In 1904, King facilitated one of his more high-profile mining acquisitions: the purchase of the then-famous Mammoth copper mine, located in Kennett, Shasta Co., California. Originally owned by Desda Wallace of San Francisco, Wallace's 1/3 share (consisting of 900 acres) was sold to King and John Fillius for $42,000 ($1 million in 2016) in 1904. The remaining 2/3s share remained in the hands of R.M. Saeltzer, Joseph Kahny and Tony Jaegel of Redding, California. King, however, retained a bond to work the entire mine. At the same time, the Guggenheims of New York were negotiating for the purchase of the Mammoth mine.
