Mines of the Lee-Echo Mining District

Hayseed Mining Company

Certificate No. 256, One Hundred Shares to Clay Tallman, May 28, 1907. [Illegible], Asst. Secretary; Sam F. Lindsay, President.

The Hayseed was the first claim in the California side of the Lee District. The original location was made by H. E. Findley in the 1880s. The area was too remote to make a profitable go of it.

However, the strike at the Keane Wonder Mine, northwest on the western slope of the Funeral Mountains, rekindled interest in the Lee area. The Hayseed claim was relocated in November 1904 by Richard and Gus Lee, and Findley. Assays ran as high as $270. The three relocators bonded and/or sold the claim to three separate parties, tying-up the claim in legal knots until mid-1906.

In early 1907, the Hayseed claim were sold to a Rhyolite syndicate, which incorporated the Hayseed Mining Company. The company survived the Panic of 1907, and shipped its first ore in October. However, the return was valued at only $73 per ton, and a profit of only $1,314.

In July 1908, the company suspended operations and proceeded on a path of leasing-out the mine. In 1910, lessee F. H. Harding put up a mill near the mine, but was only able to recover less than half of the gold present in the ore. By February 1911, the mine was closed and the mill auctioned-off for $500.

Lee Bonanza Gold Mining Company

Certificate No. 95. One Thousand Shares to Fred Resnick, November 10, 1906. John Beckman, Secretary; L. O. Ray, President.

In early 1905, prospector Frank McAllister located a group of claims that became the Lee Bonanza Gold Mining Company, incorporated in April 1906. In December of that year, the company was listed on the San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board. at that time, the company had advanced to shafts, to 35- and 55-feet.

In February 1907, the Lee Bonanza reported assay values of $100 to $200, and the future looked bright – until the Panic of 1907 struck. Capital dried up, and after December 1907, the company suspended operations with having shipped any ore.