Archives West Finding Aid

The original Hope Mine was located July 1, 1867, in the Granite Mining District by Samuel T. Hauser, Granville Stuart, James Stuart, and several others. Hauser then approached the St. Louis and Montana Mining Company, which had an unsuccessful mill at Argenta, with a proposition for the sale of the Hope property. The owners of the claim were to receive St. Louis and Montana Mining Company stock in exchange for their property and the Company was to invest capital to develop the mine. Under this agreement the Company built a wagon road to the mine site and a 10-stamp mill to process the ore. Unfortunately, a combination of circumstances prevented the profitable operation of the property. First, the geology of the Hope hill made prospecting difficult and unpredictable. Little valuable ore was located in the early years. Second, the management of the property was poor. In 1872 the Company was unable to pay either the principal or the interest on its bonded indebtedness. To protect their investment, the bondholders purchased the property and reorganized as the Hope Mining Company. A further reorganization in 1887 changed the name to the Hope Mining Company of St. Louis. In 1881, the first really important silver strike was made on the Hope property. From then until 1901 the operation was almost continually on a paying basis. It was able to survive the disastrous 1893 drop in the price of silver by the discovery of an especially rich vein of ore. In December, 1901, both the mine and the mill were shut down as unprofitable. The following spring the owners of the Granite-Bimetallic properties purchased the Hope Mine and mill.