James Ben Ali Haggin
1821 - 1914
A Kentucky-born grandson of a Turkish Army officer, James Ben Ali Haggin was lured west by the Gold Rush. He and his partners eventually owned South Dakora's Homestake Mine---the richest gold vein in North America. Haggin's group also mined other ores, owning the Anaconda Copper Mine in Montana and the Ontario Silver Mine in Utah. When shipping ore from his Cerro de Pasco Copper Mine in Peru necessitated a new railroad, Haggin built it himself, for $2 million. The Haggin group was said to control 80% of the world's copper supply.
Similarly grand in the scale of his thinking in agriculture, Haggin bought the 44,000-acre Norris grant in Sacramento. Finally, he came home to Kentucky in 1897 and began acquiring land. Eventually, his Elmendorf Farm sprawled over 8,700 acres and he owned 1,000 Thoroughbreds. Elmendorf's core remains a prominent Thoroughbred farm and sections of the old property became Spendthrift, Gainesway, Greentree, Payson, Normandy, and C. V. Whitney Farms. Haggin won the 1886 Kentucky Derby with a namesake, Ben Ali, and owned the champions Salvator and Firenza. Haggin's descendants in racing would include Louis Lee Haggin II and William Haggin Perry.
Marker can be reached from East Main Street (U.S. 60) near Midland Avenue (U.S. 60), on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
