P-131 Mining History Of South Central Idaho 1963
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Mining history of south-central Idaho
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Clyde P. Ross
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GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
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Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology Moscow, Idaho July, 1963
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'. Hydraulic mining was widely used in the early days. Jets of high-pressure water from hydraulic monitors undermined the gravel banks and washed the gold-bearing material into long sluices in which the gold was recovered. The scene above shows a placer mine near Idaho City about 1897.
fQ!WWORD In production statistics ~n.d curren~ ac;::Uvity, the great Coeur d'Alene district overshadows all other Idaho ptining area~ with the possible e:x:c~ption of the southeast Idaho phosphate f1elQs. I
But Idaho mi l1 in 9 started in the c~ntral pq.ft of the state, And it started with such momentum that it drew thousands of qold-seekers and advent4rers f as well as artisans and traqesmen, to th~ r~mC?t~ hill~ of the Clearwater f the Boise Basin, and the Owyhee country, to form in " brief ~hree yeara a new territory and. only 27 years later, a n~w stata, M1ninq in south-central Idaho was im~ortant in th~ growth of Ic;iaho from territory. to state. Althouqh it has deoliq.ed 1n later ye~rs, it 1s far from dead. When Clyde Ross, the dean of Idaho geo~ogists, sa¥~--as he does herein .... - that there's geologic reason to believ~ rich min,ra~ depo~1ts still lie beneath th, hill$ of Blaine and Boise and Custer and Idaho and ~emhi counties to be W0n by tOQee with will and wit, we should l1sten,....-for nobo~y else canm~ke that state~.ent with such weigllt of experience and forqe of expert knowledge. '
E. F. COOK, Direotor Idaho Bure",~ 9£ Mines and
Ge(1)~pgy
ASS TRAC T • • • • • • • • • • • • • , • • • , • • •• • • t ••• , ••••• 0 INTRODUCTION • • , • • • ~ •••••• ~ ....... ft
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INITIAL PROSPECTINQ •••••••••• , • , ••• " ••••••••• , •••• , •••• , , •
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THE START OF LODE MINING, ' •• , , • , ••• ~ ••••• , ..... , •••• ~ •• , , •
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MINING IN THE EA,~Y aQTH O~NTUR~•• , • ,. •••• , ••••••••••••• , •
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WO RLD WAR I. • • • • • • , • • • • • • • , • •• , • , , , • , •• , • • T••
THE INTERVAL BETWE~NrH~;"WA~ •• , •••• " ~ , I', • WORLD WAR II • • • • • • • • '" • ••• • ••• r 41
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THE POST.WAR PERIOD ••••• , ~ • , ••••• , • , • ,. , •••• ,.. ~ • CONCLUSIONS. • • • • • • • • • • , • • • • • , • • • ,
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REFERENCES CITED •• , ••••••• , ~ •••• ~ • , " , ••••••••• " •••
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ILLUSTRATIONS
FQllow1ng page Figure,
1. - Map of mining districts in south.,central Idaho ••• ~ • • • • • • • • 2 .... Records QfPfipclpal
1860-1902 ••• r •• ••
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3. - ~aord. of ~r1nc'p.l prod~F~pg ~ount1es 190Z"'J9 ~7...... ••
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4. - Records 0,£ principal, metal. Pfodqc;ed 190·5""'1935........ ••
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5. -MetalprlC$s 190~--19~S ••••••••• , •••• " •••
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6 ..... Recorqsof principa~pfoduclng Qo~ntles l~14"'"1939r""""
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1. - Metal prices 1935-1960 ............... , • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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8., - Records
ot prinoipel
9. -Records of principal
Photo
p'rod~cing oount+es
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prQdu(I:in9 OQ"'I1U~8 1$~S~~9~q..... ••
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metal~
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produced 1935-t960 ••• , •••• ,.
1. - Hydraulic mining neat IdahQC~ty•••••••••• r • • • • • • • • •• Fr9nUsp1.ece 2. - The Minn~~MooreMine n~,.r Sellevije •• , r ' • • • •••• r • • ••
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3. -Dredge min1qg in south-Q"~tral I~anQII • " r ~ II , •• • ., • • • ~ '" i •
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5. - The Idaho Almaden merc\lry mine near W~1~er. , ••••••• ~ •• ,
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6. - Missiles i~lllstrat~ changing dem4\nd$ for m1nel'c;llre$Cj)urc;es
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4. - The Yellow Pine M~ne at St~bni~e •••• r.' ••••••••••••
·MINING HISTORY OF SOUTH-CENTRAL IPAHO
Clyde P. Ross
ABSTRACT
Trappers noted gold in south-central Idaho as early QS 1844 and mining began in 18620 The placer boom that began then lasted less than 10 years, and yielded over $30 million largely from Boise Basin. Lod.e mining began during the boom but outlasted it.. Poorly understood geologic features influenced develop~ ment of placers and lodes .. Base metal mining began to prosper in the 1880's aft~r branqh railroads . reached the mountain borders. Limitations in equipment and geologic knowledge tended to restrict exploration. The region yielded about $20 million in the early 20th century, mostly in gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper. The speGi~l needs of World War I increased yield to a peak in 1917. Betweep the two World Wflrs mining was quiet but after 19330
~oldrn1niflW tncre~sed.
During World War II mining was distinguished by sUGcessful ~earch fQr metals not previously mined extensively in the region, particularly tun<;1sten, qutc~'" silver I and antimony. Government aided mining during this war: but c,.lso tmposed controls that had hampering effects, especially on gold m~ning. . Since the war lead, antimony and tungsten have declined. Cobalt has dien and declined and search for special me~als l~ke, uranium I b~ryllium I and cQlum.bium has been partially successful. Exploration at depth guided by attention to inconspicuous geolog!c features I should result in discovery of new ore shoots. These shoots I plus mineralogically complex bodies and some of grades below those hitherto regarded as ecp1'l'lomic should provide much new material for future mining in south-centrQl Idaho .. I
IDAHO'S
NI~G1865---. ---:----~----___. Reports of- Coeur dAlene mineral discoveries, May 27, led to a qold rush there, untd afte\" 1880. I but- no gold was Foundlocated Coeur d'Alene qU;1.rtz mine, April 25,
1882 A.J. Pritchard 1 ~e.ft-
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hi-s discovery qUiet- for over a year. 18G4Murray was founded Jan. 22 and soon replQced Eagle City as the center for the Coeur d Alene 90ld rush t-hen underway. Discovery Br the Tiger Mine near Burke, May 2, followed immediately by the Poishs at Mullan, ma\"kS' the beginni"9 of lead - silver opershons in the Coeur d~lenes. G.S.Good f C.C. A. Earle located the Morninq Mine- eventually the deepest lead-Godver operation al"lywhere-at Mullan,July 2. Weldon 6. Heyburn and hiS associates locs+ed the Polaris mine near Wallace, Aug .30. The Yankee lode(unprofitable for 45 years unti I deep workings - the best below sea-Ievel- made it the. bi9gest U.S. si Iver producer) -followed Sept. 25. Noah S. Keitoq9 discovered the Bunker Hill ~ Sullivan mine at \Vardner, Sept. 10.
1860 E. D. Pie.rce dis-covered gold on the North Fork of the Clearwster, February...2.0••_ _- '
~F. p",~, BQ ..ett of
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""------ --"---, --"--"'---- party discovered gold on Canal Gulch at Pierce, Sept. 30. Pierce City \Vas foundQd by miners who returned to the 90ld fields, Dec. 3.
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1861 Prospectors who discovered the except-ionally rich Florence placers located their cla~ms Aug.12,a.nd
lefT for Elk CitYfPierce to obtain
Gold was discovered on the South Fork of the Clearwater With claims recorded June 14. (E.lk City and Ne\vSome
1894
'. I to New quartz ~\s.coverlesat Flore~ce,Au9.30, led a 9:cond,mlnln~ boom there In 1596.
supplies. Summit- mining district-- Flo-- 1&96Amrners meetIng establIshed the townsite \vas organized at Florence. Sept. IS. renee of Ne\\I Florence,Apri I 5, at a location nearer
to the new quarh. properties_
1~62 \Varren!; mining
district orqannee! July 22, by the. discovery party.
- Warrens
1896Ben~ Le\v Caswell.who had discovered promisin9 quarh.
Thunder
outc.rops at Thunder Mountain in 1694, located their mine there .r~\y 10. Their reports when they c:lot out In Au ust led to a bi Thunder Mount;;l.in gold rush in 1902.
1862 Georqe Grime'1.' party di.covered
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qold in the Boise Ba~in, AU9ust 2. Idaho City. Cent-ervi lie founded by mining parties which returned after the Grimes massacre"tb Ivor\( in the. Boisl BaSin ,Od. 7. Placerville townsite \vas estal>li .. hed on December l.
b
1866 Leesburq placers Were discovered --...,.;;;;;;;:::-'--.1 July 16, leadi n9 t-o the Lemhi County 90lcl rush.
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1869Boise's United States Assay Office commenced construction June. 28. (It vas opened for DUsinus Marc.h 2 1872.)
1870 Gold discoveries in
southustern Id.ho led to the Cari boy rush, S.,p+. The di~rrict was named tor C3riboo tQil"Cnild.
Map courtesy Idaho Historical Society
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-2INTRODUCTION
The first white men to ent~r south-central Idaho may have been the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 (De Voto, 1953). American and Canadian fur trappers began operations at least as early as 1811 (Fisher, 1938, p. 79-84)0 From then through 1846 when the United States formally acquired title, the region was given over to fur trapping. Starting late in th!.s period, many emigrants bound for Oregon passed over the Snake River Plain, but few lingered in Idaho. Idaho owes much of its growth, after trapping declined, to the mining industryo At present agriculture has so far outstripped mining both in the value of the product and in the number of people employed that many tend to overlook the importance of Idaho as a mining state .. Even mining men remember chiefly the impressive record of the mines of the Coeur d 8Alenes and forget that mining began in the central part of the state. Tpe present account is concerned with the southern part of that central region: the part nort,h of the S nake River Plain and south of the Salmon River near latitude 45 0 30 (Fig. l);· including all of Lemhi Cou~ty, although the northern· part of tha t county is north of that latitude. Thus limited, the summary takes little account of some of the best known mining'areas in Idaho o No discussion is presented of the m!ning areas in north-central Idaho, noted 'especially for precious metals; the Owyhee region in southwestern Idaho, where much. silver ore:was mined in the,eqrlydays;' southeq~tern·~dahowlth ~tp QJreatphosphqte r~serves; or the panhandle of the state, which includes the Coeurc;l'Alene region, whose yield of silver, lead, and zinc overshadows that of the rest of the state. Each of these regions de-. serves an historical account written by someone better acquainted with it ~han I arne Q
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In the mountains of south-central Idaho, mining has long b~en and is likely to con-:tinue to be an outstanding industry. In the principal mining countie~ there, only about 7 percent of the area is farmland and cr6ps are harvested from a mere fraction of that .. Most. of the farmland is pasture I and 11 vestock graze~ far and wide over the mountains during the short periods that the weather is suitable. Recreational pursuits are growing in importance but cannot be expected to supplant mining in value to the nation as a whole 6 especially in time s of war (I
Mining districts are scattered rather thickly over south-central, Idaho., as Figure 1 shows The region contains over a hundred districts ~ Some cif these are t~e buryiI1g. grounds of false hopes and some have .yielded profits mainly to promoters and stock sales~. menu but most have had boom periods of production and activity, Mines that have produced significantly t~nd to revive whenever the national climate for· mining enterprises is favorable These have aided our national economy greatly during the two World Wars and can be expected to add substantially to our resources in the future 0
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That the yield from mines of south-central Idaho iserratic can be deduced from the graphs in the present paper" The. reasons for the variations are, numerous Some of the' peaks in the graphs reflect special demands, such as that .for tungsten 'during World War II; others result from fluctuations. in general economic conditions Many" however res~lt from discovery and rapid 'depletion of individual ore shoots.. These peaks might have been . 0'
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• • Map of mining
Fi g.1
districts of south-cent.ra I Idaho Scale
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I Crooks Corrol 2 Simpson :3 Bungalow 4 Florence 5 Buffalo Hump 6 Dixie (Idaho County) 7 Orogrande 8 Green Mountain 9 Gibbonsville 10 Indian Creek II Mineral Hill (Lemhi County) 12 Chamberlain Bosin 13 Warren 14 Marshall Lake ~15 Resort 'jl6 Mountoin View 17 Seven Devils \ 18 Meodows \ 19 Profile 20 Edwardsburg
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 '32 33 34 35 36 37 38
39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
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Romey Ridge Big Creek Wilson Creek Musgrove Blackbird Mackinaw Eureka Carmen Creek Kirtley Creek Eldorado Pratt Creek Sandy Creek McDevitt Gravel Range Camos Yellow jocket Thunder Mountain Yellow Pine Hornet Creek Cuddy Mountain Mineral Warm Loke Seafoam Sheep Mountain Loon Cruk Porker Mountain Blue Wing Junction Nicholia Spring Mountoin Texas Boy horse
53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81
82
Yankee Fork Robinson Bar Stanley Uranium Stanley Bear Valley Deadwood Cascade Weiser quicksilver Monroe Squaw Creek Grimes Pass Summit Flat Bonner Boulder Creek Hamilton Birch Creek Dome Alder Creek Copper Basin Alto ~ast Fork Vienna Sawtooth Block Warrior Gambrinus Pioneerville Centerville Quartzburg West Veiw Moore Creek
Miles
83 Idaho City 84 Yuba 85 Skeleton Creek 86 Big Smoky 87 Warm Spring 88 Little Wood River 89 Lava Creek 90 Comas 91 Willow Creek 92 Soldier 93 Featherville 94 Bear Creek 95 Roaring River 96 Twin Springs 97 Black Hornet 98 Show Mountain 99 Boise 100 Highland 101 Neat 102 Dixie (Elmore County) 103 Pine Grove 104 Volcano 105 Mineral Hill (Blaine County)
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-3smoothed out and production maintained for longer periods 1f better management and greater comprehension of geologic conditions had obtained at the mines. The present account touches on the various factors that have influenced mining in the region Q but it stresses geologic features 0
.Figures 2 to 9 are based primarily on data in the annual volumes of Mineral Re= -sources of the United States and the Minerals Yearbooko Some of the items of news about production have been gleaned from the same sources Some details are taken from :·reports on particular districts Figure 2 shows the fluctuations in production in the principal mining counties: Blaine Boise u Custer Idaho o and LemhL Only the southern part of Idaho County is in the region here discussed but its production could not be shown separately in the graph A number of other counties in the region 6 in.cluding Adams 6 Butte u Canyon Elmore Gem, Valley, and Washington contain mines a few of which are large but for most years the yield from these counties has not been large The county graphs take into account only gold o silver, lead, zinc, and copper. Although various other metals are known I they have been mined so far only under special conditions and for short periods Figures 4 and 9 show the production record since 1905 for the metals listed above In Figure 9 0 which covers recent years I the record for mercury (quicksilver) antimony 0 tungsten and cobalt has been included. Published data for the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century are inadequate for the preparation of separate graphs for most metals during these periods, but trends
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-4INITIAL PROSPECTING There are various reports of trappers or other mountain men noticing gold in gravel in and near south-central Idaho o For example v a trapperemployed by the Hudsonos Bay Company is said (Wells 0 1961a u po 9) to have recognized gold in Boise Basin in 1844 0 but none of these early observations were followed up Perhaps the first definite attempt at prospecting in the region was tha t undertaken by men from a Mormon settlement along the Lemhi Rivero Bancroft (1890 po 402=403) remarked t 'these men prospected copper deposits in the drainage basin of the Lemhi in 1854 When settlement was abandoned March 28 u 1858 0 because of trouble with Indians 0 the attempt at copper mining came to naughto It is interesting 0 however 0 that the first serious prospecting reported in southcentral Idaho was directed at lodes rather than placers 0
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The difficulty with Indians was one of several that hindered early mining When Lewis and Clark entered Idaho they were received with friendship; friendly relations were maintained as long as trappers entered in small 0 mobile parties There were Indian settlements in the Snake River Plain, along the Lemhi River u and probably in some of the other intermontane valleys but not o it seems in the rugged mountains in south-central Idaho 8 where game was scarce and the climate somewhat rigorous Even so p as soon as large groups of white men arrived u clashep occurred. A party of trappers belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company defeated 75 Piegan Indians in the valley ot the Lemhi in 1823 (Fisher o 1938 u po 80L and there were various fights in the Snake River Plains about this time 0
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The first successful attempt at mining in Idaho was that of Eo D. Pierce in 1860 (Wells 0 1961b u po 17-57; 1961a, po 2-4) in an area somewhat north of south-central Idaho He had had experience during the 1849 gold rush in California In consequence 6 when he wintered along the Clearwater River in 1852 he recognized the potentialities of the region Opposition from the Indians delayed the start of prospecting The Orofino mining district was formally established January 5, 1861 (Wells 0 1961a u po 4L and gold dust was taken from there to white settlements farther west in March u 18610 The following year prospectors penetrated into what is here termed south-central Idahoo In Mayo 1862 8 a party journeyed up the Salmon River and met a group coming down the river from near the site of Salmon (Wells u 1961a, po 13-16) These groups are said to have found gold along the river but the country was then too inaccessible for mining. The Warren mining district was organized July 220 1862 8 and gold was discovered in the Boise Basino August 20 1862 (Wells 0 1961a u po 10) although an Indian fight delayed mining until the following year The placers of the Secesh Basin in the southern part of the Warren district and other areas were found at about this time 0
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The abundant gravel and sand in some of the mountain basins here accumulated if: part as a result of interference with drainage by faulting that may have begun during the middle of Tertiary time Some of the gold in the Boise Basin is in sand and silt of probable Miocene age (Lindgren u 1898 u po 668) Most of the production u however u has come from gravel of Pleistocene and later age which was deposited in valleys and basins that differed little from those of the present time Part of the placer gold that was mined was in 0
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=5glacial moraines (Capps 0 1940 0 po 27=30)0 and inold o high~level terraces Modern flood plains seem to have yielded comparatively little gold u at least in some districtso Features such as these distinguish the placer deposits of the regiono They hindered some of the early work and need to be borne in mind in future exploration whether the objective is gold or the various heavy minerals associated with ita Some of the heavy minerals contain rare metals that are now beginning to be soughto In some districts aUf"" iferous gravel high above modem streams was not touched in the early days because of difficulty in getting water to ito Modern equipment might permit handling some of this 0
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Figure 2 shows that the mines of south-central Idaho had annual yields of some $2 million to $5 million during the early years of operationo Most of the production came from placers Difficulties and costs were so great (Wells u 19 61b 0 po 17-48) that profits were much less than one might suppose The sharp decline in production within a few years may have been caused as much by excessive costs as by exhaustion of known deposits Only rich and easily mined material o whether lode or placer 0 was worth mining 0
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The production record of the early years of mining in ldaho is fragmentary and rumor has tended to magnify the totals a Figure 2 summarizes the best available data for the counties in the south~central region that contain the most productive of the early mines The graphs in Figure 2 are carried to 1902 when the U S a Geological Survey began to publish more detailed compilations than had hitherto been possible Note that the graph for Idaho County in Figure 2 is for the whole county because data for the part of the county south of the Salmon River could not be isolated G
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In round numbers the initial placer activity in south=central Idaho through 1870 yielded over $30 million o Lodes may have produced a little more than $3 million in additiono The products from both placers and lodes in Boise Basin much exceeded those from any of the other districts then active In the late 1860 Us 0 placer miners spread to Atlanta and other areas in Elmore County (76 0 840 93 0 94 in Fig 1) and to the vicinity of Leesburg I Lemhi County (26 0 Fig 1) Base metals were not yet being sought anywhere to any signifi';" cant extent 0
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The first rush of placer mining had subsided by 18690 It might not have persisted as long as that had it not been sustained by the influx of foot~loose men during and after the Civil War Costs were so high and hardships so marked as to discourage some Wells (1961b u po 50) says costs in camps north of the Salmon River were 86 to 94 percent of the yieldo Those in camps south of the river were presumably similaro Food 0 at times, was scarce and pooro Lodes at Warren began to be developed"about 1866 0 appar6ntly with more excitement than profito By 1873 the annual production of gold from all sources in south~central Idaho had dropped below $2 milliono From that time until the change in price, in 1934 caused a spurt in mining 0 the production rate remained below that figure When placer yields declined in each district and the original miners drifted away 0 the diggings were left to the patbmt Chinese y content with smaller profits and more restricted operations 0
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-6While placer mining 0 which required simple equipment and little technical knowledge had started the industry II lodes were soon discovered close to the placers. Workings in them were confined mainly to rich oxidized material. Nearly everywhere the oxidized zone was found to be shallow, for the geomorphic history was incompaU"" ble with the preservation of large or deep bodies of oxidized ore, in part because that kind of material is not resistant to weathering and erosiono The unoxidized parts of the lodes proved to be too complex mineralogically and too low in precious metals to be handled by methods and equipment then available At some mines inefficiency I dishonesty and wasteful operation were coupled with inherently high costs .. 0
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The unimpressive record of the first attempts at lode mining has tended to discourage exploration in the old gold camps I but skepticism on this basis is unwarranted To a degree, that skepticism has rested on the fact that many of the lodes found during the early placer activity were in the deeply eroded Idaho batholith (Cretaceous). Some reasoned that lodes in such an environment would not persist in depth; the short periods of activity seemed to bear this out. Yet some of the lodes that have been followed downward 0 particularly in the Boise Basin, go quite deep enough to be encouraging. It is now realized (Ross, 1934, p. 276-277; Anderson, 1947, p. 189-190) that many of the lodes are genetically related~ not to the batholith, but to a group of younger intrusions that, with interruptions, extends diagonally across south-central Idaho. Anderson (1951) goes so far as to contend that little Of the mineralization in the state is g~netically related to the batholith" His interpretation is open to argument but, at all events, there is good reason to regard many of the lodes within the area of the batholith, not as mere roots of old, eroded deposits, but as much younger features that rna y extend to depths great enough to justify exploration. Some of the ore shoots that have been explored are rather small and many are mineralogically complex enough to present difficulties in treatment but those !n~ terested should bear in mind that much of the metal originally deposited in them is still there awaiting future prospectors. The complex minerals of bismuth, selenium, etc., that baffled early miners and metallurgists may be added incentives in the future 0
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Records of principal producing counties •In
Fig. 2
1860-1902
6,000,000 5,500,000 5,000,000
:::::: (?1 3,500~ 3,000,000 Dato for BOise CO'unty frO'm USGS Bull. 944C p 113
fO'r IdoM andL-emhi Countle. from .uSGS Buil. 921 A pIa
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2,500,000
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2,000,000
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far Blaine. County frO'm USGS SulI.814 p 82
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1,500,000 .~
1,000,000
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500,000
-·····i!!'..':Je IdahO·
••••. ----
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1860
."
