Rocky Bar Mining Co. Stock certificate, issued to William J Harris for 20 shares on March 3, 1854, signed by President C. Sutterthwaite and secretary J.B. Woolworth Jr., Certificate 1744. Uncancelled. Printed by Banforth Bald & Co New York and Philadelphia. Extremely rare California Gold Rush certificate, perhaps three known. The Prospectus for this company is found in another lot in the Mining section of this catalog. The history of the company is well written by Carl Wheat in 1934, available online. The company was founded by a group of placer miners on the American River in 1849. The original company was not successful, and reorganized in 1853, reporting ores worth $400/ton, with a current mill capacity of 12 tons per day. (sounds like a two stamp mill). In 1856 the Board hired a new mine superintendent, and changed the name of the company to the Mt Hope Company. But this new superintendent murdered his wife and family, then himself in grass valley in 1858 (Wheat, The Rocky Bar Mining Company, 1934, p8). The New York group lost the mine through litigation by 1863. This certificate represents a tale of the first quartz mine in California along with years of failed mining, ending with a horrid story . American River California 1854