TWHP


George Hearst, 1820-1891   

A country boy from Missouri who received little education, George Hearst nonetheless developed an affinity for the land and an uncanny awareness of its attributes. After allegedly walking the whole way to California, he arrived in 1850 and headed to the gold fields; afterward he directed his efforts to Virginia City and Nevada's Comstock Lode silver bonanza. Developing a reputation as the best mining man in the West, he acquired holdings in the greatest strikes in history, and brought forth mineral riches of every sort; he was at the gold mines in Deadwood, South Dakota, and he exploited the copper in the Anaconda mine in Montana. He bought great swaths of land across California, and farmed and raised stock; he also owned the Valley of the Moon Winery in Sonoma at one time. After winning a moribund newspaper gambling, he turned it over to his son, William, who transformed the San Francisco Examiner into the foundation of a publishing empire that continues to this day.


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