North Star Mining Company.

The North Star Mining Company was one of the larger quartz mining corporations in Grass Valley, Nevada County, California. It owned and operated many of the surrounding mines by 1900. In 1929, the North Star mines where purchased by the Newmont Mining Company and merged with the Empire mines. Newmont's Grass Valley properties were eventually acquired by the New Verde Mines Company who shut down operation of the North Star mines in 1959.

Nevada County, in northwestern California, is one of the gold bearing regions discovered in the mid-nineteenth century. Early miners panned for gold, changing to hydraulic mining (washing the gold out of near surface rock) as the river beds were exhausted. Eventually hard rock mining, digging down into the bedrock, was the only profitable method of mining. In Nevada County veins of gold were found in quartz and the area became famous for quartz mining.

During the 1850s, miners worked individually or in small informal groups. The change from placer to hard rock mining was accompanied by a change to large incorporated companies and heavy machinery. By the 1860s, San Francisco investors were buying up mining claims and establishing corporate offices in San Francisco. Eventually many companies set up a second office in New York in order to trade on the eastern stock exchange. Most mining records in this collection date from this period.

The following time line chronicles the companies of Grass Valley, Nevada County. The names of companies which figure predominately in this collection have been capitalized. Most corporate names contained the phrase "Gold Mining Company," "Quartz Mining Company," or just "Mining Company; and often all three titles were used over time. Sometimes the names have been shortened for convenience.

1850 George McKnight discovers gold bearing quartz on GOLD HILL and George D. Roberts locates a claim near Ophir Hill. Gold is also found at Massachusetts Hill where the ROCKY BAR MINING COMPANY, a "joint-labor association" begins mining.

1851A party of Frenchmen discovers gold at Lafayette hill, later the site of the NORTH STAR.

Nevada County is organized and Nevada City is chosen as county seat.

1852NORTH STAR and NEW YORK HILL MINES are first worked.

1854Ophir Hill mining claims are purchased by EMPIRE MINING COMPANY.

1855Grass Valley incorporates.

1856Mount Hope Company works the ROCKY BAR MINE until financial ruin in 1858.

1858A. Chavanne and associates purchase the ROCKY BAR MINE and work it until 1866.

1860sDue to "Washoe fever," mining decreases in Grass Valley as people rush to Nevada.

1861-62Many mines in Grass Valley flood due to hard winter. Steam power is used to operate pumps and clear the mines.

1863ROCKY BAR MINING COMPANY incorporates.

EMPIRE MINE is sold to new investors who begin operations in 1865.

1866MASSACHUSETTS HILL partnership forms.

1867NORTH STAR GOLD MINING COMPANY incorporates. San Francisco capitalists buy the mine.

1871NEW YORK HILL GOLD MINING COMPANY incorporates.

1877GOLD HILL MINING COMPANY incorporates. Evidence exists of a company working the mine and operating a mill as early as 1856.

ROCKY BAR reorganizes under Henry Silvester and moves its corporate office to Grass Valley.

1878Scadden Flat Gold Mining Company forms.

1879TRIBUTE MINING COMPANY incorporates. Their claims are on New York Hill.

1880TRIBUTE attempts without success to sell its mine to George Fletcher and then Black Lead Mining Company.

1883GOLD HILL rents its mine to Scotia Gold Mining Company of New York.

1884North Star mine, which has fallen idle, is bought by NORTH STAR MINING COMPANY, a company formed by W. B. Bourn and Grass Valley business interests. The new company buys machinery from the Scotia Company, paying with company stock.

GRASS VALLEY WATER COMPANY incorporates. The EMPIRE COMPANY helps finance this company which provided the water to power the mine's machinery.

1887NORTH STAR establishes a transfer agency in New York to facilitate trading on Wall Street.

1889MASSACHUSETTS HILL adopts by-laws. There is a flood of capital to the mines around Massachusetts Hill.

1890Floods in the NORTH STAR mine brings work to a halt.

1891Wolf Creek Quartz Mining Company incorporates.

James D. Hague begins investing in the ROCKY BAR. He was a major force in Grass Valley mining, serving as president and majority stockholder of the North Star; from this position he bought into most of the other mines represented in this collection.

1893ROCKY BAR taken over by Hague and his associates.

