The Black Sand And Gold Recovery Company

Industry	placer mining
Predecessor	North Shore Reduction Company
Founded	1906
Founder	Herbert A. Parkyn, Thomas J. Lovett, John H. McFarland
Defunct	1911
Successor	American Placer Corporation
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois , United States of America
Products	The Lovett Magnetic Separator and bedrock pneumatic pipe dredge

The Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company was an early twentieth-century mining and industrial enterprise based in Chicago, Illinois, organized to extract gold, iron, and other valuable minerals from the black sands of the Pacific Coast. Incorporated in Arizona with a capital stock of five million dollars, the company was built around the patented Lovett Magnetic Separator, invented by Chicago engineer Thomas J. Lovett, which could separate iron from wet sand and recover metals such as gold, platinum, and zircon. The company was created by Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn a physician and publisher known for his Chicago School of Psychology and as editor of Suggestion magazine, engineer and inventor Thomas J. Lovett, and businessman John H. McFarland. Its board of directors included J. F. Batchelder of the U.S. Government's Lewis and Clark Exposition, William Hoskins industrialist and National Vice President of the American Chemical Society and Henry W. Hoyt of Allis-Chalmers. The Lovett Magnetic Separator was publicly demonstrated in 1905 at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon, where government metallurgists confirmed that the black sands contained large recoverable quantities of gold and iron.

Contents

• Origins and early development
• The patent for the T. J. Lovett Magnetic Separator, 1892
• Predecessor: The North Shore Reduction Company
• Use of New Thought magazines for investment promotion
• Promotion of the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company
• 1905 U.S. government report on the black sands of the Pacific Coast
• Board of directors and corporate structure
• Patent-centered business model
• American Placer Corporation is formed
• Expedition to Lees Ferry
• Horatio and Parkyn's drive
• Historic American Placer Company office
• External links
• References

Dr. Parkyn would serve as the fiscal agent and promoted the company widely through his Suggestion magazine and affiliated journals, emphasizing its patented control over the Lovett process and its potential to commercialize the government-verified mineral wealth of the Pacific Coast black sands. Parkyn's use of his magazine as a central marketing tool was part of a wider trend in the emerging New Thought movement of the day, where publications combined teachings on success and mental science with the promotion of business and investment ventures.

Origins and early development

Lovett was a long-time friend and neighbor of Dr. Parkyn, residing on Drexel Boulevard directly across from Parkyn's residence and his Chicago School of Psychology. Active in mining since the late 1880s, Lovett had patented his magnetic separator in 1892, a device capable of separating iron from wet sand while also recovering gold and other metals such as garnet, zircon, monazite, and platinum. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

Also living in the same building on Drexel was John H. McFarland, a close friend of both Parkyn and Lovett. McFarland was a business investor and salesman with extensive real estate interests, formerly Commercial Agent for the Frisco Railway System and General Manager of the Illinois agency of Fidelity Mutual. He was also an inventor, holding a patent for a gas light lamp that converted kerosene into hydro-carbon gas at a fraction of the cost of standard coal-oil lamps. McFarland served as Secretary of the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company and later joined Parkyn and Lovett in placer mining ventures. ^[8]

The three men regularly met at the Oakland Club, later renamed the Waupanseh Club, located on Drexel Boulevard only a short distance from their homes. The club had about 150 members drawn from Chicago's industrial and financial circles and was known for its social and professional atmosphere. It served as an ideal setting for Parkyn, Lovett, and McFarland to exchange ideas and recruit new investors from among the city's leading businessmen and industrialists. Many of the early discussions and connections that led to the formation of the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company took place there. McFarland served as Vice President and Director of the club, which made it a central meeting point for several of Chicago's most active entrepreneurs. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

Predecessor: The North Shore Reduction Company

Lovett had worked in the mining business for many years and in 1889, formed his first company, the Western Ore Separating Company, in Chicago. It was during this venture that he invented and patented his magnetic separator. Lovett believed his patented machine could dominate the industry of metal recovery from black sands and did not intend to offer the process to the public until it had received government endorsement. ^[12]

In 1903, following a Canadian government investigation confirming the mineral wealth of the north-shore sands of Lake Superior, Lovett formed the North Shore Reduction Company with Parkyn and a group of businessmen from Chicago and Minneapolis. Stock for the company was marketed through New Thought magazine by its editor, Sydney B. Flower, a long-time associate of Dr. Parkyn who had served as the secretary for his Chicago School of Psychology and as editor of the school's journal, The Hypnotic Magazine. ^{[13] [14] [15] [16] [17]}

