that mine was owned by john mackey, the namesake of this building. john mackey was born in the early 1830's in dublin, ireland, and he and his family came to new york, where he grew up in the five points neighborhood of new york city. when he was old enough, he left new york and took a ship to panama, hiked across panama and got another ship, landing in the gold fields of california as part of the 1849 gold rush, arriving around 1850 to 1851. he worked in the gold fields but did not find his fortune. in 1860, he walked from the gold fields of california to virginia city. according to the story, he entered virginia city penniless. because of his experience in the mines of california, he very quickly worked his way up through the mines of virginia city and became a superintendent of the mine in the late 1860's and was able to purchase the mines by the early 1870's. he was owner of the conn virginia when most thought it was defunct, and he and his business partners kept it open a few more weeks and it struck the big bonanza. by the 1870's, his mines wer

a lot of people remembered john mackey. they did not want one person honored on the capitol grounds. ande was a bit of a debate dr. stubbs, president of the university of the time, said, we will take it. that is how the statue of john mackey arrived. clarence mackey wanted to "beautify" the campus. donated elm trees and in 1908 donated $100,000 to build the mackey school of mines. 1908,seum was founded in one of the official fixtures of the mackey mine buildings. still displaying and storing items as it would have in 1908. founded as a research museum, it endeavored to bring the world to the mackey student. we have collections from all over the world. many of the collections are from famous mining districts, some have been closed for over 100 years. these samples were taken at depth. in many cases we know the actual shaft and depth the ore sample was taken from. the minerals on display and the objects on display show less than 5% of the collection. the majority is still in storage. our three collecting areas are rocks and m

they decided to honor john statue ofputting up a him. clarenceoach his heir, mackey, and he agreed and artist who to an would design and implement mount the statue.build when it was completed in 1907, there was a lot of atlantics. -- politics. some thought it was nappropriate that one man was honored on the capital grounds. there was a debate and dr. stubs, the president of the said, sity at that time, hey, we'll take it. clarence mackey saw this plucky university and wanted to, quote, beautify the campus. donated money for the quad elm trees and in 1908 $800,000. the mackey museum was founded in 1908. it was one of the original fixtures. the museum is still displaying would ring items as it have been in 1908. founded as a research museum, it to bring the world to the mackey students and we have all over the om world and many of our collection of oars from famous mining districts. mines that have been closed for years.00 in many cases we know the sample the orr sample was taken from. than 5% of show less the collection. the majority of the collection is still in stor