The Ruth mining claim, named and discovered by D. C. MacDonald in 1897, did not show much promise in the beginning. Gold and silver turned out to be sparse, and copper deposits were of low grade and unknown quantities. But all that changed when Edwin Gray and Dave Bartley optioned the claim from MacDonald and began tunneling into the mountainside. By 1902, the partners had found staggering quantities of copper ore that would lead to the establishment of the town of Ruth and a mining boom to rival the other remarkable episodes in the industry's history in Nevada.

Richard Jose was born in Cornwall in 1862. After his father died in 1876, Jose came to Nevada searching for his uncle. As an adult, Jose claimed a birth date of 1869, promoting the story of a mere child traveling alone to the American West. He also changed the pronunciation of his name, and hence his ethnicity. Jose, pronounced like "Joe's" and rhyming with "rose," is Cornish. Later in life, he added an accent, as in José (pronounced hoh-zay), to affect an exotic Hispanic heritage.

Ralph Roberts is best known as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist who performed extensive regional geologic mapping in northern Nevada and published research on the geologic framework of northern Nevada that led to the discovery of the Carlin trend gold-producing province.

Pioche, the county seat of Lincoln County, is a twice-active, now-dormant mining camp near the Highland Range of eastern Nevada. Located about one hundred and seventy-five miles north of Las Vegas near the Utah border, it is one of the Silver State's more remote communities.