USA > Idaho > An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day > Part 79
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434
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
of this year. The mill started up in July and is now shipping from one thousand eight hundred to two thousand tons per month and giving employment to about two hundred men. The product from this prop- erty is considerably above the average, running high in silver. The controlling interest has recently changed hands and is now in the possession of the London Exploration Company, of England. Joseph McDon- ald is the resident manager for the company. The Black Bear mine and mill, about a quarter of a mile above the Frisco, were operated in early days, but for several years have lain idle, the company, composed of eastern parties, becoming more or less involved in financial difficulties during the panic of 1893. The Standard mine is the next property and adjacent to it is the Mammoth. The ore from the Standard is taken to the mouth of Canyon creek and milled, and that from the Mammoth to the Gem Mill at Gem. The Standard mine at this point gives employment to about one hundred and seventy-five men and at their mill about twenty-five more, Emerson Gee being the manager of the mill and mine, and Richard Wilson the manager of the Mammoth. The Mammoth Com- pany give employment at the mine and mill to about one hundred and twenty-five.
The Tiger & Poorman, at Burke, being the oldest location in the Coeur d'Alenes, more work has been done on this property than any other; both mines have been steady producers since January, 1887. The Tiger concentrator was completed in January, 1887, and during the same month the narrow-gange railroad from Burke to Wallace was also completed. The Tiger mill was the second concentrator in the Coeur d'Alenes, being originally built for a one-hundred-ton mill. The Poorman concentrator was the third mill built in the Coeur d'Alenes and was finished during the fall of 1887. the concentrator being a three-hundred-ton plant. Prior to October, 1895, both the Tiger and Poorman were operated as separate companies and both were fully equipped with mills, hoists, surface buildings, etc. Patrick Clark was the operator of the Poor- man Company up to the time of the consolidation in October, 1895. The two companies consolidated their interests, extensive improvements were made for the economic working of the two properties as one, and at about the time of the completion of these im- provements, in March, 1896, a fire occurred, com- pletely destroying both mills and all surface improve- ments, excepting the Tiger hoist, of the two properties. The mines at the time of the fire had reached a depth of one thousand feet, and, owing to the destruction of their boiler plant, the mines were allowed to fill with water. Considerable doubt was expressed at the time as to what the consequence might be in allowing the mines to fill with water, and fears were entertained that the ground might cave after being
pumped ont. Rebuilding of the plant was commenced immediately after the fire and a five-hundred-ton con- centrator with the latest improved machinery and ap- pliances for the economical handling of ore was com-
pleted and started up in February of this year. Pumping out the mines was started in August and the mine was unwatered by the middle of January, with no bad results showing on account of its hav- ing been allowed to fill. The property is now pro- ducing from one thousand eight hundred to two thons- and tons of concentrates per month and giving em- ployment to one hundred and sixty men. The prop- erty is well equipped with the heaviest mining ma- chinery in the Coeur d'Alenes and is so arranged that all the machinery can be operated by either water or steam power, the company having a water power amply sufficient for all purposes during a portion of the year. The company are also operating an elec- tric plant of about one hundred and seventy-five horse- power capacity which at the time of its completion, some seven or eight years ago, was the largest elec- tric plant in the United States. Both mines are worked from one shaft, which at the present time is down to their one thousand three hundred station, being one thousand one hundred feet vertically below the bed of the creek. The lowest workings show an im- provement both in quality and quantity of ore as depth is increased. From all indications shown in the low- est workings, there is no reason why it is not safe to say that the ore will go down to that point where the cost of handling the water will stop further opera- tions. With improved pumping machinery, water and electric power, this point should not be reached until after the three-thousand-foot mark has been passed. The depth of the Tiger & Poorman angurs well for the future of the Coeur d'Alenes and the mines of this section, insuring a long life ahead as a mining camp.
While we read a great deal about the rich mines of Rossland, Cripple Creek, Creede and other camps, there are but few camps in the west that compare to the Coeur d'Alenes as steady producers, and with little or no notoriety they have gone forward and kept steadily at work for the past eight years, except- ing a period of six-months shut-down during the strike of 1892, and with lead down as low as two dollars and fifty cents and silver as low as fifty-one cents. At the present time the shipments from the Coeur d'Alenes will show a tonnage of thirteen thous- and tons per month, which tonnage is made up as follows:
Tons per month.