1862
1864
1866
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
-7THE START OF LODE MINING Lode mining began on a small scale in the 1860's at Warreh (13 in Fig. 1) and other localities first opened for placers That undertaken in the 1870's was only a little more extensive e Most of it was in precious metal deposits such as those at Qu~rtzburg I Atlanta, and Yankee Fork (80, 78, 53, in Figo 1)0 At thlS early date the Atlanta or Yuba and the Yankee Fork districts (78 and 57 , Fig 1) were among the most productive The lodes at Warren o Quartzburg and Atlanta are among those in the Idaho batholith and that consequently have been suspected of being shallow" This suspidia1FlIi.s(unfolincd.ed ·as· :the·. lodes are not genetically related to the batholith .. At Quartzburg the first lode mining was confined to free-milling, oxidized gold ore i which in some mines extended only to depths of about 20 feet. The ore of the Yankee Fork. district was high in silver. It included some complex minerals but evidently much of the value could be recovered by amalgamationo 0
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The interval between 1880 and about 1902 was one of the prosperous periods of lode mining in south-central Idaho o Prospecting had progressed so far that most present mining districts and most of the varieties of lodes now recognized were known then I though not all were yet developed () Numerous factors in the development of Idaho as a whole contributed to aid mining in south-central Idaho. The wilderness period was passing. Farming and stock-raising expanded and towns grew in the major valleys of the state f providing relatively convenient supply points for the mines. The pack trains of the early days were gradually supplanted by freight wagons and stage coaches along main routes. Branch roads were extended even to some of the mines in the more rugged areas 0
The Indians in and near Idaho were not especially warlike.. Apparently they had never been numerous in the high mountains They had interfered occasionally with the early miners but mostly in small bands. Some of the forays were by mixed groups I that included half breeds The Nez Perce and Sheepeater Indian uprisings which were put doW:n in 1877 and 1879 (Fisher, 1938, p. 88-90) essentially brought to a close the Indian troubles that so far as mining in south-central Idaho was concerned had started in 1862 with the killing of the first prospectors to enter Boise Basin There had been clashes with trappers long before mining began 8'
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In 1882 I the Oregon Short Line, later incorporated in the Union Pacific system, started construction across the Snake River Plain; the following year a brancQ: line reached Hailey the metropolis of the Wood River mining region ... Lodes in that region had been noted as early as 1864 (Bancroft, 1890 , po 551) but mining had not begun in earne st until 18800 I
The first census of Idaho taken in 1870, showed a population of 14,999; that of 1880 recorded 32,619 people; and by 1890 there were 88,548. The growth in population and the related increase in transportation facHi ties aided the mining industry.. Now lode mines could be adequately equipped and ore dressing mills and smelters could be built locally to treat ore from base metal lodes g
0
In the early 1880's the Nicholia (49 on Fig 1) district in the Beaverhead Mountains u the Mineral Hill (105 on Fig. 1) and Warm Springs (87 on Fig. I) districts near 0
-8Hailey; the Little Wood River district (88 on Fig 1) east of Hailey; the Vienna dis~ trict in the Sawtooth Range (45 on Fig e 1); the Bayhorse district near Challis (52 on Fig 1); the Gibbonsville and Mineral Hill (9 D lIon Fig e 1) districts in northern Lemhi County; and the Yellowjacket (36 on Fig 1) district in western Lemhi County (Fig. 1) were developede Most of these are principally noted for their lead-silver ore, although some were precious metal districts and several of the deposits yielded some coppero Copper deposits 0 such as those at Mackay I Custer County, as well as minor ones in the mountains bordering the Lemhi River 8 were first actively developed about 1884 although much of the production came later A number of the lode mining districts that were opened earlier had revivals in the 18ap' sand numerous mining districts were tested during that decadee Some districts were opened in the 1890 Se These include the Seven Devils (17 on Fig 1) copper district on the western margin of south-central Idaho, and the Blackbird and Indian Creek (25 , lOon Fig. 1) districts in Lemhi County. The development of Yellowjacket district began earlier but its major production was in 1893 to 1'897. <>
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Most of the lodes explored in the larger mines of the 1880's were shear zones in which the distinctive gangue mineral was ankerite or siderites Argentiferous galena, present in most such lodes I was the prinCipal economic mineral in many. In numerous mines only the ore shoots originally discovered were explored before operations were halted because of difficulty in finding new ones. The failure was commonly ascribed to displacement of the ore by faulting. The effects of post-mineral faulting are certainly present in many of the mines. As an excuse for not finding ore I however, faulting has been overused (Umpleby and others, 1930, p. 90-111). In many instances I the ore shoots feather out into sheared or breCCiated rock -commonly somewhat altered, but with few ore minerals ~ Commonly underground exploration is complicated by an arr(;lngement of the shoots en echelon, but the lack of continuity down dip is original, rather than the result of faulting. There have been revivals of interest in mines that were active late in the 19th century and some ore missed then has been foundo Even where such revivals have not been very successful, the possibility of finding ore by suitable modern methods remains I
6
0
The difficulty in finding new ore shoots is only one of the reasons that some of the miners of the 1880-1902 period met with limited successo In mines that had rich ore like-, the Ramshorn (Rosso 1937 (1938) po 117-122), in the Bayhorse district~ Custer County (52 in Fig 1) D the parts of the lodes that could be mined profitably were exceedingly narrow Hence mines of this sort were commonly operated on the leasing system under which lessees could afford to crawl into stopes only a foot or so wide to mine and sort selectivelyo As a result, mines were left in poor shape for future operations and the amount of exploratory development in advance of known ore bodies was reducedo 0
0
Q
Much of the ore from such lodes could be concentrated in fairly simple mills; rich ore and concentrates could be treated in local smelters, saving freight costs Because some oren like that of the Triumph mine in Blaine County, was much too complex to be handled by such m~thods 0 some ot's shoots could not be successfully mined at the time I)
0
-9Lodes in the Idaho batholith 0 whether or not genetica.lly related to that bodyo have distinctive features that affect mining Of lodes of this kind active in the late 19th centuryo those in the general vicinity of Atlanta and Rocky Bar are important (Anderson 0 1939; 1943) The mineralogic contento especially at Atlanta, is rather complex o Stephanite pyrargyrite and other silver minerals are present and would interfere with simple amalgamation Mining during the period under discussion must have been confined mainly to oxidized ore but much of this is reported to have netted between $700 and $800 in gold and silver per ton (Anderson 1939, po 20)0 Values in that range were decidedly exceptional in the mines of the regiono The tonnages found were evidently small as the periods of active mining were shorto 0
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0
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Lodes in the Challis Volcanics were another variety worked durio9 the per1odo The Yankee Fork district u Custer County (53 in Fig 1) contained the most productive of these A number of such districts are known (Ross 0 1927b) but most were not rich enough in precious metals for operation in the early days and several were 8 and for that matter are remote from transportation. The rich shoots had relatively abundant silver. Milling losses were high because of mineralogic complexities and base-metal shoots had to be ayoided in mining" Caving of old workings may have left some of the latter shoots difficult or impossible to extract when the old mines are reopenedo The Yankee Fork district probably yielded over $12 million prior to 1905, mostly from the General Custer mine (Anderson 0 1939, p. 14) I but revivals of placer dredging since then have met with scant successo 0
0
I
Lodes in the volcanics have fineiy disseminated ore minerals that in places include aguilarite or some similar selenide. The tiny black specks of selenide may escape visual detectiono The ore requires systematic sampling and assaying during mining and special metallurgical treatment afterward 0
Available statistics do not permit determination of the amounts of the various metals mined in south=>central Idaho in the 19th century as is done in Figures 4 and 7 for the present centuryo The graphs for Boise and Idaho counties in Figure 2 indicate the trend of gold mining in the regiono That for Blaine County (Alturas County prior to 1895) indicates the fluctuations in lead mining although several other counties yielded leado Most of the production in Blaine County came from the Mineral Hill and Warm Spring s districts near Hailey The statistics on mines near Hailey are more satisfactory in all respects than those for most of south=central Idahoo because of the detailed records kept by Eo Daft of the Hailey Sampling Works (Umpleby and others 1930 po 82-85 8 123-208). During the period discovery and accessibility of deposits were more important than prices in influencing production Price sat that time are shown in a previous paper (Ros S 1930 Plo 2) At times in the later development of the region fluctuations in prices were among the governing factors 0
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I
-10MINING IN
~
EARLY 20TH CENTURY
A few years after the beginning of the 20th century the first boom periods were over and the major districts had settled down to development of known mines from which the choicest known ore had been already removed Figure 3 reflects the diminished output during the part of the 20th century that preceded World War 10 The peaks in the curves result mainly from the activities of a very few mines per count yo That for Custer County in 1906-1907 was caused largely by production the Empire mine 0 whose management had changed in 1906 (Umplebyo 1917 0 po 14L The increased efficiE~ncy that resulted was probably the most potent influence in the increase in producticn u although higher prices for copper aidedo 0
at
The Lost Packer mine in the Loon Creek district (45 in Fig 1) began to produce when a smelter was built there in 1904 (Rossu 19340 po 117-122L Some of the ore was rich, but the costs of mining at this remote camp were so high that profits must have been smalL At first b transportation between the mine and Bonanza a distance of about 25 miles I was by pack train; and throughout the operation of the mine supplies had to be hauled in and matte from the smelter taken out over the 110 miles of rough road to the railhead at Mackay. Known ore shoots at the Lost Packer are now exhausted but there has been no exploration below creek leveL Much of the mining was in 1907 0 1908 0 1911 and 1914 during which period the mine may have yielded about half a million dollars Most of the value in the ore mined then was in auriferous chalcopyrite of hypogene origino Similar ore might be worth looking for at depth 0
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0
G
The marked increase in production in Lemhi County in 1911-1912 wa 5 a result of the coming of a railroad in 19100 At Gilmore u the Latest Outo Pittsburgh-Idaho I and Gilmore Mining Company mines expanded their operations and were a major factor in the increase in output of the count Yo The increase in the price of silver in 1912 may have helped; but no comparable increase in the price of lead took place Copper prices rose in 1912 but this produced little response from the copper mines near MackaY$ Q
Available records for most of the region are not detailed enough to pinpoint the production history of individual mines 0 but so far as they go they tend to support the idea that ore in sight and efficiency in management at a particular mine were more potent than general economic conditions in governing regional production rates For the Mineral Hill district (105 in Fig 1) 0 near Hailey Q data permit citing some examples In general, the big producers of the boom days in that district had sharply curtailed yields by the beginning of the century 0 but there were exceptions The Red Elephant mine not one of the outstanding early producers (Umpleby and others I 1930 0 po 147) 0 had a good record around 1890 and again in 1905-1908 0 but did not respond markedly to the favorable market conditions of 1911-1912 Its tonnage did increase notably in 1913 0 after prices had begun to dropo possibly as a result of increased exploration underground when prices were encouraging The Red Cloud mine (Umpleby and others d 1930 po 156) produced well around 1890 but did not respond conspicuously to market incentives of 1911-1912 e The Nay-Aug mine (Umpleby and others u 1930 po 162) attained its principal production in 1907 1908, 1909 and 1910 but then dropped ofL The famous Minnie Moore mt'ne (Hewett in Umpleby 0
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Photo 2
The famous Minnie Moore Mine near Bellevue in the Wood River valley
-11-
and others 1930 po 219,-223) closed down in 1906 did have a good yield in 19130 0
0
0
when silver prices were high, but
The Warm Springs district (No@ 87 in Fig 1), later active 8 did not have an impressi ve record in the early part of the 20th century The dis trict has been known since the early 1880 0 So but in many of its mines major development did not begin until 1914 or later 0
0
0
The varied production record of the Mineral Hill and ·Warm Springs districts (Umpleby and others 1930 p 82~84) does not correspond to fluctuations in prices On the contrary 0 it probably reflects the amount of ore in sight at each mine from time to time which in turn o reflects the fact that individual ore shoots were rather small and new ones were hard to find The difficulties in exploration were in part related to ignorance of the geologic conditions governing localization of oreo Even today the features governing ore shoots in the two districts are imperfectly understood but few engineers or mine operators would put faith in such notions as the 'Wood River fault'O which Campbell (1928, p. 289) correctly termed a myth. His paper deals primarily with the Minnie Moore mine but he implies that in past explorations throughout the Wood River region miners have placed excessive emphasis on faulting as a reason for termination of ore. The concept of the Wood River fault has never been stated in any precise way in printo This concept involves a great fault that is assumed to extend throughout the region at approximately the same depth everywhere. The depth at which the Wood River fault was to be expected was given at about 300 feet by some operators and ore shoots were supposed to be displaced wherever encountered by i10 In view of the rugged topography such a fault would be difficult to visualize It is true that many of the extensively developed mines have no known ore bodies more than some 200 feet below the surface (Umpleby and others u 1930, p. 101) but the Wood River fault is not the explanation of this. Modern engineers will see the fallacy in the concept just outlined but old ideas die hard and it may be worthwhile to call attention to the matter hereo 0
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0
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Development underground 0 especially in the early days 8 was largely by means of adits rather than by shafts which were both costly and difficult to sink with equipment then availableo Most of the shoots that were mined in the early days had their pitch lengths flat or at low angles even where they were in veins that dipped over 60 0 • Sinking down the dip of the vein and exploratory crosscutting in barren ground were not undertaken as often as might have been wise Extensions of lodes in the Wood River region, in any direction from ore shoots are difficult to recognize Commonly they consist merely of sheared or crushed rock with little or no vein minerals to distinguish them from the numerous uninteresting fracture zones My observations on the Mayflower and neighboring lodes (Umpleby and others, 1930, p. 137-150) suggest that extensions of lodes were indeeq cut in exploratory workings without being recognized Further some shoots are arranged en echelon with or even in parallel with others without visible connecting links. Geologic and engineering characteristics such as these had more influence in discouraging deep mining than features such as the hypothetical Wood River faulto I
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The character of the lodes in the two districts hear Hailey and in simila~ districts in other parts of the region supports the idea that mineralization took place originally at con-
I
Fig. 3
Records
of principal
producing
• counties In
1902-1917
2,250,000 2,000,000 IJ 750,000
/'
1,500 OOO f
1,250,000 J ,000,000
750,000
Data mainly from annual volumes of Mineral Resources of the United States
1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 /908 1909 19/0
1911
1912
1913
1914 1915
1916
1917
siderable depth below the surface There is no apparent reason why ore shoots should be confined to the range of a few hundred to about 10000 feet below the present surface, the range through which most workings extend o If and when there is enough incentive to explore beneath the old mines u new and worthwhile ore shoots may reward the efforL 0
The production curve for Blaine County (Fig 3) :r(~fl6CtS the general failure of miners near Hailey to find virgin ore shoots From 1906 until war in Europe began to influence production u the curve is nearly flat and the annual total was mostly below $250 ,0000 The region was resting on past laurels 0
0
0
Production prior to World War I in other parts of south~central Idaho was governed by factors as varied as the deposits Dredge operations in the Boise Basin and near Salmon renewed interest in placers The old mines in the Bayhorse district did not have an impressive record at that time 0 mostly because the rich but shallow oxidized ore had been largely exhaustedo Hypogene ore was known and some of it was rich, but mining in ore of that character was not extensive 0
0
0
The copper deposits of the Alder Creek district near Mackay (70 on Fig .. 1) were mined actively during this period The Empire mine which is the only large one I may have yielded about $4 million worth of copper then. This mine is largely r~sponsible for the sharp peak in 1913 shown in the graph 'for Custer County in Figure 3 e According to Umpleby (1917 u po 13-14) a smelter was built in 1901 but for about 5 years thereafter the mine was flagrantly mismanaged by a succession of operating companies. After 1906 the management was better but mu.ch of the mining was done by lessees and little exploration in advance of stoping ~las attempted.. The mine and its neighbors differ from most 1n the region in that the lodes are replacement bodies of contact metamorphic type in limestone on the borders of intrusive masseso At times early in the 20th century" the value of the copper produced exceeded that of the lead (Fig 4) largely as a result of the yield from the Empire mine 0 although mines near Hailey also contributed substantially and small producers in other districts added to the total Q
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0
A number of small districts were in operation early in the 20th century The old Warren (13 on Figo 1) district u Idaho Countyu yielded $225 0 720 0 mostly from placersf} Mines around Atlanta 0 Elmore County (84 on Fig 1) had a mild revival but shut down about 1914 The Dome (69 on Fig 1) district o Butte County became active about 1905 The principal producer there is the Wilbert mine This small lead-silver mine had an enviable record of almost constant production from 1906 into 1931 and some later work has been done (Ross! 1961 0 po 246~251L The Lava Creek (89 on Figo 1) district o also in Butte County, enjoyed some activity about 1913(} although it has not yielded much since its oxidized silver ore was worked out in the early days Both of these districts have distinctive geologic features; and in both D the lodes may have formed later than many of those in Idaho are commonly supposed to have formedo Boise County did fairly well during the period (Andersonu 1947 (1949) 0 po 179) largely because of dredging in previously placered areas but also because of revival of interest in Idahoo Q
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It is impractical to plot on Figure 3 production from counties such as Ada 8 Adams, Butte u Camas e Canyon o Elmore o Gem o Payette Valleyu and Washington where activity 0
early in the 20th century was slight or sporadic 0 With a few exceptions, the annual production of each of these counties was commonly $10 8 000 or less .. Even for Elmore County, where annual production exceeded $100 000 much of the time a graph on the scale of Figure 3 would not show Much of the production of this county was from the area near Atlanta e The highest recorded yield for the county in the pertod W&,S $248,230 in 1911 .. I
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The Thunder Mountain boom in 1902 to 1907 constitutes to a degree, an exception to the fact that mining in south-central Idaho early in the 20th century was largely i,n previously developed districts 0 The gold deposits of the Thunder Mountain district in eastern Valley County (37 on Fig .. 1) were discovered in 1895 (Ross 0 1933, po 588-589) and be...; tween 2,000 and 3,000 people rushed there in 1902. Stamp mills were built and for a time,' there was much activity here and in neighboring areas e Unfortunately the reports of the richness of the ore were exaggerated and mining soon began to decline", The total 'produc"" tion has been only about $350 6 OOOe A landslide in May 1909, which flooded the principal settlement, brought the activity at most surviving mines to a close e The principal item of value that resulted from the boom was the intensive prospecting in the surround~ng region. Some of the deposits outside of the Thunder Mountain district that were found during the boom later became major producers notably the quicksUver and tungsten deposits east of Yellow Pine I
0
Although the results of the boom were scant, the gold deposits of the Thunder Mountain district should be kept in mind if gold mining becomes of interest in the future. The district contains large quantities of low-grade material formed by dissemination of hydrothermal solutions through permeable 8 mostly clastic u beds in the Challis Volcanics (Ross, 1933; Shenon and Ross, 1936)0 Where concentration occurred, either in fissures or under impermeable beds the gold content became sufficient for profitable mining under favorable conditions. Some mining has continued in spite of handicaps imposed by the remoteness of the district and the lack of a favorable market for gold. The exaggerated early reports were based largely on rich stringers of supergene gold; the lack of success at the mines was in part because the mills made only about 80 percent recovery,. Because part of the gold and silver wa s in pyrargyri te and probably also selenide s lit was not recoverable in the amalgamation mills set up during the boome I
In the part of the 20th century that preceded World War I more diverse metals were being produced than in the 19th century 8 apart from the boom periods in and just after the 1880' s ' (Fig. 4) Except for gold, the quantities of each metal produced at the beginning of the period was small. At times thereafter the yields of lead and copper rose sharply. Note that up to 1915 gold continued to dominate nearly all the time, even though most of the lead ore was low in gold.. Except for metallurgical difficulties zinc m~ght have made a more impressive record than Figure 4 indicates e Contracts with smelters were unfavorable for ore that contained zinc especially if the percentage was small Consequently miners tended to avoid shipping such ore. Some lodes are rich in silver but production of such ore was not sufficient to be registered strongly on Figure 4. Except very early in the 20th century, lead made a more impressive record than silvero Some of the ore contained arsenic and antimony I which generally was not welcomed by the smelters and thus was a $
I
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···i-i .. :--,-.-._
Fig. 4
Record·s
of
prl ncipal
metals produced in '905-1935
I
I I
2,000,000
I I I
1,750,000
I
J ,500,000
1,250,000
I I I I I I
__ J ~,ooo,ooo
1905 Data maillly from annual volumes of Mineral Resources of !he United States lind Minero1 s Yeo,. book
1935
-14disadvantage to the miners. As noted earlier there was UtUe correspon~ence b~.., tween the amounts of the various metals that were mined and the priG~~ (Fig. S) obtained. I
Metal prices in 1902 -1935
Fig. 5 Price per ounce of silver and per pound of copper, lead and zinc
a
1.20
1\
I \
I \ I \
1.00
I I
I
I J
I 1/
.80
1
"
\
iA//"
~y~ \....... --
\ \
\ \
\
i ,1./-" ' / . . . . -'\\ J
1--\ /1 X
.60 ' \
\ \ \
I I
r _"
\
/
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\.
