The T&T Chronology

Smith buys out the now sucessful Mather and Thorkildsen's company.
 

L.L. opens the Western Mine, and begins shipping a wagon load a day to the T&T, seven miles away. Shipments were about 1,000 tons, worth $10 a ton.
[Did he go down China Wash to Acme/Morrison? - Ed.]
 

Borax Smith signs over $25,000,000 in assets to bankers for liquidation. His other ventures had brought down his personal empire.
 

Ryan surveys a route to the mines in the Greenwater Range. Construction is delayed when the CA. Railroad Commission refuses to allow the ailing T&T to issue new bonds for construction.
 

P.C.B.'s Board of Directors meet and authorize a new railroad - The Tonopah & Tidewater railroad, Biddy McCarthy Extension. The length was to be 16.95 miles measuring from the T&T's current tracks at Horton.
 

Due to the rejection of additional T&T bonds, a separate Death Valley Railroad Company, Ltd. is formed to build a narrow gauge to the mines. These new bonds are also backed by Borax Consolidated, Ltd.
 

Construction of the DVRR begins at Horton, with a completion date planned for June 1914. Equipment from the Borate & Dagget is transported via the T&T and utilized,
 

With only a fraction of the value of Smith's assets being received at sale, the bankers take his Borax Consolidated, Ltd. shares for disposal. Baker forms a syndicate to purchase the shares to prevent the English company's bonds from devaluation. About $4,000,000 is paid for Smith's 400,000 shares.
 

The agreement for the T&T to operate the BG ends. Negotiations have been underway since the end of January 1914 for the LV&T to assume control of the BG. The route will be altered to utilize the best of both roads with the remainder being abandoned by the LV&T. This means that the LV&T runs from Las Vegas to Beatty/Rhyolte, The BG from Beatty to Goldfield, and the T&T from Ludlow to Beatty.
 

F.M. Smith resigns from the Borax Consolidated, Ltd.'s Board. R.C. Baker, the senior partner of the British firm Smith had bought, assumes the position of Managing Director.
 

The DVRR surmounts its last obstacle, the rock shelf on the approach to Devar (the name chosen for the site near the Biddy McCarthy Mine). The 17 miles are completed at a cost of $370,000. Including the dual gauge portion, the DVRR is a total 20.3 miles in length. while most of the road is 1 1/2% maximum grade, the last grade is 3 1/2%, making it necessary to split trains to get into Devar.
 

The equipment and roaster, having been moved to D.V. Junction from the Lila C. site, begins production with Biddy McCarthy ore.
 

The engineer of the train returning from the Gypsum Queen Mine at Acme loses control and the train jumps the track at the upper switch of the Wye at Morrison. The Locomotive is damaged in the wreck, as are two of the Box Cars.
 

The Played-Out mine adjacent to the ROW of the DVRR at Colmanite is opened.
 

The discovery of lead in the Panamints is made profitable by W.W.I. Jack Salsberry and a partner ship ore with sixteen trucks and sixty men. The ore has to be hauled from the mine down to Death Valley and up and over the Salsberry Pass to reach the T&T at Zabriskie. Shipping costs alone are $15 per ton, but the ore yields $50 per ton.
 

The Lila C. mine is shut down after producing 350,000 tons of Colemanite worth $8,000,000.
 

The "Baby Gauge" a 2' railroad is built to access the Grand View and Lizzy V. Oakey mines south of Devar.
 

Silver Lake floods again! This time seven miles of track are awash. Washouts at many other locations completely shut down services. Trains are running from Crucero to Las Vegas, over the LV&T to Beatty, then south to Tecopa. Silver Lake is bypassed with 7 1/2 miles of new roadbed construction. Materials come from the abandoned Lila C. trackage.
 

The dual trackage from D.V. Junction to Horton is 'sold' to the DVRR, and made Narrow Gauge throughout. What remains of the rails from Horton to the Lila C. are removed.
 

'Dad' Fairbanks discovers filtering clay near Shoshone. He sold the claims to the Associated Oil Co. in 1920.
 

Prior to John Ryan's retirement, Devar is officially changed to Ryan. The original campsite near the Lila C. now being abandoned.
 

R. Baker, comptroller of Borax Consolidated, Ltd., replaces the ill Billy Smitheram - the very popular Mining Superintendant - with H.W. Faulkner. Faulkner's ways clash with the workers and several quit, Some try jumping the Borax claims, but to no avail.
 

S. Frank Brock a mining engineer discovers 'Brockonite' (filter clay) at Ash Meadows. He stakes out 6 square miles before announcing the discovery.
 

The USRA 'forces' the LV&T into abandonment and the T&T once again assumes control of the BG operations under a five year agreement.
Some sources have the date of last LV&T operations as 10/31/1918.
 

The Talc mine is now shipping 5,000 tons per year with a valuation of $75,000.
 

The U.S. Supreme Court hands down an opinion that the contract terms between the T&T and the Postal Telegraph Co. are valid. The PTC had sued based on an I.C.C. ruling.
 

W.S. Russell locates some borate deposits near the P.C.B. claims. Discovering that one of the claims of the P.C.B., the Clara, is not patented, he re-stakes and files on it. After several years of wrangling Russell prevails. Later through an anit-trust action this same claim was again lost by P.C.B to become the Tenneco mine now in operation in Furnace Creek Wash.
 

A cave-in at the Gypsum Queen kills two sons of the owner. The mines are shut down, but the T&T's tracks are left in place until 1927.
 

Congress passes the Pittman Bill which allows any U.S. Citizen to acquire 640 acres of arid Nevada land "while maintaining his activities elsewhere." The bill was 'sponsored' by T&T Company Officials. Strangely enough the only homesteaders to utilize this bill were F.M. Jenifer, F.W. Corkhill, U.S. Miller, W.W. Cahill and C.B. Zabriskie! The 'claims' were arranged such that a very large connecting block of prime Amargosa Valley land was captured. This became the T&T Ranch.
 

After rich ore is found at the Widow mine, the Baby Gauge is extended to its workings. With a gasoline powered engine and 3 ton ore cars, the little railroad is now some 7 miles long. The combined production of all the Greenwater mines is now over 200 tons a day, keeping the plant at D.V. Junction running 24 hours a day.
 

Faulkner is replaced by Major J. Boyd. Working conditions and attitudes improve for all at Ryan. Boyd moves the Catholic Church from Rhyolite to Ryan as a recreation hall, stained glass windows included!
 

Boyd re-opens the Lila C. mine after workers, tearing out old timbers, discover a new vein of borate. The T&T extends its track back to the mine, using the old ROW, this time in 3' Gauge. All these 'Lila C.' trains are inferior to all other trains. Rule 14, T&T E.T.T. #26, 05/23/1923
 

Talc production (Western Mine) is now up to 12,000 tons per year, new customers having been found. At this point $500,000 in talc has been mined.