Bunker Hill & Sullivan
3,000
Morning
2,500
Standard
2,200
Tiger & Poorman
1,800
Helena & Frisco
1,800
Last Chance
750
Mammoth
600
Other smaller properties including prospects. 350
Making a total of 13,000
The output has averaged fifty-five per cent. lead and thirty ounces of silver, which at present prices show a valuation of over seven hundred and fifty thousand
435
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
dollars per month or nearly ten million dollars per year added to the wealth of the world by the lead and silver shipments from the Coeur d'Alenes, to say notli- ing about the gold from the north side, of which there is considerable quantity, furnishing steady employ- ment to over two thousand men at the best wages in the west. What other mining camp outside of Butte can beat this record?
The total lead production of the United States for the year 1896 amounted to 174.692 tons, of which 135.332 tons were desilverized lead. 33.428 were soft lead from the Missouri and Kansas districts, and 5,932 tons were hard or antimonial lead. In addition to the domestic production there were 80,159 tons imported in all forms, chiefly as base bullion, from Mexico and Canada. This year's production will probably show an increase, and the Coeur d'Alenes will produce nearly one-half of the entire production. It is to this camp that American Smelters now have to look for their largest supply of lead ore.
THE LEAD BELT OF THE COEUR D'ALENES.
Lead was first discovered in the Coeur d'Alene min- ing district, in northern Idaho. on Canyon creek in the fall of 1884, the discovery at that time being the Tiger mine, situated at the town of Burke. Dur- ing same year a few other locations were made on Canyon creek, a few at Mullan, and in the fall of 1885 the Bunker Hill & Sullivan mines were discov- ered at Wardner.
At the time these discoveries were made the coun- try was inaccessible, with no railroads, wagon roads or trails, and the only way of getting in was by foot; ten to fifteen miles' travel per day was about all the distance a prospector could cover, owing to the heavy underbrush and timber at that time. The prospector of that day who has not kept posted with the prog- ress of the Coeur d'Alenes would hardly be able to recognize the country at this time. The camp at pres- ent may be divided into four districts, viz .: Canyon Creek, Wardner, Mullan and Nine Mile, and stand- ing in the importance of output in the order namned. The veins in the Canyon creek district are true fis- sure veins and as such are likely to go to great depth, some of them having already reached a depth of one thousand feet to one thousand two hundred feet, with no signs of any decrease in quality or quantity of ore. The ore shutes in all the mines on Canyon creek are well defined, regular in width and length and lying between two walls that require but very little pros- pecting outside the walls or ore-bearing bodies. The shutes are much longer than usually found in other camps with like character of ore. The pay streaks vary from two to thirty feet in width and the ore is comparatively clean, requiring no sorting of waste, that is, everything between the walls being milled. This district lies between the Mullan and Nine Mile districts, and being in the center the ore bodies are larger and richer. In the Wardner district the veins
are not so regular and defined. The ore bodies lie between the two walls, which are from 200 feet to 300 feet apart; between these walls the vein is filled with ledge matter, the ore bodies or pay ore being bunchy in character and somewhat irregular as to position, requiring a large amount of prospecting work and considerable sorting of the waste from the ore when found. It would be called more of a min- eral zone than a fissure vein. The ore bodies when found are large, being anywhere from two to one hundred feet in width, but the shutes are usually short in length. The Mullan district more fully resembles the Canyon creek veins, but the ore bodies do not carry as high values in silver. The Nine Mile is also similar to Canyon creek with the exception that the shutes are not as regular or defined and the ore bodies not so long or wide.
Generally speaking, as to the formation of the camp, the country rock is slate with more or less quartz- ite and is said to resemble closely the formation of the Hartz mountains in Germany, in which district the lead mines have been worked for the last cen- tury to a depth of over three thousand feet. The gen- eral character of the ore is an argentiferous galena, and on an average it carries about one-half an ounce of silver to one per cent. of lead. The output of the camp for the last ten years has been steadily increas- ing, and in 1897 the Coeur d'Alene lead district pro- duced nearly forty per cent. of the entire lead product of the United States. It is on this district that the smelters rely principally for their supply of lead ores.