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1__
I
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J
, I , I \ I
\
1
\
J
\
.40
I
\\ ) -.I
/
.20
".----- --.-
Data from annua I v.olumes of Minerai Resources of the United Stotes and Minerals Yearbook
ZlnC_._._
-'-'-'-~-'-'
-- '"
'"
,,"',
~
"" ,
,, "
.-. - -'-
...... ~-.-._/
.......
" ,.-- --
---
o
1900
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
-15WORLD WAR 1 The incentives provided by war in Europe affected mining in south~central Idaho as early as 1914; production reached its crest in 1917 0 especially in the copper mines near Mackayo On the whole the response to wartime demands was not impressive and the decline in production after hostilities ceased was prompto The production increase in Blaine County was not greato The record set by that county in the first few years after World War I was somewhat better 0 and may have resulted largely from the opening up of ore bodies that were sought because of the war but found too late to aid in the war effort .. Figure 6 11 like Figures 2 and 3 6 records only production of gold 0 silver, copper I lead and zinc e Until the 1930 is no other metal s were produced in significant quanti tie s in the .region u although several were known and some had been successfully minedo Indeed, for . ' most years the production of zinc and u to some extent, copper had riot contributed greatly to regional totals World War I did not change this picture greatly. The munitions required were not so markedly different from tho$e of previous conflicts as to result in many s"pecial demands for metals 0 Mercury was still in demand for fu.lmlnate in detonating explosi ves, but the need for it in manufacturing :f~lt c~mpa1gn hats was on the decline. Suth hats were useful in fighting Indians but were in the way in trench warfare. The deposits of qJ.licksllver in Idaho had conly begun to be recognized, in contrast to the major role they played in World War II. The uses of alloy steels 1n munitions grew enough to result in prospecting for cobalt and nicke11n western Lemhi County (Hess I 1921) but these met.... als like quicksilver did not come into their own in the region until World War II.. Figure 6 includes graphs for the part of Idaho County that is within south-central Idaho and for Valley Count Yo In the early 20th centurYI1 prior to 1928 u southern Idaho County yielded so little that it cannot be plotted on the graphs" Within a few years after that date interest in gold raised the production of this and other gold-producing areas notably. H
0
H
0
The Clayton silver mine, north of Clayton in the Bayhorse district (52 in Fig. 1) was one of tae properties whose development started in the interval between the two wars and whose subsequent record has been good The existence of lodes here was known long before World War I but little was accomplished prior to 1927. Since the late 1930's the mine has been operated, with various interruptions mainly because of labor disputes and its prodUction record has been good e The workings are mainly in a dolomitic member of the Kinnikinic Quartzite (Ordovician); the ore lies in part along fracture and bedding planes but spreads out irregularly into the dolomitic country rock (Ross, 1937 (1938); pe 137-138)" .When I first saw the property in 1928 the visible ore was in such small and unsystematically distributed bodies that success in mining seemed doubtful, but evidently skillful underground explora tion has been rewarded" Many of the deposits in the region particularly in the Bayhorse district o are replacements in carbonate rocks.. Some of these have even fewer fracture planes or similar structural features to guide exploration than the Clayton mine has, Some prospectors do not understand ·the difference between replacement deposits and veins, with the result that their exploration is erroneously planned. Wherever a mineral deposit has limestone or dolomite as its country rock, replacement rather than cavity filling is to be expected and exploration should be planned accordingly. The attitude of the bedding in the carbonate rock may have much to do with the shape of the ore bodies. Cross fractures may have influenced ore depOSition and these are less readily seen and are less perSistent and uniform than the walls of fissure veins. G
I
I
.
1.
Fig. 6
2,000,000 1,750,000 1,500,000 1,250,000 1,000,000 750,000 Data mainly from annual volumes of Mineral Resources of the United States and the Minerals Yearbook
Records of
pri nci pc I
producing
counties
in
1914 -1939
~16-
THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE WARS - -------- --- ---Mining in south-central Idaho was rather quiet in the interval between the two world wars Custer County was the only one to attain an annual production close to $1 milliono The production there in 1929 resulted from activity at the copper mines near Maci:"p'yand at the Livingston mine in the B,)ulder Creek district (66 in Fig 1L The production near Mackay probably came from leasing operations on the best and most accessible parts of the known ore codies in the Empire mine Similarly the work at the Livingston was the culmination of operat1.ons in the only ki10wn ore shoot of any consequence Both the Empire and the Livingston shut down in 1930 I although leasing continued at the Empire after that o In 1927 to 1931, activity at the Triumph mine near Ketchum sustained production in Blaine Count yo The complex, fine-grained ore at the Triumph 0 mineralogically some\vhat similar to ore at the Livin9ston I was not profitable to work until a method of selective flotation was devised for it. The ore at the Triumph contains boulangerite among other complex minerals (Umpleby and others, 1930, po 181183) and that at the Livingston includes jamesonite (Ross, 1937 (1938), p. 151). The large size of known ore bodies at the Triumph encouraged study of ore dressing methods, whereas the single 6 rather small shoot at the Livingston was worked out within a few years using make-shift machinery and leaving zinc-rich material on the borders of the shoot untouched (Ross, 1937 (1938) p. 149-151). The Triumph mine shut down in 1931 but was revived during World War II. There h?ve been attempts to reopen the Livingston but with less success .. 0
0
0
0
The depression of the early 1930's was so profound that it dwarfed local influences such as have been commented upon.. Figure 4 showing the records of particular metals and Figure 6 showing the county records both reflect the effects.. Prices declined correspondingly I as shown by Figure 5 I but, except for silver I the drops were not as precipitous as the declines in productiono In one respect the depression increased mining activity in south-central Idaho.. People who had been deprived of their normal means of livelihood journeyed to this and other mining regions to try their hands at gold mining by primitive methods Most of these people had neither experience nor equipment for the jobo They panned gravel in stream channels not controlled by established mining companies.. Presumably some secured subsistence from their labor but the total gold output resulting was not large. Probably mining of this sort was more extensive in parts of California and other localities in the United States that were more accessible than suitable areas in south-central Idaho were A few people did penetrate into areas in Valley and Idaho counties miles from roads a 0
0
One outgrowth of the depression was the increase in the price of gold that began in 1933. The price was stablilized at $35.00 per ounce in 1935, following a proclamation by the Pre sident in 1934 Figure 6 reflects increases in the production of gold in Boise, and southern Idaho counties starting in 1932, and Figure 4 shows the same thing rather more impressivelyo Most of the gold came from such long-established districts as Boise Basin and Vvarren but the lode mines in the Marshall Lake district (14 in Fig 1) contnbuted in 1929 into 19310 These latter had also been productive during World War I and were again in the late 1930'50 Activity at the principal mine at Atlanta gave Elmore County significant production in 1932 to 1935. For most of the period covered by Figure 6, the 0
I
0
Photo 3
Dredge -mini ng for gold in south-central Idaho
-17-
production of Elmore County
Wd S
so low tha, tit was not plotted on this figure
@
The districts in Boise and Idaho counties just mentioned are geologically quite different from each other and from most others in the regiono As already noted o lodes in Boise Basin are related to a dike zone of Tertiary age Those at Warren are in quartz lenses in gouge-filled fissures 11 related to joints in the granitic rock of the Idaho batholith; presumably mineralization took place as a late result of the emplacement of the batholith. So far the record both of production and of continuity in depth at Warren is below that of the lodes of Boise Basing although the records made by the placI3rs at Warren are fairly good ~ Lodes of the Marshall Lake district are in partially silicified pendants or xenoliths in the Idaho batholith They are quartz lenses associated with aplite and pegmatite., In places the vein quartz merges w.ith pegmatite o either as an original feature or as a result of replacement of the dike rock by somewhat younger quartzo Metallic minerals are varied but generally so small in quantity that the base metal content of the lodes is negligible The ore shoots at both Marshall Lake and Warren are far narrower than those in Boise Basino Records are incomplete but from 1902 to 1928 the lodes at Warren yielded somewhat more than $265! 000 and the Marshall Lake district (14 in Fig a 1) yielded $289 u 2220 mainly from lodes 0 according to an unpublished table compiled by C. N. Gerry 8 U S. Bureau of Mines. Data in annual volumes of Mineral Resources of the United States suggest that the lodes in Marshall Lake district yielded roughly $55! 000 in 1929 through 1931 and little since then In contrast o the geologically younger lodes in Boise Basin largely in the Quartzburg district (80 in Fig 1) 0 are thought to have yielded over $4 million in 1901 to 1930 (Anderson o 1947 0 po 178-179) on the basis of a table compiled by Gerry. He computed production of lodes in Boise County prior to 1901 to have been $10 u 014! 676; most of it from Boise Basin Destructive fires at the principal mine in 1929 and 1931 hampered operations but there has been some production since then. 0
0
0
0
Q
o
0
0
Two areas in Valley County that had hitherto seen little development were active between the two wars Numerous small properties were worked but the principal production was from the Lost Pilgrim lead-zinc mine in the Deadwood district (58 in Fig .. 1) 6 operated in 1924 to 1932; and the Meadow Creek mine in the Yellow Pine district (38 in Fig ~ 1) where the Yellow Pine Co. began operations in 1928., The principal are bodies at this property contained gold and antimony but work was also done at a nearby quicksilver mine. Both were originally discovered during the Thunder Mountain boom about 19000 The Meadow Creek mine in 1932 through 1937 yielded 3 0 515 tons of antimonyo 49 504 31 ounces of gold and 168 093 ounces of silver (Cooper u 1951 po 180L The antimony ore produced at this and other mines in the district constitutes the first significant yield of metal other than those common in the regiono G
8
0
0
9
0
0
Properties in both the Deadwood and Yellow Pine districts are mainly in the Idahc batholith but the Lost Pilgrim mine is in a schist xenolith and the quicksilver mine in the Yellow Pine district is in metamorphosed sedimentary rock o probably part of the roof of the batholith. The genetic relations between the Idaho batholith and the lodes of the Deadwood and and Yellow Pine districts are not entirely clear There are Tertiary dikes in the Deadwood district but relations to the mineralization have not been established In the Yellow Pine area mineralization took place in several stages" The latest of these stages u at least, 0
0
-18is Tertiary and not directly related to th.e batholith. Those, who have studied the deposits in detail (White, 1940, p. 264-265, Cooper, 1951, P. 171""l72) regard the whole mineralization sequence as.of Tertiary age. The matter 1s'of interest in con'" nection with the problem of the economic import<;3,ijce of lodes ~ithin the Idaho ba~o'" lith and genetically related to it. Tungsten was discovered in the Blue Wing district, Lemhi County I (411n Fig. ~) in 1903 (Callaghan and Lemmon 1941, p. 4-5); an attempt to mine it was mad.e in 1911 but little was accomplished until 1934; significant production did not begin until 1936. .
!
The sharp increase in production in Blaine County just before World War II is one of the more conspicuous. features of Figure 6. It results largely ~rom r~newal of . activity at the Triumph and neighboring properties in the Warm Springs distriot (87 in Fig. 1). The group was the largest producer of gold in Idaho in 1939 and also rank.ed high in output of zinc I silver and lead 0
-19WORLD WAR
.!L
The history of mining in south-central Idaho during World. War II differs from that in prewar periods in that several metals not previously sought to any great extent were searched for and mined so extensively as to place the region among the leaders 1n the nation. Tungsten and quicksilver are the conspicuous examples but antimony, cobalt, fluorite and others were also sought with encouraging results The urge to produce that was a part of the war effort and geologic engineering, and' other ass.istance by government agencies tended to accelerate mining.. On the other hand, there were potent adverse factors. Because south-central Idaho is not densely settled, labor shortages have at times in the past hampered mining During World War II this limitation was intensified. The armed forces took many of the young men. Other and perhaps more serious drains resulted from the needs in manufacturing centers in other regions for manpower. Wages and other tempting inducements resulted in emigration from south-central Idaho on a fairly large scale. The 8 counties that contain most of the mines had a population of 46,684 in 1940 and 44,372 in 1950, an aggregate decrease of 2,312 people. The decrease between 1950 and 1960 was 1,745 people. Some of the towns that are dependent mainly on mining may have had proportionately greater shrinkages" I
I
0
I
G
Shortages in supplies and transportation difficulties added to the labor shortages in hampering mining. For many mines, especially those in the more remote areas, which had had difficulties in securing needed supplies and equipment in prewar years, the restrictions and shortages during the war increased costs and delays markedly. Transportation facilities had increased greatly since the latter part of the 19th century but were still much below those in most other parts of the United States. Rationing and other restrictions related to the war magnified the difficulties in transportation. As Figure 7 shows the trend in base metal prices was upward during the war period, but not sufficiently so to encourage much increase in mining. Copper prices did better than those of lead and zinc o with the result reflected in Figure 9. Comparison between Figure 6 and Figure 8 shows Blaine County as the only one that shows spectacular increase And its record depended almost entirely on the Triumph mine in the Warm Springs district. I
0
The production record for the first 10 years shown in Figure 8 is complicated by the influence of gold prices and controls s Early in that period gold was sold at $35.00 an ounce 6 higher than it had ever been. As a result, its production reached a total of $3,842, 740 in 1941 (Fig .. 9), which exceeds its annual production at any time since the early boom days. In 1942 governmental orders caused most gold mines to close. In 1945 restrictions were removed. Figure 9 shows the immediate response. As was to be expected Boise County was the principal area affected. The mines in the part of Idaho County that is within south-central Idaho did not respond. The gold lode mines there that had been active in the 1930's did not reopen. They probably had little ore in sight and the operating companies may not have had enough capital for adequate explorationu In and. after 1943 the .production from the southern part of Idaho County was so low that it is not plotted on Figure 8. I
Fig.7 Metal ~ices in 1935 -1960
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1940
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1955
1960
Fig. 8
1 3 ,000,000
Production
1- _
2,500,000 I
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2,250,000
figures
include
only gold, silver,
lead, zinc
1935-1960
and
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1,250,000 1,000,000 750,OCXJ Data mainly from the ~nnual volumes of Minerals Yearbook
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counties in
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Records of principal producing
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Fig.9 Records of principal metal s produced in 1935-1960 ! 'I
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1,250,000 1,000,000
Values of tungsten. quicksilver, antimony and cobalt ore estlmoted from overage prIces as Qlven in the Minerals Yeorbook
750,000
•
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-20Governmental restrictions on silver mining were less stringent than those on gold mining; besides much of the silver obtained in south-central Idaho is in basemetal ore that was much desired for the war effort" Figure 9 shows that the rate·. of production of silver dropped in 1941 but that thereafter the production continued at a fairly high level throughout most of the war period Q
e
The production of antimony in south-central Idaho reached ,significant proportions in 1932 when the Meadow Creek mine in the Yellow Pine district, Valley County (38 in Fig. 1) began to produce (Cooper I 1951, po 180). Prior to that time, some antimony was doubtless obtained in the smelting of certain complex base metal ores from south-central Idaho but little material was mined as antimony ore. The development at the Meadow Creek mine would not have been undertaken except for the gold content of the deposito Production was active throughout the war and continued for a time thereafteL The graph in Figure 9 takes into account only the antimony produced at the Meadow Creek mine and its neighbor the Yellow Pine mine I both on Meadow Creek and essentially in parts of the same lode. Other mines in south-central Idaho, including one in the Yellow Pine district, produced antimony 6 but available records are not adequate to include in Figure 90 They would not greatly change the shape of the graph, especially during the war years. The deposits along Meadow Creek were originally thought to be of interest mainly for their gold contentG Indeed I to a degree I the antimonial minerals, mainly stibnite I were a detriment in treating the gold ore. During the war the deposits became the greatest source of antimony in the United States. Tungsten had an even more spectacular history during W'orld War II than antimony dido The presence of tungsten minerals in south-central Idaho had long been known but had attracted little attention. Scheelite in the deposits along Meadow Creek was recognized by D. Eo White of the United States Geological Survey in the course of microscopic study of cores from drill holes put down by the U. S. Bureau of Mines (Cooper, 1951, p. 154). This discovery was one of the results of the strategic minerals p'rogram conducted by the two Federal bureaus. The investigation of the ME~adow Creek area was of course undertaken because of the need for antimony, but when tungsten was looked for large quantities were found in shoots close to those in which antimony was mined. Some of the tungsten ore contains much antimony and some has very little. Mining of tungsten ore started in August 1941; and in 1942 1943, and 1944, the property was the largest tungsten producer in the United States. The main known tungsten ore body was exhausted in July 19450 To the end of 1945 I, 184,079 tons of ore were mined, yielding 95,358 tons of concentrate, containing 831,829 units ofW03 (tungstic oxide)u 14,981 tons of metallic antimony, 101 8 437 ounces of gold, and 592,211 ounces of silver. I
I
I
I
I
Once attention had been directed to tungsten u numerous occurrences of it were recognized throughout south-central Idaho but only a few of these h~ve become producing mines. A group of deposits in the Blue Wing district, Lemhi County I have been known since 1881. They were prospected in the early days mainly for silver but the presence of tungsten was recognized in 1903 and some tungsten ore was shipped as early as 1911 (UmplebYQ 1913 u po 109; Callaghan 'and Lemmon, 1941, p . 4-6). Active development accompanied by some production began in 1934. In consequence I the lode s 8
I
I
The Yellow Pine Mine at Stibnite , a major producer of antimony and tungsten during World War II
-21yielded large quantities of tungsten, mostly in the form of hubnerite, during the waL The Irrta mine in this group, the second largest tungsten mine in Idaho I contains the largest known hubnerite deposits in the western United States (Clabaugh, 1945). The deposits are in impure quartzite (Precambrian) surrounding a granite mass that does not outcrop" The lode matter fills a system of fractures in both rocks and includes quartze microcline u mica u fluorite u rhodocrosite o siderite u calcite, hubnerite, tetrah~dri te u pyrite I scheeli te u sphalerite galena I mol ybdeni te.. and other sulphide s (Callaghan and Lemmon u 1941 po 1-21); (Anderson o 1948 8 p. 181-Z0GL Anderson tentatively regards the granite as of early Tertiary age but there is no direct means of dating ito Q
Q
The third metal that came into prominence in south-central Idaho during World War II is called mercury as soon as it gets into commerce but to most miners it is quicksilvere Although deposits in the Yellow Pine district had been known since the Thunder Mountain boom the two main mines, opened in 1917 and 1918, produced little quicksilver until after 1940 when prices were high (Fig. 7). As Figure 9 indicates I production fell off before the end of the war 8 in part because of a labor shortage. In 1943 u the Hermes mine in the Yellow Pine district was the second largest producer in the United States Q
Q
0
In 1936, quicksilver was discovered in agricultural country near Weiser, Washington County (60 on Fig. 1) a somewhat surprising circumstance. Mining began in 19380 The principal mine, the Idaho-Almaden, productive from 1939 through 1943, shut down because favorable material had been exhausted. Much low-grade and some small bodies of high-grade ore remained but the management felt that continuation of mining was unwise at the time. Figure 7 shows that quicksilver prices declined sharply after 19430 The use of the metal was less vital in World War II than in previous contests I for it was no longer needed as a major constituent in detonators for high explo'Sive-s,,, Q
Search for cobalto fluorspar, and other mineral commodities was conducted in south-central Idaho during the war but, except for those mentioned above little production had been attained before peace came. The stimulation to prospecting may prove to have been of great importance for the future of mining in the region especi"'; ally as much of it was in areas at a distance from old mines. Among those to which attention might be directed are the Thunder Mountain district, .'Valley County I (37 in Fig 1) and the Parker Mountain district, Custer County (46 in Fig. 1). Mines in both districts present special problems in mining and treatment of the ore. Because most of the ore in both is low grade, early attempts at development have been directed to a large extent to the high grade pockets Both districts are closer to good roads than they were when previously worked. The Thunder Mountain district has one mine that has been worked with some success for a long time. I
I
0
e
-----------------==--=====----.,;====::::::::::=----=========~ , . ~ ----'
The Idaho Almaden mercury mine near Weiser
=22THE POST=WAR PERIOD The effects of post-war conditions in south-central Idaho have been varied .. As in other parts of the United States 0 mining of lead and zinc ore has suffered.
