History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 34

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954

USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 34

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Phillips County-Clay of little proved value, sand and some stone.

Pitkin County-Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, antimony (polybasite), coal, iron (bornite), hematite, magnetite, pyrite (siderite), arsenic, (pearcite), barium (barite), clay and stone almost wholly undeveloped.

Prowers County-Clay of good quality, excellent glass sand, stone of several varieties but of doubtful commercial value.

Pueblo County-Clay of many varieties, including good fire clay, sand of good quality, including some glass sand, excellent stone, including good sandstone, marble and granite, large deposits of limestone.

Rio Blanco County-Coal, carnotite, oil shale, petroleum, asphaltic rock, lime- stone, sandstone, granite, sands of many varieties, including asphaltic sands, ex- cellent road making material.

Rio Grande County-Gold, silver, copper, sand, asbestos, alunite, lava, sand- stone, clay, granite and many varieties of stone, not widely developed.

Routt County-Gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, corundum, clay, asphaltic rock, sand and wide variety of building stone, but little developed.

Saguache County-Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron, alunite, amethyst, manganese (pyrolusite), sand, clay, building stone of several varieties.

San Juan County-Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, iron (marcasite, pyrite, pyrrhotite), arsenic (arsenopyrite), bluestone, fluor spar, molybdenite, antimony (bournonite, polybasite, stibnite), a wide variety of stone of doubtful commercial value, clay, utilized to some extent for brick.

San Miguel County-Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, carnotite and other radium-bearing ores, antimony (polybasite), tungsten, barite, fluor spar, arseno- pyrite, enargite (sulpharsenate of copper), iron (marcasite, pyrite), minium, barium (barite), platinum (in small quantities), stone of many varieties, like- wise clay and sand.

Sedgwick County-Plenty of clay, some of which has been utilized for mak- ing brick; sand, stone, of doubtful economic value.

Summit County-Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron (brown iron ore), manganese (rhodochrosite), molybdenum, stone of many varieties, undeveloped, also sand and clay.

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HISTORY OF COLORADO

Teller County-Gold, silver, fluor spar, molybdenite, antimony (stibnite), topaz, phenacite, tourmaline, volcanic ash, stone of wide variety, clay and sand.

Washington County-Clay, used sparingly for brick, fluor spar, stone of little economic value, fuller's earth, sand and gravel.

Weld County-Coal, clay, stone, sand, gravel.

Yuma County -- Clay, used to a limited extent for brick, sand, gravel and stone of uncertain economic value.

CHAPTER XIV

RECORD OF SMELTERS FOR HALF A CENTURY

BEGINNING OF THE SMELTER INDUSTRY IN COLORADO-PROF. NATHANIEL P. HILL AND HIS WORK-FIRST COMPANY ORGANIZED-RICHARD PEARCE'S WORK- PEARCE'S IMPROVED TREATMENT OF ORES-OTHER SMELTERS-PRICES PAID BY BLACKHAWK SMELTER BEFORE 1870 GROWTH OF INDUSTRY-LONG FIGHT OF THE AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY-CONTROL GOES TO THE GUGGENHEIMS.

BEGINNING OF SMELTER INDUSTRY IN COLORADO

The smelter history of Colorado had its actual beginning in January, 1868, when Prof. Nathaniel P. Hill opened his smelter at Blackhawk. The crude Burdsall smelter at Nevadaville had been destroyed immediately after its erection in 1861, but it is doubtful if its operation would have solved the great problem of the day.

When Professor Hill built his smelter it was necessary to send the metal to Swansea, Wales, where the gold, silver and copper were separated from the com- bination. This was, however, done for a brief period only, as Professor Hill and his associates, the success of the smelter assured, soon built their own refinery. Nathaniel P. Hill, the father of the smelting industry in Colorado, was a professor of chemistry at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. To him practically every manufacturer in Rhode Island brought his chemical problem, with a feel- ing of confidence that his keen analytical mind would solve it.

