The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-05-01
Lincoln District.

Lincoln District,
Beaver County, April q.
This district was once one of the
leading ones of Utah, if not actually
in the lead, but it has been under a
cloud for some years past. An effort
is TO be put forth at once to extricate
it from the slough of des9ond and put
it on the highway to renewed fame and
fortune.
1t is not alone because of the vast
deposits and veins of mineral treasure
known to exist therea bout that it made
a great name IL the days agone, but
partly through its being the scene of
The first mining work ever performed
in the territory, and was itself the
first district to be organized. This was
sometime before the year-about 1859, L
believe-and the discovery was a ledge
of lead, almost the pure article. To
this was given the name of the diseoy-
erer and was known for a long time
as such-the Rollins lead mine. AL
though there were no smelters or re-
duction works of any kind, yet the
locators were able to imorovise q
means of running their lead into bars
and in this shape placing it on the
market.
1t came in very handy in those ante
railroad days when lead was several
hundred per cent higher than now, and
found a ready sale everywhere. The
metal gradually got harder, however,
taking on more and more the charac-
teristics of galena. This was known TO
be owing TO the presence OF silver, and
as the latter increased in quantity the
lead was gradually dropped out of the
channels of trade, for two reasons: it
was too valuable TO sell as lead, be-
sides being too hard for the uses TO
which that metal is usually put, and
there were no means at hand 2t all
available for separating the two. OF
course this state of things could not
endure forever. and with the impetus
impaired to the mining industry by the
opening and working of mines in the
vicinity of Salt Lake. company was
soon al work delving down on the Lin
coin Gas the Rollins mine was re-
christened) in a systematic, persistent
manner. Other locations had been
msde in the meantime, and towards
the close of the SOS decade, a town
had sprung up fully as populous as its
older neighbor, Min$rsvilIe. three miles
TO the southwest. This means that
some 600 persons had at least tempo
rarily awaited themselves Of squatters'
rights. and the sound of blasting and
the whirr of machinery made the well
kin ring early and late. All the con-
comitants of a mining camp were here
the saloon, hotel. restaurant and
other buildings of like character, the
maison de joie, a saloon for about each
100 persons, a store or two, and so on.
1t was a very lively place while It
lasted, so much so that more than one
man who came here left his life be-
hind him when he went away. But the
EVIL day came finally; one by one the
houses were pulled down and taken
away, the mines closed down one after
another, few only continuing work in
a more or less desultory way. and now
only the buildings containing the works
of the Lincoln and one of its neigh
bors, together with a frame shanty fur
Their down the ravine, are the only per-
ceptible signs of the activity once prev
alent everywhere about A cause-or
in this case a series of them-alWays
exists for such collapses. While in the
hey-dey of a prosperous career vein
of living water was encountered at the
bottom of the Lincoln shaft, and il is
there yet Many thousand dollars were
spent on improved pumping machinery,
and while it worked successfAly, the
water still came in as fast as il was
taken out There is no profit in this
kind of work, and when dividends
ceased entirely the Lincoln owners be-
gan to be possessed of that dark blue
feeling which is family suggested by
finding a $50 gold piece and losing it
again; but when assessments took the
place of the dividends. the limit was
reached and the works were ordered
There is a certain sympathy which
pervades all mining camps where there
is a big mine being worked by ma
chinery, employing several men and
forming, as it were, a sort of nucleus
around which the others cluster and to
which they look for example and en-
SO when the Lincoln
stopped, it was vastly different to what
would have been the case had it been
any other property and the result was
the district was soon practically aban-
ioned.
To this was added the crime of 1873. /
the practical effect and design of which |
vas to debase silver as much as law
could do it, and by taking it from it's /
LII along companionship with gold and |
make it merely maid in waiting on |
he unduly favored metal, thus start |
ng the white metal on the road to |
eventual disuse as a purchasing, debt |
paying medium. Nobody then cared /
much to mine for silver and except |
where the ore was very high grade or
he body unusually large, the business
ell OIL every NllSlCs liOM llOIt 50 |
han here.
1t is not to be inferred from all this
hat even silver mining cannot be
,arried on proftablv in this district
so long as the Lombard street and
the Main gentry permit
he white metal TO have any recog-
lized value at all, there are bodies here
worthy the consideration of any one.
One of these, and in some respects a
greater piece of property than the
is the Creole mine. the prop
rty of 2 syndicate of eastern men
ointly with the Croft brothers, one
# these being in Mexico engaged in
business, the other a farmer-miner Of
The adage that misfor-
unes never come singly has a peculiar
nd fitting eXemplification here, for in
he full flush Of its productiveness and
prosperity, when great quantities of
Ugh grade ore were being taken from
IS excavations. the Creole force all
t once penetrated zinc zone. which
t first gave them but little trouble,
ut increased with depth. Finally the
er centage of zinc ran so high that the
meters would not take it and of
curse the ore was no longer salable:
ven rs per cent of zinc will choke I'D
and do considerable dam
ge, but when it gets to 40 per cent.
s was the case in some instances with
he Creole. the ore, which otherwise
ras worth from $50 up to $500 a ton.
nd even more in SDOtS WAS M Ionoe,- |