The rises in prices u with some fluctuations shown in Figure 7 were not enough to offset increases in production costs and manpower shortages Some ore shoots of such metals as antimony and tungs ten 0 vigorously mined during the war were exhausted soon thereaftera On the other hand 0 some metals 0 such as cobaltg sought during the war e did not reach production until peace came. Technologic advances of varied kinds have resulted in demands for special m.ineral products which has inspired considerable prospecting for and some production of such products 9
0
i
0
0
The output of gold o as reflected in Figure 9 0 was fairly.good from 1945 to 1952, when it essentially ceasedo Correspondinglyo the production of Boise County and Elmore Count Yo as shown .in Figure 8 was moderately good in 1945 to 1952 but negligible thereafter. The precious metal mines in the part of Idaho County within the region did not yield enough to plot in Figure 80 Valley County also did fairly 'well in 1945 to 1950 largely because of its yield in precious metals. The county graphs include only data on gold 0 silver copper 0 lead and zinc u the metals mainly produced in normal times e They do not show such things as tungsten and quicksilver which are plotted separately on Figure 90 It seems fair to conclude from the various gTaphs that south-central Idaho has produced significant quantities of the precious metals whenever general economic conditions permit and is likely to do so again whenever conditions warranL This inference applies mainly to Bo1se CountYo but precious metal mines in other counties should not be forgotten 0
I
6
Q
0
The production of lead and zinc held up fairly well from the end of the war until 1956 0 but from then to 1960 0 production was disheartening. A substantial part of the lead and zinc came from Blaine County (Fig. 8) 0 much of it from the Triumph and associated mines The Triumph shut down July 15 1957 because (according to the company) of general economic conditions e Much of the postwar production of Custer County was in lead and zinc u in large part from the Clayton silver mine but supplemented by ore from several other mine s . 0
6
0
The production of antimony rose sharply after the war (Fig. 9) but came to an end in 1953 with the exhaustion of readily accessible ore at the principal mine. There are a number of antimony deposits in the Yellow Pine district other than those at Meadow Creek o and many throughout south-central Idaho o None of these has a substantial pro-· duction record to date but the possibility of mining anUmonial material under favorable conditions exists. Of course numerous mines have shipped ore containing tetrahedrite and other antimonial minerals for their content of silver and base metals. The amount of antimony obtained by the smelters from such material is not on record. 8
Q
Tungsten production continued after the war but came to a halt in 1957, in part because of exhaustion of readily mined ore but also because of the drop in the price of tungsten concentrate recorded in Figure 7e In 1951-1955:theprice was over $60.00 a
-23-
short-ton unit; in 1958 it was only about $ltL 50 per ton unit .. Operations at Meadow Creek were stopped in June, 19521/ because of unfavorable market conditions I but mining at the Ima mine, the other major producer continued until June 1957. The search for tungsten that started during the war resulted in many discoveries I only a few of which became productive Even so 6 in 1953 D small mines in Adahls, Custer I Lemhi and Valley counties were in production . In a general review published 1n 1955; Cook (1955, p. 20-24) lists 10 deposits in south-central Idaho that have produced and 14 others that had not then become producers.. He shows that the metal has been found in a variety of types of lodes (Cooku 1956).. When tungsten prices rose in 1959 and 1960, interest .in the Ima mine was renewedo I
0
One of the more interesting post-war discoveries of tun9sten was on Wildhorse Creek, Alta district (72 on Fig" I), Custer County, (Cook, 19S6, p. 12-18). This deposit was found in August 1953 By September 1955, the mill at the principal mine had treated over 3,800 tons of ore with an average content of 0.87 percent W03 and a gross value of $212 11 000. In 1956,28 tons of concentrate with an average content of 71 percent WO 3 were milled but since then the property has produced little and is es sentially shut downo 0
8
Quicksilver mining in the region had a revival in the late 1950 s (Fig. 9) but not as great as the price increases, which exceeded those during the war (Fig. 7). The Hermes mine 0 Valley Count Yo had various difficulties I including a fire that destroyed fta" mill in August 1958 e Hence its production was not as large as :it might otherwise have beeno The Idaho-Almaden mine in Washington CountYQ reactivated in 1955 under new management, has continued to produce since then, although in recent years the rate of production has declined and finally stopped. The deposits there are of the opalite type (Ross, 1956 (1957», quite different from those in Valley County. Many of the quicksilver deposits in Nevada worked during the war are opalitic; my casual observations in southwestern Idaho far south of those in Washington County I show that opalitic material is present there 0 although as yet untested or nearly so. It could be easily overlooked by prospectors not familiar with ito I
Q
Exploration for cobalt in the Blackbird district, Lemhi County was revived during World War II but did not reach the production stage until pei:9.ce had come e Production started in 1952 and continued until 1959 (Fig. 9) when the company's oontract with the government was completed.. The same deposits yielded copper and are largely responsible for the peak in the copper graph in 1955 through 1958 (Fig. 9) as well as for the high production rate for Lemhi County in 1955 to 1959 Copper was also produced at the Empire mine in Custer County .. I
&
Fluorspar deposits near Meyers Cove I Lemhi County I were found in 1941 but did not reach the production stage until 1951. After mill was burned down April 17 I 1953 0 activity ceased in September 19530 During this brief period of production, the deposi ts yielded 10 978 tons of acid grade 998 tons of ceramic grade and 100 tons of metallurgical grade fluorspar u but the operators decided not to rebuild the mill and left the area (Anderson, 1954a p. 10)" The presence of fluorspar is known in several places Q
I
p
-24-
in the region and some of the deposits have received a little development, notably those near Challis (Anderson 0 19S4b; Baber and others I vol. 3, p. 340). Only the best grades of fluorspar can be profitably mined in areas as inaccessible as most of those in Idaho; and so far u very little high -grade fluorspar has been found. Even if high-grade material was found the great distances to present markets would handicap its development" Since the warq uranium, thorium, beryllium and various other metals and minerals have been prospected for with varying success but with little resulting production. The principal uranium mines are in Custer County east of Stanley (55 on Fig. 1). Several deposits are known but much of the mineralized material is not high grade. Claims were first staked for uranium in 1955 (Kemu 1959, p. 14) and 2,300 tons of uranium ore u averaging about 0.25 percent U3081 were shipped in 1957 and 1958. In 1959,3,374 tons, valued at $30 0 000, were shipped, but in 1960 activity declined. The black sand in the placer deposits of south-central Idaho has long been known to contain monazite, ilmenite, garnet, and other potentially valuable substances but little has been done to recover any of these until recently (Savage, 1961). Dredging was conducted near Cascade, Valley County, (59 on Fig. 1) in 1952 to 1955, mainly for monazite, but was terminated in 1955 for lack of a market. Similarly dredging was started in 1955 in Bear Valley, Valley County (57 on Fig. 1) but closed down in 1959 when a contract with the government for 1,050,000 pounds of combined columbium-tan~ talum concentrate was completede The principal valuable mineral in the placer sand here was euxenite, but uranium oxide was sold to the Atomic Energy Commission and monazite was also marketed. By-products were stock-piled. Dredge~ in Boise Basin and other areas recover monazite garnet, and other minerals in connection with gold mining but apparently such material is saved and is being stockpiled pending a future demand. I
Lodes containing thorium, especially in and near Lemhi Pass (33 on Fig. 1) are reported to show favorable indications but development has not yet resulted in any substantial production e Because the search for beryllium did not get started until 1960 I there has not been time to test the deposits.
-25CONCLUSIONS During 100 years of mining south-central Idaho has produced over $200 million in gold, silver, lead. copper and zinc; demands created during World War II placed the region temporarily in the forefront among producers of tungsten, quicksilver, and antimony., During the few years they were worked u mines of these three metals had an ag· gregate production of over $50 million estimated on the basis of average prices then current Thus, while overshadowed by great camps like the Coeur d 'Alenes, the region is to be reckoned wi th in any evaluation of the mineral resources of the United States .. II
Since lode mining began in south -central Idaho, the region has been known for its lead-silver lodes 0 which continue I in normal times I to be the backbone of its industry. Few of its mines are operated primarily for zinc but more of that metal might have been produced as a by-product of lead-silver mining if metallurgical contracts had been favorable e Only a very few mines have yielded much copper but the possibility of some expansion of copper mining exists. In my opinion, some of the copper mines that have so far yielded only limited amounts of ore have distinct possibilities under favorable conditions of market and of management. Gold deposits in the region tend to be thought of mainly in connection with the early placer mining but the record shows that placers and lodes have continued to respond to market incentives. Tungsten i quicksilver, antimony, and cobalt are little produced at the moment but there is good reason to hope that exploration at depth and in low-grade parts of known lodes will be rewarded whenever demand justifies the expense of that sort of development. The extent to which rare metals such as thorium, columbium I beryllium I and others now being searched for may prove valuable remains for the future to determine. The presence of some of these metals has been known for a long time but there has been no incentive to mine them. In certain respects the history of mining in south-central Idaho may have discouraged companies that might otherwise have entered the region~ Production has tended to be erratic, largely because at any particular time only a few mines were in successful operation, which in turn, has resulted in part from the small size of the parts of lodes suitable for mining under the conditions of the moment. In some instances, the efficieney.of the management may have been a factor. Difficulties of access, shortages of labor and similar factors have tended to hamper operations. In attempts to judge future possibilities, one should bear in mind that exploration underground has so far been limited in most mines. Development has been mainly by means of adits, rather than deep shafts e Few mines extend downward below local creek level so the possibilities at depth can only be inferred from such geologic data as are available. Some mines in the past shut down when oxidized ore was mined out. In this mountainous and moderately humid region the oxidized zone was commonly very shallow. Other mines contain complex sulphide aggregates that can be treated successfully only if modern skills, equipment, and money are directed to the task o Thus if and when the incentives of favorable market conditions become sufficient, the mines of south-central Idaho may well respond. I
I
-26The future of minin~ in south-central Idaho depends, apart from the progress of the industry throughout the United States, on the application of modem methods to the known mines, and on success in the search for spec~al metals demanded by theincreasingly complex technology required by many industries. Some of these industries are themselves new.
Photo 6 -- Jet aircraft, satellites, and missUes like the Titan (above) require metals that can withstand high temperatures and high stresses. In recent years, changing demands for mineral resources have been reflected In South-Central Idaho by new methods of exploration and in production of metals like columbium, tungsten, tantalum, and uranium.
-27REFERENCES CITED Anderson, A. Le I 1939 I Geology and ore deposits of the Atlanta district, Elmore County, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Pampn.. 49 I 71 po _-.;.._ _ _ 1947 I (1949) Geology and ore deposits of Boise Basin, Idaho: U. S" Geol$ Survey BulL 944-C, po 119-319.
_ _ _ _ _ 1948, Tungsten mineralization at the Ima Mine, Blue Wing district, Lemhi County, Idaho: Econo Geology v. 43, no o 3, p. 181-206. _ _ _ _ _ 1949 I SHver-gold deposits of the Yankee Fork district, Custer County, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines & Geology Pamph, 83, 37 p.
_ _ _ _ _ 1951, Metallogenic epochs in Idaho: Econ. Geology, v. 46, p. 592-607 a
no. 6,
_ _ _ _ _ 1954a, A preliminary report on the fluorspar mineralization near Challts, Custer County, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Pamph. 101, 13 p. _ _ _ _ _ 1954b, Fluorspar deposits near Meyers Cove, Lemhi County, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology, Pamph. 98, 34 p. Anonymous I 1961, Idaho placer is source of 99 percent of U. S. Colurnbiumtantalum output: Mining World,. v. 20, no. 1, p. 38-43. Baber, K. D. I Fulkerson, F. B. Kaufman, A. J. Jr., and Yopes, P. F., The .' mineral industry of Idaho: Minerals Yearbook, 1953, v. 3, p. 315-350. I
Baber, K. Do, Fulkerson, Fe Bo I Petersen, N. S.,and Kaufman, A. J. Jr., 1959, The mineral industry of Idaho: Minerals Yearbook, 1957 I v. 3, p. 351,..352 U • S. Bur. Mine s . Baber, K& Do 8 Fulkerson, F. B., and Petersen, NoS., 1959, The mineral industry of Idaho: U" So Bur., Mines Minerals Yearbook 1958, v. 3, p. 291-312. Bancroft, H. Ho v. 31.
I
1890, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889,
Callaghan, Eugene, and Lemmon, D. M., 1941, Tungsten resources of the Blue Wing district, Lemhi County, Idaho: U.S. GeoL Survey Bull. 931.-A, p, 1-21 Campbell, Stewart, 1928, A geologic error regarding the Wood River district . (Minnie Moore mine): Eng .. and Min. Jour$ v. 126, p. 287-289.
-28Capps" S .. Rfl 0 1940 0 Gold placers of the Secesh Basino Idaho County" Idaho: Idaho Bura Mines and Geology Pampho 52/1 42 p ..
. Clabau.gh, Se E" 0 1945 0 Paragenesis of the tungsten ore of the Ima mine, Idaho: (abs.): Washington Acad\> SeL JOUfe Vo 25 0 no!) 6 0 p" 1980 "Cook, Eo F Cl, 1955 0 Prospecting for uranium Q thorium and tungsten in Idaho: Idaho Buro Mines and Geology PamphQ 102 0 53 po _ _ _ _ _ 1956 0 Tungsten deposits of south-central Idaho: Idaho But. Mines and Geology Pamphfl 108 0 39 po
Cooper o J e Ro 6 1951 0 Geology of the tungsten o antimony and gold deposits near St1bnite o Idaho: U oSc Geol" Survey BulL) 969-F o po 151-197. De Voto, Be Ae 0 editor/i 1953 0 The journals of Lewis and Clark: Houghton, Mifflin Co. Boston o 504 po Q
")
Fisher 0 Vard1s (compiler) 1938 0 Th~ Idaho Encyclopedia compiled by the Federal Writer'. Project of the Works Progress Administration, The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idahoo 452 Po
Hess, F L., ~ 1921 0 Haynes Stellite Company (in chapter on cobalt) Mineral Resources of the United States pt. 10 P., 899-901 0
El
Kern, Be F. 8 1959 e Geology of the uranium deposits near Stanleyo Custer County. Idaho: Idaho Bur., Mines and Geology Pamph., 117, 40 p. Lindgren, Waldemar o 1898 0 The mining districts of the Idaho Basin and the Boise Ridge, Idaho: U"S~ GeoL Survey 18th Ann" Repto Pt .. III, po 617 .. 744. IJ 1927a o The Vienna district o Blaine CountYo Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Pamph" 210 17 p~
Ross, COl Po
_ _ _ _ _ 1927b o Ore deposits in Tertiary lava in the Salmon River Mountains, Idaho: Idaho Bur e Mines and Geology Pamph 25 IJ 21 p. 0
_ _ _....,..._1930 0 A graphic history of mining in Idaho: U $SO Geol., Survey Sullo 821, po 1-9.
_ _ _ _ _ 1933, The Thunder Mountain mining district o Valley County, Idaho: Econ. Geology v~ 28 q riOe 6 u po 587-601. "
_ _ _ _ _ 1934/1 Some lode deposits in the western part 8f the Boise Basin, Idaho: U .,Se GeoL, Survey ~ulL 846-D o po 239=277 0
'.
·'f
-29Ross, C. P., 1937, (1938) Geology and ore deposits of the Bayhorse region, Custer County, Idaho: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 877, 161 p. _ _ _ _ _ 1956 (1957), Quicksilver depoSits near Weiser, Washington County, Idaho: U.S, Geol. Survey Bull. 1042-D, p. 79-104. _ _ _ _ _ 1961, Geology of the southern part of the Lemhi Range, Idaho: U. S • Geol. Survey Bull. 108I-P, 257 p. Savage, C. N., 1961, Economic geology of central Idaho blacksand placers: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Bull. 17, 160 p. Shenon, P. J., and Ross, C. P., 1936 Geology and ore deposits near Edwardsburg and Thunder Mountain, Idaho~ Idaho Bur. Mines and Geol. Pamph. 44, 4S p, I
Umpleby, J. B., 1913, Geology and ore deposits of Lemhi County, Idaho: U, S. Geol. Survey Bull. 528, 182 po ______ 1917, Geology and ore deposits of the Mackay region, Idaho: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 97, 129 p. Umpleby J. B., Westgate, L. G., and Ross, C. P., 1930, Geology and ore deposits of the Wood River region Idaho, with a description of the Minnie Moore and nearby mines by D. F. Hewett: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 814, 250 p. I
I
Wells, M. W., 1961a, History of mining in Idaho, p. 9-18, Industry: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Bull. 18, 71 p. _ _ _ _ _ 1961b,
1!!
Idaho'S Mineral
Rush to Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology 5\,111. 19, 57 p.
