W. W. Mein – An Interview by Henry Carlisle

W. W. Mein: One of the most amusing things in Nevada City – I was born and was going to school there - was that my mother made overcoats for us, and because they were different from other boys’ overcoats, we’d hide them under a bridge and pick them up on the way home. I left Nevada City with my parents when I was about eleven years old, and moved to Oakland. This was caused by the closing down of the hydraulic mines and my father being send to the El Cayo mine in Venezuela, which was then one of the richest gold mines in the world. Hamilton Smith operated the hydraulic mines in California, and when they were closed down by the Sawyer decision, he was persuaded by the Rothschilds to go to London. There, together, they formed the London Exploration Co.