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  Wolf Head Closeup.JPG - WOLF HEAD PRESENTATION STICK - Fancy steel timber-style stick, thought to be a presentation piece for the Wolf Tongue Mining Company in Nederland, Colorado; the stick measures 14.75" long and is in beautiful condition. A wolf’s head with a green glass “eye” makes up the thumb piece. The workmanship is very fine, with beveled edges at the handle and shaft, as well as some fancy work on the hook. The hook appears to have been swaged onto the shaft. The stick was found by Leo Stambaugh many years ago and was kept in his candlestick case at his Powder Cache Mining Museum in Georgetown before being acquired by Steve Rush. The following is a communication from Leo:“The wolf’s head stick was one of my favorites. I got it from a sale of the original owners of the Wolf Tongue Mining Company in Boulder. Wolf Tongue was a big producer in the Caribou mining district west of there. It started as a silver mine but tungsten was the big money maker. The stick came in an old box marked Wolf Tongue Mining Company. I found the glass in the bottom of the box and it fit the hole in the stick. I think it fell off the stick because there was nothing else in the box except old newspaper. I couldn't tell you if it is an emerald, I just assumed it was green glass. The stick is old and original, a beauty.” When "the damned black iron" ore earlier cursed by the prospectors was found to be rich in tungsten, the Wolf Tongue Mining Company was formed in 1904 to mine tungsten from the mines in Nederland, Colorado and the boom was on. It is thought the name came about by combining wolfram and tungsten, two names for the same ore, but the company symbol seems to be the familiar canine relative. In 1904, Billy Loach of the newly formed Wolf Tongue Mining Company leased the Black Swan stamp mill located at Salina to process tungsten ores [see Cobb, Prospecting Our Past – Gold, Silver and Tungsten Mills of Boulder County, 1988]. Processing the ore proved expensive because of the long haul distance so in 1905, the company purchased and retooled the old Caribou mill in Nederland renaming it the Wolf Tongue mill. The mill replaced the old stamp batteries with modern crushing equipment [see Kemp, Silver Gold and Black Iron, 1960]. By 1915 the tungsten boom in Nederland had reached its peak with twenty-two mills humming day and night to meet the demand for tungsten to harden steel for the armaments of World War I. The Wolf Tongue Mining Company was a subsidiary of Firth-Sterling Steel Co. with offices in Pittsburgh, PA and Boulder. The mine and mill office was in Nederland and by 1918, Billy Loach was still the general manager, William Todd mine superintendent and C. A. DeWitt mill superintendent. The company controlled over 590 acres of mines including the Cold Spring and other mines of the 75-acre Beaver Group one mile south of Nederland and the Clyde mine 3 miles northeast of town [see Walter Weed, The Mines Handbook Vol. 13, 1918]. At its peak, the Nederland area mines produced most of the tungsten ore in the world. However, with the signing of the Armistice ending WW I, the market for tungsten collapsed. By 1920 the Wolf Tongue and Vasco mining companies (also at Nederland) were the only tungsten producers in the US [Walter Weed, The Mines Handbook Vol. 16, 1925]. The discovery of vast tungsten deposits in China by 1920 would soon doom the production at Nederland.  
Wolf Head LSide
Hoosier shaft house; Wolf Tongue Mining Co.; 2 miles north of Nederland, CO, Sept. 3, 1909
Town Lot shaft house; Wolf Tongue Mining Co.; Nederland, CO, Sept. 3, 1909
Wolf Tongue Gale mine; 2 miles north of Nederland, CO, Feb. 17, 1917
Wolf Tongue mill; Nederland, CO, Feb. 27, 1917

Wolf Head Closeup | WOLF HEAD PRESENTATION STICK - Fancy steel timber-style stick, thought to be a presentation piece for the Wolf Tongue Mining Company in Nederland, Colorado; the stick measures 14.75" long and is in beautiful condition. A wolf’s head with a green glass “eye” makes up the thumb piece. The workmanship is very fine, with beveled edges at the handle and shaft, as well as some fancy work on the hook. The hook appears to have been swaged onto the shaft. The stick was found by Leo Stambaugh many years ago and was kept in his candlestick case at his Powder Cache Mining Museum in Georgetown before being acquired by Steve Rush. The following is a communication from Leo: “The wolf’s head stick was one of my favorites. I got it from a sale of the original owners of the Wolf Tongue Mining Company in Boulder. Wolf Tongue was a big producer in the Caribou mining district west of there. It started as a silver mine but tungsten was the big money maker. The stick came in an old box marked Wolf Tongue Mining Company. I found the glass in the bottom of the box and it fit the hole in the stick. I think it fell off the stick because there was nothing else in the box except old newspaper. I couldn't tell you if it is an emerald, I just assumed it was green glass. The stick is old and original, a beauty.” When "the damned black iron" ore earlier cursed by the prospectors was found to be rich in tungsten, the Wolf Tongue Mining Company was formed in 1904 to mine tungsten from the mines in Nederland, Colorado and the boom was on. It is thought the name came about by combining wolfram and tungsten, two names for the same ore, but the company symbol seems to be the familiar canine relative. In 1904, Billy Loach of the newly formed Wolf Tongue Mining Company leased the Black Swan stamp mill located at Salina to process tungsten ores [see Cobb, Prospecting Our Past – Gold, Silver and Tungsten Mills of Boulder County, 1988]. Processing the ore proved expensive because of the long haul distance so in 1905, the company purchased and retooled the old Caribou mill in Nederland renaming it the Wolf Tongue mill. The mill replaced the old stamp batteries with modern crushing equipment [see Kemp, Silver Gold and Black Iron, 1960]. By 1915 the tungsten boom in Nederland had reached its peak with twenty-two mills humming day and night to meet the demand for tungsten to harden steel for the armaments of World War I. The Wolf Tongue Mining Company was a subsidiary of Firth-Sterling Steel Co. with offices in Pittsburgh, PA and Boulder. The mine and mill office was in Nederland and by 1918, Billy Loach was still the general manager, William Todd mine superintendent and C. A. DeWitt mill superintendent. The company controlled over 590 acres of mines including the Cold Spring and other mines of the 75-acre Beaver Group one mile south of Nederland and the Clyde mine 3 miles northeast of town [see Walter Weed, The Mines Handbook Vol. 13, 1918]. At its peak, the Nederland area mines produced most of the tungsten ore in the world. However, with the signing of the Armistice ending WW I, the market for tungsten collapsed. By 1920 the Wolf Tongue and Vasco mining companies (also at Nederland) were the only tungsten producers in the US [Walter Weed, The Mines Handbook Vol. 16, 1925]. The discovery of vast tungsten deposits in China by 1920 would soon doom the production at Nederland. Download Original Image
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