256 



GUIDEBOOK. OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



tons of material is being handled daily, of which 38,000 tons is cap 

 rock and 22,000 tons ore. 



As seen from the station of the Bingham & Garfield Railway 

 the canyon resembles a fairy scene. Here and there on the mountain 

 side gnomes and dwarfs are digging their way along its front. Puffs 

 of steam show the location of tiny steam shovels laboring away to 



per and lead ores to difficult sulphides 

 of iron, lead, copper, and zinc, even 

 down to the famous low-grade dis- 

 seminated ore containing specks of 

 copper sulphide that constitutes the 

 bulk of tlie copper ore mined at the 

 pi-esent time. 



The treatment of the ore has kept 

 pace with discovery, gradually de- 

 veloping from the panning of placer 

 gold and the amalgamation and cya- 

 nidation of gold and silver ores to the 

 concentration and separation of cop- 

 per, lead, and zinc ores. The smelting 

 has grown from the old furnace that 

 looked like a stove to a plant that 

 covers hundreds of acres. 



About 1900 events of real import- 

 ance to Bingham's growth began to 

 occur. In that year the output of 

 gold, silver, copper, and lead had a 

 value of over $1,.500,000, and there was 

 a general consolidation of mining 

 property in order to effect economy in 

 operation, and the building of large 

 smelting plants to treat these ores 

 began. 



In 1902 the United States Smelting & 

 Refining Co. constructed a plant at 

 Midvale. east of Bingham, to treat 

 1,000 tons of copper ore a day, and 

 later the company built a lead plant to 

 treat 400 tons a day. At present this 

 plant has developed into one that 

 treats 1,500 tons a day, and the copper 

 furnaces are idle. A copper plant was 

 also erected in the Salt Lake Valley 

 by the Bingham Copper & Gold Co., 

 which owned large interests at Bing- 

 ham. The Highland Boy mine de- 

 veloped so extensive a body of cop- 

 per ore that a smelting plant was 

 built near Murray. Both these plants 

 operated for years biit were afterward 

 dismantled. Ore from the Yampa mine 



was treated in a copper plant in the 

 canyon below the town. The American 

 Smelting & Refining Co.'s lead plant 

 at Murray, with eight blast furnaces, 

 was erected in 1901 ; it had much to 

 do with the exploitation of lead ores 

 from Bingham. There have been sev- 

 eral concentration mills close to the 

 mines, such as the Utah, Apex, Bing- 

 ham, New Haven, and custom mills, 

 but a considerable proportion of the 

 lead-zinc ore is now shipped to Mid- 

 vale, where it is concentrated and sepa- 

 rated into lead and zinc products. 



The operation of these mines created 

 a maze of underground workings, miles 

 in extent. Without a map or guide 

 traveling in the tunnels is dangerous. 

 Some years ago a Mexican criminal, 

 by his knowledge of the workings of 

 the Apex mine, succeeded in eluding 

 the sheriff who was pursuing him. 

 How he got out and where he went is 

 one of the mysteries of Bingham. 



In 1905 the 21 mines in operation pro- 

 duced more than a million tons of ore, 

 which was valued at nearly $10,000,000. 

 As many of the mines are several miles 

 from the railroad terminus, it was 

 necessary to haul the ore by teams or 

 to use transportation tunnels or aerial 

 tramways. Several tramways lead 

 down the canyon or over the crest of 

 the range to the International smelter 

 at Tooele (too-ell'y), which in October. 

 1916, was treating 1,200 tons of copper 

 charge and 1,500 tons of lead charge 

 daily. 



Although the ores mentioned have 

 played an important part in the past 

 development of Bingham, they are now 

 of less relative value, for the great 

 work of to-day is the mining, concen- 

 trating, and smelting of copper ore, 

 which averages about 1.5 per cent of 