White, D. E., 1940, Antimony deposits of a part of the Yellow Pine d~stftc;t Valley County, Idaho, a preliminary report: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 922 "'TI , p. 247-279. I
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Mining history of south-central Idaho
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Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology Moscow, Idaho July, 1963
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'. Hydraulic mining was widely used in the early days. Jets of high-pressure water from hydraulic monitors undermined the gravel banks and washed the gold-bearing material into long sluices in which the gold was recovered. The scene above shows a placer mine near Idaho City about 1897.
fQ!WWORD In production statistics ~n.d curren~ ac;::Uvity, the great Coeur d'Alene district overshadows all other Idaho ptining area~ with the possible e:x:c~ption of the southeast Idaho phosphate f1elQs. I
But Idaho mi l1 in 9 started in the c~ntral pq.ft of the state, And it started with such momentum that it drew thousands of qold-seekers and advent4rers f as well as artisans and traqesmen, to th~ r~mC?t~ hill~ of the Clearwater f the Boise Basin, and the Owyhee country, to form in " brief ~hree yeara a new territory and. only 27 years later, a n~w stata, M1ninq in south-central Idaho was im~ortant in th~ growth of Ic;iaho from territory. to state. Althouqh it has deoliq.ed 1n later ye~rs, it 1s far from dead. When Clyde Ross, the dean of Idaho geo~ogists, sa¥~--as he does herein .... - that there's geologic reason to believ~ rich min,ra~ depo~1ts still lie beneath th, hill$ of Blaine and Boise and Custer and Idaho and ~emhi counties to be W0n by tOQee with will and wit, we should l1sten,....-for nobo~y else canm~ke that state~.ent with such weigllt of experience and forqe of expert knowledge. '
E. F. COOK, Direotor Idaho Bure",~ 9£ Mines and
Ge(1)~pgy
ASS TRAC T • • • • • • • • • • • • • , • • • , • • •• • • t ••• , ••••• 0 INTRODUCTION • • , • • • ~ •••••• ~ ....... ft
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INITIAL PROSPECTINQ •••••••••• , • , ••• " ••••••••• , •••• , •••• , , •
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THE START OF LODE MINING, ' •• , , • , ••• ~ ••••• , ..... , •••• ~ •• , , •
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MINING IN THE EA,~Y aQTH O~NTUR~•• , • ,. •••• , ••••••••••••• , •
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WO RLD WAR I. • • • • • • , • • • • • • • , • •• , • , , , • , •• , • • T••
THE INTERVAL BETWE~NrH~;"WA~ •• , •••• " ~ , I', • WORLD WAR II • • • • • • • • '" • ••• • ••• r 41
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THE POST.WAR PERIOD ••••• , ~ • , ••••• , • , • ,. , •••• ,.. ~ • CONCLUSIONS. • • • • • • • • • • , • • • • • , • • • ,
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REFERENCES CITED •• , ••••••• , ~ •••• ~ • , " , ••••••••• " •••
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ILLUSTRATIONS
FQllow1ng page Figure,
1. - Map of mining districts in south.,central Idaho ••• ~ • • • • • • • • 2 .... Records QfPfipclpal
1860-1902 ••• r •• ••
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3. - ~aord. of ~r1nc'p.l prod~F~pg ~ount1es 190Z"'J9 ~7...... ••
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4. - Records 0,£ principal, metal. Pfodqc;ed 190·5""'1935........ ••
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5. -MetalprlC$s 190~--19~S ••••••••• , •••• " •••
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6 ..... Recorqsof principa~pfoduclng Qo~ntles l~14"'"1939r""""
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1. - Metal prices 1935-1960 ............... , • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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8., - Records
ot prinoipel
9. -Records of principal
Photo
p'rod~cing oount+es
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prQdu(I:in9 OQ"'I1U~8 1$~S~~9~q..... ••
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metal~
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produced 1935-t960 ••• , •••• ,.
1. - Hydraulic mining neat IdahQC~ty•••••••••• r • • • • • • • • •• Fr9nUsp1.ece 2. - The Minn~~MooreMine n~,.r Sellevije •• , r ' • • • •••• r • • ••
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3. -Dredge min1qg in south-Q"~tral I~anQII • " r ~ II , •• • ., • • • ~ '" i •
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5. - The Idaho Almaden merc\lry mine near W~1~er. , ••••••• ~ •• ,
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6. - Missiles i~lllstrat~ changing dem4\nd$ for m1nel'c;llre$Cj)urc;es
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4. - The Yellow Pine M~ne at St~bni~e •••• r.' ••••••••••••
·MINING HISTORY OF SOUTH-CENTRAL IPAHO
Clyde P. Ross
ABSTRACT
Trappers noted gold in south-central Idaho as early QS 1844 and mining began in 18620 The placer boom that began then lasted less than 10 years, and yielded over $30 million largely from Boise Basin. Lod.e mining began during the boom but outlasted it.. Poorly understood geologic features influenced develop~ ment of placers and lodes .. Base metal mining began to prosper in the 1880's aft~r branqh railroads . reached the mountain borders. Limitations in equipment and geologic knowledge tended to restrict exploration. The region yielded about $20 million in the early 20th century, mostly in gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper. The speGi~l needs of World War I increased yield to a peak in 1917. Betweep the two World Wflrs mining was quiet but after 19330
~oldrn1niflW tncre~sed.
During World War II mining was distinguished by sUGcessful ~earch fQr metals not previously mined extensively in the region, particularly tun<;1sten, qutc~'" silver I and antimony. Government aided mining during this war: but c,.lso tmposed controls that had hampering effects, especially on gold m~ning. . Since the war lead, antimony and tungsten have declined. Cobalt has dien and declined and search for special me~als l~ke, uranium I b~ryllium I and cQlum.bium has been partially successful. Exploration at depth guided by attention to inconspicuous geolog!c features I should result in discovery of new ore shoots. These shoots I plus mineralogically complex bodies and some of grades below those hitherto regarded as ecp1'l'lomic should provide much new material for future mining in south-centrQl Idaho .. I
IDAHO'S
NI~G1865---. ---:----~----___. Reports of- Coeur dAlene mineral discoveries, May 27, led to a qold rush there, untd afte\" 1880. I but- no gold was Foundlocated Coeur d'Alene qU;1.rtz mine, April 25,
1882 A.J. Pritchard 1 ~e.ft-
a
'put
hi-s discovery qUiet- for over a year. 18G4Murray was founded Jan. 22 and soon replQced Eagle City as the center for the Coeur d Alene 90ld rush t-hen underway. Discovery Br the Tiger Mine near Burke, May 2, followed immediately by the Poishs at Mullan, ma\"kS' the beginni"9 of lead - silver opershons in the Coeur d~lenes. G.S.Good f C.C. A. Earle located the Morninq Mine- eventually the deepest lead-Godver operation al"lywhere-at Mullan,July 2. Weldon 6. Heyburn and hiS associates locs+ed the Polaris mine near Wallace, Aug .30. The Yankee lode(unprofitable for 45 years unti I deep workings - the best below sea-Ievel- made it the. bi9gest U.S. si Iver producer) -followed Sept. 25. Noah S. Keitoq9 discovered the Bunker Hill ~ Sullivan mine at \Vardner, Sept. 10.
1860 E. D. Pie.rce dis-covered gold on the North Fork of the Clearwster, February...2.0••_ _- '
~F. p",~, BQ ..ett of
pro'P'0ti"l
""------ --"---, --"--"'---- party discovered gold on Canal Gulch at Pierce, Sept. 30. Pierce City \Vas foundQd by miners who returned to the 90ld fields, Dec. 3.
61
1861 Prospectors who discovered the except-ionally rich Florence placers located their cla~ms Aug.12,a.nd
lefT for Elk CitYfPierce to obtain
Gold was discovered on the South Fork of the Clearwater With claims recorded June 14. (E.lk City and Ne\vSome
1894
'. I to New quartz ~\s.coverlesat Flore~ce,Au9.30, led a 9:cond,mlnln~ boom there In 1596.
supplies. Summit- mining district-- Flo-- 1&96Amrners meetIng establIshed the townsite \vas organized at Florence. Sept. IS. renee of Ne\\I Florence,Apri I 5, at a location nearer
to the new quarh. properties_
1~62 \Varren!; mining
district orqannee! July 22, by the. discovery party.
- Warrens
1896Ben~ Le\v Caswell.who had discovered promisin9 quarh.
Thunder
outc.rops at Thunder Mountain in 1694, located their mine there .r~\y 10. Their reports when they c:lot out In Au ust led to a bi Thunder Mount;;l.in gold rush in 1902.
1862 Georqe Grime'1.' party di.covered
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qold in the Boise Ba~in, AU9ust 2. Idaho City. Cent-ervi lie founded by mining parties which returned after the Grimes massacre"tb Ivor\( in the. Boisl BaSin ,Od. 7. Placerville townsite \vas estal>li .. hed on December l.
b
1866 Leesburq placers Were discovered --...,.;;;;;;;:::-'--.1 July 16, leadi n9 t-o the Lemhi County 90lcl rush.
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1869Boise's United States Assay Office commenced construction June. 28. (It vas opened for DUsinus Marc.h 2 1872.)
1870 Gold discoveries in
southustern Id.ho led to the Cari boy rush, S.,p+. The di~rrict was named tor C3riboo tQil"Cnild.
Map courtesy Idaho Historical Society
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-2INTRODUCTION
The first white men to ent~r south-central Idaho may have been the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 (De Voto, 1953). American and Canadian fur trappers began operations at least as early as 1811 (Fisher, 1938, p. 79-84)0 From then through 1846 when the United States formally acquired title, the region was given over to fur trapping. Starting late in th!.s period, many emigrants bound for Oregon passed over the Snake River Plain, but few lingered in Idaho. Idaho owes much of its growth, after trapping declined, to the mining industryo At present agriculture has so far outstripped mining both in the value of the product and in the number of people employed that many tend to overlook the importance of Idaho as a mining state .. Even mining men remember chiefly the impressive record of the mines of the Coeur d 8Alenes and forget that mining began in the central part of the state. Tpe present account is concerned with the southern part of that central region: the part nort,h of the S nake River Plain and south of the Salmon River near latitude 45 0 30 (Fig. l);· including all of Lemhi Cou~ty, although the northern· part of tha t county is north of that latitude. Thus limited, the summary takes little account of some of the best known mining'areas in Idaho o No discussion is presented of the m!ning areas in north-central Idaho, noted 'especially for precious metals; the Owyhee region in southwestern Idaho, where much. silver ore:was mined in the,eqrlydays;' southeq~tern·~dahowlth ~tp QJreatphosphqte r~serves; or the panhandle of the state, which includes the Coeurc;l'Alene region, whose yield of silver, lead, and zinc overshadows that of the rest of the state. Each of these regions de-. serves an historical account written by someone better acquainted with it ~han I arne Q
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In the mountains of south-central Idaho, mining has long b~en and is likely to con-:tinue to be an outstanding industry. In the principal mining countie~ there, only about 7 percent of the area is farmland and cr6ps are harvested from a mere fraction of that .. Most. of the farmland is pasture I and 11 vestock graze~ far and wide over the mountains during the short periods that the weather is suitable. Recreational pursuits are growing in importance but cannot be expected to supplant mining in value to the nation as a whole 6 especially in time s of war (I
Mining districts are scattered rather thickly over south-central, Idaho., as Figure 1 shows The region contains over a hundred districts ~ Some cif these are t~e buryiI1g. grounds of false hopes and some have .yielded profits mainly to promoters and stock sales~. menu but most have had boom periods of production and activity, Mines that have produced significantly t~nd to revive whenever the national climate for· mining enterprises is favorable These have aided our national economy greatly during the two World Wars and can be expected to add substantially to our resources in the future 0
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That the yield from mines of south-central Idaho iserratic can be deduced from the graphs in the present paper" The. reasons for the variations are, numerous Some of the' peaks in the graphs reflect special demands, such as that .for tungsten 'during World War II; others result from fluctuations. in general economic conditions Many" however res~lt from discovery and rapid 'depletion of individual ore shoots.. These peaks might have been . 0'
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• • Map of mining
Fi g.1
districts of south-cent.ra I Idaho Scale
IO~P'.l!i••~..;}..~••~g~~~~IO~;;;~20~~~3~O~;;;~4f
I Crooks Corrol 2 Simpson :3 Bungalow 4 Florence 5 Buffalo Hump 6 Dixie (Idaho County) 7 Orogrande 8 Green Mountain 9 Gibbonsville 10 Indian Creek II Mineral Hill (Lemhi County) 12 Chamberlain Bosin 13 Warren 14 Marshall Lake ~15 Resort 'jl6 Mountoin View 17 Seven Devils \ 18 Meodows \ 19 Profile 20 Edwardsburg
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 '32 33 34 35 36 37 38
39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
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Romey Ridge Big Creek Wilson Creek Musgrove Blackbird Mackinaw Eureka Carmen Creek Kirtley Creek Eldorado Pratt Creek Sandy Creek McDevitt Gravel Range Camos Yellow jocket Thunder Mountain Yellow Pine Hornet Creek Cuddy Mountain Mineral Warm Loke Seafoam Sheep Mountain Loon Cruk Porker Mountain Blue Wing Junction Nicholia Spring Mountoin Texas Boy horse
53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81
82
Yankee Fork Robinson Bar Stanley Uranium Stanley Bear Valley Deadwood Cascade Weiser quicksilver Monroe Squaw Creek Grimes Pass Summit Flat Bonner Boulder Creek Hamilton Birch Creek Dome Alder Creek Copper Basin Alto ~ast Fork Vienna Sawtooth Block Warrior Gambrinus Pioneerville Centerville Quartzburg West Veiw Moore Creek
Miles
83 Idaho City 84 Yuba 85 Skeleton Creek 86 Big Smoky 87 Warm Spring 88 Little Wood River 89 Lava Creek 90 Comas 91 Willow Creek 92 Soldier 93 Featherville 94 Bear Creek 95 Roaring River 96 Twin Springs 97 Black Hornet 98 Show Mountain 99 Boise 100 Highland 101 Neat 102 Dixie (Elmore County) 103 Pine Grove 104 Volcano 105 Mineral Hill (Blaine County)
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-3smoothed out and production maintained for longer periods 1f better management and greater comprehension of geologic conditions had obtained at the mines. The present account touches on the various factors that have influenced mining in the region Q but it stresses geologic features 0
.Figures 2 to 9 are based primarily on data in the annual volumes of Mineral Re= -sources of the United States and the Minerals Yearbooko Some of the items of news about production have been gleaned from the same sources Some details are taken from :·reports on particular districts Figure 2 shows the fluctuations in production in the principal mining counties: Blaine Boise u Custer Idaho o and LemhL Only the southern part of Idaho County is in the region here discussed but its production could not be shown separately in the graph A number of other counties in the region 6 in.cluding Adams 6 Butte u Canyon Elmore Gem, Valley, and Washington contain mines a few of which are large but for most years the yield from these counties has not been large The county graphs take into account only gold o silver, lead, zinc, and copper. Although various other metals are known I they have been mined so far only under special conditions and for short periods Figures 4 and 9 show the production record since 1905 for the metals listed above In Figure 9 0 which covers recent years I the record for mercury (quicksilver) antimony 0 tungsten and cobalt has been included. Published data for the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century are inadequate for the preparation of separate graphs for most metals during these periods, but trends
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-4INITIAL PROSPECTING There are various reports of trappers or other mountain men noticing gold in gravel in and near south-central Idaho o For example v a trapperemployed by the Hudsonos Bay Company is said (Wells 0 1961a u po 9) to have recognized gold in Boise Basin in 1844 0 but none of these early observations were followed up Perhaps the first definite attempt at prospecting in the region was tha t undertaken by men from a Mormon settlement along the Lemhi Rivero Bancroft (1890 po 402=403) remarked t 'these men prospected copper deposits in the drainage basin of the Lemhi in 1854 When settlement was abandoned March 28 u 1858 0 because of trouble with Indians 0 the attempt at copper mining came to naughto It is interesting 0 however 0 that the first serious prospecting reported in southcentral Idaho was directed at lodes rather than placers 0
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The difficulty with Indians was one of several that hindered early mining When Lewis and Clark entered Idaho they were received with friendship; friendly relations were maintained as long as trappers entered in small 0 mobile parties There were Indian settlements in the Snake River Plain, along the Lemhi River u and probably in some of the other intermontane valleys but not o it seems in the rugged mountains in south-central Idaho 8 where game was scarce and the climate somewhat rigorous Even so p as soon as large groups of white men arrived u clashep occurred. A party of trappers belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company defeated 75 Piegan Indians in the valley ot the Lemhi in 1823 (Fisher o 1938 u po 80L and there were various fights in the Snake River Plains about this time 0
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The first successful attempt at mining in Idaho was that of Eo D. Pierce in 1860 (Wells 0 1961b u po 17-57; 1961a, po 2-4) in an area somewhat north of south-central Idaho He had had experience during the 1849 gold rush in California In consequence 6 when he wintered along the Clearwater River in 1852 he recognized the potentialities of the region Opposition from the Indians delayed the start of prospecting The Orofino mining district was formally established January 5, 1861 (Wells 0 1961a u po 4L and gold dust was taken from there to white settlements farther west in March u 18610 The following year prospectors penetrated into what is here termed south-central Idahoo In Mayo 1862 8 a party journeyed up the Salmon River and met a group coming down the river from near the site of Salmon (Wells u 1961a, po 13-16) These groups are said to have found gold along the river but the country was then too inaccessible for mining. The Warren mining district was organized July 220 1862 8 and gold was discovered in the Boise Basino August 20 1862 (Wells 0 1961a u po 10) although an Indian fight delayed mining until the following year The placers of the Secesh Basin in the southern part of the Warren district and other areas were found at about this time 0
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The abundant gravel and sand in some of the mountain basins here accumulated if: part as a result of interference with drainage by faulting that may have begun during the middle of Tertiary time Some of the gold in the Boise Basin is in sand and silt of probable Miocene age (Lindgren u 1898 u po 668) Most of the production u however u has come from gravel of Pleistocene and later age which was deposited in valleys and basins that differed little from those of the present time Part of the placer gold that was mined was in 0
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=5glacial moraines (Capps 0 1940 0 po 27=30)0 and inold o high~level terraces Modern flood plains seem to have yielded comparatively little gold u at least in some districtso Features such as these distinguish the placer deposits of the regiono They hindered some of the early work and need to be borne in mind in future exploration whether the objective is gold or the various heavy minerals associated with ita Some of the heavy minerals contain rare metals that are now beginning to be soughto In some districts aUf"" iferous gravel high above modem streams was not touched in the early days because of difficulty in getting water to ito Modern equipment might permit handling some of this 0
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Figure 2 shows that the mines of south-central Idaho had annual yields of some $2 million to $5 million during the early years of operationo Most of the production came from placers Difficulties and costs were so great (Wells u 19 61b 0 po 17-48) that profits were much less than one might suppose The sharp decline in production within a few years may have been caused as much by excessive costs as by exhaustion of known deposits Only rich and easily mined material o whether lode or placer 0 was worth mining 0
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The production record of the early years of mining in ldaho is fragmentary and rumor has tended to magnify the totals a Figure 2 summarizes the best available data for the counties in the south~central region that contain the most productive of the early mines The graphs in Figure 2 are carried to 1902 when the U S a Geological Survey began to publish more detailed compilations than had hitherto been possible Note that the graph for Idaho County in Figure 2 is for the whole county because data for the part of the county south of the Salmon River could not be isolated G
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In round numbers the initial placer activity in south=central Idaho through 1870 yielded over $30 million o Lodes may have produced a little more than $3 million in additiono The products from both placers and lodes in Boise Basin much exceeded those from any of the other districts then active In the late 1860 Us 0 placer miners spread to Atlanta and other areas in Elmore County (76 0 840 93 0 94 in Fig 1) and to the vicinity of Leesburg I Lemhi County (26 0 Fig 1) Base metals were not yet being sought anywhere to any signifi';" cant extent 0
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The first rush of placer mining had subsided by 18690 It might not have persisted as long as that had it not been sustained by the influx of foot~loose men during and after the Civil War Costs were so high and hardships so marked as to discourage some Wells (1961b u po 50) says costs in camps north of the Salmon River were 86 to 94 percent of the yieldo Those in camps south of the river were presumably similaro Food 0 at times, was scarce and pooro Lodes at Warren began to be developed"about 1866 0 appar6ntly with more excitement than profito By 1873 the annual production of gold from all sources in south~central Idaho had dropped below $2 milliono From that time until the change in price, in 1934 caused a spurt in mining 0 the production rate remained below that figure When placer yields declined in each district and the original miners drifted away 0 the diggings were left to the patbmt Chinese y content with smaller profits and more restricted operations 0
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-6While placer mining 0 which required simple equipment and little technical knowledge had started the industry II lodes were soon discovered close to the placers. Workings in them were confined mainly to rich oxidized material. Nearly everywhere the oxidized zone was found to be shallow, for the geomorphic history was incompaU"" ble with the preservation of large or deep bodies of oxidized ore, in part because that kind of material is not resistant to weathering and erosiono The unoxidized parts of the lodes proved to be too complex mineralogically and too low in precious metals to be handled by methods and equipment then available At some mines inefficiency I dishonesty and wasteful operation were coupled with inherently high costs .. 0
Q
The unimpressive record of the first attempts at lode mining has tended to discourage exploration in the old gold camps I but skepticism on this basis is unwarranted To a degree, that skepticism has rested on the fact that many of the lodes found during the early placer activity were in the deeply eroded Idaho batholith (Cretaceous). Some reasoned that lodes in such an environment would not persist in depth; the short periods of activity seemed to bear this out. Yet some of the lodes that have been followed downward 0 particularly in the Boise Basin, go quite deep enough to be encouraging. It is now realized (Ross, 1934, p. 276-277; Anderson, 1947, p. 189-190) that many of the lodes are genetically related~ not to the batholith, but to a group of younger intrusions that, with interruptions, extends diagonally across south-central Idaho. Anderson (1951) goes so far as to contend that little Of the mineralization in the state is g~netically related to the batholith" His interpretation is open to argument but, at all events, there is good reason to regard many of the lodes within the area of the batholith, not as mere roots of old, eroded deposits, but as much younger features that rna y extend to depths great enough to justify exploration. Some of the ore shoots that have been explored are rather small and many are mineralogically complex enough to present difficulties in treatment but those !n~ terested should bear in mind that much of the metal originally deposited in them is still there awaiting future prospectors. The complex minerals of bismuth, selenium, etc., that baffled early miners and metallurgists may be added incentives in the future 0
0
Records of principal producing counties •In
Fig. 2
1860-1902
6,000,000 5,500,000 5,000,000
:::::: (?1 3,500~ 3,000,000 Dato for BOise CO'unty frO'm USGS Bull. 944C p 113
fO'r IdoM andL-emhi Countle. from .uSGS Buil. 921 A pIa
.
l~
I
.----~
!.~
.