And thus it was that some thought perhaps this problem of the refractory ores of Gilpin County could be solved by this genius. Of one thing they felt assured : If he undertook the task he would not give it up until he had either solved it or knew that it could not be solved.

PROF. NATHANIEL P. HILL

When Hill, on the invitation of capitalists, came into Gilpin County he found the camp nearly deserted. The task had been a hopeless one to most of those men, and they had given it up, for they had found it impossible to wrest from these iron and copper sulphides the rich gold stains that lay within them. Stamp- ing was of no avail, for the gold was plainly held in a chemical combination, and the product obtainable was hardly 25 per cent. of actual gold values. Professor Hill made two trips to Colorado. He took small quantities of ore with him to Swansea, and to Freiberg, Germany, where the celebrated school of mines is

310

CENTRAL CITYAND BLACKHAWK COLORADO,187 %

REFERENCES,

REFERENCES

CENTRAL CITY

LEITUDE

ALTITUDE

DOSTONACOLORADO OMI

JOURNEY BLOCK LEAFMAL EFfeGOL

VIEW OF CENTRAL CITY, ABOVE, AND BLACKHAWK, BELOW, IN 1873

312

HISTORY OF COLORADO

located. Finally he returned with a Swansea metallurgist, and with the process fairly well outlined in his own mind. They had succeeded with small quantities. Could they duplicate their success with a large tonnage? It was an expensive proposition this of carting seventy-two tons taken from the Bobtail mine over the prairies to the Missouri River, and thence to Swansea.

FIRST COMPANY ORGANIZED

When Professor Hill returned with his smelting process completed, the Bos- ton and Colorado Smelting Company was organized. Construction was begun in 1867, and a stated operation began in January, 1868, and the first matte was shipped to Swansea in June, 1868.

The first smelter consisted of a calcining furnace, and a small reverberatory. The fire brick was shipped by rail from St. Louis to the terminus of the road, and then 600 miles by wagon. The iron cost 22 cents a pound, and skilled labor $8.00 to $10.00 a day. The smelting charges were $20 to $45 a ton.

In 1869 the works consisted of two reverberatories for roasting and two for smelting, together with roast heaps in the open air. In 1878 the plant was re- moved to Argo, near Denver.

RICHARD PEARCE'S WORK

In April, 1872, Richard Pearce, of Swansea, Wales, built the Swansea smelter (capacity eight tons in twenty-four hours) near Empire, Clear Creek County, similar in design to the Hill smelter. Owing to the deficiency of iron pyrites the smelter was operated steadily only about one month in 1872, but in 1873, it was operated intermittently, the deficiency being supplied from Gilpin County. No mention of the Swansea smelter is made in reports subsequent to 1874, and it was probably closed when Pearce took over the superintendency of the plant at Black- hawk and lead smelters were erected at Golden. Mr. Pearce apparently started at the Swansea smelter his experiments for the extraction of silver from the matte and carried the results of these experiments to Blackhawk.

Early in 1871 the plant consisted of two calcining furnaces for tailings, which were too finely pulverized to be roasted in heaps, two Gerstenhofer or terrace furnaces for calcining (never satisfactorily operated), and two reverberatory smelting furnaces. The plant was enlarged during the summer of 1871 by one smelting furnace, a reverberatory of the same type as the two older ones. In 1872 a blast furnace was added for re-working slags obtained by the treatment of zinciferous silver ores.

From the beginning of operations this company had shipped its copper matte to Swansea, Wales, for separation, but in the summer of 1873 Richard Pearce built separating works at Blackhawk for this smelter, and the first silver bullion. 0.998 fine, was turned out early in November. The residue was shipped to Boston for the recovery of the gold and copper.

PEARCE'S IMPROVED TREATMENT OF ORES

In 1875 Pearce invented a process for the separation of the gold, silver, and copper, at Blackhawk. This process was not made public until after the de-

313

HISTORY OF COLORADO

cision in 1908 to close and dismantle the smelter at Argo, a suburb of Denver, to which the smelter had been removed in 1878 from Blackhawk, because of the ex- pansion of business and the need of closer accessibility to fuel supplies. The refinery at Argo was destroyed by fire in 1906 and was not rebuilt. The fires of the smelting furnaces were finally "out" on March 17, 1910.

