Frances Humphrey Lecture Series “One Gold Rush Immigrant’s Trail to Comstock Silver” by Paul Franklin

Description

Join Paul Franklin while he shares the story of Harvey Harris a Danish immigrant who came to the United States early in the 1840’s and began a career at the Philadelphia Mint. Heading west he continued work at the New Orleans Mint and like many heard the siren of California Gold beckoning. By way of Central America, he arrived at San Francisco just in time for the opening of the West’s first Mint. He quickly realized that the mint was not responding to the assaying business demanded by the California Gold Rush, so Harvey established his own Assay Office in Sacramento closer to the Gold country. His business grew with the development of Hard Rock and Hydraulic Mining and additional offices were opened in San Francisco and Marysville. Then in 1860 Silver discoveries in the Washoe region of the Utah Territory led Harvey to the fabled Comstock Lode in Nevada Territory. Again, with business booming, he established offices in Aurora and Carson City by 1862. A third Nevada office, sharing a building with the Banking firm of Almarin B. Paul would open in Gold Hill in 1863. Later Harris moved his assay business to nearby Silver City but continued to reside in Gold Hill. There he lived out his years after becoming a Vice Consul to Denmark.

Paul Franklin has been an executive in the semiconductor industry for some 50 years. During his career he was instrumental in the start-up of five companies. Now retired, but still consulting to startup tech companies, he is a frequent lecturer at Stanford University. Much of his time is now focused on Western historical research specializing in the areas of mining and its technology. He has published articles in professional journals, been a lecturer at the UNR’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, the Comstock Foundation, the Carson City Mint Museum and appeared on the local TV program: Old Tales of Nevada: Past and Present. His first book, “Anatomy of an Ingot” follows the careers of three mining engineers and assayers who figured significantly in Nevada’s early silver mining boom. Paul is presently finishing another book about a Comstock Mining attorney who met an untimely death at the end of a gun held by his mistress who was a formerly a boarding house manager in Virginia City during the early 1860’s.

Admission is $8 for adults and free for members and children age 17 and under.

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