USA > Missouri > Missouri the center state, 1821-1915 > Part 32
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Old Solomon went away sorrowful, still insisting that Bill Jones hadn't given him a square deal, and could be prosecuted.
The Barry County Tradition.
Tradition placed one of the sources of precious ore in Barry County. "Chick- asaw Indians," so the narrative ran, "were driven westward across the Mississippi and finally located on the banks of the White River in that county, where fish and all kinds of wild game were in abundance. They had only been in the new terri- tory a short time when one of the redskins was driven into a large cave by an approaching storm and discovered that the cave's walls were a solid mass of silver. The silver mine was worked by the Indians for several years. Large quantities of the ore were melted in a hollowed-out rock and molded into large bars in molds made of stiff clay and stored away in the cave. Jewelry of various kinds was made of the silver and carried to St. Louis and St. Charles and traded for blankets and other necessities.
"For some reason all valuables of the little band were placed in the cave and preparations made for a move to new territory. The entrance to the cave was closed with rock and dirt scraped from the mountain side, and covered to a depth of several feet. As it was the custom of the Chickasaws to mark every place of importance, peculiar signs were cut on rocks and trees so they could easily find the cave when they returned. Leaving their White River camp with the intention of returning, the little band started towards 'the setting sun,' and had gone only a short distance when they were attacked by enemies and were driven back to their old hunting ground, where all in possession of the secret of the location of the silver cave died of a fatal disease which swept the camp."
The Pyrites.
In the Devonian beds of the Ozarks are peculiar formations which encouraged the faith of the old miners in the existence of profitable silver deposits. The limestone carries pyrites disseminated. On the blacksmiths' forges in the Ozarks these pyrites were smelted, producing what the natives called "silver," but to which the more skeptical gave the name of "white metal." How much of the deceptive looking metal, the essential part of which was iron, found its way into free and unlimited coinage without the consent of the nation would be hard to tell. There used to be a settler on Current River before the war who appeared at irregular intervals at the towns of Southeastern Missouri with a small sack of coin, which he claimed was the product of a silver mine he owned. The coins were bright and heavy and passed.
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Not far from Springfield, mining on quite an extensive scale was done for this "Ozark silver" many years ago. One firm put down several shafts, going as deep as 84 feet. From this mine a considerable quantity of what was called silver was taken. But when a sample of the ore was sent to be assayed, it turned out to be nearly pure lead, with just a trace of silver. In another locality, on the James, a mining company got out and smelted considerable quantities of what was sup- posed to be silver, but was declared to be iron from pyrites.
An Experiment with "Flickers."
One of the richest zinc mines in the Ozarks was first exploited as a silver mine. So sure were the discoverers they constructed a smelter on the old Spanish plan, burned charcoal, got out the ore and tried a blast. These men were experienced miners. They were absolutely certain they had a silver mine. For years pre- viously old Allen Sulzer's girls, when they went after the cows, frequently picked up bits of shining ore, to which the homely name of "flickers" was given. The few people who lived in the vicinity were sure that the "flickers" must be silver. At length the old prospectors came along and confirmed the theory. The mine was located. The smelter was built. As the contents of the first blast warmed up one of the miners stood confidently at the furnace front with a little bucket to catch the molten silver. Nothing ran out. Old Allen Sulzer was near by looking at the experiment. His description of what resulted is impressive.
"The fumes riz up in the air and made the beautifullest rainbow you ever seed. But there wasn't a drap of silver kim out."
One of the experienced miners happened to look up and see this "beautifullest rainbow."
"Zinc, by thunder !" he exclaimed. The two old miners turned from the fur- nace, went to their cabins, gathered up their kits, traded the mine for $2.50 in cove oysters and left the scene of their disappointment.
The Scientific Argument.
Silver has not been found in connection with zinc in the Ozarks. There is a very good reason to believe it will not be. A scientific fact makes the presence of the precious metals in that region, rich as it is in zinc and lead, extremely improbable. The mineral deposits of the Ozarks are of a distinctive origin. They are exceptions to a rule which holds good the world over. Humboldt announced a law to which mineral deposits very generally conform. It is this :
"The deposits of the precious metals, and of lead, zinc and mercury, are usually associated with intrusion of igneous rocks."
