Emma Silver Mine In Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

The Emma Title - The original locations covering the celebrated Emma mine, Little Cottonwood District, Utah, have been bought by John L. Frisbie, Geo. S. Dodge, W. M. Lent, A. E. Head and Mark Livingstone, who have organized under the name of the Emma Mining Company of San Francisco, with J. D. Fry as President and Wm. Willis, Secretary. The price paid is private, but rumor says a hundred thousand dollars have been paid for the one-half. These gentlemen have brought under the advice of the ablest mining lawyers of the city. - S. F. dispatch.

This must refer to the title claimed by James E. Lyon, purchased about one year ago [1870] of the estate of the discoverer and locator, Silas Braine, deceased. Mr. Lyon made some attempts to get possession last fall under this title, as well as under a possessory title obtained something as follows: The lode was discovered by Braine & Nicholls in 1864; they divided at the discovery stake, Nicholls taking northward, and naming his location the "North Star;" Braine taking southward, adopting another name, which escapes our memory just now. Nothing was done for two or three years when the North Star was sold to an Eastern company, some $22,000 worth of the stock of which Mr. Lyon got hold of in a trade. They took out considerable ore and expended a good deal of money building reducing works in 1867.

(Ed. note: There has been no documentation that Lyon ever owned any part of the North Star claim, other than him and his San Francisco and Vallejo associates saying that they did.)

It was late in the fall of 1868 that Lyon came out from New York to look after his interests in Little Cottonwood, Pahranagat [57 miles southwest of Pioche], etc., and liking the appearance of the outcrop, of what is now claimed as the Emma, Braines’ location, he and Woodman and one or two others concluded to enter upon and open it. They worked together three or four days, sinking to a depth of 15 feet or so, and stripping the back of the vein for near forty feet in length. It was oxidized lead, chiefly, about two feet in width. We have seen we suppose a thousand outcrops as promising in appearance. Mr. Lyon paid about $100 for assaying, East and West, and left for New York, satisfied in his own mind that the completion of the Pacific Railroad, then building, would make it valuable property. Just as he was leaving he let a contract to Woodman to sink the shaft 50 feet, at $3 a foot, paying $75 in advance.

So far we believe there is no dispute as to the facts. Here there begins to be a divergence. Mr. Lyon claims that Woodman excavated the shaft, getting sufficient ore therefrom to pay for it and something over, until at a depth of about 100 feet it opened out on the immense deposit or chamber of ore which has become famous, Mr. Woodman changing the name and interesting monied men of Salt Lake City with him throwing Lyon out entirely, ceasing in fact to communicate with him.

Mr. Woodman claims, on the other hand, that he sunk the Lyon shaft the stipulated fifty feet, and finding nothing worth while, started a new shaft some fifty feet on one side, and thus discovered, himself, what is now called the Emma.

Mr. Lyon hearing, in New York, how things were going, early last summer came out again, and to make himself secure immediately purchased of the estate of Silas Braine the original location. He then asked Woodman to concede his rights under the agreement of the fall of 1868. Mr. Woodman making no satisfactory answer, Mr. Lyon applied to Judge McKean, at Chambers, for an injunction to restrain Woodman et al from working the mine until title could be settled, which was granted under the Territorial code. Mr. Woodman by counsel moved for its dissolution on the ground that the Territorial courts are strictly United States courts, therefore subject in the granting of injunctions to the rules and practice of U. S. courts, which require the giving of due notice to defendants before the issue of an injunction. This was argued at length, pro and con, and the Judge finally decided that the code must give way on this point, and dissolved the injunction, throwing Mr. Lyon back solely on his remedy at law. He commenced a suit at law for the settlement of title and this is the first we have heard of his movements since, if this be really a movement of his, which we suspect.

Meanwhile Woodman sold his remaining interest to Warren Hussey, and he and the other owners sold a half interest to New York men, the whole to be stocked in New York at $5,000,000. We have not heard with what success the stock was floated, or indeed if the proposed organization was completed. Other men have laid claim to the mine, within the last six months, and altogether it must seem to the lawyers who have examined it a right pretty tangle.

We notice among the names in the above dispatch that of Wm. M. Lent, who was here in December for the purpose of purchasing for San Francisco men. He was accompanied by a mining lawyer of the highest eminence, who examined the papers on file in the case thoroughly, and the result seems to be that Lent and his friends have preferred to purchase of Lyon rather than of Woodman.