The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-10-21
From the Indianapolis Journal.
PILOT KNOB.
Some Account of the Rich Deposits Of
Iron Ore In that LEGALITY.

Iron Ore In that LEGALITY.
INDIANA STATE UNIvERsITY,l
BLoOMINGTON, IND, Oct. :, 1874. J. |
Having recently received, through |
the kindness of Mr.. E. Walsh, Jun,
superintendent of very extensive
works at Pilot Knob, fine specimen
of magnetic iron ore, l am reminded |
of my promise to give some descrip-
ton Of the vast accumulation Of iron
at that noted locality, at Sheppard
Mountain close by it, as we'll as Of the !
equally celebrated Iron Mountain,
about six miles north of Pilot Knob.
One object in visiting that region
was to examine the lead region in
Washington county, Missouri, not far
distant from its old and well-known
county seat, Potosi, and about twenty
miles in northwest direction from
Iron Mountain The lead mines are
owned by company styled Fourche
"a Courtois Mining Company, of which
firm Mr.. Cummings, one of our foE4ss
mer graduates, constitutes member.
They own 975 acres OF mineral lands,
the galena or sulphuret of lead being
found chiefly in cherry hills, in belts
of one to two miles wide, with none in
the intervening valleys. l saw about
seventy-five windlasses at work, occu-
pyipg $50 men, the shafts being usually
not more than thirty or forty feet
deep, although one at old Tyler was
ninety-seven feet deep, when l was
there.
The company's main shaft had pen
etrated forty FIVE feet into the bed
> rock, which is chiefly silicious lime
| stone with supervening sandstone,
containing the so-called tiff, which
have sulphate of baryta and hydrated
| peroxide of iron, while, near Shaw
neetown and Equality, Illinois, the
tiff is fluor spar. They are taking out
in this vicinity at the rate Of 10000
spounds of good ore each month, worth
i to the miner four dollars per hundred.
The last blast made while l was there,
brought up one hundred pounds of
ore. containing eighty six per cent. Of
pure lead.
Longs Smelling Furnace, near
there, runs out sixty large pigs daily,
obtaining. they told me, 700 pounds
from every 900 of the ores. besides
two pigs Of Stag. The Fourche Com
pany expects soon to have a furnace
of its own. The hills from which this
ore is obtained are about fifty miles
from the Ozark Mountains, and run
northeast and southwest. dipping in
some places at high angle, the works
being mostly in synclinal, near the
foot of one of the hills. Altogether
the prospects are quite encouraging.
Pilot Knob differs very consider
ably from the idea of it had formed
by reading descriptions. l was not
prepared to meet so large an amount
of porphyry. The total height Of the
eminence is 620 feet. caused by an
upheaval of porphyry cutting through
limestone, which latter now fanks the
hill on each side; the iron ore has
been brought up by the porphyry and
is found in extensive bands. This
iron ore is described in most works on
! mineralogy as being hematite which
is a sesquioxyd of iron; but there is a
great variety in the Pilot Knob ore
and on Sheppard Mountain. just
across the railroad from Pilot Knob
the upper part is magnetic. Magnetic
or magnctc-iron ore is composed Of
about SO parts of sesquicxyd to 81
parts of protoxyd in the hundred
Much of the ore here, as we'll as a,
Iron Mountain, instead of having q
red streak as hematite does, hence tht
name, looks more like "a lot of broker
up cast iron, and is almost too pure Il
work easily. Still, for shipment it il
much in demand, and Tor the presen
they set aside their second-ra:e varie
ties.
AS the supply at Pilot Knob is b,
no means inexhaustible, the proprie
tors, instead of sinking shafts il
Sheppard Mountain, are making ex
tensire borings with the damon,
drill, in order to ascertain where thei
best source of supply will be foun,
when the amount at Pilot Knob rup
short.
The total cost of arranging stear
works, etc, for using the damon,
drill is about $1,000, each bit an
drill used costing from $l40 to SIN
Each drill carries usually eight dia
monds These are sometimes tn
South American or Brazil diamond:
sometimes the black diamond c
Africa. worth from ten to twelve dol
lar each. After boring as long a
the diamonds will cut we'll, the dri
is withdrawn and the faces turned S
as to present new angles for cuttin.
This change can sometimes be mad
! three or four times, thus cutting pei
haps through twenty-five feet {
porphyry with one set of diamond
In day Of twelve hours they ca
!, cut through from twelve to fiftee
feet of porphyry, while, fthe wor
, be in ordinary limestone, they coul
' as easily make forty or fifty teet. III
remnants of the diamonds they sell {
: diamond dust, for cutting and polisl
, ing, realizing for it one dollar pt
! grain.
f The works at Iron Mountain al
e very extensive, as they have CT
: through the mountain, which is 2
t feet high, down almost to level wi,
i the general surface OF the countr
t The material on one side of this gre
e mass of iron is porphyry, on the 9th,
u a rather scottish, white sand-rock. II
: proprietors, Mcssrs Chouteau Il Ct
t have been shipping every day for Sc
8 eral years from 500 to 1900 tons
q ore, besides manufacturing forty-f,
b tons daily into pig iron, worth fif
|. dollars per top, working altogeth
Y from 200 to 800 men. They own
!. 500 acres of land, and have built qui
: town for the workmen, in which
d am happy to sly they permit no S
: looms.
! 1t is said they have been offer,
d $4,000, 600 for the property, and tn
e their stock alone is worth $1,000, ,O(
= that the profit on pig iron is 800 p
Q day, or about $S3O. 600 yearly. 1t W
told that they expended, last year,
quarter Of million of dollars for NJ
n water works. When l was there tn
: were shipping 200 tons of ore dai
r but during the war that amount "
o doubled In every department III
- l. Il