It was at the Argo smelter that Richard Pearce developed the smelting of copper ore in reverberatories, gradually working up from 5-ton to 100-ton fur- naces. The works at one time included five furnaces, later reduced to two, and finally to one (1909-10). In 1900 the Argo works were the only works in the United States that smelted gold and silver ores to matte exclusively in reverbera- tory furnaces. Copper at Argo was merely a vehicle, and only sufficient cupri- ferous ore was employed to make sure of thoroughly collecting the precious metals, the average charge smelted containing less than 2 per cent copper. The ores treated comprised pyritic (auriferous) ores and concentrates from Gilpin County and elsewhere, barytic silver ores from Aspen and Creede, siliceous, telluride and other gold ores from Cripple Creek, and any and every kind of ore containing gold and silver and not too rich in lead.

OTHER SMELTERS

While the Hill smelter at Blackhawk had the distinction of being the first successful smelter of the district and with its successor at Argo played a most im- portant part in the development of this region, several other smelters were also in operation at different times. In 1872 there were in operation the Swansea matte smelter at Swansea, near Empire; a matte smelter at the Whale mill (now a part of the Stanley mill), near Idaho Springs; and a lead smelter at Golden (Bayley & Sons or Golden City Smelting Works). In 1873 a lead smelter (Denver Smelting Works) was established at Denver. In 1875 the Collom Company, which already had separating and concentrating works at Idaho Springs and Blackhawk, com- pleted a lead smelter at Golden. The Golden Smelting Co.'s plant was con- structed at Golden in the same year. This plant, which started in September, was first operated as a lead smelter, but as the supply of galena proved inadequate, it was altered to a copper-matte smelter. Golden became for a short time a smelting center of some importance. In 1880 three plants were in operation there, but from 1884 to 1888, inclusive, only one was in operation. In 1901 the Golden semi- pyritic plant was built by F. R. Carpenter according to plans developed at Rapid City and Deadwood, South Dakota, for the purpose of treating highly pyritic ores from Gilpin and Clear Creek counties. The smelter, operated for several years by the Clear Creek Mining & Reduction Co., smelted large quantities of ore from the Saratoga mine, which the company controlled, also ore bought in the open market. In April, 1910, this plant, after the addition of a reverberatory, was re- opened as the North American semipyritic plant for the treatment of copper and pyritic ores of Gilpin, Clear Creek, and other counties, and was operated inter- mittently until November, 1911. Its building is still intact, but none of the other plants at Golden are standing.

About the time the owners of the Argo plant were planning to go out of busi- ness, a new matte smelter, styled the Modern, with McDonald furnace, went into blast on October 22, 1909, at Utah Junction, a short distance from Globeville,

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HISTORY OF COLORADO

on ores purchased in the market from Clear Creek, Gilpin, Lake, and other coun- ties, but it was closed in April, 1910, and was never opened again, being dismantled in 1915-16.

The American Smelting & Refining Co.'s Globe plant, at Denver, now treats most of the ores of this region. Some ore from Georgetown and Rollins- ville goes to the Ohio and Colorado Smelting & Refining Co.'s plant, at Salida. Zinc ores and concentrates from Georgetown and Idaho Springs go to the United States Zinc Co.'s plant, at Blende, and to smelter plants in Kansas and Oklahoma.

The smelting and milling charges in the early days of the development of the region seem prohibitive compared with those now in vogue. The prices paid by the Blackhawk smelter previous to January 1, 1870, are shown in the following schedule, which was not, however, invariably adhered to.

