Page 13 - Traverse 50.3

The inventor, Josiah M. Grumman, was a surveyor and a civil engi-
neer. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Grumman volunteered
for service in the 14th Regiment of the New York State Militia, the
“Fighting 14 ”. He was taken prisoner during the Battle of Falls
th
Church Road in November, 1861 and sent to the Confederate Libby
Prison in Richmond, Virginia. After his release, presumably in a pris-
oner exchange, he rejoined the 14 Regiment and was promoted to
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1 Lieutenant of Company H. In August of 1862, Grumman was fa-
st
tally wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run. In 1870, his widow
sold the rights to his chain patent to the iconic instrument makers
W. & L. E. Gurley.
In 1885, on a business trip to Inyo County, California, Wrinkle filed
four mining claims, in collaboration with some locals. Later, Wrinkle
sent a sample of carbonate of soda to the Nevada Bureau of Mines.
It had been produced by digging long shallow trenches and then al-
Wrinkle’s Mineral Survey No. 1886, at Candelaria, Nevada, lowing the water of the lake to run into them and evaporate. He also
surveyed in December, 1899
sent a fine specimen of gypsum from Kern County, California to the
Bureau, as well. Wrinkle saw economic value in both, closed his sur-
vey firm in Virginia City and relocated to Keeler, Inyo County to pursue mining operations there. Keeler was the terminus of the Carson &
Colorado Railroad, and a convenient means to ship soda from Owens Lake northward.
Unfortunately for Wrinkle, he was challenged by lawsuits in his pursuit of ac-
quiring property and developing his soda works. Nevertheless, prominent men
such as D. O. Mills, Henry Yerington and Frank Newlands all believed enough in
Wrinkle’s plan to invest in developing the soda production at Owens Lake. The
Inyo Development Company went forward and it proved to be a highly
successful venture.
In the summer of 1887, Wrinkle was still living in Keeler, supervising the Inyo
Development operation. On July 6 of that year, he received a telegram from
Virginia City, requesting his help. There was a rescue effort underway in the
Bonner Shaft of the Gould & Curry Mine. The mine’s surveyors wanted Wrinkle
to check their calculations for cutting a rescue drift to miners trapped in the
mine. Time was short.
Some days earlier, on June 24 , a fire started on the 1500-foot level of the
th
Gould & Curry. Miners were imprisoned underground as the fire consumed
timbering and cave-ins quickly followed. Heart breaking headlines covered
newspapers all over the West: “An Appalling Disaster”, “The Entombed Miners”,
“The Terrible Catastrophe in the Gould & Curry Shaft”, “Rescue Parties Driven Back
By Gas and Smoke”, “Gould & Curry Disaster - A Death Blast in the Lower Levels Light Mountain Transit fitted with Burt solar attachment, Lietz
- Eleven Men Imprisoned in the Burning Drifts.” “DEATH IN THE MINE! Five Men catalog
Taken Out Dead, And Six More Unrescued.”

The Daily Alta California for June 25 called out the news in large type, “A MINE
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ON FIRE, The 1500-foot Level of the Gould and Curry Burning”.
The article explained, “A fire broke out on the 1500-foot level of the Gould & Curry
at 5 o’clock this evening. At this hour 7 PM, the Fire Department have turned water
down the shaft. There are six men supposed to be imprisoned at the level. Miners
in the Best & Belcher came up nearly suffocated. Miners on the 600-foot level of
the Gould & Curry escaped through the Savage incline…Signals from the 1500-foot
level…have ceased, and it is believed they have been suffocated, although they have
a chance to escape by the Curry incline to the C & C shaft on the Sutro Tunnel level.”

Miners working on three different levels in the mine were all in danger, as were
men in other mines, since many were interconnected. A rescue party started for
the 800-foot level by descending through the Savage incline, but were turned
back by the heavy smoke. Cool air meanwhile was pumped into the mine, hop-
Mine surveyor James B. Cross, using a small mining transit ing to keep the miners from asphyxiating. Another rescue party volunteered to
on an extension tripod, in the underground at Candelaria,
Nevada, circa 1900. UNLV Digital Collections descend to the 1700-foot level and try to go up the CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE u

The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.2, 2023 11