaheim and after the show Cecil Yates took half of the set up to the mine, setting it up in a cabin while the other half was installed in a vine-clad cottage at Anaheim by Warren Dollar and George Oelkers...
Los Angeles Times, February 25, 1929, p.15:
Promising Ore Body Struck in Minaret Mine
Frank Kerr, drilling contractor at the Minaret mine in Madera county, communicating with company office at Anaheim, over privately operated radio installations, states that the sludge in No. 2 diamond drill hole, from the fifteen-foot ore body located at a point in the hole from the 530 to the 445-foot horizons in depth, assayed 21.4, 39.4 and 45.2 per cent lead to the ton, respectively, according to three tests made, thereby establishing the existence of a large deposit of good commercial lead ore, not taking into consideration the silver values present. Within the next fifty feet in the drill hole it is expected to reach the diorite contact, the intervening mass of material carrying values in lead, silver, gold and copper.
Shaft-sinking is progressing satisfactorily, according to Harry L. Seares, consulting engineer, who states a station is being cut on the 200-foot level, while another station is to be established on the 300-foot level. From these stations drifts and cross-cuts are to be driven in blocking out the ore bodies in that portion of company holdings. The assay office and laboratory at the mine have recently been placed in commission with Fred Slater, assayer and chemist, in charge.
Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1929, p.15:
Mine Group in Step to Expansion
Enlarging the scope of its activities and operation the Minaret Mines Company of Los Angeles has reorganized under the corporate name of the Minaret Consolidated Mines Company, C. C. Randall, general manager, and to its holdings in Madera county has added two more potential wealth producers; one in Kern county, this State, and one in the Stae of Sonora, Mexico.
The original holdings of the company in Minaret Mining district embrace twenty-five mineral-bearing claims and two fractions, which have been subjected to intensive development and exploratory work, the property being modernly equipped with hoisting plant and other mining machinary; $50,000 having been expanded in the construction of a ten-mile truck road from the State highway to the mine.
Improvements at the mine have been modernized to the extent of the installation of a radio sending and receiving set, on a wave length of its own[!] In this region water and timber are abundant. Mine product is composed principally of silver, lead, gold and zinc, shipments of which will be made when mountain roads become passable...
Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1929, p.15:
Progress at Madera Mine Told
Consulting Engineer of Minaret Company Gives Report on Headway
The consulting engineer of the Minaret Consolidated Mines Company of Los Angeles, returning from an inspection of the company's holdings in Madera county, reports that the bottom of the 300-foot working shaft at the mine is in ore of excellent grade, and that a station is being cut at this depth, and a fifteen-foot sump sunk preparatory to the prospecting of the ground, from that horizon, both vertically and horizontally, by diamond drilling methods. In addition to this work, according to C. C. Randall, president and general manager, an active campaign of exploratory work from the surface, by drilling, will be carried on this summer.
Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1929, p.17:
Development work, company management reports, is being steadily advanced at the Minaret mine of the [Minaret Consolidated Mines] company in Madera county. The main working shaft has reached a depth of 314 feet. A station is being cut at the 300-foot level, from which level cross-cutting will soon begin to reach and open up the bodies of commercial ore proven to exists at that horizon by previous diamond-drilling exploratory work.
Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1929, p.18:
Prospects at Minaret Mine Rosy
Completion of work to the 300-foot level, in sinking the permanent working shaft at the Minaret mines in Madera county, has just be reported by Mike DeGraves and Lester Ohland, contractors, employed there during the past winter. A station was cut on this horizon preparatory to drifting on the ore bodies exposed in the shaft and by diamond-drilling methods.
The contractors reported the shaft was in a body of solid ore from 225-foot to the 275-foot level, the ore coming in at the northeast corner, and pitching across the shaft at an angle of 45 deg., and leaving it at the soutwest corner.
Los Angeles Times, December 19, 1931, p.A3:
Mining-Claim Shooting Aired in Civil Suit
J. W. Starkweather, typical old sourdough, who has spent most of his seventy-four summers on his mining claims and a great portion of his winters in the courts, mounted the witness stand yesterday in Superior Judge Warne's court and prepared to defend himself in the suit brought by L. E. Smith, hard-rock miner, who seeks $15,401 for a gunshot wound in the hand.
Starkweather, veteran of fifty-four court tilts with F. J. Eddy, another miner, his customary court opponent for years, said he figured he could take the hard-rock miner in stride.
"This fracas," he declared, "came about this way. I heard that some property was being removed from the Minarets Mining Company, my outfit, so I went up there and found Smith and Charles Heriford. I told Heriford, who is also a stockholder in the Minarets, that Smith had no right to take the stuff, whereupon he called me liar and started toward me. I pulled my gun and when Smith grabbed for it, it went off."
It was stated by counsel for Smith that Starkweather was arrested and charged with assault to commit murder. When arrainged in a Mono county justice court, he was found guilty and fined $50. L. L. Whitson is also named as defendant, the plaintiff contending he influenced Starkweather to do the shooting.
(More about Starkweather-Eddy conflict in the Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1931, p.A1, with photos of Eddy and Starkweather! In that article, Starkweather states that value of his stock in the Minaret Mines Corporation has plummeted and became worthless. Was that the end of Minaret Mine?)
Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1971, p.B1:
National Wilderness Areas--They Exist in Name Only
...Grazing and mining are permitted on Forest Service wilderness lands. This leads to some curious situations because of the looseness in federal mining laws. In the heavily used Minarets Wilderness Area west of Mammoth Lakes, a minister has a mining claim at Minaret Mine and uses the site and old buildings as a summer camp for his church. A group from a Southern California college uses an old cabin at another mining claim in the same wilderness area for recreational purposes. Another group is seeking an access road to a mining claim in the Nydiver Lakes area which would pass right by Shadow Lake...
[Note: In 1974, the Minaret Mine claim was still held by the Rev. Ralph York, of Los Gatos. I couldn't find anything else about Rev. York or his summer (mining) camp].