his own death in 1934. At that time Robert M. Hardy (a Yakima native and President of the Yakima National Bank) became president. He would remain President until his resignation in 1956, at which time his son succeeded him as President of the Company In 1921 a 25-ton per day mill was constructed. The mill was later expanded piecemeal and eventually reached a daily capacity of 500 tons. Soon after the concentrator was commissioned, the Sunshine tunnel was driven from the surface in an exploration effort which discovered higher quality ore historically identified as "Chinatown" In 1935 the concentrator at the mine was upgraded with new ball mill grinding units and flotation cells increasing the capacity to 1,000 tons per day while attaining a recovery of 98%. The sinking of the new four-compartment vertical Jewell shaft was started, reaching the 2300 level in 1936. In 1943 a crew drifting east on the 2700 level following the Silver Syndicate fault discovered the famous Chester vein. It was primarily the exploitation of the Sunshine vein followed by the Chester vein that determined the present configuration of the underground workings. With the discovery of the Chester vein on the 2700 level and the ore body's distance from the Jewell shaft of approximately 4000 feet east - southeast, other internal shafts (the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 10 shafts, more properly defined as winzes) were sunk or raised to more efficiently service the operations. The other principal internal shaft is the No. 12 shaft, servicing the Copper vein and the West Syndicate vein in the western end of the mine. In 1957, under the Presidency of Robert M. Hardy Jr. Sunshine Mining Company drilled the Medina No. 1 oil well, located immediately north of the town of Ocean City on the coast of Washington State. This was a joint venture with J.W. Tanner who was a businessman from Olympia, Washington with specific interests in the oil industry. Sunshine Mining Company purchased Tanner's interest in the company in 1958. Sunshine's Medina No. 1 well would produce 12,500 barrels of oil and remains Washington State's only commercially producing oil well. In 1961 the well was capped and production stopped. In 1960, sand-filling operations were introduced underground at Sunshine Mine. The mill tailings were classified so that the coarser material, approximately 45% of the total mill feed, was used for stope backfill. Fire The day shift