Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -

Sale 2708 - Lot 40

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CALIFORNIA.) Illustrated prospectus for the Michigan Tunnel and Mining Company. 2 printed pages, 9¾ x 7½ inches, plus integral blank on one sheet; minimal wear. No place, circa 1864
Request Condition Report Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

This company was formed to cut a tunnel underneath a mountain near Mount Bullion in Amador County, running deep underneath 20 established mines, and "thereby cutting at a lower level than could otherwise be obtained, except by heavy and expensive machinery, that well-known belt of rich ledges." The illustration explains it better: the owners of these mines would never reach the richest parts of their claims by digging from above.

We don't know the exact ownership situation behind these mines, but the diagram reminds us of Daniel Day Lewis's monologue in the climactic scene of the film "There Will Be Blood:" "Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? Watch it. Now, my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!"

2 in OCLC (Yale and Berkeley), and none traced at auction.

Also in This Catalogue