Chunks of lead ore were discovered in 1849 on land belonging to John C. Cox, the first settler in present-day Joplin. A year or two later, one of Cox's slaves found a chunk of galena while digging for fishing worms on a hillside near Joplin Creek, and Cox had the minerals smelted into lead and a shaft dug at the discovery site. He organized some lead mining and smelting, but the activity halted near the beginning of the Civil War. In the spring of 1870, J. Morris Young, superintendent of the Granby Mining and Smelting Company at Oronogo, offered a $500 prize to the miner or company of miners who could mine the most lead from any one shaft during a four-month period. Elliot Moffet and John Sergeant won the prize and used their winnings to lease a 10-acre tract from John C. Cox. In August 1870, they pitched a tent along the Joplin Creek valley and began digging for mineral riches. With their funds exhausted, they bought blasting powder on credit and made one last attempt, which exposed the tip of a substantial vein of lead. Within a couple of months, the Moffet and Sergeant discovery shaft reportedly yielded $60,000, and they erected the first smelter near their mine. News of the strike spread quickly, drawing miners to form a tent city of laborers along Joplin Creek. Their discovery became a defining moment in Joplin's history, and the mining camp quickly grew into the community of Joplin, Missouri, which was incorporated on March 23, 1873, with a population of 4,000.