PRICES PAID BY BLACKHAWK SMELTER BEFORE 1870

Ounces of

Percentage

Ounces of

Percentage

fine gold

of the value

fine gold

of the value

per ton

of the gold

per ton

of the gold

of 2,000

and copper

of 2,000

and copper

pounds

paid

pounds

paid

52.5

The precious metals in the ores were up to 1874 never paid for below a cer- tain minimum, which for silver was 40 ounces" and for gold 11/2 ounces. In July, 1874, an arrangement was adopted whereby the Blackhawk smelter paid for gold ores at the rate of 85 per cent of the total value of the gold and silver con- tained after deducting $35 (currency) a ton for treatment. The gold was esti- mated at $20 an ounce and the silver at $1.25 (gold) an ounce, with the premium (3 per cent below New York quotations) added.

The above details are from Government reports by Messrs. Bastin, Hender- son and Hill, published in 1917.

GROWTH OF INDUSTRY

After this the smelter industry assumed vast proportions. In 1877 the Ar- kansas Valley smelter, one of the largest in the country, was opened at Leadville, for the ores here were lead carbonates, and, like the sulphides, had to be smelted. James B. Grant, later governor of the state, another graduate of the School of Mines at Freiberg, Germany, together with N. H. James, built what was called the Grant smelter, at Leadville, but as this was burned in 1882, these men, to- gether with E. W. Nash and Burton Sewell, built the Omaha and Grant smelter at Denver. Nash and Sewell put up the refinery at Omaha to handle the bul- lion. Another of these Freiberg graduates, and one of the ablest, was Anton Eilers, who came to Leadville in its opening days. He secured ample capital to

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HISTORY OF COLORADO

back him and put up the Eilers smelter at Pueblo, which in a few years became one of the greatest plants of its kind in the world. By 1900 the smelting capacity at Pueblo was 2,000 tons daily in smelters owned by The Colorado Smelting Company, the Philadelphia Smelting & Refining Company, the original Guggen- heim plant, and The Pueblo Smelting Company.

By 1889 there were four large smelters operating in Leadville, the Arkansas Valley, the American, the Harrison reduction works and the Manville or Elgin smelter. These were all prospering, and were using the fine coal and coke pro- duced in the Jerome Park mines near Glenwood Springs.

In 1901 the plant of The Buena Vista Smelting & Refining Company, de- stroyed by fire in 1900, had been replaced and was in active operation. The Ohio and Colorado Smelting Company was completing its plant just above Salida. They had an aggregate capacity of 1,200 tons daily.

In 1886 Edward R. Holden, backed by C. B. Kountze and Dennis Sheedy, Denver bankers, built the Globe smelter, at Denver.

Meyer Guggenheim, a shrewd investor, had come to Colorado from the East, where he was one of the largest importers of Swiss laces in the country. Switzerland was his fatherland. He had taken over a Colorado mine, the "A J. & Minnie" and one of his sons, Benjamin Guggenheim, was placed in charge. This was in the halcyon days of Leadville and every property looked like ready money. With ample capital at his command the elder Guggenheim decided to go into the more certain end of the business, that of smelting-and with E. R. Holden, who had just put up the Globe, and in which he also interested Mr. Guggenheim, formed The Denver Smelting Company, $500,000 capital, expect- ing to locate at the capital. In this respect, as well as in the matter of money needed for the enterprise, they altered their plans. They changed the title to the Philadelphia Smelting & Refining Company, a tribute to the city in which the elder Guggenheim had had his first great success; and in 1888 erected the Philadelphia smelter, which eventually cost $1,250,000.

In 1893 the panic hit the smelters as well as the mines, but the slump, at least with the smelters, was not of long duration or as utterly disastrous as in some of the silver-mining districts.