From official figures I append the following lead statistics for the past four years; showing the United States production and consumption of lead, together with average prices for same:
PIG-LEAD STATISTICS, 1894 TO 1897.
Tons produced.
1894
1895
1896
1897
Deslvd product U. S.
ore
120,081
129,748 38,189
1.38,395 44,616
43,820
Total U. S. produc-
tion
158,194
167.937
183,011
196,295
Used from imported
ores and bullion ... 29.276
48,020
27.451
30.528
Imported foreign pig.
8,572
22,947
2,414
1,740
Total supply
. 196,042
238,904
212,876
228.563
Re-exported factured
manu-
950
2,048
1.500
1.250
195.092
236,856
211,376
227.313
Decrease or increase
in stocks .
2,000
11.500
10.900
4,000
Total consumption. 197,092
225.356
222,276
223.313
Stocks, Dec. 31st.
2,000
13.500
2,600
6,600
Yearly average price
of "Common" at N. Y.
$3.12
$3.12
$2.83
$3.38
Tous of 2,000 lbs. throughout.
152,475
Missouri-Galena
38,113
136
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
From the above statistics for the year 1897, the total United States production shows 196,295 tons, of which amount the Coeur d'Alene lead belt produced 69,600 tons of metallic lead, having shipped during the year 1897, 116,000 tons of concentrates which will average sixty per cent. lead and thirty ounces silver to the ton,-this output for the year 1897 being made up from the three districts-Canyon Creek, Wardner and Mullan. as follows: Canyon Creek, 54.565 tons; Ward- ner, 36.715 tons; Mullan, 23,660 tons; and furnished by the following mines:
Tons.
CC Tiger & Poorman Mining Co. (9 mos.) .16.740
a r Mammoth Mining Co .. 4.360
n e Standard Mining Co. 22,075
y e Helena & Frisco Mining Co. (5 mos.) . 10.750
o k Milwaukee Mining Co. 600
Formosa Mining Co. 40
n Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining Co. . . 29.600
Wardner } Last Chance Mining Co 7,115
Mullan: Morning Mining Co. 23,660
From sundry other smaller claims (estimated) .. 1,060
Total II6,000
Of this 116,000 of concentrates shipped, the lead contents will average for the district sixty per cent. lead, producing 69,600 tons desilverized lead, contain- ing 3,480,000 ounces silver. being an average of thirty ounces to the ton of concentrates shipped. The aver- age price for lead for 1897 was tlfree dollars and thirty- eight cents per one hundred pounds, and the average price of silver per ounce for 1897 was fifty-nine cents, showing a gross value of lead, $4.704.960, and a gross value of silver, $2,053.200, making a total of $6,758,160.
Statistics so far this year (1898) show a general fall- ing off in the lead production of the United States of about twenty per cent., while British Columbia shows a reduction of abont thirty per cent. This falling off of the production and the natural advance in all the products on account of the war have had the effect to advance the price of lead, and prices to-day are about one-half a cent higher than at the beginning of the year, with probabilities of a still further advance. Should the war continue long, Spanish production. which cuts quite a figure, must be considerably de- creased; and this and the numerous sums of money to be spent on the navies of the world for the next few years must create a large demand for all mate- rials. The construction of the larger guns for the navy requires more lead than is demanded for the use of the guns afterward, in actual warfare,-the guns using iron and steel for the projectiles, while in the con- struction of the guns there is an average of from thirty to sixty tons of lead used per gun for counter-weights on the disappearing gun carriages. This shortage of production from other sources, the probable increase for the use of lead in gun construction and electrical machinery, would indicate higher prices for the ma- terial and better times for the Coeur d'Alenes.