Promotion of the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company

In June 1906, Herbert A. Parkyn's Suggestion magazine introduced the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company through a five-page advertisement and a three-page editorial written by Parkyn. He explained that his Suggestion magazine normally avoided speculative stock promotions but made an exception because the company's officers and operations were personally known to him. ^{[22] [23] [24]}

Dr. Parkyn described The Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company as one of the most promising industrial ventures of its era, aiming to recover vast mineral wealth from the black sands of the Pacific Coast. These sands, long known to contain large quantities of gold, iron, and other valuable minerals, had historically resisted profitable extraction. The company claimed to have overcome this barrier through the Lovett Process, a patented system of magnetic separation and mineral recovery that its backers described as a "virtual monopoly" on commercial black sand treatment. J. F. Batchelder, the Superintendent of Mines and Metallurgy who ran the research for the government in Black sands, was now running the operations of the company. He called control of the Lovett patents "the only key to unlock the inconceivable wealth" of the Pacific black sands. ^{[25] [26]}

The company's launch coincided with a surge of newspaper stories about hidden fortunes in Pacific sands, which created a favorable environment for its promotion. Beyond financial returns, the company's promoters envisioned a broad economic impact, with new industries along the Pacific Coast, tens of thousands of jobs, and a substantial increase in national wealth. Parkyn closed his editorial by urging readers to investigate the opportunity themselves, and that he and his friends and relatives were already highly invested. Dr. Parkyn would serve as the fiscal agent for the company and use his large platform in the New Thought movement to bring in hundreds of investors. ^{[22] [27] [28]}

1905 U.S. government report on the black sands of the Pacific Coast

In 1905, a U.S. Government investigation funded by a $50,000 appropriation from Congress examined the mineral content of Pacific Coast black sands and the report confirmed that the sands contained significant quantities of iron and gold, as well as other valuable minerals. The report prompted the company to initially built a plant for iron and steel production, followed by a second plant on the Snake River for gold and platinum recovery. Projected annual net profits were $600,000 from the first two plants, with an estimated $5,000,000 annually if 1,000 separators were operated under royalty agreements.. One representative claimed the Pacific Coast sands held enough iron to fill Lake Superior with solid ore, enough to supply the world's iron and steel needs for 100,000 years. ^{[22] [29]}

The Lovett Patented Process formed the foundation of the company's claims. It employed Lovett's magnetic separator along with concentrating devices and a bedrock pneumatic pipe dredge for recovering gold and other valuable metals from sand. These patents gave the company complete control over the commercial treatment of black sands. A full-scale Lovett Separator was publicly demonstrated at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland. At the Exposition, C. E. Wilson, an electrical furnace expert, smelted a 500-pound steel ingot for the U.S. Government from iron recovered by the Lovett process. ^{[22] [27]}

Board of directors and corporate structure

The company's board of directors was noted as one of the strongest ever organized, including steel men, government officials, bankers, lawyers, and well-known Chicago business professionals. Since the company was built around the Lovett Magnetic Separator and dredge patents, the composition of its board reflected a deliberate emphasis on intellectual property. The president and vice president were leading Chicago patent lawyers, while several others were industrial and chemical innovators who had built major enterprises on the strength of patent monopolies. Together they made patent protection and proprietary technology the foundation of the enterprise. The board was further reinforced by leaders of big business, linking the company to manufacturing capital, government finance, and railroad wealth. ^[24]

The board included longtime personal associates of Parkyn, such as H. W. Huttig, who was involved in several business ventures with him. Others included: ^[24]