Scientific men regard it as one of the most notable facts about the Ozark deposits of lead and zinc that "the deposition of the ores has not been accompanied by igneous disturbances or by intrusions of igneous rocks within the mining areas."
The minerals were in solution in hot water far down below. Dynamic dis- turbances threw this mineralized solution upward, and under tremendous pressure it filled the crevices and fissures with the deposits. That is the way the ores in the Ozarks came about, according to the best scientific authority on the zinc region of Missouri.
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HENRY S. TURNER
JAMES H. LUCAS
HENRY T. BLOW Pioneer in the development of the white lead industry
ILLINOIS
LOUIS
MISSOURI
CMAT
DAILY PRESS ..
RICHARD EDWARDS Author of Edwards' Great West
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By the geological survey at Washington credit was given to Prof. Walter P. Jenney for having made the most thorough and satisfactory investigation of this distinctive character of the ore deposits in the Ozarks. Prof. Jenney's views as to the origin of the ores are now widely accepted, although there have been times when quite a variety of theories was entertained. In a report of his conclusions, preserved in the library of the survey at Washington, Prof. Jenney said :
"The location of the deposits of lead and zinc, the origin of the mineral-deposit- ing solutions, the means by which these solutions have been introduced into the strata, and the formation and occurrence of the ores all appear, upon examination, to be dependent upon the dynamic disturbances which have taken place in the past geologic history of these elevated sections of the Mississippi Valley. The deposition of the ores of lead and zinc in the Ozark area has not been accom- panied by igneous disturbances or by intrusions of igneous rocks within the mining- areas. This is the more remarkable, as the deposits of nearly all the mining regions of the globe conform to the law announced by Humboldt, 'That the deposits of the precious metals and of lead, zinc and mercury are usually asso- ciated with intrusions of igneous rocks.' The igneous rocks of the archaean area in Southeastern Missouri, included within the Ozarks, are far older than the earliest sedimentary deposits carrying lead and zinc ores."
Following up the discovery of this peculiar law of origin for the ores of the Ozarks, Prof. Jenney was able to announce certain practical results. His discovery convinced him of the deep origin of the ores and prompted in him confidence that the mineral bodies would be found to extend to considerable depths. This theory has been sustained by the latest developments. By the confirmation the mineral fields are assured a period of profitable production far beyond the earlier anticipations.
"The result of this investigation of the deposits of lead and zinc in the Mississippi Valley," he said in his report, "has made it possible to announce the general law that all workable deposits of ore occur in direct association with fault- ing fissures traversing the strata and with zones or beds of crushed and brecciated rock, produced by movements of disturbance. The undisturbed rocks are every- where barren of ore.
"While it is true that the ore deposits are thus associated with areas of dis- turbance and fissures faulting the strata, so that it may be said that no ore deposit occurs without a crevice or fissure in the rocks through which the ore depositing solutions were introduced, it by no means follows that all fissures are connected with ore deposits. In the many barren sections of the mining districts many dis- turbed areas occur where no action of ore deposition appears to have taken place and this is equally true of mining regions in other parts of the world.
"For the occurrence of ore deposits it is requisite not only that the strata should be disturbed and faulted, but that the fissures should penetrate to and form open channels connecting with the zone of supply of the ore-forming solutions, which may be located at a considerable depth in the earth; also that the pressure should be sufficient to force mineralizing solutions to the surface; that the solu- tion should contain metallic substances in adequate quantities, and that the physical and chemical conditions should be such as to permit ore deposition. Through the absence of any of these conditions, districts otherwise favorable for ore may remain unmineralized.
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"In some localities the fissuring of the strata has been accompanied by only a slight displacement of the rocks, notwithstanding which the associated ore deposits are large.
"There are evidences that the larger and more prominent fissures have a great extension in depth, and penetrate the archaean floor on which the sedimentary formations rest. At Mine La Motte the courses of the crevices in the granitic ridges are rudely parallel to the master fissures in underground workings of the mine. The Cambrian limestone and sandstones at this locality are probably nowhere over 400 feet thick; the vertical displacement of these beds by the master fissures and its branches aggregate not less than 100 feet-a displacement in such massive strata which it is difficult to conceive to have taken place except as caused by a faulting movement so profound that the fissure must of necessity penetrate deep into the underlying archaean. In general, throughout Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas the fissures associated with the ore deposits appear to be best defined in depth, whereas in the surface formations they appear to be split up into numerous branching crevices and fracture planes.
