Tamarack & Custer Consolidated Mining Company.

The Tamarack & Custer Consolidated Mining Company was incorporated on July 24, 1912, under Nevada law, with an authorized capital stock of 2,000,000 shares at par value of $1.00 each. Tamarack & Custer was formed by the merger of two separate but jointly managed mining companies operating adjacent properties between Tiger Peak and Custer Peak near Gem, Idaho: the Tamarack & Chesapeak Mining Company and the Custer Consolidated Mining Company. Both of these firms were already controlled by the Day interests, whose Hercules mine adjoined the Custer on the east.

The two properties were located such that neither could operate without involving the other in possible boundary disputes; the Days had concluded that ore could not be extracted economically without unified management. Legal disputes over ownership of the Tamarack & Chesapeak claims, which had already kept that mine closed for over three years, delayed consolidation for some years further.

Jerome Day was the Tamarack & Custer's president, manager, and treasurer from 1912 until his death in 1941. He was followed in these capacities by Henry Lawrence Day, who had been assistant manager since 1930. Frank Rothrock, Paul Jessup, S.F. Heitfeldt, Wray Farmin, John Wourms, and Eleanor Day Boyce all served for extended periods on the Tamarack & Custer board of directors.

Over $600,000 was invested in development work in the first year after consolidation. World War I brought soaring metal prices and the Tamarack & Custer flourished. Production was centered at the east fork of Nine Mile Canyon around the No. 4 and 5 adits. A tramway system in Burke Canyon carried the ore to the newly purchased Frisco (concentrating) Mill. After a post-war shutdown, lead and zinc ore production increased steadily. New discoveries were made in Tunnel #2 at the 1200 foot level in 1925. Three years later all the equipment was moved to the No. 7, 1200 foot level whose portal faced the Burke Canyon. Losing heavily in the early depression years, by 1937 the mine again returned profits. A new concentrator replaced the burned Frisco Mill and during World War II, despite severe labor and material shortages, the Tamarack & Custer proved a major source of income. With incorporation into Day Mines, Inc., in 1947, Tamarack & Custer stockholders received the largest number of shares, 820,000, in the new conglomerate.

Over the years the Tamarack & Custer Consolidated purchased many nearby mining firms: Snowy Peak Mining Company, a property of Daniel Brien, former president of the Tamarack & Chesapeak, acquired in 1912; Sherman Lead Company, controlled through stock ownership after 1918; Hutton Mining Company, purchased in 1933; the Black Jack mine, purchased from Boyce and Callahan interests in 1937; Puritan Mining Company, purchased in 1939; and the Olympia mine purchased in 1943. Eventually Tamarack & Custer holdings included 90 claims covering over 1,000 acres in the Lelande and Placer Center Districts. Some of these other claims were: Tamarack Fraction, Monroe, Saddle Back, Indus, Crown Point, Tamerlain, Carbon, Fairview, October, Tuesday, Marion, and Hemlock lodes.

Depleted in 1957 by then current technology, working of the Tamarack & Custer site was thereafter limited to lessees.

From the guide to the Records, 1907-1948, (University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives)