PBA Galleries

Sepia-tone gelatin silver photographs. Images approx. 7.5x10.5 cm. (3x4"), on card mounts, 6 with typed captions affixed to mounts below images.

Rare photographs taken by prospectors who were hoping to strike it rich in the Seven Troughs Canyon, where gold was discovered early in 1905.  In 1907, a boom ensued when assays of $100,000 a ton was revealed. Miners flocked in , many from the Tonopah and Goldfield areas. In this same year, a townsite was platted out.  By the end of 1907, the townsite was comprised of a post office, several saloons, stores, and a population of around 350. During the winter of 1907-08, the first mill in the district was constructed. The Kindergarten Mill consisted of ten stamps. In 1911, after testing the tailings from the Kindergarten Mill, the Seven Troughs Coalition Mining Company erected the Coalition Cyanide Plant 300 feet below the mill. A photograph of the Coalition mill is present in this group of photographs. Seven Troughs produced almost two millions dollars in gold between 1908 and 1921. The town prospered for nearly a decade, then began a rapid decline after 1918, when the ore was depleted. By the 1920s, Seven Troughs was abandoned. The photographs:

• "The Town of Seven Troughs" a few dozen buildings on the rocky hillsides with a number of slag heaps.
• "Our Prospect Shaft," the three principals in the mining venture standing by a hoist.
• "Hatcher, Leach, and Whelan, hikeing across the desart" [sic and sic], with pencil note at top of image, "S.E. our Property."
• "Southeast of our property."
• "Coalition Mill," perched on a hillside, with several individuals out front.
• "Pres. Hatcher, and M;.J. Whelan with Rockey Mountin Canary," this latter being a donkey, with its tail being pulled.
• Two additional photos of the donkey, in a fenced enclosure, with a tent-like building in background.