Bodie’s Gold: Tall Tales and True History from a California Mining Town

Notes

, 199 , notes 1 • w el co m e to b o di e 1. Kuzedika was a specific name of the Mono Paiute Indians, just as the Honey Lake Paiutes were the Wadatika, the “wada-seed eaters,” and the Pyramid Lake people were the Kuyui-dika, or “sucker-eaters.” 2. The Ahwahneechi are also known as the Yosemite Indians. 3. As a side note, the change in spelling from the original “Yosemity” to “Yosemite ” is generally credited to Lieutenant Moore’s 1851 published account of this expedition (Bunnell 1892; Russell 1928). The name yosemity or yosemite is an Ahwahneechi word meaning “full-grown grizzly bear.” 2 • the g o l d i n them thar’ hi l l s 1. As noted earlier, the Mining District’s name was originally spelled Bodey. It was not until November 1862 that the first references to the town and district were spelled Bodie (Mono County Records, Bodey Mining District, Book A, 1862). 2. The Isabella tunnel was known in later days as the Syndicate. 3. Aurora was originally thought to be in California. In fact, it was the original location of the Mono County seat. Imagine everyone’s surprise when the 1863 boundary survey party determined that Aurora was actually in Nevada by “some three and one-third miles.” It had been a topic of debate for some time, and the survey finally put the issue to rest. 4. In some records his name is spelled Eshington. 5. In 2002 prices, that would be almost $11.5 million. 6. In 2002 figures, it would be almost $49,110 per ton. At the end of the twentieth century, it was common for mining companies to use cyanide technology on ore valued at less than $10 per ton. 7. None of the Bodie papers of that time that are available today (see the references ) featured the oft-quoted rewrite “Good, by God! We’re going to Bodie!” This is not to say that the rewrite didn’t appear, only that it was not in any of the papers still available today (Shipley 1995). 3 • the lo u sy m i n ers 1. Jones splitters are devices that split the flow of rock so that half goes out each side of the splitter. 2. Chipmunk crushers are also called “jaw crushers,” because they crush rock with a movement suggestive of jaws. Often the term “chipmunk crusher” is used to refer to a smaller jaw crusher. 200 . n o t e s t o p a g e s 3 7 – 8 2 3. This mesh is a screen with 150 openings per square inch. 4. This means that he needed to test, or assay, 29.166 grams of this pulp to correspond to an entire ton of ore. That’s why it’s called an “assay ton.” 5. Flux is a dissolving agent. It dissolves particles that would otherwise keep the reaction from happening. 6. It is called a muffler because the flame doesn’t go directly onto the material being assayed, but is muffled around a compartment, which gets hot inside. 7. Generally at this point in the assay process a reducer of some sort is added to the mixture if the ore is nonreducing. Common choices of reducers include charcoal, flour, sugar, starch, argols, or sulfur. If the ore contains natural sulfide, the reducer is unnecessary. If the ore is too powerful as a reducer, an oxidizer may be added (Collier ’s Encyclopedia 1950, p. 383). 8. The percentage of gold in the bars varied widely, depending on which mine it came from. 9. The other Jupiter men were Joe McDonald, Barney McDonald, George Harber, Joseph Burnett, James Murphy, and William Andrews. 10. In late October of 1879, Daly represented the Bodie and Mammoth mining districts in the financial markets of New York, a job he performed quite well. The next spring he was appointed to a superintendent post in Leadville, Colorado. He remained a celebrity in Bodie, and the papers followed his exploits. Daly was eventually killed in a skirmish with Apache people in New Mexico in 1881. 4 • the g o l den ti m e 1. The Pacific Stock Exchange Inc. was descended from the San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board, which officially opened in September of 1862. The Pacific Exchange closed 140 years later, in 2002. 2. Presumably, Captain Gregg was the popular fellow responsible for the street watering, but no further information was available. 3. McGrath makes this...