Mc Cone's Foundries
Storey County, Storey County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Mc Cone’s Foundries. In 1862, Ivy Mead, John McCone and Mr. Tascar established a foundry at Johntown, two miles southeast of here in Gold Canyon. After two years they moved their operation to this point and erected a large granite building. John McCone became the sole proprietor of the foundry in 1866.A fire on May 15, 1872 left nothing standing but the walls of the foundry.McCone then bought the Fulton Foundry built in Virginia City in 1863. McCone made it possibly the largest foundry in the state. The foundry manufactured all the early castings of the Virginia and Truckee Railway. He employed 110 men at its peak.The largest casting poured on the Pacific Coast was made at Fulton’s on December 11, 1880.
Erected by Dan Indermuhl
The Story
In 1862 Ivy Mead, John McCone, and a partner opened a foundry in Gold Canyon, moving it to this granite building two years later to serve the booming Comstock mines. McCone took sole ownership in 1866 and, after an 1872 fire, absorbed the Fulton Foundry to build what may have been the largest foundry in Nevada, employing 110 men. Its shops cast the early machinery of the Virginia and Truckee Railway and, in 1880, the largest casting ever poured on the Pacific Coast.
Why it matters
McCone's foundry shows the heavy industry that grew up alongside the silver mines—the unglamorous ironworks without which the Comstock's railroads and mills could not run.
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Related people
- · John McCone
Themes & tags
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