GRANITE HILL MINING & DEVELOPMENT COMPANY forms or starts working their mine.

1894NORTH STAR acquires other mines and raises capital for development work. The following mines or areas are absorbed by the company: Boston Ravine, Bowery, Dipper, Great Britain patent, James K. Byrne patent, Magenta, MASSACHUSETTS HILL, L. W. Kitts claim, Lode Star, NEW YORK HILL, Polkinghorn, Ford and Reilly property, Southern Patent, STOCKBRIDGE, Star Placer, Walworth ground, Watt ground, Wickes Field. By the beginning of twentieth century North Star controls most of the mining companies represented in this collection.

NORTH STAR sued by Carson City Gold & Silver Mining Company over Irish American claim.

NORTH STAR begins planning for an electrical generating plant run by water. A. D. Foote, a mining engineer, is hired to supervise the project.

1895TRIBUTE attempts to sell its property to C. H. Kingsley.

Scadden Flat mine is bought up by Hague, Fred Searls, Thomas Marshall and others and becomes part of NORTH STAR.

1896NORTH STAR reincorporates and acquires more mining companies and properties.

Hague, A. D. Foote, Fred Searls, and Thomas Marshall become shareholders of the TRIBUTE, and eventually the mine becomes part of NORTH STAR.

1898New York becomes the de facto corporate office for the NORTH STAR.

North Star buys out the GRASS VALLEY WATER COMPANY.

1899NORTH STAR reincorporates in New Jersey.

1903Hague becomes director and sole managing director of GOLD HILL, which then ceases to exist.

1911North Star, through its agent J. M. O'Brien, buys out CHAMPION MINES.

1926Under the supervision of A. D. Foote, deep development work begins in the NORTH STAR mine.

1928Ernest Howe, geologist and treasurer of North Star, is sent to inspect the MASSACHUSETTS HILL. In 1929, Howe advises shutting down operations.

1929NORTH STAR merges with the EMPIRE, which is in turn bought by the Newmont Mining Company of New York.

ROCKY BAR property, by this time, is owned by Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research

1943The Newmont Company comes close to closing down operations in Grass Valley.

1956NORTH STAR mines shut down because water, used to operate the mines, is too expensive.

1958New Verde, which acquired the NORTH STAR and EMPIRE mines, auctions off the properties and equipment.

1959NORTH STAR power plant machinery is sold at public auction.

1961New Verde deeds the power plant site and Pelton Wheel to Grass Valley for a mining museum.

-----------------------------------------------Rocky Bar Co.(1850) -----------------------------------------------------# ------Empire Co. (1854)-----------------------Mount Hope (1854) ---------#-------------------------------------------# ---------#------------------------------------Chavanne & Co. (1858) ---------#-------------------------------------------# ---------#------------------------------------Rocky Bar Co. (1863) ---------#-------------------------------------------# ---------#-------------------North Star (1867)-------# ---------#------------------------#------------------# ------Original Empire-------------#------------------# ------Mill & Mining---------------#------------------# -------(1880s)--------------------#------------------# ---------#------------------------#------------------# ---------#----------------------(1893)---------------# ---------#------------------------# ---------#------------------------# ---------#----------------------(1894)-----------Magenta ---------#----------------------(1894)-----------Stockbridge (1860s) ---------#----------------------(1894)-----------Massachusetts Hill (1866) ---------#----------------------(1894)-----------New York Hill (1871) ---------#------------------------# ---------#----------------------(1890s)----------Central North Star ---------#------------------------# ---------#----------------------(1895)-----------Scadden Flat (1878) ---------#------------------------# ---------#----------------------(1896)-----------Tribute (1879) ---------#------------------------# ---------#----------------------(1898)-----------Grass Valley Water Co. (1884) ------Empire Mines----------------# ------& Investment----------------# -------(ca. 1902)-----------------# ---------#------------------------# ---------#------------------------# ---------#----------------------(1903)-----------Gold Hill (1877) ---------#------------------------# ---------#------------------------# ---------#----------------------(1911)-----------Champion Mines ---------#------------------------# ---------#------------------------# ---------------------# ---------------------# ---------------------# --------------Empire Star Mines -------------------(1929) ---------------------# ---------------------# ---------------------# -----------New Verde Mines Company ----------------(pre-1959)