Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-08-21
Pigs Found the Copper.
How the Calumet and IIecla Mine was
Discovered Thirty Years Ago.

Discovered Thirty Years Ago.
GLOW was the Calumet and Hecla dis
covered, you ask. Here, Capt. Duncan,
you tell this man what he wants to know"
Thus appealed to, the broad-shouldered.
smiling-faced man whose spirit pervades
the great copper mine, stepped up to the
little group waiting for dinner i'm the hotel
at Calumet.
at was pigs" he said.
YES, it was pigs echoed the group.
Pigs | exclaimed, increduously.
"Pigs, and no mistake returned the
captain Back in 1863 an exploring par
ty came here to try to find copper They
built shanty to live in, and Of course they
brought some pigs. One night the pigs
were lost. The clearinghouse keeper
started out to find them. After a long
search he heard the pigs roofing and squeal-
ing, but he could not see them. The noises
seemed to come from down in the earth.
Next morning a party of men went back
to the place whence the noises came, and
after search they found pit 10 or -
feet deep. The mouth was covered with
bushes, and the growth of the trees about
the sides gave evidence that it had not
been used for centuries. There the pigs
were contentedly roofing among broken
pieces of rock.
"A rude stone hammer and some charred
sticks gave evidence of earlier explorers
who had evidently gone away unsuccess-
full. The hammer was of the same kind
as the other implements, which had been
traced back to the days of the predeces-
sors of the Indians whom the French
found in possession of the Landslide In
dians who built the mounds and who over
ran the whole country from Mexico to Lake
Superior, where they got copper for their
implements and utensils. The mound
builders, like the explorers who had dis
covered the ancient pit, looked for copper
only in masses, as it had been deposited in
fissure veins and in the lava flows. The
huge chunks of virgin copper, weighing
many tons, and the smaller masses hang
ing in the rocks like metal icces were the
only kind known to the ancients, and the
moderns had been assured by the learned
biologists that copper could be found only
in rocks formed from lava.
but the pigs had turned over pieces of
rock formed by the action of the water
aqueous rocks-and i'm these conglomerates
there certainly was copper This seemed
find, indeed. But when the matter was
reported science scoffed at the explorers.
saying that the copper conglomcrates found
We're simply a freak of nature, and that
money would be wasted if an attempt
should be made to work them. SO Mr..
Hurlburt. who owned the lands continued
to give his attention to the Huron mine.
which was working the lava flows. For
the money he borrowed for the Huron he
gave to Quincy Shaw of Boston the lands
on which the conglomerates were found.
Mr.. Shaw soon began to work these rocks
81 81, .,
most stable and the best promising copper
mine in the world has been built up"
The Calumet and Hecla is a mysterious
corporation. Owning the greatest mining
plant in the world and spending money
lavishly in experiments, Improvements and
elaborate machinery, the company allows
none but its own employees under ground,
and guards the details of all its affairs with
a jealousy that piques curiosity. The com
pany owns thousands OF acres of land
from which it takes the wood-cOnsidera-
bly, over 100 cords day-which in summer
feeds its extensive battery of boilers. coal
being used only in winter. As the resin
Gus wood crackleS in the fierce heat it gives
off pungent odor. No lands are sold, but
the employees of the company lease the
surface rights of their lots and can sell out
to the company at fair valuation for inn
prOyementS and lease.
The company has built an enormous
schoolhouse. and the towns of Calumet
and Red Jacket enjoy good degree of civ
iliZation. The very large number of edu-
Gated men employed in the various mines
makes an excellent society, which has
close connections with New York and Bos-
ton, where the mines have their financial
headquarters. Saturday. July Is, was pay
day, and the various mines diSbursed in
cash $3.50, OO0-an enormous amount of
money to flow into the little towns about
Portage lake. The people in HoughtOn
and Hancock buy Calumet and Hecla
stock as they would make deposit of
money in a savings bank At the present
rate of output, President Agassiz reports.
there is work in sight for 70years to come.
The company is increasing its capacity so
as to about double its present output, or to
work out the ore in sight in about 81 years.
The machinery for the Red Jacket shaft
now being put in place, will cost the COM
pany 81 100000 Like all the other ma
chinery operated by the Calumet and Hec-
la, it is built to stand for ages. The gran
lite on which ii rests comes from Massachu-
sets and the castings from Philadelphia.
The great engine in the central power
house has greater power than the two
COrliSS engines which We're the wonder of
the centennial From a depth of 1900 feet il
hauis trains of ore and dumps them on cars
to be taken to the great mills on Lake Lin
den, where the ore is crushed and the rock
portions are washed away by successive
washings, until copper particles as fine as
flour are deposited on the washing tables
A new pumping engine, with a capacity
of 100000 gallons a day, has just been
put in place, and after the water has been
used it is again elevated by huge wheels
having a diameter of - feet, and is allowed
to flow OFF into Lake Linden. Six days in
the week and "A hours in the day the OPP
erations of this great mine are carried on.
There is no ascertaned depth at which
the veins of copper stop. Running from
the surface down a gradual incline, the
copper bearing rocks extend an unknown
depth into the earth, The Calumet and
Ilecla has 10 shafts, which begin at the
surface and extend, some of them, to
depth of four-iifths of mile. The Tam
arack mine, sinking perpendicular shaft,
struck copper at a depth of over 2000 feet.
If a third shaft still further from the out
crop should be be sunk il would have to be
put down a proportional distance further
before copper would be reached. The Cal
mmet and Hecla has the advantage of min
ing from the surface; but the Tamarack
has a shaft that can be worked quicker, its
ore being elevated at the rate of 1000 feet
a minute, and its machinery is so much
less expensive than is that of the great
mine that today the Tamarack is making