That the Coeur d'Alene district is getting ready to take advantage of these prices is evidenced by the gen- eral activity throughout the entire district, new pros-
pects being opened up and getting into the hands of capital able to work them, and all of the older mines preparing for a larger ontpnt. Nine Mile district will be a producer in a short time. The Black Cloud Com- pany have recently erected a one-hundred-ton concen- trator, which will be ready for operation August Ist. The Custer mine is also being worked again; consid- crable work has been done on the Tamarack & Chesa- peake properties, also on the Cowan and Blue Grouse, as well as numerous other properties on Nine Mile, -all of which make a good showing. There is every reason to expect that Nine Mile next year will show quite a tonnage. That the permanency of the camp is assured is fully evidenced by the workings of the older mines. The first mines discovered in the camp are all working to-day and turning out more ore than ever before in their history.
The Tiger & Poorman, the first location in the belt, has been a steady producer since 1887; the Tiger shaft is down to the one thousand four hundred level,- a perpendicular distance of one thousand two hundred feet. The lower workings of this property are better to-day than they were nearer the surface. The Helena & Frisco, in the same canyon, is down a depth of one thousand feet vertically, with same conditions. From these two properties, which are the deepest in the camp, it is safe to say that deep mining in the Coeur d'Alenes is only in its infancy and with a long future in store.
All the producing mines have concentrators of their own, which for extensive and close work cannot be excelled anywhere in the United States. All of them are equipped with both water and steam power, and for six months in the year are able to run by water power, effecting considerable saving in operating ex- penses. All are equipped with machine shops, enab- ling the mines to do most of their repair work abont the mines and mills. Nowhere do you find the busi- ness of mining conducted on better business principles than in the Coeur d'Alenes. The ore is here, the veins are permanent, and while it requires considerable money to open up the properties as well as large outlays for machinery to handle the ore, after this is done it simply becomes a business proposition to get out the ore as cheaply as possible. Every advantage is used for the economical working of the ore with as little handling of same as possible, from the time the ore is taken from the mine until loaded on the cars in the shape of concentrates.
Air drills are used almost altogether for the break- ing of the ore in the mines, all the mines being equipped with the best compressing plants that money can buy, and some of the plants having capacities of forty to sixty drills, and very few less than twenty drill plants. Heavy mining machinery of all kinds is used, there being two 20x60 direct-acting hoists now working in the camp, situated on the Tiger & Poor- man and Helena & Frisco properties. These hoists are built to go to a depth of two thousand five hun- dred feet and handle from six hundred to seven hun-
437
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
dred tons of ore per day, besides handling the waste and necessary mining supplies, and requiring from five hundred to six hundred horse power to operate them. Pumps of a capacity of one thousand gallons per minute, hoisting one thousand feet in one lift, are to be found in these mines. Some idea of the size of these pumps and the amount of power required to operate same, may be formed when it is consid- ered that few cities of twenty thousand population have larger water-works for supplying the city than these same pumps, which are used only for keeping some of the mines dry. From one thousand to one thous- and five hundred horse power is not uncommon for the amount of power required to operate the machinery of some of the mines of the district; and to furnish this power, water, electricity and steam are generally used. Water power costs nothing outside the devel- opment of the power, which first cost of installation does not generally exceed that of first cost of steam plant for same amount of power; but expenses of operation are only nominal after flumes and water wheels are in place. With steam, the cost of furnish- ing power is quite an item, with some companies re- quiring an expenditure of from thirty-five to fifty thous- and dollars per year. This will be remedied within a few years by the installation of large electrical plants which will be operated by water power and which will distribute the power for the different mines interested. from five hundred to one thousand horse power each. Such an enterprise will be a paying investment and can not long be delayed, there being several suffi- cient water powers within forty to fifty miles of the camp. When this is installed it will materially add to the life of the mines and the permanency of the dis- trict, cheapening the cost of power and allowing low- grade properties to be worked at a profit.
The shipping facilities of the camp cannot be ex- celled in any mining camp in the west. There are two transcontinental railroads running to the mill doors of nearly all the producing mines of the camp. The ore is delivered direct from the mill to the cars with- out any team-hauling and the only improvement in this line would be a reduction in railroad freights, which the camp is entitled to, not only on account of the magnitude of the tonnage furnished, but more especially on account of excessive freight charges in comparison with rates given other camps. Present freight rates, which will average twelve dollars per ton to Denver and Colorado points, should be reduced at least one-third. Smelter rates should also be re- duced. Without the lead ores of the Coeur d'Alenes, more than one-half the smelters now in operation would be compelled to close down, and without our lead ores the dry ores of Colorado and Utah could not be worked.
