Page:Tioga Road (HAER No. CA-149) written historical and descriptive data.pdf/4

 engaged, and he estimated the value of the surface ore at $12 million. The company began drilling the "Great Sierra Tunnel" on 25 February 1882 in an attempt to reach the lauded Sheepherder lode underground. To facilitate the boring of the drift, the company brought some eight tons of machinery, including a steam engine and drills, up a rough mountain grade through Lundy Canyon. Grades were so steep that some of the equipment had to be lifted up with a block and tackle. It took two months to move the equipment over the 9-mile mountain stretch. A new mining town, Bennettville (Bennett City post office, later Tioga), soon sprang up around the mine site. The new estaminet was named for the company president, Thomas Bennett, and became the center of the Tioga Mining District.8 Optimistic inhabitants predicted the town would grow to 50,000 inhabitants. To the south, other claims were soon filed on the Great Sierra Ledge by 1878; the mining town of Dana was active here by 1880, at which point a post office was established.9

By this time, there was so much activity that three speculators organized the Tioga Mining District. Within a few years, more than 350 claims had been entered. Most of these produced nothing, but a few yielded sizeable profits. One of these, the May Lundy claim in present Lundy Canyon, yielded more than $3 million in silver; however, due to its distance from the Tioga District recorder, it and some neighboring mines were made part of the later Homer Mining District. Some of the smaller mines in the Tioga Pass area fell under control of larger operations, such as the Mount Dana Mining Company and the Great Sierra Mining Company.10

Getting supplies to the mine from the east side of the Sierra had proved very difficult, and the owners of the Great Sierra Consolidated Silver Company decided a new wagon trail from the west should be built. They expected to be hauling precious ore as well, and needed a better and more direct way to ship it to market. The Central Pacific Railroad reached Coppperopolis and a connection with the Big Oak Flat Road to the west; this road ascended to Crocker's Station on the west slope of the mountains. A new route to connect with the road and railhead would enable the ore to reach the lucrative San Francisco market much easier. The company proprietors decided to build a wagon road from Crocker's Station [near the present western boundary of Yosemite National Park] to Bennettville; they also hoped to eventually construct a railway along the same route and on to the Mono Valley down the Lee Vining Creek canyon. Accordingly, they formed the "California and Yosemite Short Line Railroad," and used funds from the sale of "railway" stock to pay the costs of the road survey. The railway company was authorized to issue $5 million in shares; however, only $250,000 was actually subscribed. Civil Engineer R. F. Lord in 1881 estimated it would take $17,000 to build the road.11 Unlike the roads to Yosemite Valley, which were built to carry tourists, the new road would be constructed primarily to serve the mines.

The company engaged Charles N. Barney as project engineer and William C. Priest as his assistant. The location survey for the new road (and railway) began in the fall of 1882 from Crocker's Station. The survey was run by H. B. Carpenter and H. P. Medlicott, with John V. Ferretti and a Mr. Hall as chainmen. The crew reached White Wolf before winter set in. construction began at the same time, and the first part of the road was pushed east as far as Carl Inn. Survey crews resumed their work in the spring and completed the line to Bennettvil1e in July I883.12

W. C. Priest, who was at the time president of the Big Oak Flat and Yosemite Turnpike Company [see HAER form No. CA-1471, was in charge of construction of the new mining road. The Mariposa Gazette reported in April 1883 that he was ready to commence work from Crocker's on the west end as soon as he could put together 200 men. The paper noted that he would use "mountain Chinamen" but