• William H. Dyrenforth (President) a senior Chicago patent attorney, who had litigated several patent disputes that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. His firm was a central presence in intellectual property litigation, especially in mechanical and industrial patents.
• George A. Chritton (Vice President) a Chicago corporation lawyer, who also argued cases before the Supreme Court and specialized in patent and corporate law.
• William Hoskins, a nationally known chemist and assayer. He was a partner in Mariner & Hoskins of Chicago, one of the city's oldest commercial chemistry firms and where "Chromel" was born. He headed Hoskins Manufacturing which pioneered electric heating elements and supported Albert L. Marsh's discovery of nichrome. He was the National Vice President of the American Chemical Society and had more than thirty patents to his name. Hoskins represented the metallurgical expertise essential to validating the company's technology.
• Philetus Warren Gates, the former president of Gates Iron Works, a machinery manufacturing company based in Chicago. Gates had patented a gyratory crusher in 1881 that became a cornerstone of the crushing and milling industry. Gates Iron Works merged into Allis-Chalmers in 1901, placing him among the city's best-known industrialists. Gates's presence connected the company with large-scale manufacturing and the proven ability to commercialize machinery based on patent monopolies. ^{[30] [31]}
• Henry W. Hoyt of Chicago was Second Vice-President of Allis-Chalmers at its founding in 1901, and served on the board of directors and the executive committee with men like Cornelius Vanderbilt III and John W. Gates. His role on the board underlined the links between this venture and the elite networks of heavy industry. ^[32]
• William P. Williams, the Assistant Treasurer of the United States at Chicago, in charge of the local Subtreasury. He managed federal funds and payments in one of the largest financial centers outside New York. His inclusion brought fiscal expertise and a direct connection to government finance.
• F. E. Hayne (Treasurer) served as Treasurer and Assistant Secretary of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, one of the nation's leading railroads. His appointment connected the enterprise to high-level railroad finance and the banking networks that supported it.
• Hon. William H. Guirl, a large lumber manufacturer, operating as W. H. Guirl & Co. He organized large lumber plants and served on the Indiana legislature.
• Harry W. Huttig of Muscatine, Iowa, was the President of the Huttig Bros. Manufacturing Company, the Huttig Trust & Investment Company, and the Huttig Lumber Company. It was the countries largest supplier of sash and doors, operating what was considered at the time the largest and most advanced factory in the United States. ^{[33] [34] [35] [36]}

Patent-centered business model

While the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company established placer operations, these sites were mainly intended to showcase the power of the Lovett Magnetic Separator and affiliated machinery. The true goal was to sell and license the machines, using the government research reports on the wealth of black sands to spark public interest. By 1905, when official investigations confirmed the sands held valuable metals, the company was ready with demonstrations, including a full exhibit at the Lewis and Clark Exposition. Newspapers across the country filled with stories of hidden fortunes provided the perfect backdrop for the company to present its separator as the only proven way to recover them.

This approach reflected the experience of men on the company's board like P. W. Gates, H. W. Hoyt and William Hoskins. Gates had patented the gyratory crusher in 1881, a single invention that revolutionized ore reduction and became a fixture across the mining world, earning his firm immense profits through exclusive manufacturing rights. Hoyt, as a senior executive of Allis-Chalmers, helped build an industrial giant by acquiring and consolidating companies specifically for their machinery patents, ensuring the firm's dominance in heavy equipment. Hoskins, a chemist and inventor, followed a similar path in the electrical field. Through his patents on electric heating coils and related alloys, he and his associates created Hoskins Manufacturing, which supplied elements that became indispensable to appliances and industrial heating. His laboratory also fostered the development of nichrome, an alloy that would dominate resistance heating for decades. Like Gates and Hoyt, Hoskins understood that patents were more than legal protections, they were tools to control markets, shape industries, and secure monopolies. These men had shown how patents could serve as the foundation of entire industries, and the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company followed that model. ^{[30] [31]}

American Placer Corporation is formed

By 1909 the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company was supplying placer mining outfits across the West with Lovett dredges and magnetic separators. To meet demand it established manufacturing facilities in Denver and Salt Lake City, giving the company a base to distribute machines throughout the region. It also operated some placer sites of its own, intended less for profit than as demonstrations of the Lovett system and as a means of sustaining public interest in the wealth hidden in black sands. The most ambitious of these ventures was led by Charles H. Spencer in northern Arizona. Spencer, a bold and entrepreneurial mining man, had been working under the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company name along the Colorado River for several years. Using Lovett's dredges and magnetic separators, he carried out extensive prospecting that returned encouraging assay reports, but the activity remained largely experimental. ^{[37] [38] [39] [40]}

In mid 1909 Spencer traveled to Chicago to present his findings to the board of the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company and request further investment, but a majority the of board decided not to commit more funds to his Arizona operations. However, Parkyn and some other board members remained interested in Spencer's operation because of the strategic location and promotional value the work offered. Spencer had been operating in some of the most isolated parts of Arizona, deep within the Navajo Nation. The opportunity to promote investment as the only operation working with the Lovett system in such rugged country carried strong appeal for Parkyn. Over several days of discussion Spencer and Parkyn focused on the importance of Lees Ferry, which was the only place where the Colorado River could be crossed in that region. They agreed that moving Spencer's operation there would allow the creation of a base and supply center where Lovett machinery could be kept for prospecting outfits moving into the district. Spencer convinced Parkyn that the banks of the Colorado River contained great wealth and that he was close to unlocking it. The plan promised a double return with profits from placer mining and control of the crossing that would serve as the main supply station for the many other ventures expected to follow. ^[40]