\ ....,
2,500,000
r
\. \
2,000,000
.
~I
~I
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far Blaine. County frO'm USGS SulI.814 p 82
I
.,)
Ill)
• \
1,500,000 .~
1,000,000
....
f
~~
500,000
-·····i!!'..':Je IdahO·
••••. ----
·-1-..... . '--?---
1860
."
1862
1864
1866
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
-7THE START OF LODE MINING Lode mining began on a small scale in the 1860's at Warreh (13 in Fig. 1) and other localities first opened for placers That undertaken in the 1870's was only a little more extensive e Most of it was in precious metal deposits such as those at Qu~rtzburg I Atlanta, and Yankee Fork (80, 78, 53, in Figo 1)0 At thlS early date the Atlanta or Yuba and the Yankee Fork districts (78 and 57 , Fig 1) were among the most productive The lodes at Warren o Quartzburg and Atlanta are among those in the Idaho batholith and that consequently have been suspected of being shallow" This suspidia1FlIi.s(unfolincd.ed ·as· :the·. lodes are not genetically related to the batholith .. At Quartzburg the first lode mining was confined to free-milling, oxidized gold ore i which in some mines extended only to depths of about 20 feet. The ore of the Yankee Fork. district was high in silver. It included some complex minerals but evidently much of the value could be recovered by amalgamationo 0
0
0
The interval between 1880 and about 1902 was one of the prosperous periods of lode mining in south-central Idaho o Prospecting had progressed so far that most present mining districts and most of the varieties of lodes now recognized were known then I though not all were yet developed () Numerous factors in the development of Idaho as a whole contributed to aid mining in south-central Idaho. The wilderness period was passing. Farming and stock-raising expanded and towns grew in the major valleys of the state f providing relatively convenient supply points for the mines. The pack trains of the early days were gradually supplanted by freight wagons and stage coaches along main routes. Branch roads were extended even to some of the mines in the more rugged areas 0
The Indians in and near Idaho were not especially warlike.. Apparently they had never been numerous in the high mountains They had interfered occasionally with the early miners but mostly in small bands. Some of the forays were by mixed groups I that included half breeds The Nez Perce and Sheepeater Indian uprisings which were put doW:n in 1877 and 1879 (Fisher, 1938, p. 88-90) essentially brought to a close the Indian troubles that so far as mining in south-central Idaho was concerned had started in 1862 with the killing of the first prospectors to enter Boise Basin There had been clashes with trappers long before mining began 8'
0
0
0
In 1882 I the Oregon Short Line, later incorporated in the Union Pacific system, started construction across the Snake River Plain; the following year a brancQ: line reached Hailey the metropolis of the Wood River mining region ... Lodes in that region had been noted as early as 1864 (Bancroft, 1890 , po 551) but mining had not begun in earne st until 18800 I
The first census of Idaho taken in 1870, showed a population of 14,999; that of 1880 recorded 32,619 people; and by 1890 there were 88,548. The growth in population and the related increase in transportation facHi ties aided the mining industry.. Now lode mines could be adequately equipped and ore dressing mills and smelters could be built locally to treat ore from base metal lodes g
0
In the early 1880's the Nicholia (49 on Fig 1) district in the Beaverhead Mountains u the Mineral Hill (105 on Fig. 1) and Warm Springs (87 on Fig. I) districts near 0
-8Hailey; the Little Wood River district (88 on Fig 1) east of Hailey; the Vienna dis~ trict in the Sawtooth Range (45 on Fig e 1); the Bayhorse district near Challis (52 on Fig 1); the Gibbonsville and Mineral Hill (9 D lIon Fig e 1) districts in northern Lemhi County; and the Yellowjacket (36 on Fig 1) district in western Lemhi County (Fig. 1) were developede Most of these are principally noted for their lead-silver ore, although some were precious metal districts and several of the deposits yielded some coppero Copper deposits 0 such as those at Mackay I Custer County, as well as minor ones in the mountains bordering the Lemhi River 8 were first actively developed about 1884 although much of the production came later A number of the lode mining districts that were opened earlier had revivals in the 18ap' sand numerous mining districts were tested during that decadee Some districts were opened in the 1890 Se These include the Seven Devils (17 on Fig 1) copper district on the western margin of south-central Idaho, and the Blackbird and Indian Creek (25 , lOon Fig. 1) districts in Lemhi County. The development of Yellowjacket district began earlier but its major production was in 1893 to 1'897. <>
<>
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0
R
0
Most of the lodes explored in the larger mines of the 1880's were shear zones in which the distinctive gangue mineral was ankerite or siderites Argentiferous galena, present in most such lodes I was the prinCipal economic mineral in many. In numerous mines only the ore shoots originally discovered were explored before operations were halted because of difficulty in finding new ones. The failure was commonly ascribed to displacement of the ore by faulting. The effects of post-mineral faulting are certainly present in many of the mines. As an excuse for not finding ore I however, faulting has been overused (Umpleby and others, 1930, p. 90-111). In many instances I the ore shoots feather out into sheared or breCCiated rock -commonly somewhat altered, but with few ore minerals ~ Commonly underground exploration is complicated by an arr(;lngement of the shoots en echelon, but the lack of continuity down dip is original, rather than the result of faulting. There have been revivals of interest in mines that were active late in the 19th century and some ore missed then has been foundo Even where such revivals have not been very successful, the possibility of finding ore by suitable modern methods remains I
6
0
The difficulty in finding new ore shoots is only one of the reasons that some of the miners of the 1880-1902 period met with limited successo In mines that had rich ore like-, the Ramshorn (Rosso 1937 (1938) po 117-122), in the Bayhorse district~ Custer County (52 in Fig 1) D the parts of the lodes that could be mined profitably were exceedingly narrow Hence mines of this sort were commonly operated on the leasing system under which lessees could afford to crawl into stopes only a foot or so wide to mine and sort selectivelyo As a result, mines were left in poor shape for future operations and the amount of exploratory development in advance of known ore bodies was reducedo 0
0
Q
Much of the ore from such lodes could be concentrated in fairly simple mills; rich ore and concentrates could be treated in local smelters, saving freight costs Because some oren like that of the Triumph mine in Blaine County, was much too complex to be handled by such m~thods 0 some ot's shoots could not be successfully mined at the time I)
0
-9Lodes in the Idaho batholith 0 whether or not genetica.lly related to that bodyo have distinctive features that affect mining Of lodes of this kind active in the late 19th centuryo those in the general vicinity of Atlanta and Rocky Bar are important (Anderson 0 1939; 1943) The mineralogic contento especially at Atlanta, is rather complex o Stephanite pyrargyrite and other silver minerals are present and would interfere with simple amalgamation Mining during the period under discussion must have been confined mainly to oxidized ore but much of this is reported to have netted between $700 and $800 in gold and silver per ton (Anderson 1939, po 20)0 Values in that range were decidedly exceptional in the mines of the regiono The tonnages found were evidently small as the periods of active mining were shorto 0
0
Q
0
Q
Lodes in the Challis Volcanics were another variety worked durio9 the per1odo The Yankee Fork district u Custer County (53 in Fig 1) contained the most productive of these A number of such districts are known (Ross 0 1927b) but most were not rich enough in precious metals for operation in the early days and several were 8 and for that matter are remote from transportation. The rich shoots had relatively abundant silver. Milling losses were high because of mineralogic complexities and base-metal shoots had to be ayoided in mining" Caving of old workings may have left some of the latter shoots difficult or impossible to extract when the old mines are reopenedo The Yankee Fork district probably yielded over $12 million prior to 1905, mostly from the General Custer mine (Anderson 0 1939, p. 14) I but revivals of placer dredging since then have met with scant successo 0
0
I
Lodes in the volcanics have fineiy disseminated ore minerals that in places include aguilarite or some similar selenide. The tiny black specks of selenide may escape visual detectiono The ore requires systematic sampling and assaying during mining and special metallurgical treatment afterward 0
Available statistics do not permit determination of the amounts of the various metals mined in south=>central Idaho in the 19th century as is done in Figures 4 and 7 for the present centuryo The graphs for Boise and Idaho counties in Figure 2 indicate the trend of gold mining in the regiono That for Blaine County (Alturas County prior to 1895) indicates the fluctuations in lead mining although several other counties yielded leado Most of the production in Blaine County came from the Mineral Hill and Warm Spring s districts near Hailey The statistics on mines near Hailey are more satisfactory in all respects than those for most of south=central Idahoo because of the detailed records kept by Eo Daft of the Hailey Sampling Works (Umpleby and others 1930 po 82-85 8 123-208). During the period discovery and accessibility of deposits were more important than prices in influencing production Price sat that time are shown in a previous paper (Ros S 1930 Plo 2) At times in the later development of the region fluctuations in prices were among the governing factors 0
0
H
0
0
0
0
Q
I
-10MINING IN
~
EARLY 20TH CENTURY
A few years after the beginning of the 20th century the first boom periods were over and the major districts had settled down to development of known mines from which the choicest known ore had been already removed Figure 3 reflects the diminished output during the part of the 20th century that preceded World War 10 The peaks in the curves result mainly from the activities of a very few mines per count yo That for Custer County in 1906-1907 was caused largely by production the Empire mine 0 whose management had changed in 1906 (Umplebyo 1917 0 po 14L The increased efficiE~ncy that resulted was probably the most potent influence in the increase in producticn u although higher prices for copper aidedo 0
at
The Lost Packer mine in the Loon Creek district (45 in Fig 1) began to produce when a smelter was built there in 1904 (Rossu 19340 po 117-122L Some of the ore was rich, but the costs of mining at this remote camp were so high that profits must have been smalL At first b transportation between the mine and Bonanza a distance of about 25 miles I was by pack train; and throughout the operation of the mine supplies had to be hauled in and matte from the smelter taken out over the 110 miles of rough road to the railhead at Mackay. Known ore shoots at the Lost Packer are now exhausted but there has been no exploration below creek leveL Much of the mining was in 1907 0 1908 0 1911 and 1914 during which period the mine may have yielded about half a million dollars Most of the value in the ore mined then was in auriferous chalcopyrite of hypogene origino Similar ore might be worth looking for at depth 0
Q
g
0
G
The marked increase in production in Lemhi County in 1911-1912 wa 5 a result of the coming of a railroad in 19100 At Gilmore u the Latest Outo Pittsburgh-Idaho I and Gilmore Mining Company mines expanded their operations and were a major factor in the increase in output of the count Yo The increase in the price of silver in 1912 may have helped; but no comparable increase in the price of lead took place Copper prices rose in 1912 but this produced little response from the copper mines near MackaY$ Q
Available records for most of the region are not detailed enough to pinpoint the production history of individual mines 0 but so far as they go they tend to support the idea that ore in sight and efficiency in management at a particular mine were more potent than general economic conditions in governing regional production rates For the Mineral Hill district (105 in Fig 1) 0 near Hailey Q data permit citing some examples In general, the big producers of the boom days in that district had sharply curtailed yields by the beginning of the century 0 but there were exceptions The Red Elephant mine not one of the outstanding early producers (Umpleby and others I 1930 0 po 147) 0 had a good record around 1890 and again in 1905-1908 0 but did not respond markedly to the favorable market conditions of 1911-1912 Its tonnage did increase notably in 1913 0 after prices had begun to dropo possibly as a result of increased exploration underground when prices were encouraging The Red Cloud mine (Umpleby and others d 1930 po 156) produced well around 1890 but did not respond conspicuously to market incentives of 1911-1912 e The Nay-Aug mine (Umpleby and others u 1930 po 162) attained its principal production in 1907 1908, 1909 and 1910 but then dropped ofL The famous Minnie Moore mt'ne (Hewett in Umpleby 0
0
0
Q
0
0
Q
0
Q
I
Photo 2
The famous Minnie Moore Mine near Bellevue in the Wood River valley
-11-
and others 1930 po 219,-223) closed down in 1906 did have a good yield in 19130 0
0
0
when silver prices were high, but
The Warm Springs district (No@ 87 in Fig 1), later active 8 did not have an impressi ve record in the early part of the 20th century The dis trict has been known since the early 1880 0 So but in many of its mines major development did not begin until 1914 or later 0
0
0
The varied production record of the Mineral Hill and ·Warm Springs districts (Umpleby and others 1930 p 82~84) does not correspond to fluctuations in prices On the contrary 0 it probably reflects the amount of ore in sight at each mine from time to time which in turn o reflects the fact that individual ore shoots were rather small and new ones were hard to find The difficulties in exploration were in part related to ignorance of the geologic conditions governing localization of oreo Even today the features governing ore shoots in the two districts are imperfectly understood but few engineers or mine operators would put faith in such notions as the 'Wood River fault'O which Campbell (1928, p. 289) correctly termed a myth. His paper deals primarily with the Minnie Moore mine but he implies that in past explorations throughout the Wood River region miners have placed excessive emphasis on faulting as a reason for termination of ore. The concept of the Wood River fault has never been stated in any precise way in printo This concept involves a great fault that is assumed to extend throughout the region at approximately the same depth everywhere. The depth at which the Wood River fault was to be expected was given at about 300 feet by some operators and ore shoots were supposed to be displaced wherever encountered by i10 In view of the rugged topography such a fault would be difficult to visualize It is true that many of the extensively developed mines have no known ore bodies more than some 200 feet below the surface (Umpleby and others u 1930, p. 101) but the Wood River fault is not the explanation of this. Modern engineers will see the fallacy in the concept just outlined but old ideas die hard and it may be worthwhile to call attention to the matter hereo 0
0
0
0
g
0
0
Development underground 0 especially in the early days 8 was largely by means of adits rather than by shafts which were both costly and difficult to sink with equipment then availableo Most of the shoots that were mined in the early days had their pitch lengths flat or at low angles even where they were in veins that dipped over 60 0 • Sinking down the dip of the vein and exploratory crosscutting in barren ground were not undertaken as often as might have been wise Extensions of lodes in the Wood River region, in any direction from ore shoots are difficult to recognize Commonly they consist merely of sheared or crushed rock with little or no vein minerals to distinguish them from the numerous uninteresting fracture zones My observations on the Mayflower and neighboring lodes (Umpleby and others, 1930, p. 137-150) suggest that extensions of lodes were indeeq cut in exploratory workings without being recognized Further some shoots are arranged en echelon with or even in parallel with others without visible connecting links. Geologic and engineering characteristics such as these had more influence in discouraging deep mining than features such as the hypothetical Wood River faulto I
0
Q
Q
0
0
Q
0
The character of the lodes in the two districts hear Hailey and in simila~ districts in other parts of the region supports the idea that mineralization took place originally at con-
I
Fig. 3
Records
of principal
producing
• counties In
1902-1917
2,250,000 2,000,000 IJ 750,000
/'
1,500 OOO f
1,250,000 J ,000,000
750,000
Data mainly from annual volumes of Mineral Resources of the United States
1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 /908 1909 19/0
1911
1912
1913
1914 1915
1916
1917
siderable depth below the surface There is no apparent reason why ore shoots should be confined to the range of a few hundred to about 10000 feet below the present surface, the range through which most workings extend o If and when there is enough incentive to explore beneath the old mines u new and worthwhile ore shoots may reward the efforL 0
The production curve for Blaine County (Fig 3) :r(~fl6CtS the general failure of miners near Hailey to find virgin ore shoots From 1906 until war in Europe began to influence production u the curve is nearly flat and the annual total was mostly below $250 ,0000 The region was resting on past laurels 0
0
0
Production prior to World War I in other parts of south~central Idaho was governed by factors as varied as the deposits Dredge operations in the Boise Basin and near Salmon renewed interest in placers The old mines in the Bayhorse district did not have an impressive record at that time 0 mostly because the rich but shallow oxidized ore had been largely exhaustedo Hypogene ore was known and some of it was rich, but mining in ore of that character was not extensive 0
0
0
The copper deposits of the Alder Creek district near Mackay (70 on Fig .. 1) were mined actively during this period The Empire mine which is the only large one I may have yielded about $4 million worth of copper then. This mine is largely r~sponsible for the sharp peak in 1913 shown in the graph 'for Custer County in Figure 3 e According to Umpleby (1917 u po 13-14) a smelter was built in 1901 but for about 5 years thereafter the mine was flagrantly mismanaged by a succession of operating companies. After 1906 the management was better but mu.ch of the mining was done by lessees and little exploration in advance of stoping ~las attempted.. The mine and its neighbors differ from most 1n the region in that the lodes are replacement bodies of contact metamorphic type in limestone on the borders of intrusive masseso At times early in the 20th century" the value of the copper produced exceeded that of the lead (Fig 4) largely as a result of the yield from the Empire mine 0 although mines near Hailey also contributed substantially and small producers in other districts added to the total Q
0
0
0
A number of small districts were in operation early in the 20th century The old Warren (13 on Figo 1) district u Idaho Countyu yielded $225 0 720 0 mostly from placersf} Mines around Atlanta 0 Elmore County (84 on Fig 1) had a mild revival but shut down about 1914 The Dome (69 on Fig 1) district o Butte County became active about 1905 The principal producer there is the Wilbert mine This small lead-silver mine had an enviable record of almost constant production from 1906 into 1931 and some later work has been done (Ross! 1961 0 po 246~251L The Lava Creek (89 on Figo 1) district o also in Butte County, enjoyed some activity about 1913(} although it has not yielded much since its oxidized silver ore was worked out in the early days Both of these districts have distinctive geologic features; and in both D the lodes may have formed later than many of those in Idaho are commonly supposed to have formedo Boise County did fairly well during the period (Andersonu 1947 (1949) 0 po 179) largely because of dredging in previously placered areas but also because of revival of interest in Idahoo Q
0
0
0
0
co
0
0
It is impractical to plot on Figure 3 production from counties such as Ada 8 Adams, Butte u Camas e Canyon o Elmore o Gem o Payette Valleyu and Washington where activity 0
early in the 20th century was slight or sporadic 0 With a few exceptions, the annual production of each of these counties was commonly $10 8 000 or less .. Even for Elmore County, where annual production exceeded $100 000 much of the time a graph on the scale of Figure 3 would not show Much of the production of this county was from the area near Atlanta e The highest recorded yield for the county in the pertod W&,S $248,230 in 1911 .. I
Q
Q
The Thunder Mountain boom in 1902 to 1907 constitutes to a degree, an exception to the fact that mining in south-central Idaho early in the 20th century was largely i,n previously developed districts 0 The gold deposits of the Thunder Mountain district in eastern Valley County (37 on Fig .. 1) were discovered in 1895 (Ross 0 1933, po 588-589) and be...; tween 2,000 and 3,000 people rushed there in 1902. Stamp mills were built and for a time,' there was much activity here and in neighboring areas e Unfortunately the reports of the richness of the ore were exaggerated and mining soon began to decline", The total 'produc"" tion has been only about $350 6 OOOe A landslide in May 1909, which flooded the principal settlement, brought the activity at most surviving mines to a close e The principal item of value that resulted from the boom was the intensive prospecting in the surround~ng region. Some of the deposits outside of the Thunder Mountain district that were found during the boom later became major producers notably the quicksUver and tungsten deposits east of Yellow Pine I
0
Although the results of the boom were scant, the gold deposits of the Thunder Mountain district should be kept in mind if gold mining becomes of interest in the future. The district contains large quantities of low-grade material formed by dissemination of hydrothermal solutions through permeable 8 mostly clastic u beds in the Challis Volcanics (Ross, 1933; Shenon and Ross, 1936)0 Where concentration occurred, either in fissures or under impermeable beds the gold content became sufficient for profitable mining under favorable conditions. Some mining has continued in spite of handicaps imposed by the remoteness of the district and the lack of a favorable market for gold. The exaggerated early reports were based largely on rich stringers of supergene gold; the lack of success at the mines was in part because the mills made only about 80 percent recovery,. Because part of the gold and silver wa s in pyrargyri te and probably also selenide s lit was not recoverable in the amalgamation mills set up during the boome I
In the part of the 20th century that preceded World War I more diverse metals were being produced than in the 19th century 8 apart from the boom periods in and just after the 1880' s ' (Fig. 4) Except for gold, the quantities of each metal produced at the beginning of the period was small. At times thereafter the yields of lead and copper rose sharply. Note that up to 1915 gold continued to dominate nearly all the time, even though most of the lead ore was low in gold.. Except for metallurgical difficulties zinc m~ght have made a more impressive record than Figure 4 indicates e Contracts with smelters were unfavorable for ore that contained zinc especially if the percentage was small Consequently miners tended to avoid shipping such ore. Some lodes are rich in silver but production of such ore was not sufficient to be registered strongly on Figure 4. Except very early in the 20th century, lead made a more impressive record than silvero Some of the ore contained arsenic and antimony I which generally was not welcomed by the smelters and thus was a $
I
I
0
···i-i .. :--,-.-._
Fig. 4
Record·s
of
prl ncipal
metals produced in '905-1935
I
I I
2,000,000
I I I
1,750,000
I
J ,500,000
1,250,000
I I I I I I
__ J ~,ooo,ooo
1905 Data maillly from annual volumes of Mineral Resources of !he United States lind Minero1 s Yeo,. book
1935
-14disadvantage to the miners. As noted earlier there was UtUe correspon~ence b~.., tween the amounts of the various metals that were mined and the priG~~ (Fig. S) obtained. I
Metal prices in 1902 -1935
Fig. 5 Price per ounce of silver and per pound of copper, lead and zinc
a
1.20
1\
I \
I \ I \
1.00
I I
I
I J
I 1/
.80
1
"
\
iA//"
~y~ \....... --
\ \
\ \
\
i ,1./-" ' / . . . . -'\\ J
1--\ /1 X
.60 ' \
\ \ \
I I
r _"
\
/
\
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\.
