The times., 1899-05-24
Long Supposed to Be a Solid
Mass of Ore.
Collapse of Prosperous Town
After the Supply Gave Ont.
/ Southeast Nissourian Tells the
story of an Enterprise Crushed
by Natures Decepti,cness.
lErnm ~ - York snnl

mine operator from Missouri. fetching
sigh like the blowing of of a boiler This
is the way l invariably preface the story
of the rise and decline of the Iron Noun
tain Company. which some time ago Of
fered for sale all its lands in southeast
Missouri. more than 10000 acres. togeth-
er with shops, houses. and buildings of all
kinds. And for what purpose were they
offered, do you suppose? Why, for farm
ing and stock raising. Think OF that
There was a time when iron mining
| promised to be the greatest resource OF
Missouri. Iron Mountain was discovered
early in the history of the Mississippi Val
| ley by the French, whose faculty for
! smelling out marketable mierals was phe-
nomenal The discovery was speedily ad-
vertised TO the civilized world, and Iron
Mountain in the Biographies and geologies
| of our grandfathers occupied unique po
| sition as solid mountain of iron ore and
| the largest deposit in the world. All sorts
of beautiful scientific fairy tales about the
| inexhaustible mountain of iron were set
| afioat and, listening to the scientific An
dersens who told them. a number Of min
| ing experts and capitalists organized
company in 1915 to relieve Iron Mountain
OF its deposits.
The initial step taken by the company
! was the purchase of a great tract of land.
! known as the Joseph Pratte grant whose
| geographical centre was occupied by Iron
Mountain. This was an ancient Spanish
| grant of something more than 1000 acres,
made to Joseph Pratte when Spain was
| in possession OF all the territory west of
| the Mississippi River The ore. as then
exposed consisted of a cliff or lofty MIN
nacle two or three acres in extent, which
rose perpendicularly 10 a height of about
eighty feet near the centre of the noun
tain.
''Porphyry soil, rich in detached pieces OF
iron ore, covered the rest of the mountain
| to a depth of several feet, and the first
work of the company consisted in getting
out this loose ore by the hydraulic pro-
cess. The engineers built a reservoir on
the top of an adjoining mountain, and
stream of water in the valley was damned,
| forming a lake more than 100 acres in eX-
| tent. Reservoir and lake still exist as tes-
timonials of the confidence the promoters
had in the permanency of their enterprise.
Then water from the lake was pumped to
the big reservoir and thence piped to the
Iron Mountain, where it was sent plung-
ing into the friable soil. washing away and
leaving the ore to be gathered and carried
to the smelter.
1.-TWO smelters were built and a great
| deal of the ore was smeited on the spot
This was some time previous to the con-
struction of a railroad, line to Iron Noun
| tain, and the ore and pig iron were trans
ported by OK and mule teams to Ste. Cen
evieye on the Mississippi River. a dis
tance OF about forty miles, by way of the
company's own plank road. From Ste.
| Genevieve the iron was sent TO st. Louis
and to cities and town up the Ohio River.
Even in the earliest times the opera
tions of the Iron Mountain Company were
conducted on a prodigious scale. Hundreds
of horses, mules and oxen were bought to
transport the ore, and a farm Of nearly
1000 acres was cleared and put under cul-
tivation to provide the necessary proven
der and pasturage for the animals. For
many years the regular force consisted
of 200 men variously disposed in mining.
smelling. transporting, logging, charcoal
burning farming. etc. city soon sprang
into existence, and for a considerable time
was the largest busiest. and most pros
porous on the Iron Mountain Railroad,
with the exception Of st. Louis. At one
time its population touched the 5000 mark.
Stores, foundries. machine shops. car
penter shops, churches. schools large ho-
tel lodgerooms halls. dwelling houses. and
barns were erected by the Iron Mountain
Company. and everything necessary to
| city of its size was provided Ii WASH
|
town, and in its prosperous days it vas
one Of the best markets St Louis nad
Produce and provisions were shipped there
by the commission merchants in grea1
quantities. and prices which in the present
day would be considered dreams OF ayaric'
were received. In those Utopian days little
farming was done in the vicinity of tn,
town. the one all-cOnsuming industry be
ing mining and its ramificatons.
time the RnsSpmpr DTOceSs o.
smelling was unknown and charcoal wa
used exclusively. for the burning of which
immense quantities of timber were essen
tial Fortunately all that portion of tn,
country was splendidly timbered, and char
| coal manufacturing became most import
ant branch of the operations. When al
, the timber on the original tract of lI.O0
! acres was consumed, and. TO be sure. i
: did not take the company long TO exhaus
it. additional lands were bought as re
. quired. until the holdings OF the IroE
Mountain Company reached the imposing
: total of 81, 900 acres. Practically all th
available wood on this enormous tract ha,
been made into charcoal by the time tn,
Bessemer process came into universal use
/ Then the company discontinued smelling
at Iron Mountain, and only the ore wa
: shipped.
The period of greatest activity in work
ing the Iron Mountain mine followed tn
: reorganization of the company in 1869
Science and the mining world awaited tn
e results of this reorganization with inter
est. for II was done with a view to attack
ing the great cliff OF ore in the centr
OF the mountain, and the means adopted Il
force the cliff to yield up its treasure
4 were expected to revolutionize mining
And. indeed, never before had such minin
- been heard of. where an enormous bod
i, of ore projected above the surface and ha'
TO be shunted down 10 earth before il coul
be transported.
n But the combined efforts of engineer
y and the work of an army of wOrkmel
/. prevailed over all obstacles and difficulties
l. and the disintegration OF the clil wa
n triumphantly begun Not only was tn
S ore easily mined. but it proved TO be on
Of The highest grade ores ever discOvere
= for it averaged 64 pr cent OF pure iron
o Had the ore held out there is no tellini
= what might have resulted. so readily wa
II il obtained.
). Well, for years the great work wen
S or with no sign or hint of the exhaustion
). of the ore Iron Mountain was ever busy
e prosperous 10 an extreme. and the env
5, of all Missouri and some other places be
sides. The was taken out by million
of tons Money poured into the treasur
and made the stockholders rich. The EN-
= ployes had pie for breakfast, and ther
q were more Sunday clothes in the tow
than in any other place outside of S;
Louis.
1t The mining had proceeded for neari
: fifty feet below the level of The mountai
O top when one fateful day the drill crashe
!, into porphyry, but as the iron was discoV
II cred shortly afterward to extend down O.
}. both sides OF this formation not much at
s tention was paid to it or its Significance
Il although il left hole of many feet in dia
t,, r. ftts