National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum - Leadville, Colorado, minerals, gems, history

    George Hearst, a prospector with no formal education, became a multi-millionaire as a shrewd investor in mines of the Comstock Lode.  He went on to become a United States Senator and to found the building blocks for the Hearst Publishing empire.

    Mr. Hearst began his career placer mining at Hangtown, Jackass Gulch and later in Nevada City.  In 1859, he joined the trek to the Washoe Diggings in the Territory of Nevada, where he bought half interest in the Gould and Curry Mine for $450.  It turned out to be the second-richest silver mine on the Comstock Lode!  He then bought an interest in the Ophir for a few hundred dollars.  This, of course, proved to be the richest of all the great Comstock mines and Hearst suddenly found himself a millionaire.  Next, he invested in the Ontario Mine in Utah.  Almost at once it began paying dividends of nearly a million dollars a year.  Then came the famous Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota, where Hearst and partners built the town of Lead (1877).  In 1886, George Hearst was appointed United States Senator from California and became one of mining’s most active spokesmen.

    He purchased the San Francisco Daily Examiner which served as the beginning of the great Hearst empire, headed by his son, William Randolph Hearst.