"In conclusion, it may be said of the fissures which occur in direct association with the deposits of lead and zinc ores in the Ozarks that they are not the result of local causes and are not confined to a narrow vertical range or to rocks of a similar lithological character; but, on the contrary, that these fissures are the result of forces connected with wide-spread dynamic disturbances, affecting the North American continent, and that the fissures are faulting planes of indefinite vertical extent, traversing all the geological formations from the crystalline rocks to the coal measures."
The Second Cornwall.
Missouri's Iron Mountain obtained world wide fame. Missouri's Silver Mountain was for some years the basis of great hopes. Missouri's Tin Mountain is only an historic mystery. Silver Mountain's friends believed it would surpass Iron Mountain as a wealth producer. Tin Mountain was expected to become the richest of the three.
Tin Mountain is southwest from Fredericktown about nine miles. Until 1870 the oldest inhabitant of Madison County hadn't heard of it. But that is not sur- prising. The location is in one of the wildest parts of that region. About the year named there came an Englishman named Stocker, and he was equal to his name. There was no doubt about his nationality. He spoke "Henglish" and took pride in doing so. His supply of h's was inexhaustible. Otherwise he was down to bedrock so far as capital was concerned. Stocker reported that he had discovered tin on the banks of the Little St. Francis, in the locality mentioned. He didn't stop to fool with the natives, but went to St. Louis and almost at once got both Mr. Moody and Mr. Michel, of the wholesale grocery house of Moody, Michel & Co., greatly interested. They formed a company and employed Mr. Sproule to enter the land for them. Stocker was everywhere. One day he would be down on the mountain digging for black sand, which he showed triumphantly as containing tin. He was between six and seven feet tall and raw-boned. At work he was the slouchiest tramp miner on the mountain. The next day he might be seen on the public square of Fredericktown wearing a gaudy plaid suit, which added to his gigantic proportions. A silk hat and "about a peck of jewelry," as a native
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remembers him, attached to his vest, were among the evidences that Stocker had struck something. He first paralyzed and then enthused the Madisonians. By the time the big machinery began to pass down from the railroad to the mountain everybody had tin in his head. There was tin in the air. Tin Mountain was over- run with prospectors, and the farms were sadly neglected.
The company went to work in earnest. There grew in a month or two a com- munity of 1,500 people at the mountain. A young Mr. Tyler, of Connecticut, who was a chemist by profession and had some money, came out, investigated the pros- pects, became satisfied there were fortunes in sight, and put in his capital and time. Lamoreaux, the shoe man, of St. Louis, took stock. Nicholas Schaeffer invested the profits of some thousand of tons of soap grease, and, what was more surprising, studied chemistry in his old age. The company sunk shafts and ran tunnels, taking out vast quantities of green rock, which was expected to give the tin product. A mill was erected to treat the ore. Very powerful crushers were put in, because the rock was tough. A furnace that cost $65,000 was added to the plant to reduce the ore after it was ground out of the green rock. The machinery was to run by steam, and boilers and engines were put in place. Large sheds were built, and hundreds of thousands of bushels of charcoal were put into them.
The Investment and the Collapse.'
Fredericktown tradition has it that not less than $200,000 was expended first and last by the Tin Mountain Mining Company. The operations extended through nearly three years. Not as much tin was turned out as would make a dinner bucket. When the first run of ore was put through the works the investors were thunderstruck. No tin resulted. These shrewd grocers and shoe men and soap- makers didn't know anything about tin themselves, but before they went into the scheme they had taken samples of the alleged ore to the best assayers in St. Louis, and analysis after analysis had showed tin. Tons of the green rock were ground up, put through the elaborate separating machinery and reduced only to fail to show a single ounce of tin. Other chemists and assayers were given samples. Some of them reported traces of tin and some didn't. The mystery deepened. Mr. Schaeffer refused to take any second-hand conclusions, and studied chemistry so that he could make an assay himself. "He told me," said Mr. Coleman, of the Mine La Motte, "that he actually got a button of tin from one of his assays."
