Silver Top Mine

Silver Top Mine. . Jim and Belle Butler, along with their associates, sold their claims to investors who formed the Tonopah Mining Company of Nevada. In 1902 development began on the Silver Top Claim. A shaft was suck to 700 feet and eventually a wooden headframe was constructed. Extending from the headframe (off-right in photo below). Two tiers of ore car tracks are shown entering the "grizzly.", The Grizzly was where the rock was separated into valuable ore and waste. The name may have come from the appearance of the separator, which had space between a grizzly bear's claws. Ore that likely contained silver or gold was emptied from the ore cars into bins, then dumped into the waiting railcars. Waste rock was dumped to the side (left of the grizzly) where it remains to this day., Tonopah and Goldfield , When the Tonopah Railroad was converted from narrow gauge to standard gauge in 1905. It was then extended south to the new boomtown of Goldfield. The new line was renamed the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad., Early Check , This check from the Tonopah Mining Company is from its earliest days. Note the date line. Do you think the owners expected the ore to run out before 1910?, From The Mines To The Main-Line , The Tonopah Railroad was built by the Tonopah Mining Company and completed in 1904 as a narrow gauge line (with 3 feet in width). Almost a year later it was converted to a standard gauge line (with track 4 feet 8 inches in width). The insert shows the same standard gauge locomotive pictured in the larger photograph. It was called a "switcher." The company owned only one "switcher" which was a small engine whose work was limited to moving ore-carrying cars from the mines to the main-line near the passenger depot at the west end of the mining camp. ,