Lunger and Company sank a shaft on the Mountain Key to a depth of 90 feet and found very rich ore. They sold the property to General Boyle and a stock company was organized with John Boyle, Jr., as manager. The shaft was deepened to 470 feet, exposing large ore bodies. In 1890 when James Jackson, who later became a well-known figure in mining circles, went to work at the Key, there were three shifts working with 200 men employed on each. The company built its own mill down Bear Creek where adequate water could be piped from Mill Creek. Two dams were built across Mill Creek and besides utilizing the water for the mill, in the winters ice was cut on the ponds and stored in an ice house for summer use by the townspeople. Then, as now, the canyon was a favorite picnic spot. The Golden Giant, which was known locally as the “Gopher,” was a good producer. It was called the “Old Family Lode” during the ’60’s and ’70’s because it could be depended upon to furnish gold to the populace. Even today, after the rains Chelela, Loretto and Epifanio Cuebas find gold in the vicinity of the dump. Often when easy gold became scarce a claim was abandoned and open to relocation. A seventeen year old boy who had run away from his home in Texas wandered into town one day. He watched the miners washing gold and followed them to the store where the gold was weighed. The storekeeper became interested in the boy and let him have a prospector’s pick and gold pan. Each day the boy brought in a few colors and one day appeared with some fair sized nuggets. Upon investigation it was found that the ground adjoining the Gopher was open to location. The boy filed on the claim and went to work in earnest. One day a stranger came by and after watching him clean up at the end of the day, offered him $8,000.00 for his claim. The boy took it and went home with his fortune. Boys went to work when they were fourteen. A man with his boys would work a property digging, timbering and hoisting the dirt from the shaft with a windlass and bucket. The ore was carefully sorted and any rock showing free gold was ground in a hand mortar. The results varied. Sometimes they would make but $10.00 a day but at others the man would carry $200.00 worth of gold home in his lunch pail. After a man had taken nearly $300.00 from the surface of the Mountain View he decided that was all and sold the claim for $10.00 to a Mr. Demorest. From his assessment work he realized $390.00 and that justified development work. In a short time he netted $20,000.00 and made more by selling while the showing was good. That was the surest way of making money and many operators followed that principle.