Opinions differ widely as to the true explanation of the mystery. Many people believe the mine was salted and that the capitalists were taken in by a barefaced fraud. Some years ago Judge Allen, an old resident of Fredericktown, and long connected with mining enterprises in Southeast Missouri, gave the result of his Tin Mountain investigation. "So far as I could discover," he said, "the stone contained a poor quality of iron, and that was all the mineral I found in it by my tests. Strange to say, I have seen a number of analyses made by respectable chemists that gave tin. It doesn't seem possible that the mine could have been salted on such a scale as to have deceived all of them. I must confess that to this day I can hardly make up my mind in regard to the puzzle. We had a chemist here, an accomplished man named Cavallen. He was not connected with the company, but toward the end he was employed to make some assays. Cavallen told me that as many as two times he found tin in the samples that were brought
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him. But the most of the times he failed to get any tin at all. There were many geological formations about the mountain like those found in the vicinity of tin deposits. It is possible that there are scattered through the rock small frag- ments of tin ore, and that the presence of these fragments accounts for the confusing returns made by the assayers. That, to my mind, is the most reason- able theory."
There was no mystery about the final result to the men who put their money up. The enterprise was a complete and total failure. Stocker went a few months before the collapse taking with him his good clothes, "peck of jewelry," stove- pipe hat and ganglionic shape. The discouraged company hauled the machinery back over the road they had made to Fredericktown and reshipped it to St. Louis. They sold the coal. The buildings have rotted down and only an imposing collection of ruins marks the spot on the Little St. Francis where many years ago was the flourishing, promising mining town of Tin Mountain.
"If those expectations had been realized," said Judge Allen, "this would have been the richest country on top of earth."
There is a rock in the locality of the alleged "Second Cornwall" which looks like tin but is not. This circumstance is believed to have helped the deception. J. E. Lee, an expert mineralogist, after the collapse, expressed the opinion that the tin ore found was taken to the mountain ; that the mine was a clever case of salting. About the time of the Tin Mountain fiasco in Missouri, prospectors were in Detroit showing tin ore which they claimed to have discovered in the Lake Superior iron region. They made their appearance late in the season. Capitalists who became interested sent an expert. The season was late. There was just one boat making the trip before navigation closed. The expert was landed near the locality on the north shore where the tin ore was said to have been found. He had half an hour to collect his specimens. He brought back as much "tin ore" as he could carry and was about to base upon it a tempting report. It occurred to him that a more thorough investigation should be made. The expert locked the report in his desk, waited until spring and when the lake opened, made a second visit to the North Shore. There he found the barrels in which the tin ore for salting the locality had been brought from England.
The Story of Silver Mountain.
Silver Mountain is ten miles from Fredericktown, about half way to Iron Mountain. Hiram N. Tong of Ironton is credited with having discovered the riches of Silver Mountain while following turkey tracks. He obtained posses- sion of the land on which the vein was located and put men to work about the year 1862. A shaft eighty feet deep was put down, and argentiferous lead in quartz was found. Some of the ore was taken out and analyzed. The results were such as to induce William Einstein, who investigated the property thor- oughly, to buy out Tong. After the transfer nothing was done until 1877, when Einstein organized the Silver Mountain Mining Company and began work. Among those who went in with Einstein were Samuel Knox, Gerard B. Allen and Capt. Kayser. Mr. Einstein was the moving spirit. Mr. Knox came down several times, and seemed greatly interested. Mr. Allen put in money on the judgment of others, and, so far as is known, never saw the mountain.
DAM AT SILVER MOUNTAIN ON THE ST. FRANCOIS
GRANITE BEND ON BLACK RIVER
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For three years nearly, or until about 1880, Silver Mountain boomed. In the first place the company built a magnificent stone dam across the St. Francis River. The intention was to use water power for the mill. This dam stands today as good as when it was finished. It is 25 feet high and is said to have cost $20,000. Thirty-five hundred barrels of hydraulic cement were used in the construction. A fine turbine wheel was put in. Just below the dam, 100 feet, perhaps, stood the mill, a substantial three-story wooden building. It was equipped with a first-class crushing and separating apparatus, and had a capacity for handling probably 100 tons of ore a day.
