1870 - The company now owns several mines on their property: New Idria, San Carlos, Aurora, Molina, Washington, Beneda, Victorener and the Sulphur Spring. The New Idria Mine has four miles of tunnels.
1871 - Hunters report several times seeing a scantily clothed, long haired wild man running around the mountains near New Idria.
1873 - New Idria erects a large steam engine and installs a large steam-driven water pump 1,000 feet under ground. The engine is used for hoisting and the pumb for removing water from the mine. Dr. Greenleaf, the company's medical doctor, teaches school in English and Spanish. The New Idria furnaces, which are buring 35 cords of wood per week, begins burning coal supplied by the nearby Fortuna Coal Mine. Tiburcio Vasquez murders three people in Tres Pinos and tries to hide in the New Idria area. The "wild man" is seen again, Jake Crowninshield, as local story teller, reports seeing the "hideous thing" near New Idria. The company has thirty men working four furnace producing 300 flasks per week. Bricklayers from San Francisco are building a new furnace based on the "newest and most improved patterns." A sheep-herder was murdered by two men; one of them got away, the other one was "caught and hanged by the people."
1874 - New Idria Stage robbed by two persons. Both were dressed as men, but upon capture one of the bandits turns out to be a young woman. The New Idria school district is "said to be the largest in the county, the census representing 108 children."
1879 - A famous novel is written about New Idria by Bret Harte. He uses the McGarrahan claim as the basis of his story. McGarrahan, Gomez, and the New Idria Mining Company all appeared in The Story of a Mine under different names.
