Grantsville
P.A. Havens, known already for his discoveries at Ione, found gold here in 1863. A town and mining district, named after Ulysses S. Grant, was established shortly thereafter. Havens's claims played out quickly, and Grantsville became a ghost for the next decade.
In September 1877, the Alexander Company came to Grantsville and the camp was reborn. A twenty-stamp mill was built and started operation in November 1878; it was enlarged to 40 stamps three years later. By the end of 1878, Grantsville had several businesses and a population of nearly 1,000. A newspaper, the Grantsville Sun, was published by D.L. Sayre from October 19, 1878 until June 1879. It was succeeded by Andrew Maute and Samuel Donald's Grantsville Bonanza from December 11, 1880 until 1884.
Grantsville's first post office opened in 1879 with George Healy as postmaster. By the 1880s, three stage lines (to Eureka, Wadsworth, and Austin) were established and Grantsville was home to over forty businesses and a brick school erected by the Odd Fellows. Fourteen major mines were in operation at this time, the chief producer being the Alexander.
The town started to fade after November 1880 when the Alexander Company was forced to stop operations after producing $1.25 million. Manuel San Pedro resigned as superintendent in 1881 to focus on his interests in Gold Park. By 1884, only 400 people remained in Grantsville, and the population dropped to 50 by 1886. John Phillips ran the old Alexander mill on tailings from the Alexander and Brooklyn mines. In June 1888, the Alexander property was purchased by the Hornsilver Mining Company. The company operated the claims until 1897 when it folded after its superintendent's death.
Throughout the end of the 1800s and up until the end of the 1920s, Grantsville experienced several small revivals. The two most notable were from 1916-18, and 1921-23 when the Webster Mines Corporation bought and renamed the Alexander mine and mill. The mill was remodeled in 1927, but operation ceased in 1928. In 1939, a fifty-ton flotation mill was built at the Silver Palace mines and lasted until 1940. Grantsville's final activity was from 1945 until 1947, when the Alexander and Brooklyn Mines Company reworked mines and produced $50,000 worth of lead for the war effort.
