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Wedekind, et al.. The suit was centered following the apex of a
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deposit onto an adjacent claim, in this case, west of the road to
Pyramid Lake and just north of the future town of Sparks. Wrinkle
was retained by the Desert King Mining Company.

In February of 1902, Wrinkle surveyed for the construction of a new
cyanide plant at the old Virginia Mill, in Virginia City. But he grew
restless again and at the end of classes in May of 1903, he left his
position at the University in order to return to his mining work.
Meanwhile, Wrinkle’s old friend and colleague Gotth Haist grew
ill. He suffered for a year then passed away in Virginia City. The
Carson Daily Appeal printed the news, Death of Gotth Haist - Gotth
Haist, one of the best-known residents of Virginia City and a pioneer
of the west died at his home in Virginia City yesterday. He was an
arrival on the Comstock in 1863 and has been identified with the old
The State University of Nevada campus with Lincoln Hall in the foreground, lode since that time. He was a native of Germany, aged 73 years. His
circa 1900, looking southeast across the Truckee Meadows wife passed in 1904 and is buried with him in the Silver Terrace
Cemetery in Virginia City.

In June of 1903, The Inyo Independent reported that Wrinkle had spent a few days in Tonopah. The newspaper stated, “He is completely
satisfied that Tonopah will be a permanent camp…A milling experiment was recently made at Spark’s Mill, near Reno…Mr. Wrinkle states that the
results were most satisfactory. Ninety one percent of the values were saved.”
Wrinkle’s two oldest sons Herbert and Noah followed their father into mining. In June of 1904 the pair patented the “H.L. & N. Wrinkle
Smelting Furnace”. The invention was to be used for smelting soda, but they claimed in the patent documentation that it was useful
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for smelting other substances with only minor modifications. Noah went on to patent four more methods for obtaining bicarbonate of
soda and potassium chloride.
Wrinkle traveled to San Francisco in March of 1904,
probably for business. His step-daughter was a nun
in a Catholic convent there, so he likely visited her, as
well. But on March 31, 1904, The Nevada State Journal
passed along the news of Wrinkle’s untimely death: L.
F. J. Wrinkle was found dead in his room at a San Fran-
cisco hotel…resulting from natural causes. He was about
sixty-five years old and leaves a widow and five children…
His knowledge of mining attracted the heads of the mining
school of the University of Nevada and Sept. 1, 1900, he
was induced to accept a chair…a few days ago he passed
through Reno en route to the coast, and at that time ap-
peared to be in the best of health. Wrinkle was in fact
fifty-six years of age at the time of his death.
The Inyo Independent of April 1, 1904, also mentioned
his passing, “The deceased was one of the best-known
men on the Eastern slope. He was a civil engineer by Mining Hall (originally Nevada Agriculture Experiment Station, later the Physics Build-
profession and was a recognized authority of the highest ing), circa 1909, and demolished in 1930 to construct the present Mackay Science
standing in his especial calling. He knew more than any other Building on the Quad at UNR. UNR Special Collections Digital Archive
man of the underground workings of the Virginia City mines,
as he had surveyed them all to obtain expert testimony in many lawsuits during the last thirty years. Carful, methodical, painstaking, when
Wrinkle set the pegs, courts and everybody knew he was right.”
On April 2, 1904, The Eureka Sentinel reported, “Professor L. F. J. Wrinkle was found dead in his room at the Grand Hotel at San Francisco on
March 30…So fine was his work and so thorough his knowledge of mining that it was only a short time until he was the leading authority on the
Comstock mines.”
Wrinkle’s wife Sarah later relocated from Inyo County to San Francisco in 1910. She died there in November of 1925.
Wrinkle was a conscientious professional and a good family man, well respected in his community and in his profession. It’s hard to beat that.

17 110, F. 873 (1901) Sept. 2, 1901 United States Circuit Court for the District of
Nevada, No. 715
18 No. 798,312, Application Filed June 3, 1904, patented August 29, 1905
14 The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.2, 2023