Archives West Finding Aid

Snowy Peak Mining Company was incorporated in the State of Washington on July 24, 1906, for the purpose of buying certain unpatented claims in Lelande and Placer Center mining districts, Idaho, from Daniel H. Brien for 1 million shares of stock and $5,000 in cash. The original claims purchased were: Il Medico, Il Medico Fraction, Silent Friend, Franc and Trillium. The first meeting of incorporators and stockholders was held in Spokane on August 4, 1906. Ownership of at least some of the claims purchased from Brien, who became president of the new concern, was in fact contested between Brien and the Tamarack & Chesapeak Mining Company, from whose leadership Brien had just been ousted by Harry Day.

Brien lost in several court fights against the Tamarack & Chesapeak and on July 29, 1913, Brien and the two other Snowy Peak trustees resigned. He later sold off his stock, allegedly receiving less than one-half-cent a share. The new board of trustees for Snowy Peak included Eugene Day as president, John H. Wourms, and Edward Boyce. Between August 1906 and August 1912 approximately $14,000 was spent on development. On May 28, 1914 the board levied an assessment against the capital stock of Snowy Peak in order to pay debts and the expenses of patenting the corporation's claims. Except for holding idle claims, Snowy Peak remained inactive and on July 1, 1916 it was dissolved by the Washington secretary of state for non-payment of fees.

Most of the books of the Snowy Peak Mining Company were lost when John H. Pelletier, then secretary, left for military service during World War I. Around 1925 the Tamarack & Custer Consolidated Mining Company, then the largest holder of Snowy Peak capital stock, became interested in Snowy Peak's holdings. Attorney John H. Wourms, secretary since about 1917, attempted to revive the company. As the time limitation for reinstatement of the Washington charter had lapsed, Wourms first sought to reorganize Snowy Peak as an Idaho corporation, but when Jerome Day, president of Tamarack & Custer, offered $50,000 to buy Snowy Peak's holdings, Wourms concluded that selling out would be preferable.

With a stock certificate book and stock ledger recovered from the office of the Spokane Auditing Co., Wourms attempted to reconstruct the list of stockholders. Eugene R. Day, the former company president, was now deceased and Wourms and Edward Boyce, trustees for the stockholders as the two surviving trustees of the defunct corporation, filed a court suit to validate the transfer of Snowy Peak assets to the Tamarack & Custer. Up until this last liquidating dividend, Wourms characterized the history of the corporation as "a misery to its stockholders." Records of the liquidation of the company, as well as minutes, 1906-1912, may be found among the papers of John H. Wourms.