| OCR Text |
Show that had been mostly dug out in earlier times. A few hoary, bearded prospectors plodded thrdugh the valley prodding their meek pack burros. They sometimes stopped to buy lunch to eat in the shade of the store. Mining started early on the edges of the desert. After Father Escalante traversed our valley in 1776, some Spanish adventurer opened a silver-lead deposit a little east of the padre's campsite San Rustico. The mine was just west of the Old Spanish Trail. This digging at the southern tip of the Mineral Range became known to Mormon pioneers as the "The Old Spanish Mine." Although L.D.S. Church authorities frowned on rushes to gold and silver strikes, they needed lead. "When Brigham Young learned that Johnston's army was coming to Utah he sent (Isaac) Grundy down to Beaver County to obtain material for leaden bullets to be used against the coming army." This is what M. Eissler tells in an 1872 publication, "The Resources of Utah." So in 1854 Grundy reopened the old Spanish mine later known as the Rollins or Lincoln. What may annoy Californians proud of their mining heritage is this: Eissler declares that Grundy not only mined lead-silver ore but built a small furnace and smelted several tons of bullion. The metal was hauled to Salt Lake City by wagon "and there molded into bullets. Grundy may be considered as the pioneer of the metallurgy of lead on the Pacific coast. . . ." The Rollins mine saw activity again in the i860's. It was known as the "oldest mine in the Territory." It was the reason why Minersville, which grew up a few miles to the south, got its name. |