In 1899 eighteen of the largest smelting concerns in the country organized the American Smelting & Refining Company, with a capital of $65,000,000. Into this came the Standard Oil interests, represented by H. H. Rogers. That fa- mous "Freiberg" trio, James B. Grant, Anton Eilers and G. R. Meyer, who had constructed a plant at Argentine, near Kansas City, joined the combination with their plants. Dennis Sheedy represented tlie "Globe" in the consolidation, and E. W. Nash, the first president, representing with Governor Grant both the Omaha refinery and the Omaha & Grant smelter. Thus the Colorado plants in the first combine were The Colorado Smelting Company and The Pueblo Smelt- ing Company plant at Pueblo, the Durango at Durango, the Omaha & Grant and the Globe at Denver, and the Arkansas Valley & Bimetallic at Leadville. Out- side of the state eleven smelting and refining companies were in the consolida- tion. This new company, the American Smelting & Refining Company, was in- corporated on April 4, 1899, as a New Jersey corporation. The only large Colo- rado concern not in the new company was that owned by the Guggenheims in Pueblo. They, however, had two Mexican smelters and a refinery at Perth

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HISTORY OF COLORADO

Amboy, New Jersey, to assist them in their fight on the new combination. Now be- gan an era of good mine contracts, in which liberal propositions were made to mine owners, and within two years the Guggenheims were able to enter the combina- tion and control it. The American Smelting & Refining Company in 1901 paid the Guggenheims $45,200,000 in stock, one-half common and one-half pre- ferred. In the market on the date of the sale the value of this was over $35,- 000,000.

In 1910 when the Grant and other Colorado plants had been dismantled or shut down, there were left in Colorado as the possession, of the American Smelt- ing & Refining Company : at Denver, the Globe, seven furnaces, annual capacity, 322,000 tons; at Pueblo, the Pueblo, 328,000 tons annual capacity; the Eilers, 295,000 tons ; at Durango, the Durango, 146,000 tons annual capacity; at Lead- ville, the Arkansas Valley, 509,000 tons annual capacity.

In 1917 the Colorado smelters, controlled by the American Smelting & Re- fining Company, the Globe, Pueblo, Arkansas Valley and Durango, reported production of metals as follows: gold, $3,467,186; silver, $4,373,609; lead, $4- 488,041 ; copper, $1,807,992; total, $14,136,826.

CHAPTER XV

THE POWER PLANTS OF COLORADO

FIRST EFFORTS TO HARNESS STATE WATER POWER-CURTIS & HINE PIONEER THE WORK-FAILURE OF POWER COMPANIES-EASTERN CAPITAL BECOMES INTER- ESTED-COLORADO POWER COMPANY-STATEMENT OF BOARD OF UTILITIES IN JANUARY, 1918-WESTERN LIGHT & POWER COMPANY-ARKANSAS VALLEY RAILWAY, LIGHT & POWER COMPANY-COLORADO SPRINGS LIGHT, HEAT & POWER COMPANY-WESTERN COLORADO POWER COMPANY-TRINIDAD ELECTRIC TRANS- MISSION, RAILWAY & GAS COMPANY-OTHER PLANTS IN COLORADO

The history of mining in Colorado would be incomplete without a reference to the development of hydro and steam power plants and their application to the operating of the mines of the state. Thus The Colorado Power Company now supplies power to mining territory from Twin Lakes on the south, Redcliff on the west, through the sulphide belt and into Boulder County. This company, on January 1, 1918, was serving 275 metalliferous mining properties with a total of 30,000 horse power and with installations ranging from 20 to 2,000 horse power.

FIRST EFFORTS TO HARNESS STATE WATER POWER

The use of the streams of Colorado for power purposes began in a small way with the advent of manufacturing. But not until November 13, 1906, was it undertaken on what may well be called a gigantic scale. The idea of harnessing the Grand River occurred first to Leonard E. Curtis and Henry Hine, two promi- nent engineers of Colorado Springs. On the date above mentioned they incorpo- rated The Central Colorado Power Company, with a capital of $22,500,000. This was the final outcome of a long series of tests and of experimentation stretch- ing over a decade.

The incorporators and first directors of the new company were: Myron T. Herrick, David H. Moffat, J. R. McKee, Henry Hine, Leonard E. Curtis, Copley Amory, J. A. Hayes, Orlando B. Wilcox, Charles A. MacNeill, George B. Tripp, Horace G. Lunt, George R. Bucknan, and T. P. Hanscom.

