Welcome to my collection of mining artifacts. My name is Hal Post and I’ve been collecting mineral specimens, mining books and mining artifacts for over 20 years. I’ve added descriptive text and a little history to each of my artifacts so I hope you enjoy the pics and perhaps find them educational as well. I love old mining supply catalogues so I will continue to add scans of mining items from these catalogues as they become available. If you have comments or questions, like the site or don't like the site, or have some suggestions to make it better, please let me know with an email. Thanks and Enjoy!
Check out some of my favorite early photos of Colorado and Utah mining history. These photos are from the USGS photo library coming from the early (1880s to 1920s) USGS studies conducted by such icons as Emmons, Spurr, Cross, Lindgren and Ransome. Some of these photos found their way into early USGS professional papers, monographs and bulletins but most did not.
NEWEST UPDATE!! Over the past couple months, I’ve added a few new and interesting items to my site. These include an elusive and curiously marked No. 50 cap lamp from the Meyer Stein manufacturing era, a fabulous rare unfired Scranto No. 2 hand lamp with bail and hook, a Hughes Bros. Pathfinder cap lamp with the hard-to-find knurled base, a nickel-plated one-date Guy’s Dropper superintendent style carbide lamp with the bell shaped windproof reflector, a brass 3-bottom Justrite carbide carrier advertised as model no. 20 in an early Justrite catalog, a heavy brass carbide cap lamp marked Daylight that was manufactured by the English firm of Powell and Hanmer Ltd., and an elusive oil wick face lamp marked Good Luck inside a horseshoe. A fabulous fancy candlestick with a brass handle and marked 1896 was added along with a unique folding candlestick listed in Wilson and Bobrink’s Miners’ Candlestick Guide as no. 249. While one-date Guy’s Dropper cap lamps are all quite scarce, the one-date Guy’s Dropper hand lamp is the only example reportedly known. Similarly, the unique folding candlestick incorporates a slotted brass thimble-clasp to lock the folding spike and hook in place, a mechanism very similar to the notched thimble-clasp utilized in the patented Hume and Tate folding candlestick. Lastly, a fabulous collection of mining-themed stick pins assembled over a 30 year period by well-known mining artifact collector/dealer Leo Stambaugh is also featured. These include a number of pins with gold and gold-in-quartz nuggets, crossed hammer and gad symbols, mining picks, gold pan and windlass, carbide lamp, gal leg and other mining-related objects. However, the highlights of the collection are the miniature gold candlestick stick pins associated with the early mining schools in the US including the Columbia School of Mines, Berkeley and the South Dakota School of Mines. I’ve included stick pins in both the Miscellaneous Mining Items and Candlestick albums. My thanks to Leo for preserving these treasures. I hope you enjoy the site and find it as interesting as I do in putting it together.
NEWEST UPDATE!! I collect mining books so I thought I'd share selected image scans of some of my favorite obscure out-of-copyright titles covering mines, miners and their history. The two newest additions are similar in that both present fabulous turn-of-the-century photos from areas with rich mining histories. The first is a rare collection of photos from Michigan's Copper Country. Mines, miners, underground scenes, surface operations, mills and smelters are all covered. The collection is included in a souvenir booklet published in 1903 as a keepsake for the area visitor. The second is a similarly rare collection of mining photos from the Black Hills. This collection is included in a 1902 souvenir booklet prepared for the Black Hills tourist by the Rev. John Sanford. Both files are 41 MB so allow some time for them to download. Other newer additions cover mining histories from two classic localities: Tonopah, NV and the Yukon Territory. The 1911 Annual Report of The Tonopah Mining Company presents several early photos of Tonopah mining properties including the famous silver producer, the Mizpah Mine. A "few" miles north, the Yukon Territories booklet of 1907 presents a comprehensive status of mining methods and locales. This rare booklet published by the Canadian Ministry of the Interior includes a number of early mining photographs covering placer mining, dredging and hydraulicking. I hope you enjoy them.
NEWEST UPDATE!! I just added two original catalogs of the Brilliant Search Light Mfg. Co., one from 1918 with price list while the company was still in Duluth, MN and the other after it had moved to Chicago. The Brilliant Search Light was the first belt generator lamp used underground with ads as early as 1903. Check out the poem written by the lamp inventor Rudolph C. Kruschke on the last page of the Duluth catalog. It's the first poem I've seen written about a mining lamp. I also recently acquired the 1918 annual issue of the Mining Catalog and like other Keystone publications, it is 877 pages of neat ads for all types of mining equipment and supplies. I've included selected scans of explosives manufacturers and carbide lamp suppliers including my favorites for the King Powder Company and the Harker Manufacturing Company. I also acquired Catalogue #52 (1919) of Denver's The Mine and Smelter Supply Company and have added selected scans of mining equipment and supplies. There are now six editions of the Mine and Smelter Company catalogues on my site covering the years of 1902, 1912, 1919, 1926, 1929, and 1937. Have fun checking them out.
I'm often asked about how to get in contact with other collectors and information on upcoming mining artifact shows. Check out this link to Eureka Magazine to participate in a collectors' forum and information on upcoming events. The next mining shows are scheduled for:
June 23, 2012 in Nevada City, California and
October 20, 2012 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
NEWEST UPDATE! Here are photos from past mining shows. I just added brand new photos from the 2012 Carter Caves, Kentucky Show along with site photos of the Carter Caves Park (Show details at Eastern Mining Collectors Association ). I've also added photos of the Watts Museum at West Virginia University from a visit after the Carter Caves Show. Enjoy them! Also check out photos from the recently completed 2012 Tucson Show.
2008 Sutter Creek Show
2008 Tucson Show
2009 Tucson Show
2009 Ouray Pre-Show
2009 Ouray Show
2009 Johnstown Show
2009 Socorro Symposium Room Crawl
2010 Tucson Mineral Show
2010 Tucson Mining Show
Empire and North Star Mines
2010 DR Open House
2010 Nevada City Show
2010 MN Open House
2010 Bodie Ghost Town Tour
2010 Socorro Symposium Room Crawl
2011 Ouray Show
Ouray Museum Tour
Pics In and Around Ouray
2011 Socorro Symposium Room Crawl
2012 Tucson Show
2012 Carter Caves Show
2012 Carter Caves Sites
Watts Museum Tour
All content on this site copyright Hal Post 2007