The Ladysmith news and Ingram news. [volume] (Ladysmith, Wis.) 1905-1906, 1905-05-20
LEAD ORE FARM is BEST.
Scores of Wisconsin Farmers Hold to
That Opinion.

lead and zinc district, comprising
large portions of Lafayette, Iowa and
Grant counties. These farmers are
all native Americans, chiefly Southern
stock, and, while their deposits OF
lead and zinc have been mined con-
tinuously for sixty or more years, the
day of the modern miner is just be-
ginning to dawn in the district.
Some owners of mineral land have
been persuaded TO sell their property
outright, or at least to lease the min
eral rights, but scores refuse to sell
their farms or permit others to mine
the beds of ore.
1t might almost be said that the
entire three counties are underlald
with thick sheet of lead. Below
that is zinc. But the mining done up
to the last few years has been almost
entirely with machinery of antique
type. The farmers in many cases re-
fuse to put faith in banks and use
their farms as their banks.
If Maria wants a new dress or Hi
ram wants to go to college, why John
Brown sends the hired man out to
corner of the farm where pit will
not hinder the cultivation OF the sur
face, digs up load of lead ore, sends
the load to a buyer for the lead COM
panies, and the money for Hlrams
education and Maria's new dress is in
his hands. This bank cannot be
robbed, and an absconding cashier
has no chance to make way with the
funds of this farmer who pins his
faith to his mineral pit on the corner
of his fruitful farm.
For a mineral country these three
counties are notable for the quality or
the soil. The farmers who came into
possession of these farms, which will
produce paying crops on the surface
and fortunes from the minerals under
meath, have had profits almost beyond
belief. Farmers who few years ago
were tillers of the soil have added to
their incomes by digging in the lead
and zinc beds until now they are
wealthy and their farms are beyond
price.
AAA]
when our hired men can zig up $40
worth of lead a day without any ex-
pense for machinery" they ask.
What can be done when these ore
beds are developed in up-to-date fash
ion is seen in the Enterprise mine.
This mine long ago paid back to the
stockholders the value Of their stock.
totaling S125,000, and today is paying
dividends at the rate Of about per
cent per month. It's stock cannot be
bought. as it is controlled by small
group of capitalists, including some OF
these farmers who a few years ago
refused to take steps to develop their
properties. The Empire mine, near
Platville, is an even better investment,
having paid about SO per cent in diyi-
dends in two months.
The Southwestern Wisconsin mining
district would have been exploited by
mining companies years ago but Tor
the refusal of farmers to sell. 1t
might be said that every farmer has
mine underneath, and the farmers are
holding out for a rise in the price.
This fact has made the number OF
mines remarkably small. The Enter
prise is one of the most important, not
because it's ore deposit excels. There
are a dozen cases where gangs of men,
paid at the rate of S1,75 a day, with
no other machinery than a pick and
shovel. take to market SIS worth OF
mineral daily.
Throughout the district will be found
hilIocks of broken rock, where the
farmer miners have been digging up
ore. There are few pumps, and few
mines have been driven down more
than 100 feet. The majority OF the
workings are fifteen to twenty feet
deep. A bucket is used to hoist the
ore and bail out the mine after rain
storm
Some of the hoists are hand wind
1asses. one man filling the bucket at
the bottom of the pit and the other
standing at the top to hoist the bucket
of ore. Sometimes a horse is used to
help in the hosting, pulley being
swung over a tree above the pit. Thls
contrivance is called a whipsey derry.
Sometimes the whipsey berries are
without pulleys, the rope passing
through the fork of tree. Occasion
ally a horse power pump has been in
stalled, the power being provided by a
| treadmill.
The first smelling was done by
| throwing lead ore on heaps OF logs
which were set on fire. The metallic
lead could be gathered up in great
chunks after the fire had died out.
| These chunks of lead were then ship
ped to Milwaukee by OK team. But
modern methods invaded the smelling
field. aud before long the farmer min
ers were selling their ore to agents OF
| the smelters.
Zinc refining is more complex. but
| Mineral Point has the largest zinc
mills in the world, representing an in
yestment of about $2,000,000. The rich.
est zinc ore, black jack, was first ship
ped from Wisconsin in the days Of the
French occupation of the Louisiana
territory, and it was the invasion OF
| whites mining for lead that caused the
! Black Hawk war, famous for it's mas
sacres.
|