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San Francisco,CA - 19 September 1871 - Sutro's signed Black Leather Passport with Gold Embossed Eagl

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Historical Memorabilia Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 2,000.00 USD
San Francisco,CA - 19 September 1871 - Sutro's signed Black Leather Passport with Gold Embossed Eagl
The passport includes a French visa with the words Majesti l’Emperer [sic] crossed out with three red lines and the word Republique written in above in black ink. Pages are not attached to the spine. The leather cover still holds a shine and has little wear. Includes Sutro’s physical description and signature. Measures 6” x 3.75” (length and width). According to U. S. State Department statistics between 1830 and 1873, a period of 43 years, the U.S. issued over 130,000 passports to U.S. citizens. Between 1877 and 1909 the U.S. issued three times as many passports in the same time span.

According to Hubert Howe Bancroft, Sutro finally secured the funds to “build his tunnel” in 1871. Thus, Sutro must have secured his funding from European sources. Bancroft said “the Pacific coast is indebted [to Adolph Sutro] for the construction of the largest and most costly drain tunnel in the world, 12 ft wide, 10 in height, more than five miles in length, including lateral branches, and costing nearly $5,000,000, its object being to drain and cool the levels of the Comstock Lode” [Bancroft, 1890, p 750-751, fn 14]. The Sutro Tunnel Company issued a stock pamphlet at the same time stating its rights and privileges. One of the rights was if the company discovered any mines during the tunnel excavation, they were to retain exclusive ownership. It also announced a “New Era in Mining.” By freeing mines from water and supplying miners with fresh air it gave miners the opportunity to work “two thousand feet below the surface of the mountain. The miners will enter into . . . the tunnel and work upwards from below, by simply letting the ore fall down of its own weight” [Sutro Tunnel Company, 1871, p 2, 5]. While some miners worked from below, others could work from the top down, thus doubling the efforts to find ore and making mining more productive, less costly, and gaining more income for the owners. So while there was a great outlay of expenditure to construct the tunnel in the beginning, the mine owners would reap other monetary rewards (like those from the sale of water) after construction had been completed. The tunnel was completed in 1878 [Bancroft, 1890, p 750-51, fn 14].