My grandmother brought a steamer trunk from New York to Illinois in the 1950s. She did not stay long, but that black box, large enough to hold a small child, sat in our basement through at least the early 1970s. Until the flood.
After years of curiosity someone pried the locked trunk open. Mining company stock certificates were tucked in with picture hats, family photos, and other valued possessions. Grandchildren donned huge hats, looked at pictures of strangers who were once someone, and wondered over those stock certificates. The stock shares, as family story told, came from my grandfather’s great aunt. She married a paymaster and lived in the West. They looked official. They were impressive to kids who had to share the simplest things. We thought they were worth a fortune.
Our youthful hopes were dashed when the basement flooded. I only have a couple of memories of the event. My father made it partway through the floodwater before discovering that his boot had a leak, and after the water receded, he threw things away. The trunk’s contents were a topic of dispute. He saw no reason to keep wet papers. My mother believed he was throwing away the only fortune she might ever have. Those old stock shares were worthless, he insisted. I don’t think that she believed his assertion for the rest of her life.
If water had not invaded our home, I would frame and hang those mining company stock certificates. Their true value was in their story. A great aunt passing down what she gained from her marriage as a young woman to an elderly man, a grandmother’s hopes of making a new home, and a mother and her children, certain that a few impressive pieces of paper might promise a stable future.
Family gold.
I would like to introduce the Historic Mining Law collection. It includes:
Access the mining law pages in the Law: Special Topics Index area of the Law Library Index.
I hope that you strike research gold in the Historic Mining Law collection.
