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City, in March of 1892. At that time, the organization
9
took the opportunity to rebut, in all the region’s news-
papers, comments by the former Nevada Surveyor
General C. W. Irish. General Irish had complained in the
about the poor quality of some of the surveys he had
observed. The State Association was not pleased and
said so. Haist later ran for Regent for the University
of Nevada, in Reno, but lost. He was a member of the
Society of Pacific Coast Pioneers, a group formed in
the 1880’s.
One of the best-known mining engineers on the Lode,
who worked primarily as a mining and mineral sur-
veyor, was Laurence F. J. Wrinkle. He arrived in Nevada
shortly after college, and after touring the principle
mining regions in the state, accepted a position with
The Nevada State Hospital photographed about 1900. It was demolished in the 1950’s Ike James, at his firm in Virginia City. He and James
for the new hospital building and grounds. Nevada Historical Society eventually formed a partnership. They were engaged

by some of the largest mining companies on the Lode and together they prospered.

Laurence Francis Joseph Wrinkle was born in June, 1847 in Berkshire County Mas-
sachusetts, one of ten children. His parents were immigrants from County Dublin,
Ireland. Wrinkle graduated with a mining degree from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He had been working on the Lode several years when he met, then mar-
ried, Sarah Scott in Virginia City in 1875. Sarah had at least one child, a daughter, by
10
a previous marriage. Together, the couple bore five sons.

Laurence was a polymath. In addition to mine and mineral surveying and mining en- Advertisement in the Territorial Enterprise
gineering, he wrote papers on wide ranging topics and submitted them to the United newspaper for James & Wrinkle
States Geological Survey, The Engineering and Mining Journal and The Mining and Scientific Press, among others. One such article, a clear
departure from surveying was, “On some circumstances which favor the simultaneous Precipitation of Alumina and Magnesia by Ammonia.” 11
Nevertheless, Wrinkle was principally engaged in sur-
veying and mapping as a profession while on the Com-
stock. He was thus engaged in the Bullion Mine, near the
“Divide” between Virginia City and Gold Hill, in August of
1876. At the same time, two miners, Pat Hurley and Tom
McGrath, were working on the 1400-foot level of that
same mine. Other miners were working one level above
Hurley and McGrath. Mr. Shultz, the Mine Superintendent,
G. F. Kellogg, the Mine Foreman and Laurence Wrinkle
were all together underground in the mine as well, dis-
cussing the progress of the work.
The miners on the 1400-foot level were unaware that
a round fired off by the previous shift did not fully deto-
nate, leaving a reservoir of highly explosive gas behind
the tamping. When the two miners drilled through the
tamping, the expanding gas exploded, blowing the heavy
Burleigh drill out of the hole, knocking the miners down,
“Views of the Works of the Gould & Curry Silver Mining Company, Virginia City, N.T.”
published by Britton & Company, San Francisco, 1860 showering them with rock splinters. Both were badly
injured. The gas and smoke from the explosion rose in the
adjacent winze and overcame the rest of the men in the mine, including Wrinkle and the mine bosses. The newspaper reported, “These
parties were all so much affected by the gas that they rolled off the track (the mine rails in the winze) and lay insensible until rescued by persons
from above…”. Nine injured men were extricated from the mine, one died and the rest survived.
12
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE u
9 The Silver State, Unionville, Nevada, March 03, 1892, pg. 3
10 In the 1880 U.S. Census for Storey Count, Nevada, Wrinkle listed his occupation as “Surveyor”
11 Mining and Scientific Press, Vol. 22, 1871
12 The Pioche Daily Record, August 2, 1876
The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.2, 2023 9