Archives West Finding Aid

The Sunset Mine, comprising six mining claims (Sunset, Ivy Ellen, Big Bug, Ishmael, Polygon, and Original Quartz Lode) in the Beaver Mining District of Shoshone County, nine miles from Wallace, was originally owned by Senator W.A. Clark of Montana. Apparently it was later acquired or managed by Anaconda Copper Mining Company of Butte. The first lease of the property from Anaconda was owned by C.P. Pollock, who, in August 1940, formed a partnership, to be known as the Sunset Lease, with A.W. Hoover, Ernest C. Smith, J.A. Featherstone, A.H. Featherstone, Keith Whiting, J.H. Burns, J.E. Small, Rex P. Pollock, W.D. Pollock, E.L. Bruns, and Don Protz. In 1944 E.G. Smith began buying out the partners, but by 1948 Day Mines, Inc., had acquired a controlling interest in the lease and Smith assigned the lease to them on December 1, 1948.

In 1949 Sunset Lease, a partnership, entered into an agreement with Bromo and William Zanetti for the lower portion of the mine, and with John Korsage and E.G. Smith for the upper portion. The Korsage-Smith lease was terminated in the mid 1950s, and in February 1950 William Zanetti informed Day Mines that due to low metal prices and the high cost of labor, they were forced to suspend operations on the Sunset and Silvertip leases. The Sunset Lease partnership was dissolved on December 31, 1967.