V
\
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1__
I
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J
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\
1
\
J
\
.40
I
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/
.20
".----- --.-
Data from annua I v.olumes of Minerai Resources of the United Stotes and Minerals Yearbook
ZlnC_._._
-'-'-'-~-'-'
-- '"
'"
,,"',
~
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,, "
.-. - -'-
...... ~-.-._/
.......
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o
1900
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
-15WORLD WAR 1 The incentives provided by war in Europe affected mining in south~central Idaho as early as 1914; production reached its crest in 1917 0 especially in the copper mines near Mackayo On the whole the response to wartime demands was not impressive and the decline in production after hostilities ceased was prompto The production increase in Blaine County was not greato The record set by that county in the first few years after World War I was somewhat better 0 and may have resulted largely from the opening up of ore bodies that were sought because of the war but found too late to aid in the war effort .. Figure 6 11 like Figures 2 and 3 6 records only production of gold 0 silver, copper I lead and zinc e Until the 1930 is no other metal s were produced in significant quanti tie s in the .region u although several were known and some had been successfully minedo Indeed, for . ' most years the production of zinc and u to some extent, copper had riot contributed greatly to regional totals World War I did not change this picture greatly. The munitions required were not so markedly different from tho$e of previous conflicts as to result in many s"pecial demands for metals 0 Mercury was still in demand for fu.lmlnate in detonating explosi ves, but the need for it in manufacturing :f~lt c~mpa1gn hats was on the decline. Suth hats were useful in fighting Indians but were in the way in trench warfare. The deposits of qJ.licksllver in Idaho had conly begun to be recognized, in contrast to the major role they played in World War II. The uses of alloy steels 1n munitions grew enough to result in prospecting for cobalt and nicke11n western Lemhi County (Hess I 1921) but these met.... als like quicksilver did not come into their own in the region until World War II.. Figure 6 includes graphs for the part of Idaho County that is within south-central Idaho and for Valley Count Yo In the early 20th centurYI1 prior to 1928 u southern Idaho County yielded so little that it cannot be plotted on the graphs" Within a few years after that date interest in gold raised the production of this and other gold-producing areas notably. H
0
H
0
The Clayton silver mine, north of Clayton in the Bayhorse district (52 in Fig. 1) was one of tae properties whose development started in the interval between the two wars and whose subsequent record has been good The existence of lodes here was known long before World War I but little was accomplished prior to 1927. Since the late 1930's the mine has been operated, with various interruptions mainly because of labor disputes and its prodUction record has been good e The workings are mainly in a dolomitic member of the Kinnikinic Quartzite (Ordovician); the ore lies in part along fracture and bedding planes but spreads out irregularly into the dolomitic country rock (Ross, 1937 (1938); pe 137-138)" .When I first saw the property in 1928 the visible ore was in such small and unsystematically distributed bodies that success in mining seemed doubtful, but evidently skillful underground explora tion has been rewarded" Many of the deposits in the region particularly in the Bayhorse district o are replacements in carbonate rocks.. Some of these have even fewer fracture planes or similar structural features to guide exploration than the Clayton mine has, Some prospectors do not understand ·the difference between replacement deposits and veins, with the result that their exploration is erroneously planned. Wherever a mineral deposit has limestone or dolomite as its country rock, replacement rather than cavity filling is to be expected and exploration should be planned accordingly. The attitude of the bedding in the carbonate rock may have much to do with the shape of the ore bodies. Cross fractures may have influenced ore depOSition and these are less readily seen and are less perSistent and uniform than the walls of fissure veins. G
I
I
.
1.
Fig. 6
2,000,000 1,750,000 1,500,000 1,250,000 1,000,000 750,000 Data mainly from annual volumes of Mineral Resources of the United States and the Minerals Yearbook
Records of
pri nci pc I
producing
counties
in
1914 -1939
~16-
THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE WARS - -------- --- ---Mining in south-central Idaho was rather quiet in the interval between the two world wars Custer County was the only one to attain an annual production close to $1 milliono The production there in 1929 resulted from activity at the copper mines near Maci:"p'yand at the Livingston mine in the B,)ulder Creek district (66 in Fig 1L The production near Mackay probably came from leasing operations on the best and most accessible parts of the known ore codies in the Empire mine Similarly the work at the Livingston was the culmination of operat1.ons in the only ki10wn ore shoot of any consequence Both the Empire and the Livingston shut down in 1930 I although leasing continued at the Empire after that o In 1927 to 1931, activity at the Triumph mine near Ketchum sustained production in Blaine Count yo The complex, fine-grained ore at the Triumph 0 mineralogically some\vhat similar to ore at the Livin9ston I was not profitable to work until a method of selective flotation was devised for it. The ore at the Triumph contains boulangerite among other complex minerals (Umpleby and others, 1930, po 181183) and that at the Livingston includes jamesonite (Ross, 1937 (1938), p. 151). The large size of known ore bodies at the Triumph encouraged study of ore dressing methods, whereas the single 6 rather small shoot at the Livingston was worked out within a few years using make-shift machinery and leaving zinc-rich material on the borders of the shoot untouched (Ross, 1937 (1938) p. 149-151). The Triumph mine shut down in 1931 but was revived during World War II. There h?ve been attempts to reopen the Livingston but with less success .. 0
0
0
0
The depression of the early 1930's was so profound that it dwarfed local influences such as have been commented upon.. Figure 4 showing the records of particular metals and Figure 6 showing the county records both reflect the effects.. Prices declined correspondingly I as shown by Figure 5 I but, except for silver I the drops were not as precipitous as the declines in productiono In one respect the depression increased mining activity in south-central Idaho.. People who had been deprived of their normal means of livelihood journeyed to this and other mining regions to try their hands at gold mining by primitive methods Most of these people had neither experience nor equipment for the jobo They panned gravel in stream channels not controlled by established mining companies.. Presumably some secured subsistence from their labor but the total gold output resulting was not large. Probably mining of this sort was more extensive in parts of California and other localities in the United States that were more accessible than suitable areas in south-central Idaho were A few people did penetrate into areas in Valley and Idaho counties miles from roads a 0
0
One outgrowth of the depression was the increase in the price of gold that began in 1933. The price was stablilized at $35.00 per ounce in 1935, following a proclamation by the Pre sident in 1934 Figure 6 reflects increases in the production of gold in Boise, and southern Idaho counties starting in 1932, and Figure 4 shows the same thing rather more impressivelyo Most of the gold came from such long-established districts as Boise Basin and Vvarren but the lode mines in the Marshall Lake district (14 in Fig 1) contnbuted in 1929 into 19310 These latter had also been productive during World War I and were again in the late 1930'50 Activity at the principal mine at Atlanta gave Elmore County significant production in 1932 to 1935. For most of the period covered by Figure 6, the 0
I
0
Photo 3
Dredge -mini ng for gold in south-central Idaho
-17-
production of Elmore County
Wd S
so low tha, tit was not plotted on this figure
@
The districts in Boise and Idaho counties just mentioned are geologically quite different from each other and from most others in the regiono As already noted o lodes in Boise Basin are related to a dike zone of Tertiary age Those at Warren are in quartz lenses in gouge-filled fissures 11 related to joints in the granitic rock of the Idaho batholith; presumably mineralization took place as a late result of the emplacement of the batholith. So far the record both of production and of continuity in depth at Warren is below that of the lodes of Boise Basing although the records made by the placI3rs at Warren are fairly good ~ Lodes of the Marshall Lake district are in partially silicified pendants or xenoliths in the Idaho batholith They are quartz lenses associated with aplite and pegmatite., In places the vein quartz merges w.ith pegmatite o either as an original feature or as a result of replacement of the dike rock by somewhat younger quartzo Metallic minerals are varied but generally so small in quantity that the base metal content of the lodes is negligible The ore shoots at both Marshall Lake and Warren are far narrower than those in Boise Basino Records are incomplete but from 1902 to 1928 the lodes at Warren yielded somewhat more than $265! 000 and the Marshall Lake district (14 in Fig a 1) yielded $289 u 2220 mainly from lodes 0 according to an unpublished table compiled by C. N. Gerry 8 U S. Bureau of Mines. Data in annual volumes of Mineral Resources of the United States suggest that the lodes in Marshall Lake district yielded roughly $55! 000 in 1929 through 1931 and little since then In contrast o the geologically younger lodes in Boise Basin largely in the Quartzburg district (80 in Fig 1) 0 are thought to have yielded over $4 million in 1901 to 1930 (Anderson o 1947 0 po 178-179) on the basis of a table compiled by Gerry. He computed production of lodes in Boise County prior to 1901 to have been $10 u 014! 676; most of it from Boise Basin Destructive fires at the principal mine in 1929 and 1931 hampered operations but there has been some production since then. 0
0
0
0
Q
o
0
0
Two areas in Valley County that had hitherto seen little development were active between the two wars Numerous small properties were worked but the principal production was from the Lost Pilgrim lead-zinc mine in the Deadwood district (58 in Fig .. 1) 6 operated in 1924 to 1932; and the Meadow Creek mine in the Yellow Pine district (38 in Fig ~ 1) where the Yellow Pine Co. began operations in 1928., The principal are bodies at this property contained gold and antimony but work was also done at a nearby quicksilver mine. Both were originally discovered during the Thunder Mountain boom about 19000 The Meadow Creek mine in 1932 through 1937 yielded 3 0 515 tons of antimonyo 49 504 31 ounces of gold and 168 093 ounces of silver (Cooper u 1951 po 180L The antimony ore produced at this and other mines in the district constitutes the first significant yield of metal other than those common in the regiono G
8
0
0
9
0
0
Properties in both the Deadwood and Yellow Pine districts are mainly in the Idahc batholith but the Lost Pilgrim mine is in a schist xenolith and the quicksilver mine in the Yellow Pine district is in metamorphosed sedimentary rock o probably part of the roof of the batholith. The genetic relations between the Idaho batholith and the lodes of the Deadwood and and Yellow Pine districts are not entirely clear There are Tertiary dikes in the Deadwood district but relations to the mineralization have not been established In the Yellow Pine area mineralization took place in several stages" The latest of these stages u at least, 0
0
-18is Tertiary and not directly related to th.e batholith. Those, who have studied the deposits in detail (White, 1940, p. 264-265, Cooper, 1951, P. 171""l72) regard the whole mineralization sequence as.of Tertiary age. The matter 1s'of interest in con'" nection with the problem of the economic import<;3,ijce of lodes ~ithin the Idaho ba~o'" lith and genetically related to it. Tungsten was discovered in the Blue Wing district, Lemhi County I (411n Fig. ~) in 1903 (Callaghan and Lemmon 1941, p. 4-5); an attempt to mine it was mad.e in 1911 but little was accomplished until 1934; significant production did not begin until 1936. .
!
The sharp increase in production in Blaine County just before World War II is one of the more conspicuous. features of Figure 6. It results largely ~rom r~newal of . activity at the Triumph and neighboring properties in the Warm Springs distriot (87 in Fig. 1). The group was the largest producer of gold in Idaho in 1939 and also rank.ed high in output of zinc I silver and lead 0
-19WORLD WAR
.!L
The history of mining in south-central Idaho during World. War II differs from that in prewar periods in that several metals not previously sought to any great extent were searched for and mined so extensively as to place the region among the leaders 1n the nation. Tungsten and quicksilver are the conspicuous examples but antimony, cobalt, fluorite and others were also sought with encouraging results The urge to produce that was a part of the war effort and geologic engineering, and' other ass.istance by government agencies tended to accelerate mining.. On the other hand, there were potent adverse factors. Because south-central Idaho is not densely settled, labor shortages have at times in the past hampered mining During World War II this limitation was intensified. The armed forces took many of the young men. Other and perhaps more serious drains resulted from the needs in manufacturing centers in other regions for manpower. Wages and other tempting inducements resulted in emigration from south-central Idaho on a fairly large scale. The 8 counties that contain most of the mines had a population of 46,684 in 1940 and 44,372 in 1950, an aggregate decrease of 2,312 people. The decrease between 1950 and 1960 was 1,745 people. Some of the towns that are dependent mainly on mining may have had proportionately greater shrinkages" I
I
0
I
G
Shortages in supplies and transportation difficulties added to the labor shortages in hampering mining. For many mines, especially those in the more remote areas, which had had difficulties in securing needed supplies and equipment in prewar years, the restrictions and shortages during the war increased costs and delays markedly. Transportation facilities had increased greatly since the latter part of the 19th century but were still much below those in most other parts of the United States. Rationing and other restrictions related to the war magnified the difficulties in transportation. As Figure 7 shows the trend in base metal prices was upward during the war period, but not sufficiently so to encourage much increase in mining. Copper prices did better than those of lead and zinc o with the result reflected in Figure 9. Comparison between Figure 6 and Figure 8 shows Blaine County as the only one that shows spectacular increase And its record depended almost entirely on the Triumph mine in the Warm Springs district. I
0
The production record for the first 10 years shown in Figure 8 is complicated by the influence of gold prices and controls s Early in that period gold was sold at $35.00 an ounce 6 higher than it had ever been. As a result, its production reached a total of $3,842, 740 in 1941 (Fig .. 9), which exceeds its annual production at any time since the early boom days. In 1942 governmental orders caused most gold mines to close. In 1945 restrictions were removed. Figure 9 shows the immediate response. As was to be expected Boise County was the principal area affected. The mines in the part of Idaho County that is within south-central Idaho did not respond. The gold lode mines there that had been active in the 1930's did not reopen. They probably had little ore in sight and the operating companies may not have had enough capital for adequate explorationu In and. after 1943 the .production from the southern part of Idaho County was so low that it is not plotted on Figure 8. I
Fig.7 Metal ~ices in 1935 -1960
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1940
19,,15
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1955
1960
Fig. 8
1 3 ,000,000
Production
1- _
2,500,000 I
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2,250,000
figures
include
only gold, silver,
lead, zinc
1935-1960
and
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1,250,000 1,000,000 750,OCXJ Data mainly from the ~nnual volumes of Minerals Yearbook
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copper
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counties in
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Records of principal producing
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Fig.9 Records of principal metal s produced in 1935-1960 ! 'I
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nata from annuaJ voliJmes of Minerals Yeorbook
1,250,000 1,000,000
Values of tungsten. quicksilver, antimony and cobalt ore estlmoted from overage prIces as Qlven in the Minerals Yeorbook
750,000
•
..
