Archives West Finding Aid

The Kanaka Corporation was incorporated on August 12, 1937, by the Guthrie-McDougall Corporation, a contractor in Portland, Oregon. The officers of the mining company were Natt McDougall, president; Albert Burch, vice-president; J.C. Vint, secretary; and Jack McDougall, treasurer and assistant secretary. These four men and R.H. Lewis were the only original stockholders. Kanaka leased gold placer claims on Kanaka Creek about three miles below Alleghany, Sierra County, California, and conducted a dredge operation there. Henry L. Day, Henry B. Kingsbury, and Max T. Smith, all of Wallace, Idaho, purchased the McDougalls' shares in November 1937, and Henry Day became president. That same month rain washed out the gravels, although a futile attempt at dredging resumed between April and July of 1938. At a special meeting on October 14, 1938, Kanaka's stockholders approved the conveyance of all of the firm's assets to the Dakins Company, a partnership of Day, Kingsbury, and Smith, in partial payment of notes owed; Kanaka's officers were authorized to dissolve the corporation.