LEE and LEE ANNEX
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LEE and LEE ANNEX |
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| NAME: Lee
and Lee Annex COUNTY: Inyo ROADS: 4WD GRID #(see map): 3 CLIMATE: Hot summer, pleasant winter w/occasional raw and cold days. BEST TIME TO VISIT: Late autumn through spring. |
COMMENTS: Not
to be confused with nearby Lee, NV. REMAINS: Stone walls, stone foundations, mine shafts, mine tunnels, cans, broken bottles. |
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The wild Bullfrog in 1904 rush caused much prospecting to occur throughout southern Nevada and the Death Valley region of California. That year, brothers Richard and Gus Lee decided to try prospecting, leaving their ranch at Resting Spring. In November, with the help of Henry F. Finney, they found two gold ledges, which they named the Hayseed and the State Line, located at the eastern foot of the Funeral Range, 30 miles south of Rhyolite. These were located just inside the California state line, west of Amargosa Valley. A stampede began, and the Lee Mining District was formed in March 1905. The rush created the townsites of Lee, California and Lee, Nevada, each within sight of the other. In between, straddling the state line, was Lee Annex or sometimes referred to as North Addition. In May, 1905, the Lee brothers optioned the Hayseed Mine to W.F. Patrick, a Goldfield speculator, for the sum of $75,000, with $7,500 down. Patrick died two months later, and the mine returned to the Lee brothers, and they got to keep the cash. They decided that they could make some serious cash by optioning and re-optioning the Hayseed, but they soon found themselves and the mine wrapped up in litigation. The Lee boom reached its zenith in 1907, with a population of around 600 for the entire district. By February of that year, the fracas over the Hayseed was cleared and production began. Further zeal was added when the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, then under construction, passed within a few miles of the district and within sight on its way to Rhyolite. A townsite rivalry began, Lee, California becoming the biggest favorite. Of the 600 people in the district, Lee, California grabbed more than half. 300 men plus 20 women populated the townsite. There were many saloons and a red light district flourished in the location dutifully delineated by the Lee Board of Trade. Lee also had a post office (Lee, Nevada did not), which opened March 7, 1907 with John H. Lawrence as the first postmaster. A large union hall was erected by the Death Valley Miners Union, Local No. 258 of the Western Federation of Miners. The Lee Herald began publication October 15, 1907 by Earl Clemens to compliment his Rhyolite Herald and Skidoo News. A telephone line was run to the camp from Rhyolite. At first, auto and horse-drawn stages ran to the camp from Rhyolite, later to run six miles to and from Leeland Station on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad in the valley below. These stages connected with the two trains each day. Inyo County recognized the swelling population and appointed a justice of the peace, who also served as the tax collector. None of the towns in the Lee region had their own water. That had to be hauled in by Adolph Nevares from Rose Well at $5 a barrel. That price prompted most to travel to Rhyolite for their baths. The financial panic of 1907 caused dull times in 1908, leading to the eventual death of all the Lees. Lee, California hung on the longest. At the beginning of the year, the Hayseed shipped its first load of paydirt, 18 tons worth, brining in an income of $1,314. However, that load was also its last. Nothing less than $50 per ton ore could pay costs, even though the railroad was literally at the foot of Lee. Such ore was found only in small pockets that already had been exhausted, and so the superintendent closed down the Hayseed that summer. The Lee Herald suspended publication in February. By summer, there was only one saloon left. Not everyone left Lee. Enough miners and hangers on stuck around for a few more years, and William H. Lillard kept a store open until 1912. The post office kept its door open until April 1. Today, at Lee one can find an abundance of stone ruins scattered around a townsite about a third of a mile square, along with a nearly solid ground covering of cans and broken glass. There are countless stone cairns littering the region on both sides of the state line, empty mine tunnels and shafts are found on the floor of the canyon and on the hillsides. The largest tailings pile belong to Hayseed. In the site of Lee Annex, on the California side can be found a few stone foundations, the remains of a stone corral, glass and cans. The state line is marked on the main road to Lee and also the dim and seldom used road to Lee, Nevada. Stone cairns are found seemingly everywhere on both sides of the state line. Submitted by David A. Wright - Great Basin Research. Inyo Independent, March 2, 1906 �BIG MINING SUIT� An important suit has been commenced in the Superior Court of Inyo County, Cal., by Chas. del Bondio, the prominent attorney, against Richard and Gus Lee to enforce specific performance of a contract in writing to sell and convey the Hayseed and State Line mining claims in the Funeral Range, near the State line of California and Nevada and about 30 miles from the town of Beatty, and also to secure possession of said claims. These claims are well known, and are the same properties that were held under a bond for a large sum by Mr. Patrick at the time of his death. A very phenomenal showing of high grade milling ore is made for the amount of development. The samples taken from a quartz ledge give an average of over $150 for a width of seven feet. Out of 12 samples taken across this vein the lowest ran $110 and the highest $270. The property is only three miles from the surveyed line of the railroad and has abundance of water accessible for mining purposes. Col. Hugh Wilkinson of Rhyolite is the plaintiff�s attorney. -- Bullfrog Miner. David A. Wright Great Basin Research - Big Pine, CA
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