A stamp mill used to crush quartz rock for gold extraction was first located at the Del Norte and Scotia Mine in French Ravine near Alleghany, where the Alleghany lode was the purest pocket of gold ore in the United States. Built in San Francisco in 1901 by Krogh Mfg. Co. and brought to the area by mule teams, it weighed 8750 pounds and was ordered by E.L. Crafts of Forest City for use in the mine. It could crush 8 to 14 tons of rock a day and remained in use until the mine ceased operation in 1949. It was a triple-discharge double stamp 1000 lbs mill driven by a 10 hp horizontal engine and locomotive boiler.