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Of Jumbo the Mackay School of Mines Director John Allen Fulton, declared: "I have never seen anything as rich. It is truly remarkable. . . . The ore is scattered over a large area and I imagine it will extend to considerable depth. I will be surprised if it doesn't. It is in a unique formation, different from any I have encountered as gold bearing, which just goes to prove that 'gold is where you find it' and not where you think it ought to be." Said Owner Austin: "I came here 26 years ago, just as they were putting through the Western Pacific, to get the mine I knew was around here—and I've got it. I've traced the northeast-south-west fault that runs from Virginia City (Nev.) to Boise (Idaho) all the way, inspecting every prospect hole. I think this mine is on the same fault that the Corn-stock Lode is on." This was promptly denied by the Nevada Mining Journal's Editor Richard Ritchie, who said last week, "Any suggestion that this is a second Comstock Lode is absurd. Comstock in 75 years produced $700,000,000 and is still producing.
The Austin mine has not been opened even to the extent of proving it may become a major producer." Whatever his mine was worth, George Austin last week flatly refused to sell at any price. Said he: "If I sold for a million Td have to pay the Government $420,000 taxes, leaving me only a half a million. But the taxes don't apply as long as the gold stays in the ground. The gold's there all blocked out. It's better there than in the bank and we own it. I have two sons and half a million would probably make loafers out of them. No, it's better to keep the mine and work it ourselves. The boys will appreciate it more if they have to dig the money out of the ground themselves. There are eight drifts and crosscuts running in all directions and they don't run out of ore in any direction yet."
Last week the Austins were busy building a bigger mill capable of handling 30 tons of ore a day, to be ready in three months. And in the Jungo general store big, cheerful Mrs. Austin, between selling cans of tobacco to Western Pacific section hands and shying rocks at stray dogs, told newshawks: "What do I think about selling the mine? I haven't got a think coming. That's up to Mr. Austin. Mr. Hoover was a real fellow. But celebrities don't mean a thing to me. I knew plenty of them when I was a nurse in San Jose. I nursed Jack London once. If we got too much ready cash all at once my son Wilfred would go right out and buy an airplane and get himself killed. Anyway, in the other big gold strikes, the people who sold out right away either got cheated or came to a bad end somehow."
One who "sold out right away" was Red Staggs, who last week grumbled: "I didn't sell Jumbo. I gave it away. That's the second time I've given a mine away. Next time you see me giving away a million-dollar strike, you'll be lucky."
—According to the U. S'. Bureau of Mines' Minerals Year Book, published last week, the U. S. Treasury's price of $35 per oz. for gold stepped up U. S. gold production in 1935 to 3,676,327 oz., worth $128,671,384, biggest since 1917.