The North Star Mine, located on Auburn Road in Grass Valley, encompassed over 700 acres of land and contained two main mine shafts, many operational buildings, stamp mills, and was a very active mine property from 1851 to 1956.
In 1851 a rich gold vein was discovered two miles south of Grass Valley on the Auburn Road; it was called the Lafayette Hill Claim. In 1860, Edward and John Coleman arrived in Grass Valley, purchased a large interest in the mine and changed the name to North Star. John Coleman was from England and brought with him considerable knowledge of hardrock mining. The North Star mine continued under a succession of owners, with additional claims being purchased to expand the mine. In 1875, the mine was shut down and remained idle for almost 10 years.
William Bourn, a successful entrepreneur, had purchased the nearby Empire Mine and restarted that operation. In 1884, encouraged by his success with Empire, he purchased and re-opened the North Star mine. Bourn continued the practice of acquiring other claims to expand the mine. In 1886, the main Incline Shaft was down 1500 feet and a 40 stamp mill was built on Auburn Road. Bourn created a new water system to supply both the Empire and the North Star mines.
On February 18, 1887, James Duncan Hague, a mining engineer and New York City financier, purchased the North Star Mine from Bourn for $245,450. The corporate headquarters was initially in San Francisco but, within a short period of time, moved to New York City. Hague consolidated many local mines including Massachusetts Hill, Boston Ravine, Gold Hill and New York Hill. The mine became more productive when the cyanide process was developed allowing for more gold to be removed from the crushed ore.
During 1887-1888, a complex of buildings were created at the site of the Incline Shaft: The Assay House and several business buildings, the head-frame, the Gardener’s Cottage and the North Star Cottage. The North Star Cottage, a Victorian style building, was the home of E.R. Abadie, the North Star Mine superintendent. It was a duplicate of the home of George Starr, Empire Mine superintendent.
When the Old Massachusetts Hill mine began filling with water, Hague realized he would need a power plant to take care of all future developments. So, in 1895, he sent for his brother-in-law, Arthur De Wint Foote. Foote, an hydrologic, civil and mining engineer, had worked on the Nevada Sutro Tunnel and an Idaho irrigation project. Foote designed and built the powerhouse and designed a 30 foot Pelton Wheel on Allison Ranch Road, using the water supply system created by Bourn to power the equipment used to remove mine water.
In 1896, it was decided to sink a vertical shaft to intersect the Incline Shaft about ¾ mile from the Incline headframe. This shaft, called the Central Shaft, necessitated the construction of a new stamp mill, head-frame, cyanide plant, assay house and business office. By 1904, the operations at the Incline Shaft ceased. Almost all of the old operations were demolished except for the Assay House, the Gardener’s Cottage and the North Star Cottage, where the Footes lived from 1895 until 1905 when the North Star House was completed.
In 1904, A.D. Foote’s son, Arthur Burling Foote, returned from a mining job in Korea to replace Gerald Sherman as North Star Mine Assistant Superintendent. A.B. Foote became Superintendent when his father retired in 1913.
In 1929, Newmont Mining Company, a large, American mining business with holdings in many countries, purchased both the North Star and the Empire mines. The business operations were combined into the Empire-Star Mine. The Empire/North Star annual report that stated that between 1884 and 1928 the combined output was was 2,922,210 Troy ounces of gold, valued at $30,647,734.
In 1956, gold mines including the Empire-Star, ceased operation as the price of gold was fixed by the US government at $35/ounce, but the cost of labor and materials continued to rise. The government was also the only entity that could legally buy gold from the US mines.
The North Star Mine was one of the top producing gold mines in Nevada County, along with the Empire and Idaho-Maryland mines. Not surprisingly, the Grass Valley area was a focal point of innovation in the gold mining field. A.D. Foote and James Hague, talented mining engineers with vision and the courage to try new things, played important roles in that accomplishment. The Powerhouse was designated California Landmark 843.
