Press Release

Reno, NV, USA, August 19, 2025 -- A Mineral Surveyor Archive from the important, mineral and ore-rich San Juan Triangle region of Colorado, spanning the years 1878-1935, sold for $28,060 at a three-day Wild West Wonders auction held August 8th-10th by Holabird Western Americana Collections, online and live in the Holabird gallery located at 3555 Airway Drive in Reno, packed with 1,737 lots.

The world U.S. Deputy James Dyson entered into in 1879 – Silverton and the San Juan region – was exploding in prospecting and production. By 1905 the population stood at 3,000. All the while Dyson was the sole Mineral Surveyor, active up to his death in 1923. By 1960, 64 million ounces of silver, 348,000 ounces of gold and millions more in zinc, lead and copper were mined.

The collecting categories in the auction included mining, numismatics, Native Americana, philatelic, Western Americana, antique stocks and bonds and more. Bids were placed live and in-person, over the phone with an agent, and online via iCollector.com, LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. It was a great sale, filled with many Americana treasures.

Some nice items that went unsold are still available at attractive prices. More on those later.

“We’re in our final series of auctions before my official retirement at the end of this year,” said Fred Holabird, president and owner of Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC. “Wild West Wonders was the penultimate live sale, with one more scheduled for October. We’re calling that one Holabird’s Grand Finale. Consignments must be in no later than September 1st.”

“The material already coming in for the October sale is great, and we’re imagining it will be a proper send-off for Fred, who has spent decades creating new collectors, building collecting markets, writing original research articles and bringing thousands and thousands of historical items to auction,” said a spokesperson for the company, adding, “What a fantastic run he had!”

A top achiever on Day 1 of Wild West Wonders was a scarce copy of the book Redwood and Lumbering in California Forests with Illustrations (1884), one of only a handful known with 24 original albumen prints inside the book, all in excellent condition. The book was published by Edgar Cherry, a “traveling agent” for the Sonoma Democrat newspaper. It gaveled for $4,375.

Also on Day 1, a porcelain sign for the June Lake Loop Automobile Club in Southern California, very rare, for a famous route in the Eastern Sierra, 20 inches by 36 inches, black and white, went for $2,000; while an original cel painting for the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), showing Jessica Rabbit, with a letter on back from Disney saying it’s original, garnered $1,750.

Two very different lots posted identical prices of $1,562. One was a circa 1900 pintail duck wood decoy by William J. Mason, with all original paint and glass eyes, overall 17 inches in length. The other was a late 19th century saloon photo taken in Skagway, Alaska, with one of the men in the photo believed to be the outlaw and gambler Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith.

Day 2 action was brisk and was led by the US Mineral Surveyor archive. Also sold was stock certificate No. 2 for the Homestake Mining Company, dated Nov. 2, 1877, important because Homestake was America’s largest single producing gold mine at well over 50 million ounces since the day this was issued ($5,625); and a stock certificate for the North American Land Company, issued to James Rees in 1795 and signed by Founding Father Robert Morris ($1,312).

To learn more about Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC, please visit www.holabirdamericana.com. Updates are posted frequently.

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