University of Wyoming
Joel Parker Whitney was a leading mine operator, importer, land developer, sheep raiser, cattleman, fruit grower, reclamation and conservation advocate, financier, author, socialite, sportsman, and promoter of the West in the last half of the 19th century.
Whitney was born in Gardner, Massachusetts, on June 27, 1835. At the age of 17, he arrived in San Francisco. Here he joined his brothers in the importing business, which, along with the introduction of superior sheep breeding stock, soon made him a rich man. He invested some of his gains in the mercantile business in New England and set up an office in Boston.
Whitney attended Lincoln’s first inauguration in 1861 and served briefly in the Civil War. He went to the mine fields of Colorado following the war, where he took up his hobby of collecting mineral ores. Through this interest he placed mining investments wisely, particularly in silver.
At 32 Whitney was termed the “representative man of Colorado” and was sent by the state to the Paris Exposition of 1867, where he exhibited a collection of minerals for which he was awarded a gold medal. His frequent trips abroad brought foreign capital to his American enterprises.
Whitney also invested in the Union Pacific Railroad being built in Wyoming. In the early 1870s he transferred some of his extensive enterprises to Placer County, California. Here he continued his method of development through promotion and became active in reclaiming swamplands for agriculture, sheep raising, and fruit culture. He helped form a commission to find lands for the displaced Indians of northern California and stimulated interest in irrigation. His Spring Valley Ranch near Rocklin in Placer County became an estate. In 1878 he married Lucy Chadwick; they had three children.
An incurable developer, Whitney turned to New Mexico mines, railroad and land development, and cattle raising. In these ventures he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Weathering the losses, he invested in later years in real estate and hotel building.
Joel Parker Whitney died in Monterey, California, in 1913.
The 20 boxes of manuscript material relating to Joel Parker Whitney consist of the records of his many enterprises. Included in the manuscripts are account ledgers for The Raven Gold Mining Company, one of Whitney’s mines in Cripple Creek, Colorado, his Spring Valley, California ranch, and the 13 ledgers of the Whitney Estate Company.
Twelve letterpress copybooks, many with transcriptions, are included in the collection. Most of the correspondence is from W. J. Downing, Secretary-Treasurer of the Whitney Estate Company.
Three scrapbooks are included in the collection. Mining is the subject of two of them. The first focuses on the Leadville Mining Company in Leadville, Colorado. The second includes clippings on the Catalpa and Crescent Mining Companies of Leadville of which Whitney was president, as well as on the Bonanza Development Company of Colorado of which Whitney was also president. A third scrapbook focuses on vineyards and raisin making and includes clippings about the California Raisin Company in Placer County, California, one of Whitney’s business ventures.
Photographs of Whitney’s Spring Valley Ranch are also included.
There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, and the collection is open to the public.
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.
There are no known other archival collections created by at the date of processing.
The Joel Parker Whitney Papers were given to the American Heritage Center by Mrs. John P. Whitney in 1970.
The collection was processed by Sally Greywall, March 1998
Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection Number, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.