The firm of Clark & Bothwell opened for business on March 10, 1881 with offices at the corner of Nassau and Wall Street in New York City. The first mine in which the company became invested was the Starr-Grove silver mine, just south of present-day Battle Mountain, Nevada. By the end of 1881 the company, with Clark as President, was involved in seven silver mines, predominantly in Utah and California. Although focused on the American West, the company had far-reaching interests spreading from Mexico to Nova Scotia. The Satemo Mining Company of Tangier, Nova Scotia (named by Clark after a Japanese word which, according to his translation, meant "all right") became a subsidiary of Clark & Bothwell in the summer of 1881. The company was among the first involved in the Nova Scotia gold rush of that period.