Since the board as a whole chose not to continue funding Spencer's Arizona work, Parkyn and his closest associates, took it upon themselves to support the venture and oversee its difficult move across more then a hundred miles of rugged country to a new site at Lees Ferry. In the fall of 1910 Parkyn and several collaborators visited Spencer's operation to make sure their plans were being carried out and to stage a promotional show of confidence. Photographs from the visit emphasized that the backers of the enterprise were not merely office men in Chicago but active participants willing to stand alongside the work and share in the hardships of the field. ^[41]

By 1911 the patented Lovett machinery was being sold and licensed across the western states, and the Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company had established it as an essential tool in placer mining. With Lovett and other directors eager to pursue ventures such as Spencer's work at Lees Ferry, the decision was made to dissolve the company and organize a new corporation. Parkyn, together with Lovett and close associates including J. H. McFarland, H. W. Huttig, William Hoskins and William H. Dyrenforth, created the American Placer Corporation, incorporating it with a capital stock of five million dollars in South Dakota, where the laws were more favorable for placer companies. Although its headquarters were filed in Pierre, South Dakota the company was directed from a sub-office at Parkyn's address in the Marquette Building in Chicago. ^[38]

Expedition to Lees Ferry

In September 1910, Parkyn organized a promotional trip to inspect Spencer's operations at Lees Ferry accompanied by a group of investors and business partners. The visit was intended to showcase the level of professional oversight and high-level participation in the venture. Among those present was J. V. Daniels, who had worked closely with both Parkyn and Sydney B. Flower since 1900 when they co-founded the Psychic Research Company and the New Thought magazine, along with Parkyn's cousin Horatio Nelson Jackson, who had gained national recognition in 1903 as the first person to drive an automobile across the United States. Jackson was also active in mining investment and had established the Santa Eulalia Exploration Company in Mexico. ^{[40] [42] [43] [44]}

• 
  Horatio Nelson Jackson at Lees Ferry, AZ., in 1910, as an investor in his cousin Herbert A. Parkyn's American Placer Corporation. ^[45]
• 
  J. V. Daniels with Herbert A. Parkyn at Lees Ferry, AZ., in 1910, as investors in the American Placer Corporation. (Parkyn is holding the hose) ^[46]

Horatio and Parkyn's drive

Arrangements had been made by Parkyn for a Thomas Flyer automobile, with an experienced driver, to come from the west coast to meet the party when they arrived by train in Flagstaff, AZ. He wanted the trip to prove that a motor car could make the journey across some of the most remote roads and trails and reach Lees Ferry. Having his cousin, Horatio Nelson Jackson, added to the promotional value of the drive. The attempt would mark the first time a horseless carriage had gone as far as the Little Colorado and had crossed it at the Tanner Crossing. Along with them was J. V. Daniels, Thomas J. Lovett, Harry W. Huttig, and William Hoskins. ^{[40] : 228}

The journey drew attention from settlers and Navajos along the way, who saw an automobile for the first time. The narrow high pressure tires struggled in the soft sand and at the Little Colorado everyone except the driver had to push to get it across. They pressed on over wagon tracks and barren ground until they were within a few miles of Spencer's camp at Lees Ferry. The dugway ahead was too narrow and the driver refused to risk it, so Spencer sent a wagon to carry the men and their supplies the rest of the way. The car had not reached the camp itself but Parkyn had achieved his purpose of showing that large amounts of supplies could be brought by motor vehicle to within just a few miles of their station at Lees Ferry. ^{[40] : 230}

• 
  Herbert A. Parkyn at Lees Ferry
• 
  Horatio Nelson Jackson at Lees Ferry
• 
  Thomas J. Lovett at Lees Ferry

The formation of the American Placer Corporation marked the final organized phase of the Lovett and Parkyn mining ventures. While the company continued to license the Lovett Magnetic Separator and related dredging equipment across the western states, its large-scale operations such as those at Lees Ferry failed to produce the returns that had been anticipated. Transportation challenges, mechanical breakdowns, and the high costs of maintaining machinery in remote regions limited profitability.

Historic American Placer Company office

The American Placer Corporation built an office at Lee's Ferry that was abandoned around 1912. Cowboys, miners, and travelers occasionally camped in the empty building and it briefly functioned as a post office in 1922. ^[47]

External links

• The Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company's promotional pamphlet
• The Huntington Digital Library
• Charles Spencer collection

References