In the articles of incorporation its purposes was declared to be the diverting of, and appropriating for power purposes, the water from the Grand River, and the building of a storage reservoir to accommodate the waters of Williams Fork.

Messrs. Curtis and Hine undertook the construction of a finely planned sys-

317

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HISTORY OF COLORADO

tem at Shoshone, on the Grand River, near Glenwood Springs, securing a head or fall of 165 to 170 feet.

The prospect looked feasible, and its construction was progressing so satis- factorily that a second company was formed on May 13, 1907, and known as The Eastern Colorado Power Company, with Horace G. Lunt, John T. Adams and Henry Hine as incorporators. The purpose of this was to build a dam at Nederland in Boulder County, with a complete plant on Middle Boulder Creek.

COLORADO POWER COMPANY

The original incorporators soon found that the two projects required a far greater expenditure of money than had been anticipated. But eastern capital was looking westward. The largest operators in the electric field, the General Electric, the Westinghouse-Kerr Company, H. M. Byllesby & Co., of Chicago, were directing their eyes to the Colorado field. .

In the adjustments which followed, both hydro plants, at Shoshone and in Boulder County, were completed, and on April 1, 1913, the properties of the two companies were taken over by The Colorado Power Company, which has since been extending its field of operations.

The following statement was issued by the State Board of Utilities for this history in January, 1918:

"The Colorado Power Company with general offices in the Symes Building, Denver, Colorado, operates hydro-electric plants at Shoshone, Boulder and Sa- lida. The company also operates the property of The United Hydro Electric Company, which has a hydro-electric plant near Georgetown. The capacity of these hydro-electric developments is as follows :

"Shoshone 18,000 h. p.

"Boulder 21,000 h. p.

"Salida 1,900 h. p.

"Georgetown (United Hydro) 1,450 h. p.

"Total 42,350 h. p.

"This company also operates steam plants at Leadville and Georgetown. The plants at Shoshone, Boulder, Leadville and Georgetown are tied together by means of a 100,000 volt transmission line. At Salida, there are two small hydro-electric plants having a combined capacity of 1,900 h. p., and there is in addition a steanı reserve plant located in the Town of Salida. The steam reserve plant and the hydro plant are tied together by means of a 17,000 volt transmission line.

"In addition to the above plants, The Colorado Power Company operates steam plants at Alamosa, Monte Vista and Sterling. The territory served by this company is as follows: Alamosa, Monte Vista, Salida, Monarch, Leadville, Redcliff, Georgetown, Lawson, Idaho Springs, Nederland, Sterling and Iliff. In addition, the surplus output of this company, known as "dump" power, is sold to The Denver Gas & Electric Light Company.

"The officers of The Colorado Power Company, January, 1918, were: Presi- dent, George H. Walbridge, New York City; first vice president, Sidney Z. Mitchell, New York City; second vice president, L. P. Hammond, New York City ; secretary, Irwin W. Day, New York City; treasurer, John Connell, Den-

YUMA IN 1885

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HISTORY OF COLORADO

ver, Colorado; assistant treasurer, A. E. Smith, Denver, Colorado; assistant treasurer, J. J. Sherwin, Denver, Colorado; attorney, William V. Hodges, Den- ver, Colorado; general manager, Norman Read, Denver, Colorado.

"Directors: Bulkeley Wells, chairman, Telluride, Colorado; A. C. Bedford, New York City; Irving W. Bonbright, New York City; Irwin W. Day, New York City; L. P. Hammond, New York City ; George C. Lee, Boston, Massachu- setts ; J. R. McKee, New York City; Sidney Z. Mitchell, New York City; F. C. Walcott, New York City ; George H. Walbridge, New York City ; O. B. Wilcox, New York City."

The Colorado Power Company is controlled by Bonbright & Co., of New York, which firm also is closely identified with the General Electric interests.

On April 26, 1906, The Northern Colorado Power Company was organized, with William J. Barker, Thomas Keely and Robert S. Ellison as incorporators.

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History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 34

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 954

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954