Mazuma

The Mazuma townsite was established by S.B. and Starr Hill in 1906 at the mouth of Seven Troughs Canyon. By the time it was just six weeks old, Mazuma boasted a mercantile store, three restaurants, lodging house, five saloons and two assay offices, with a hotel, broker's office, and real estate office under construction. By mid-1907, the Bank of Mazuma was organized by Senator George Nixon and Major Richard Kirman. After the completion of a water pipeline by the Mazuma Light & Water Co. in January 1908, Mazuma became the most thriving community in the district, lasting until it was wiped out by the great flood in 1912 (see below).

Three mills were erected between 1907 and 1909: the Mazuma Hills, Darby, and Preston. The five-stamp Mazuma Hills was completed in June 1908, with an initial capacity of 20 tons per day. It was later expanded to ten stamps, and operated until it was destroyed by fire on July 31, 1912; damage to the water system by the great flood thirteen days prior hampered efforts to save it.

The Darby was a 10-stamp mill built December 1908 by Samuel Harris & C.S. Floyd. Initially it had a capacity of 30 tons per day, but later it too gained an additional ten stamps. It operated until 1913.

The third mill was the Preston, completed in 1909 by Fred Preston. It was a Huntington mill capable of processing 10 tons per day. It ceased normal operation in 1916, but was again used from 1931 until 1940.

Mazuma's greatest claim to fame was also its greatest disaster and its undoing. On July 18, 1912, at about 5:00 pm, a cloudburst hit the steep face of Granite Peak, at the head of Seven Troughs Canyon. Ellsworth Bennet of the Coalition Mining Co. in Seven Troughs witnessed the cloudburst and attempted to warn Mazuma by telephoning the clerk at Preston's store in that town, who switched him to Mazuma. The only word heard by the Mazuma operator was "water," and by the time he interpreted the message, it was too late. Up in Seven Troughs, the flood waters had reached the Coalition cyanide plant and torn away the tanks, spilling the deadly chemical into the deluge before smashing the buildings and equipment. When the water finally reached Mazuma, it was reported to have reached a height of twenty feet. Sweeping through the town, it whisked away homes and businesses, as well as several residents (including the Keheo family, consisting of four children and their mother). Mrs. Keheo later recalls being dug out of the mud in an alluvial fan beneath the canyon. The only buildings that survived the flood were the stores of Fred Preston and Kremer & Baker, as well as the Mazuma Hills Mill. The losses in property to the flood was estimated at almost $200,000. The losses in life was eight: the three Keheo children, Perry Gillespie, Edna Ruddell, Mike Whalen, Mrs. Trenchard, and Margaret O'Hanlon. Today there is a small cemetery commemorating those who lost their lives to that devastating flood, located about a mile away near Tunnel Camp.

Seven Troughs District
Seven TroughsMazuma
Tunnel CampVernon

Bibliography