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Show ?oods ~nd services in 1850. In 1900, 54c per hour was the measure, and in 1950, It had . mcrea~ed to $1.44 per hour. Your car, radio, electric lights, refrigerator, plumbmg, trams, planes, harvesters, tractors and many other items are the evide~ce of that productivity, all from "natural resources," the products of nature which we use for supply. The basic natural resources include soil, air, water, timber, minerals, livestock and other ammals, and agricultural products. Truly, from the earth comes an abundant life for all. SECTION I HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF UTAH'S MINING INDUSTRY The history .of Utah's growth fr~m a desert wilderness to a thriving, populous IS a story of determmed men subduing the earth and learning to use Its treasures. com~onwealth The earliest record of knowledge and interest in the minerals of Utah is noted I~ The Great Salt Lake by Dale Morgan. Mountain men who had trapped beaver m the valleys and streams around Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake told ~ gro~p of Mormon pioneers wintering in 1846 in Pueblo Colorado that" m. a ndge of mountains running through the lake large ~uantities 'of preci~~~ mmerals were found." Agriculture, however, was the first area of conquest and Brigham Young urged the development of an agricultural home industry economy. This was dictate~ by . the. fact that sources for vital necessities were removed by hundreds of miles m distance and many months in time. . Prospecting for minerals (particularly gold and silver) during the time when a?ncultural de~elop~ent was so critically necessary to survival was strongly dlscou;aged, pnmanly to prevent diversion of interest from agriculture and home mdustry. Development of ~inerals and metals needed for the home industry economy was, .how~ver, actively pursued under direction of pioneer leaders. The iron ?re depOSits discovered by Parley P. Pratt's exploration party in Iron County m ~85~ w~re the subject of active but unsuccessful attempts to produce iron, b~gm.mng m 1851. Lead was smelted for bullets by Isaac Grundy near Minersville. m 1858 from the ore of the Lincoln mine. The unsuspected presence of silver m .the ore prevented a successful enterprise. The resulting lead was hard an~ ~mtt~e . Salt was re~overed from Great Salt Lake from almost the day of ~rnvmg m th~ valley m 1847. Building stone, sand and gravel, clay, and h.mestone for hme were used abundantly in homes and public building constructIOn. . In 1854 the Territorial Legislature offered a reward of $1000 for the first discovery o~ commercial coal within 40 miles of Salt Lake City. By 1865 coal from Coalville, Utah was available in Salt Lake at $40.00 per ton. Active se~rch for minerals and metals which could be mined and marketed outSide the pIOneer-established economy began in 1863. The California Volunteers, led by Colonel (l~ter General) Patrick Edward Connor, entered Utah October, 1862 and estabhshed Fort Douglas as their headquarters. Finding no need for aC~lVe" duty to fulfill his orders to protect the Overland Mail and Telegraph Lme, General Connor encouraged his troops to prospect the moun'Histo:ians suggest that an underlying purpose was to place Utah under military surveillance durmg the Civil War. 6 tains adjacent to Salt Lake Valley. Whether General Connor or his troops in some way shared the knowledge of the mountain men is not known, but the first discovery of ore was made in the Oquirrh Mountains, described by the mountain men in 1846 as being mineralized. The first claim, the Jordan, was located by George P. Ogilvie, General Connor and others, September 17, 1863. The West Mountain Mining District was organized in September, 1863-Utah's first and still most prominent mining district. At a meeting, held at Gardner's mill on the Jordan River, Bishop Archibald Gardner, one of the first claim locators, was elected recorder. Discoveries rapidly followed in the two Cottonwood canyons, American Fork Canyon, Rush Valley near Stockton, Park City, Tintic, and elsewhere. Mining districts were organized in each area following the discoveries of ore. The discoveries were followed by organization of companies, digging of shafts and tunnels to develop the ore and even construction of some smelters. Such efforts resulted in failure principally because of the great distance to markets and the high cost of transportation . By late 1866 all efforts to profitably work the ore bodies had ceased and it was not until 1868-69 that interest in mining was revived with the completion of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. Just seven months later the Utah Central Railroad was extended to Salt Lake and connecting lines were completed shortly to the mining camps. Tullidge states that "The completion of the Utah Central Railroad to Salt Lake City in January, 1870, presented the long-looked-for opportunity of embarking with certainty in the business of mining." (P.701)' The first shipment of ore from Utah was reported by Bancroft" to be "a carload of copper ore from Bingham Canyon, hauled to Uintah on the Union Pacific and forwarded by the Walker Brothers to Baltimore in June, 1868." Tullidge* states the first shipments of galena (lead) ore from the territory were small quantities from the Emma mine, Little Cottonwood Canyon, in July, 1868. It is interesting to note a statement by President Abraham Lincoln-to some extent prophetic-for it was made prior to the time the mines became profitably active. Tullidge (P. 697)' quotes the President as saying: "Utah will yet become the treasure house of the nation." Tullidge ' clearly describes the activity at that time: "From the summer of 1869 to the 25th of September, 1871, there were shipped from the Territory 10,000 tons of silver and gold ores, of the gross value of $2,500,000; of bullion, or pig lead, containing gold and silver, 4,500 tons, of gross value of $1,237,000; copper ores, 231 tons, of the gross value of $6,000. Salt has also been exported to the extent of 1,100 tons, of the value of $4,000; and silver bars, obtained by milling chloride ores, have produced $120,000. The annual product of gold from Bingham Canyon, by improved appliances for washing and sluicing, has been increased from $150,000 to $250,000. The number of districts by exploration and location has grown from two, as in 1868, to thirty-two in 1871. Since June, 1870, there have been erected eighteen smelting furnaces, built at an aggregate cost of $200,000, several of which are producing bullion . "The above is a comprehensive history of the growth and development of the mining interests of Utah from the day when General Connor and his men first discovered the Old Jordan in 1863, until the time when mining was no longer an experiment, but had become one of Utah's chief industries." 'History of Salt Lake City, Edward W. Tullidge. ""Bancroft's History of Utah 7 |