The Mine and the Mill.
From near the mill an incline ran down into the mine. The ore was hauled up this incline and into the mill by steam power. The plant was simply superb for the purposes. But it was completed and almost in running order before the management began to look underground for the ore which was to make dividends on such an investment. As illustrating the policy, it is told that there were thousands of cords of wood bought and piled up, although water power had been provided.
Why the mine was not thoroughly prospected and opened up before all this outlay for a plant nobody can explain, but it wasn't. The controlling spirits in the company were so sanguine that without waiting to know for a certainty whether there was ore they went ahead and got ready to treat a big output. Then the incline was constructed down a hundred feet, or a little more. The vein, true fissure, was struck. Three levels were run and some ore was found and put through the mill, but by this time the stockholders were beginning to stagger before the assessments. The mill ran awhile and tons of the product, whatever it was, were shipped to Cheltenham, but failed to realize expectations. The stockholders stood the drain a few months after the plant was complete and then shut down. That was in 1880.
Silver Mountain is situated in what is called "The Narrows." The Francis River passes between two mountains, and the town and mill are on the west side of the river, under the shadow of one of the mountains. The company owned several hundred acres. At the time the St. Louis company put up the works another company was formed by Madison County men to mine silver. The stockholders were J. B. Gabriel, A. Ruth, Dr. Wm. Nifong and Rufus Baird. They had found a ledge which looked well on the St. Louis company's lands and some distance from the mill. They took a lease and proceeded to development. They took out several tons of silver ore, which they delivered at the mill under a contract, but the collapse put a stop to their operations. On land further west silver was found by a Mr. Martin, of Pennsylvania, but the indications were only followed sufficiently to show the existence of some ore.
Other Madison County Discoveries.
The Silver Mountain discoveries were not the only ones of that precious mineral in Madison County. Local prospectors found a small vein of silver ore on Captain's Creek, in the southwestern part of the county. Judge Allen was not fully satisfied with his examination and he sent a piece of the ore to Prof. Wiese, who returned a report that the specimen was very rich silver ore. A com-
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pany was formed and $1,000 spent in developing the vein, but with all the work another piece of ore as good as the first was never found. In this search a very little gold was found, but so far as mining was concerned the investment proved a total failure. This occurred in 1859. Twelve or thirteen years later a scien- tific gentleman came to grief in the same locality, about a mile away from the old digging. Prof. Vancleve Phillips, while knocking about among the mountains found some silver ore. The indications were so favorable that he gave his discovery a name, and the "Emma mine" became a part of Madison County history. Prof. Phillips was quite sanguine. Indications continued good, but after dropping several hundred dollars without finding ore in paying quan- tities the expert gave up the search.
Ten miles southeast of Fredericktown Jackson Revelle struck silver many years ago. He opened a shaft, and at a depth of 30 feet struck a vein from which he took considerable ore, which he shipped to Cheltenham. The clean-up failed to show profits, and Revelle sold out to an Illinois man. The formations in which .the silver appears in these Madison County veins were declared by experts to be precisely like those in the San Juan district of Colorado.
An Expert Opinion.
Judge Allen of Fredericktown, who had almost a life-time's experience with Southeast Missouri mineral expressed the opinion that a different treatment at Silver Mountain might have resulted more favorably. He said, "The geological formation in which Einstein's vein appears is a porphyry dike. That dike, I expect, is 60 feet wide, well defined where it meets the granite on both north and south sides. It runs east and west. If the parties had put some of the money they spent for buildings and machinery in work underground they would have a fine mine today, I have no doubt-unless all geological indications are at fault. The ore contains silver, lead, zinc and antimony all combined in a regular well defined vertical vein. The company treated the ore in the crushers, just as it came from the mine, instead of calcining and expelling the baser metals, as would have been better. The result was, in my opinion, much of the silver washed out and went down the St. Francis River. I explained my view of the matter to Mr. Knox at breakfast one morning in the Planters' House. It opened his eyes, but too late. The company had expended the capital."
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