People/miner, politician

James Fair

James Fair, miner, politician, from United States. Linked to silver, gold.

The lucky break

Followed a narrow vein of low-grade ore for Mackay and found the Big Bonanza in February 1873.1,2

Legacy

The Big Bonanza yielded over 60 million dollars. Fair served a lacklustre Senate term and was generally disliked (Online Nevada Encyclopedia).1,2

Story cards

Drag to turn the globe

Where next

People

Partner ofJohn MackayFair followed a thin vein and found a bonanza worth over 60 million dollars.1

Mines

DiscoveredComstock LodeThe Big Bonanza lay beneath Virginia City.1

Sources

  1. Big Bonanza Online Nevada Encyclopedia
  2. John William Mackay Online Nevada Encyclopedia (Nevada Humanities)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: South Africa: a crowd of people gathered outside The Goldfields offices in Johannesburg. 1896., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0); Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).