Thomas Walsh (miner)

Thomas Francis Walsh
Thomas Walsh in 1904
Born	(1850-04-02)April 2, 1850 Lisronagh, Ireland
Died	April 8, 1910(1910-04-08) (aged 60) Washington, D.C.
Occupation	Gold mine owner
Children	Evalyn Walsh McLean, Vinson Walsh
Parent(s)	Michael Walsh Bridget Scully
Relatives	Edward Beale McLean (son-in-law)

Thomas Francis Walsh (April 2, 1850 – April 8, 1910) was an Irish-American miner who discovered one of the largest gold mines in America. He was also famous for giving the famed Hope Diamond to his daughter Evalyn Walsh McLean as a wedding present.

Walsh was born April 2, 1850 to Michael Walsh, a farmer, and Bridget Scully. He was most likely born on his father's farm, Baptistgrange, in Lisronagh, Tipperary, Ireland. Walsh had the following siblings:

According to his daughter's book, Father Struck It Rich, he became an apprentice to a millwright at the age of twelve and grew into a fine carpenter.

In 1869, he immigrated to the United States with his sister, Maria, after the death of his father. For a time, he settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, with his aunts, Catherine and Bridget Walsh Power, who helped "shake the greenhorn off him".

In the early 1870s, he heeded the call to "go west, young man" and found himself in Colorado getting paid well for his carpentry skills. During the 1870s, the Black Hills of South Dakota saw a gold rush that attracted hoards of hopeful men afflicted with gold fever. It has been said that at first Walsh was attracted to the opportunities that came with the gold rush, including trading goods and services at inflated prices, as opposed to the gold rush itself.

Gradually, he became more and more immersed in the world of gold and was soon trading mining equipment to prospectors for mining claims as payment. He also studied mining technology at night. In 1877, he moved to Leadville, Colorado with a small fortune between $75,000 (equivalent to $1,687,000 in 2016) and $100,000 (equivalent to $2,249,000 in 2016). Along with his wife, he ran the Grand Central Hotel in Leadville.

After becoming an expert in the subject in gold mining, Walsh was overcome by gold fever and took to the hills. Unlike other prospectors he took a far more methodical and careful approach to prospecting which soon paid off. In 1896, he came home and uttered the words which later became the title of his daughter's book, "Daughter, I've struck it rich!" The Camp Bird Gold Mine near Ouray, Colorado soon turned out $5,000/day (equivalent to $144,000 in 2016) in ore and produced riches for the Walsh family "beyond the dreams of avarice". In a short period of time, Walsh extracted a fortune totaling $3,000,000 (equivalent to $86,364,000 in 2016).