Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-09-10
Ztnc DeveIopment in missouri.

An indication of the rapid develop
ment of zinc and lead mining in Miss
ouIl Is furnished by the report just
made by an old and close-mouthed
corporation, managed upon conserva-
tive lines, the CRANKY Mining and
Smelling Company This company is
capitalized at a large amount, perhaps
$50 900 No stock lin 1t ever changes
hands. The CRANKY operates at Oron-
ga and Joplin, in Jasper; and at
CRANKY, in Newton county Its output
for the mineral just closed was $780,
654 for Oronogo, jump from $685.
in the previous year. It's returns from
the Joplin operations shows $159,459, a
gain from $149,000. Its CRANKY pro-
duct is 5000 900, an advance from $16,-
900. This company shows alone for
the year ending June 80 a production
of zinc and lead which sold for over
81, 100000.
Oronogo, where the CRANKY company
has trebled production the past year,
was considered one of the dead camps
a few years ago.
"Ore or no CO." prospector replied
when his "pardner" at the wlndlass
tried to pursuade him to come out Of
the shaft and go to a circus at near
by town The ultimatum resulted in a
discovery and Oronogo was for years a
great producer. The operations
ceased. The deposits were supposed
to have been worked out. Now, at the
bottem of shaft 14O feet deep, about
so feet lower than where the earlier
mining was done, ore is being taken
from body so feet wide and 20 feet
high. AS the excavation goes on the
miners leave behind them a great
chamber like the interior of cathed-
raj.
little more than thirty years ago
some Carondelet people were trying to
make go of zinc production in South
east Missouri. They built a small
smelter at Potosi and furnished a
market for the ore that was taken out
of pockets 10 or Is feet deep in st.
Francisco and Washington counties.
A relative of one of the investors was
studying mineralogy in a German uni
versity. He was induced to come to
Missouri and to undertake the promo
ton of the enterprise His first en-
ployment was ia tramp about the hills
of these two counties, to point out he
probable locations of the small bodies
of zinc ore and to induce the country
miners to dig. Southeast Missouri
had many lead miners born and bred
to that work from the early days of
French settlement, but zinc was some
thing new, and the miners were not in
clined to pay attention to 1t unless
ccaxed. Like most pioneering in min
eral production the Potosl smelter was
not a success. The promoters had not
learned that 1T is cheaper TO carry the
ore to the coal than the coal to the ore
tt Nil lOdll0 VI OlC W Ol Val Il
Three car loads of coal to one car
load of ore is the smelling proportion
for zinc. After some losses, compare
lively small, but sufficient to show the
company there was defect in their
plan of operation, the young mineral
ollgist induced his employers to move
tt, 10 NarnnAnInE hoI
narrow escape from being mobbed by
the angry residents of Potosi.
One day before he went to Brazil as
United States Minister, Henry T. Blow
who was always the friend of mineral
developments in Missouri, examined
with a good deal of care the ore which
the Carondelet company was smelling.
He had been long identified with min
eral mining and was a moving spirit
in the CRANKY company.
We've got stuff that looks like
that down in Southwest Missouri, any
amount of it," Mr. Blow said to the
mineraloglst, but we have never
done anything with it. We don't con-
slider it worth saving. l wish you
would take a trip down there and look
it over and tell me what you think of
it,"
Thus it came about that the finder
and buyer of ore in Southeast Missouri
for the Carondelet company journeyed
to the lead mines of Southwest Miss
ourl 10 look at the unknown mineral
which had spoiled many a promising
lead mine and which had been thrown
out by the thousands. OF tons on the
dumps and left there as worthless.
Not many days after he wrote back to
his company that Southwest Missouri
abounded in zinc ore of the finest
grade and that it was in inexhaustlble
quantities. That was the beginning.
The railroads had not then reached
the zinc fields The buyer for the Car
ondelet smelter transferred himself
from the pockets of Southeast Missouri
to what was destined to prove the
greatest zinc field of the world in
Southwest Missouri and Southeast
Kansas In the pioneer days no min
ing for zinc was done. This shrewd
young buyer visited the lead mines
and drove bargains for the picking OF
Jack" from dumps where 1t had been
,t~i .a1 auathnrno hu