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-20Governmental restrictions on silver mining were less stringent than those on gold mining; besides much of the silver obtained in south-central Idaho is in basemetal ore that was much desired for the war effort" Figure 9 shows that the rate·. of production of silver dropped in 1941 but that thereafter the production continued at a fairly high level throughout most of the war period Q
e
The production of antimony in south-central Idaho reached ,significant proportions in 1932 when the Meadow Creek mine in the Yellow Pine district, Valley County (38 in Fig. 1) began to produce (Cooper I 1951, po 180). Prior to that time, some antimony was doubtless obtained in the smelting of certain complex base metal ores from south-central Idaho but little material was mined as antimony ore. The development at the Meadow Creek mine would not have been undertaken except for the gold content of the deposito Production was active throughout the war and continued for a time thereafteL The graph in Figure 9 takes into account only the antimony produced at the Meadow Creek mine and its neighbor the Yellow Pine mine I both on Meadow Creek and essentially in parts of the same lode. Other mines in south-central Idaho, including one in the Yellow Pine district, produced antimony 6 but available records are not adequate to include in Figure 90 They would not greatly change the shape of the graph, especially during the war years. The deposits along Meadow Creek were originally thought to be of interest mainly for their gold contentG Indeed I to a degree I the antimonial minerals, mainly stibnite I were a detriment in treating the gold ore. During the war the deposits became the greatest source of antimony in the United States. Tungsten had an even more spectacular history during W'orld War II than antimony dido The presence of tungsten minerals in south-central Idaho had long been known but had attracted little attention. Scheelite in the deposits along Meadow Creek was recognized by D. Eo White of the United States Geological Survey in the course of microscopic study of cores from drill holes put down by the U. S. Bureau of Mines (Cooper, 1951, p. 154). This discovery was one of the results of the strategic minerals p'rogram conducted by the two Federal bureaus. The investigation of the ME~adow Creek area was of course undertaken because of the need for antimony, but when tungsten was looked for large quantities were found in shoots close to those in which antimony was mined. Some of the tungsten ore contains much antimony and some has very little. Mining of tungsten ore started in August 1941; and in 1942 1943, and 1944, the property was the largest tungsten producer in the United States. The main known tungsten ore body was exhausted in July 19450 To the end of 1945 I, 184,079 tons of ore were mined, yielding 95,358 tons of concentrate, containing 831,829 units ofW03 (tungstic oxide)u 14,981 tons of metallic antimony, 101 8 437 ounces of gold, and 592,211 ounces of silver. I
I
I
I
I
Once attention had been directed to tungsten u numerous occurrences of it were recognized throughout south-central Idaho but only a few of these h~ve become producing mines. A group of deposits in the Blue Wing district, Lemhi County I have been known since 1881. They were prospected in the early days mainly for silver but the presence of tungsten was recognized in 1903 and some tungsten ore was shipped as early as 1911 (UmplebYQ 1913 u po 109; Callaghan 'and Lemmon, 1941, p . 4-6). Active development accompanied by some production began in 1934. In consequence I the lode s 8
I
I
The Yellow Pine Mine at Stibnite , a major producer of antimony and tungsten during World War II
-21yielded large quantities of tungsten, mostly in the form of hubnerite, during the waL The Irrta mine in this group, the second largest tungsten mine in Idaho I contains the largest known hubnerite deposits in the western United States (Clabaugh, 1945). The deposits are in impure quartzite (Precambrian) surrounding a granite mass that does not outcrop" The lode matter fills a system of fractures in both rocks and includes quartze microcline u mica u fluorite u rhodocrosite o siderite u calcite, hubnerite, tetrah~dri te u pyrite I scheeli te u sphalerite galena I mol ybdeni te.. and other sulphide s (Callaghan and Lemmon u 1941 po 1-21); (Anderson o 1948 8 p. 181-Z0GL Anderson tentatively regards the granite as of early Tertiary age but there is no direct means of dating ito Q
Q
The third metal that came into prominence in south-central Idaho during World War II is called mercury as soon as it gets into commerce but to most miners it is quicksilvere Although deposits in the Yellow Pine district had been known since the Thunder Mountain boom the two main mines, opened in 1917 and 1918, produced little quicksilver until after 1940 when prices were high (Fig. 7). As Figure 9 indicates I production fell off before the end of the war 8 in part because of a labor shortage. In 1943 u the Hermes mine in the Yellow Pine district was the second largest producer in the United States Q
Q
0
In 1936, quicksilver was discovered in agricultural country near Weiser, Washington County (60 on Fig. 1) a somewhat surprising circumstance. Mining began in 19380 The principal mine, the Idaho-Almaden, productive from 1939 through 1943, shut down because favorable material had been exhausted. Much low-grade and some small bodies of high-grade ore remained but the management felt that continuation of mining was unwise at the time. Figure 7 shows that quicksilver prices declined sharply after 19430 The use of the metal was less vital in World War II than in previous contests I for it was no longer needed as a major constituent in detonators for high explo'Sive-s,,, Q
Search for cobalto fluorspar, and other mineral commodities was conducted in south-central Idaho during the war but, except for those mentioned above little production had been attained before peace came. The stimulation to prospecting may prove to have been of great importance for the future of mining in the region especi"'; ally as much of it was in areas at a distance from old mines. Among those to which attention might be directed are the Thunder Mountain district, .'Valley County I (37 in Fig 1) and the Parker Mountain district, Custer County (46 in Fig. 1). Mines in both districts present special problems in mining and treatment of the ore. Because most of the ore in both is low grade, early attempts at development have been directed to a large extent to the high grade pockets Both districts are closer to good roads than they were when previously worked. The Thunder Mountain district has one mine that has been worked with some success for a long time. I
I
0
e
-----------------==--=====----.,;====::::::::::=----=========~ , . ~ ----'
The Idaho Almaden mercury mine near Weiser
=22THE POST=WAR PERIOD The effects of post-war conditions in south-central Idaho have been varied .. As in other parts of the United States 0 mining of lead and zinc ore has suffered.
The rises in prices u with some fluctuations shown in Figure 7 were not enough to offset increases in production costs and manpower shortages Some ore shoots of such metals as antimony and tungs ten 0 vigorously mined during the war were exhausted soon thereaftera On the other hand 0 some metals 0 such as cobaltg sought during the war e did not reach production until peace came. Technologic advances of varied kinds have resulted in demands for special m.ineral products which has inspired considerable prospecting for and some production of such products 9
0
i
0
0
The output of gold o as reflected in Figure 9 0 was fairly.good from 1945 to 1952, when it essentially ceasedo Correspondinglyo the production of Boise County and Elmore Count Yo as shown .in Figure 8 was moderately good in 1945 to 1952 but negligible thereafter. The precious metal mines in the part of Idaho County within the region did not yield enough to plot in Figure 80 Valley County also did fairly 'well in 1945 to 1950 largely because of its yield in precious metals. The county graphs include only data on gold 0 silver copper 0 lead and zinc u the metals mainly produced in normal times e They do not show such things as tungsten and quicksilver which are plotted separately on Figure 90 It seems fair to conclude from the various gTaphs that south-central Idaho has produced significant quantities of the precious metals whenever general economic conditions permit and is likely to do so again whenever conditions warranL This inference applies mainly to Bo1se CountYo but precious metal mines in other counties should not be forgotten 0
I
6
Q
0
The production of lead and zinc held up fairly well from the end of the war until 1956 0 but from then to 1960 0 production was disheartening. A substantial part of the lead and zinc came from Blaine County (Fig. 8) 0 much of it from the Triumph and associated mines The Triumph shut down July 15 1957 because (according to the company) of general economic conditions e Much of the postwar production of Custer County was in lead and zinc u in large part from the Clayton silver mine but supplemented by ore from several other mine s . 0
6
0
The production of antimony rose sharply after the war (Fig. 9) but came to an end in 1953 with the exhaustion of readily accessible ore at the principal mine. There are a number of antimony deposits in the Yellow Pine district other than those at Meadow Creek o and many throughout south-central Idaho o None of these has a substantial pro-· duction record to date but the possibility of mining anUmonial material under favorable conditions exists. Of course numerous mines have shipped ore containing tetrahedrite and other antimonial minerals for their content of silver and base metals. The amount of antimony obtained by the smelters from such material is not on record. 8
Q
Tungsten production continued after the war but came to a halt in 1957, in part because of exhaustion of readily mined ore but also because of the drop in the price of tungsten concentrate recorded in Figure 7e In 1951-1955:theprice was over $60.00 a
-23-
short-ton unit; in 1958 it was only about $ltL 50 per ton unit .. Operations at Meadow Creek were stopped in June, 19521/ because of unfavorable market conditions I but mining at the Ima mine, the other major producer continued until June 1957. The search for tungsten that started during the war resulted in many discoveries I only a few of which became productive Even so 6 in 1953 D small mines in Adahls, Custer I Lemhi and Valley counties were in production . In a general review published 1n 1955; Cook (1955, p. 20-24) lists 10 deposits in south-central Idaho that have produced and 14 others that had not then become producers.. He shows that the metal has been found in a variety of types of lodes (Cooku 1956).. When tungsten prices rose in 1959 and 1960, interest .in the Ima mine was renewedo I
0
One of the more interesting post-war discoveries of tun9sten was on Wildhorse Creek, Alta district (72 on Fig" I), Custer County, (Cook, 19S6, p. 12-18). This deposit was found in August 1953 By September 1955, the mill at the principal mine had treated over 3,800 tons of ore with an average content of 0.87 percent W03 and a gross value of $212 11 000. In 1956,28 tons of concentrate with an average content of 71 percent WO 3 were milled but since then the property has produced little and is es sentially shut downo 0
8
Quicksilver mining in the region had a revival in the late 1950 s (Fig. 9) but not as great as the price increases, which exceeded those during the war (Fig. 7). The Hermes mine 0 Valley Count Yo had various difficulties I including a fire that destroyed fta" mill in August 1958 e Hence its production was not as large as :it might otherwise have beeno The Idaho-Almaden mine in Washington CountYQ reactivated in 1955 under new management, has continued to produce since then, although in recent years the rate of production has declined and finally stopped. The deposits there are of the opalite type (Ross, 1956 (1957», quite different from those in Valley County. Many of the quicksilver deposits in Nevada worked during the war are opalitic; my casual observations in southwestern Idaho far south of those in Washington County I show that opalitic material is present there 0 although as yet untested or nearly so. It could be easily overlooked by prospectors not familiar with ito I
Q
Exploration for cobalt in the Blackbird district, Lemhi County was revived during World War II but did not reach the production stage until pei:9.ce had come e Production started in 1952 and continued until 1959 (Fig. 9) when the company's oontract with the government was completed.. The same deposits yielded copper and are largely responsible for the peak in the copper graph in 1955 through 1958 (Fig. 9) as well as for the high production rate for Lemhi County in 1955 to 1959 Copper was also produced at the Empire mine in Custer County .. I
&
Fluorspar deposits near Meyers Cove I Lemhi County I were found in 1941 but did not reach the production stage until 1951. After mill was burned down April 17 I 1953 0 activity ceased in September 19530 During this brief period of production, the deposi ts yielded 10 978 tons of acid grade 998 tons of ceramic grade and 100 tons of metallurgical grade fluorspar u but the operators decided not to rebuild the mill and left the area (Anderson, 1954a p. 10)" The presence of fluorspar is known in several places Q
I
p
-24-
in the region and some of the deposits have received a little development, notably those near Challis (Anderson 0 19S4b; Baber and others I vol. 3, p. 340). Only the best grades of fluorspar can be profitably mined in areas as inaccessible as most of those in Idaho; and so far u very little high -grade fluorspar has been found. Even if high-grade material was found the great distances to present markets would handicap its development" Since the warq uranium, thorium, beryllium and various other metals and minerals have been prospected for with varying success but with little resulting production. The principal uranium mines are in Custer County east of Stanley (55 on Fig. 1). Several deposits are known but much of the mineralized material is not high grade. Claims were first staked for uranium in 1955 (Kemu 1959, p. 14) and 2,300 tons of uranium ore u averaging about 0.25 percent U3081 were shipped in 1957 and 1958. In 1959,3,374 tons, valued at $30 0 000, were shipped, but in 1960 activity declined. The black sand in the placer deposits of south-central Idaho has long been known to contain monazite, ilmenite, garnet, and other potentially valuable substances but little has been done to recover any of these until recently (Savage, 1961). Dredging was conducted near Cascade, Valley County, (59 on Fig. 1) in 1952 to 1955, mainly for monazite, but was terminated in 1955 for lack of a market. Similarly dredging was started in 1955 in Bear Valley, Valley County (57 on Fig. 1) but closed down in 1959 when a contract with the government for 1,050,000 pounds of combined columbium-tan~ talum concentrate was completede The principal valuable mineral in the placer sand here was euxenite, but uranium oxide was sold to the Atomic Energy Commission and monazite was also marketed. By-products were stock-piled. Dredge~ in Boise Basin and other areas recover monazite garnet, and other minerals in connection with gold mining but apparently such material is saved and is being stockpiled pending a future demand. I
Lodes containing thorium, especially in and near Lemhi Pass (33 on Fig. 1) are reported to show favorable indications but development has not yet resulted in any substantial production e Because the search for beryllium did not get started until 1960 I there has not been time to test the deposits.
-25CONCLUSIONS During 100 years of mining south-central Idaho has produced over $200 million in gold, silver, lead. copper and zinc; demands created during World War II placed the region temporarily in the forefront among producers of tungsten, quicksilver, and antimony., During the few years they were worked u mines of these three metals had an ag· gregate production of over $50 million estimated on the basis of average prices then current Thus, while overshadowed by great camps like the Coeur d 'Alenes, the region is to be reckoned wi th in any evaluation of the mineral resources of the United States .. II
Since lode mining began in south -central Idaho, the region has been known for its lead-silver lodes 0 which continue I in normal times I to be the backbone of its industry. Few of its mines are operated primarily for zinc but more of that metal might have been produced as a by-product of lead-silver mining if metallurgical contracts had been favorable e Only a very few mines have yielded much copper but the possibility of some expansion of copper mining exists. In my opinion, some of the copper mines that have so far yielded only limited amounts of ore have distinct possibilities under favorable conditions of market and of management. Gold deposits in the region tend to be thought of mainly in connection with the early placer mining but the record shows that placers and lodes have continued to respond to market incentives. Tungsten i quicksilver, antimony, and cobalt are little produced at the moment but there is good reason to hope that exploration at depth and in low-grade parts of known lodes will be rewarded whenever demand justifies the expense of that sort of development. The extent to which rare metals such as thorium, columbium I beryllium I and others now being searched for may prove valuable remains for the future to determine. The presence of some of these metals has been known for a long time but there has been no incentive to mine them. In certain respects the history of mining in south-central Idaho may have discouraged companies that might otherwise have entered the region~ Production has tended to be erratic, largely because at any particular time only a few mines were in successful operation, which in turn, has resulted in part from the small size of the parts of lodes suitable for mining under the conditions of the moment. In some instances, the efficieney.of the management may have been a factor. Difficulties of access, shortages of labor and similar factors have tended to hamper operations. In attempts to judge future possibilities, one should bear in mind that exploration underground has so far been limited in most mines. Development has been mainly by means of adits, rather than deep shafts e Few mines extend downward below local creek level so the possibilities at depth can only be inferred from such geologic data as are available. Some mines in the past shut down when oxidized ore was mined out. In this mountainous and moderately humid region the oxidized zone was commonly very shallow. Other mines contain complex sulphide aggregates that can be treated successfully only if modern skills, equipment, and money are directed to the task o Thus if and when the incentives of favorable market conditions become sufficient, the mines of south-central Idaho may well respond. I
I
-26The future of minin~ in south-central Idaho depends, apart from the progress of the industry throughout the United States, on the application of modem methods to the known mines, and on success in the search for spec~al metals demanded by theincreasingly complex technology required by many industries. Some of these industries are themselves new.
Photo 6 -- Jet aircraft, satellites, and missUes like the Titan (above) require metals that can withstand high temperatures and high stresses. In recent years, changing demands for mineral resources have been reflected In South-Central Idaho by new methods of exploration and in production of metals like columbium, tungsten, tantalum, and uranium.
-27REFERENCES CITED Anderson, A. Le I 1939 I Geology and ore deposits of the Atlanta district, Elmore County, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Pampn.. 49 I 71 po _-.;.._ _ _ 1947 I (1949) Geology and ore deposits of Boise Basin, Idaho: U. S" Geol$ Survey BulL 944-C, po 119-319.
_ _ _ _ _ 1948, Tungsten mineralization at the Ima Mine, Blue Wing district, Lemhi County, Idaho: Econo Geology v. 43, no o 3, p. 181-206. _ _ _ _ _ 1949 I SHver-gold deposits of the Yankee Fork district, Custer County, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines & Geology Pamph, 83, 37 p.
_ _ _ _ _ 1951, Metallogenic epochs in Idaho: Econ. Geology, v. 46, p. 592-607 a
no. 6,
_ _ _ _ _ 1954a, A preliminary report on the fluorspar mineralization near Challts, Custer County, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Pamph. 101, 13 p. _ _ _ _ _ 1954b, Fluorspar deposits near Meyers Cove, Lemhi County, Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology, Pamph. 98, 34 p. Anonymous I 1961, Idaho placer is source of 99 percent of U. S. Colurnbiumtantalum output: Mining World,. v. 20, no. 1, p. 38-43. Baber, K. D. I Fulkerson, F. B. Kaufman, A. J. Jr., and Yopes, P. F., The .' mineral industry of Idaho: Minerals Yearbook, 1953, v. 3, p. 315-350. I
Baber, K. Do, Fulkerson, Fe Bo I Petersen, N. S.,and Kaufman, A. J. Jr., 1959, The mineral industry of Idaho: Minerals Yearbook, 1957 I v. 3, p. 351,..352 U • S. Bur. Mine s . Baber, K& Do 8 Fulkerson, F. B., and Petersen, NoS., 1959, The mineral industry of Idaho: U" So Bur., Mines Minerals Yearbook 1958, v. 3, p. 291-312. Bancroft, H. Ho v. 31.
I
1890, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889,
Callaghan, Eugene, and Lemmon, D. M., 1941, Tungsten resources of the Blue Wing district, Lemhi County, Idaho: U.S. GeoL Survey Bull. 931.-A, p, 1-21 Campbell, Stewart, 1928, A geologic error regarding the Wood River district . (Minnie Moore mine): Eng .. and Min. Jour$ v. 126, p. 287-289.
-28Capps" S .. Rfl 0 1940 0 Gold placers of the Secesh Basino Idaho County" Idaho: Idaho Bura Mines and Geology Pampho 52/1 42 p ..
. Clabau.gh, Se E" 0 1945 0 Paragenesis of the tungsten ore of the Ima mine, Idaho: (abs.): Washington Acad\> SeL JOUfe Vo 25 0 no!) 6 0 p" 1980 "Cook, Eo F Cl, 1955 0 Prospecting for uranium Q thorium and tungsten in Idaho: Idaho Buro Mines and Geology PamphQ 102 0 53 po _ _ _ _ _ 1956 0 Tungsten deposits of south-central Idaho: Idaho But. Mines and Geology Pamphfl 108 0 39 po
Cooper o J e Ro 6 1951 0 Geology of the tungsten o antimony and gold deposits near St1bnite o Idaho: U oSc Geol" Survey BulL) 969-F o po 151-197. De Voto, Be Ae 0 editor/i 1953 0 The journals of Lewis and Clark: Houghton, Mifflin Co. Boston o 504 po Q
")
Fisher 0 Vard1s (compiler) 1938 0 Th~ Idaho Encyclopedia compiled by the Federal Writer'. Project of the Works Progress Administration, The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idahoo 452 Po
Hess, F L., ~ 1921 0 Haynes Stellite Company (in chapter on cobalt) Mineral Resources of the United States pt. 10 P., 899-901 0
El
Kern, Be F. 8 1959 e Geology of the uranium deposits near Stanleyo Custer County. Idaho: Idaho Bur., Mines and Geology Pamph., 117, 40 p. Lindgren, Waldemar o 1898 0 The mining districts of the Idaho Basin and the Boise Ridge, Idaho: U"S~ GeoL Survey 18th Ann" Repto Pt .. III, po 617 .. 744. IJ 1927a o The Vienna district o Blaine CountYo Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Pamph" 210 17 p~
Ross, COl Po
_ _ _ _ _ 1927b o Ore deposits in Tertiary lava in the Salmon River Mountains, Idaho: Idaho Bur e Mines and Geology Pamph 25 IJ 21 p. 0
_ _ _....,..._1930 0 A graphic history of mining in Idaho: U $SO Geol., Survey Sullo 821, po 1-9.
_ _ _ _ _ 1933, The Thunder Mountain mining district o Valley County, Idaho: Econ. Geology v~ 28 q riOe 6 u po 587-601. "
_ _ _ _ _ 1934/1 Some lode deposits in the western part 8f the Boise Basin, Idaho: U .,Se GeoL, Survey ~ulL 846-D o po 239=277 0
'.
·'f
-29Ross, C. P., 1937, (1938) Geology and ore deposits of the Bayhorse region, Custer County, Idaho: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 877, 161 p. _ _ _ _ _ 1956 (1957), Quicksilver depoSits near Weiser, Washington County, Idaho: U.S, Geol. Survey Bull. 1042-D, p. 79-104. _ _ _ _ _ 1961, Geology of the southern part of the Lemhi Range, Idaho: U. S • Geol. Survey Bull. 108I-P, 257 p. Savage, C. N., 1961, Economic geology of central Idaho blacksand placers: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Bull. 17, 160 p. Shenon, P. J., and Ross, C. P., 1936 Geology and ore deposits near Edwardsburg and Thunder Mountain, Idaho~ Idaho Bur. Mines and Geol. Pamph. 44, 4S p, I
Umpleby, J. B., 1913, Geology and ore deposits of Lemhi County, Idaho: U, S. Geol. Survey Bull. 528, 182 po ______ 1917, Geology and ore deposits of the Mackay region, Idaho: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 97, 129 p. Umpleby J. B., Westgate, L. G., and Ross, C. P., 1930, Geology and ore deposits of the Wood River region Idaho, with a description of the Minnie Moore and nearby mines by D. F. Hewett: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 814, 250 p. I
I
Wells, M. W., 1961a, History of mining in Idaho, p. 9-18, Industry: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology Bull. 18, 71 p. _ _ _ _ _ 1961b,
1!!
Idaho'S Mineral
Rush to Idaho: Idaho Bur. Mines and Geology 5\,111. 19, 57 p.
White, D. E., 1940, Antimony deposits of a part of the Yellow Pine d~stftc;t Valley County, Idaho, a preliminary report: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 922 "'TI , p. 247-279. I
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