Gold ‘N Boats ‘N Katherine

It was hot, it was dry, it was dusty, it was…oh, hell, it was just flat out-and-out thirsty out there. S.C., as he was known, wiped the sweat from his eyes, glanced up at the sun pounding down on him, muttered a curse and hupped his horses into action once again.

He was a teamster, a driver of a wagon loaded with ore, which he was taking from the Sheepstrails Mine to the mill, down near the Colorado River. As he drove, he noticed a solitary granite knob protruding up from the flat gravel plain, and he figured that would be a good place to stop, eat, rest the horses, maybe find a spot of shade. While the horses rested, he panned out a few samples from the outcropping…and immediately started making plans.

It was the dawn of a new century, late summer of 1900, and ol’ S.C. figured to become rich. He delivered his load of ore, went to the land office, and placed a claim on the knob of rock he had found. He decided to sink a mine on the knob, and name it after his daughter. Thus, the mine of S.C. Bagg, now known as The Catherine Mine was born.

Mining had begun in this area some 30-odd years earlier, in the 1860’s, with the discovery of gold. By the time S.C. Showed up, there were several mines operating in the area, including the Pyramid, Gold Cycle and Sheeptrails Mines in Arizona, and the Homestake Mine, across the river in Nevada. The ore was processed at a mill built near the Colorado, at a settlement named Pyramid. The processed ore was shipped out on steamboats that made regular trips up the Colorado from Port Isabel in the Gulf of California.

S.C. Wasted no time working his claim at Catherine. He mined about 2000 tons of ore between 1900 and 1903, which was processed at the Sheeptrails Mill. Then, in 1903, he decided he had had enough, and leased out the mine. It closed in 1904. Later that same year, the mine was sold to the Arizona Pyramid Mining Company, which re-opened the mine in 1907. It operated for two years, and once again closed in 1909.

In 1915, gold was discovered in the area of Oatman, a few miles away. The boom that followed soon reached the area around the Catherine Mine, where numerous claims were staked, and shafts were sunk with little reason and even less chance of success. Interestingly, most of these new shafts adopted the name Catherine: Catherine Extension, Catherine Treasure Vault and Catherine Midway. None of these new mines recorded any production, and all were shut down by the onset of the Great Depression in 1929.

Somewhere in the shrouded mists of history is the answer to the question of why the first letter changed, but no one is really looking for that answer. All that is known is that in 1919, Catherine Mine re-opened, only under the name of Katherine Gold Mining Company. A 950 foot vertical shaft was sunk, and in 1925 a cyanide mill was completed that could process up to 250 tons of ore per day.

With the boom came the promotion of a couple of town sites. The town of Catherine was a couple of miles east of Catherine Mine, and the town of Tri-state was a bit downstream, and across the river on the Nevada side. Both towns lasted more or less until 1929, with the town of Catherine even boasting a post office for a couple of years. Keeping in mind the fact that these towns were strictly in the middle nowhere, and the summer temperatures reached into the 130’s, it didn’t exactly sound like a major vacation destination of the times.

The mill ran constantly through 1927. Then, in 1928, things slowed down, and in 1929, the Katherine Gold Mining Company declared bankruptcy. The mine was closed, but the mill continued to process ore from the other mines until 1932. During the period of 1933 and 1934, the price of gold rose. This made it profitable to begin the mining of gold again, and many mines were re-opened. In 1933, the Gold Standard Gold Mining Company acquired the water rights to the Katherine Mill and Katherine Mine. The mill was started up, and processed ore until a fire damaged it in 1934. It was quickly repaired and put back into operation. In 1935, the same company obtained the title to the Katherine mine, and it was put back into production, operating from 1937 till 1940, when it was closed for the final time. The mill continued processing ore from other mines until it was closed by the War Production Board in 1943. At that point, the mine died, the mill died, the town died…but Katherine did not die…

A treaty with Mexico in 1944 required the construction of a dam in Pyramid Canyon, 67 miles downstream from Hoover Dam for the regulation of water to be delivered to Mexico. That put the dam just a wee bit downstream from the now dead towns of Catherine and Tri-state. David Dam, named for Arthur Powell Davis, who was U.S. Director of Reclamation from 1914 to 1932, was completed in 1953, and the lake (Lake Mohave) began to fill. Catherine survived, but the town of Tri-state disappeared under the rising water.

And so, to the resurrection of Katherine…when the lake was full, it was decided to build a place to launch boats and to use as a recreation area for the citizens of Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona, which were right across the river from each other a half mile below the dam. This boat launch area became known as Katherine’s Landing, and is today one of the most popular spots on the lake. It’s become pretty much an oasis in the middle of nowhere, as seen in the following pictures:

And so…the name of S.C. Baggs’ daughter continues to live, although both S.C. And the original Catherine are long gone. Its a fun place to visit, hotter than he– in the summer, but a very comfortable 70 to 80 degrees in the winter.