The Sunset Mine, comprising six mining claims (Sunset, Ivy Ellen, Big Bug, Ishmael, Polygon, and Original Quartz Lode) in the Beaver Mining District of Shoshone County, nine miles from Wallace, was originally owned by Senator W.A. Clark of Montana. Apparently it was later acquired or managed by Anaconda Copper Mining Company of Butte. The first lease of the property from Anaconda was owned by C.P. Pollock, who, in August 1940, formed a partnership, to be known as the Sunset Lease, with A.W. Hoover, Ernest C. Smith, J.A. Featherstone, A.H. Featherstone, Keith Whiting, J.H. Burns, J.E. Small, Rex P. Pollock, W.D. Pollock, E.L. Bruns, and Don Protz. In 1944 E.G. Smith began buying out the partners, but by 1948 Day Mines, Inc., had acquired a controlling interest in the lease and Smith assigned the lease to them on December 1, 1948.
In 1949 Sunset Lease, a partnership, entered into an agreement with Bromo and William Zanetti for the lower portion of the mine, and with John Korsage and E.G. Smith for the upper portion. The Korsage-Smith lease was terminated in the mid 1950s, and in February 1950 William Zanetti informed Day Mines that due to low metal prices and the high cost of labor, they were forced to suspend operations on the Sunset and Silvertip leases. The Sunset Lease partnership was dissolved on December 31, 1967.
The records of the Sunset Lease span the years 1940 to 1969, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1948 to 1956. Included are financial statements, correspondence with lease holders and others concerning the operation of the mine, reports to state agencies, voucher registers, and payroll records.
The records of the Sunset Lease are divided into three series.
General Correspondence and Related Records, the first series, contains leases, correspondence with lease holders, financial statements, insurance policies, ore settlements, royalty statements, and social security reports.
The Second series, Financial Records, contains a general ledger, three voucher registers, and check registers
Personnel Records, the third series, includes two types of payroll records: wages and taxes for 1949, and time sheets and deductions for the years 1949 to 1950.
Removal of vouchers, paid checks, bank statements, ore shipment records, and duplicate materials reduced the size of this group by three cubic feet.
The records of the Sunset Lease are part of the records of Day Mines, Inc., donated to the University of Idaho by Henry Day in 1984 and 1985.
Initial processing of this Manuscript Group was done by Judith Nielsen in March 1987.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.