The present condition of the Coeur d'Alenes is one of prosperity. We are furnishing steady employment to fully two thousand men in the working of the mines and mills at the best wages in the west. Fully three thousand more men derive their living indirectly from
the mines and mills, and depend upon their prosperity. This, with the women and children, will give a popu- lation of eight to ten thousand living immediately in the vicinity of the camp and all more or less inter- ested in the working of the mines in this district. The pay roll of the camp for wages paid out each month will amount to two hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars, or three million dollars per annum. The railroad companies are paid for outgoing and incoming freights not less than one million five hundred thousand dollars per annum, and the smelters, for the treatment of the ore, nearly a million more annually.
Where can you find a more prosperous condition of affairs? Were it not for the few agitators who infest the camp, and who not only commit lawless acts them- selves (which are a disgrace to the community and an outrage upon the liberties of law-abiding citizens) but draw others into them who are opposed to such things, but dare not assert their opinions concerning same, for fear of incurring the enmity of organized labor,- we would have one of the best and most prosperous camps in the west.
The Miners' Union and the Knights of Labor prac- tically control the work of the camp outside of the Wardner district, which is a non-union camp, the other camps being union camps and paying the union scale of wages which is three dollars and fifty cents per day for underground men and three dollars per day for all men above ground. These two organizations are a power in the district and could do and do ac- complisli a great deal of good in relieving the suffer- ing of their fellow workmen in case of sickness and accidents, by paying them weekly allowances and look- ing after their sick, and in case of death by giving them a decent burial and paying all funeral expenses. For their efforts in this direction, as well as to secure a good rate of wages, no reasonable person can object to their union; and were it not for the agitator who makes himself conspicuous under the guise of work- ing for the cause of labor, but in reality working against the laboring man's interest by stirring up strife and discord between laborer and employer, the country would be better off and more prosperous. By the co-operation of the better class of members of the Miners' Union and the Knights of Labor, which ele- ment is largely in the majority in both orders, with the law-abiding element of the business community. working together in harmony, the restoration of law and order could casily be brought about and a stop put to the many outrages that have been a disgrace to this section of the country and that have prevented outside capital from seeking investment in the Coeur d'Alenes, forcing capital to British Columbia and other points where the opportunities for profitable invest- ments are not half so good or sure as in the lead belt of the Coeur d'Alenes. The unions for their own interests, as well as in the interest of organized lahor at large, should lend their assistance to put a stop to some of the occurrences which have taken place in the camp and for which the unions as a body have
438
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
been blamed, while as organizations they have had nothing to do with the same, but have allowed a few of their members to commit these acts and to cover them under the plea that it had been done for the cause of labor,-thereby using the unions as a cloak to cover their acts. That the better element in both organizations of the camp do not approve and counte- nance these outrages, the writer is satisfied from a personal acquaintance with a large number of its mem- bers.
LABOR TROUBLES IN THE COEUR D'ALENE DISTRICT.
The following account of the recent labor trou- bles in the Coeur d'Alene mining district is contributed by H. H. Smith, of the Cincinnati Post, who, as a reporter of the Scripps-McRae League, was present on the scene and made careful investigation of the matter:
The blowing up of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mill at Wardner on April 29, 1899, entailing a financial loss of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the mur- der of two men, was the culminating act of violence in the ten-years war between labor and capital that has waged in the Coeur d'Alenes. In the active prose- cution of that warfare many lives have been sacrificed, hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of property have been blown to pieces with dynamite, and the devel- opment of the richest and most extensive silver-lead mines in the United States has been retarded to a degree that leaves the country practically in its infancy, when under natural conditions it would now be em- ploying thousands of men. More regrettable is the fact that as this is written things are still in a condition of disorder, and no one can foretell what the end will be.
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