The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1908-07-10
THE IRON MOUNTAIN
OF The PRESENT DAY.
The Editor OF the DeSoto Republican
Describes his Visit to this Once
Famous Mining Town.

Iron Mountain, from which the
Iron Mountain railroad gained its
name, il All interesting place. II is
not entirely deserted village andyet
the ruin that time has wrought can
not be estimated. Once Il beautiful
village at the crest of the lofty
ozarks, busy with hustle and hustle
Of life and energy; hundreds of men
gained livelihood and dwelt, and
hroathed the pure ozone; drank from
the cooling springs that gushed out
from the mountain side. 1t Is not
50 to-day. The walls of many of
the buildings are crumhling with de-
cay, thurns and thistles are taking
the place Of the honey suckle and
the rose, while huge piles of black
cned stones help to make the sur
roundings CHASTITY desolate. In the
early iiftics this mountain OF iron
was discovered. Mining was begun
and for years millions of dollars
worth Of ore was taken out and
shipped away. Finally work was
suspended, the people moved away,
and what was once n beautiful little
city is today mass of ruins.
Fate has not put upon the village
the seal of ruin forever, as the
lands, which consist of tract five
miles square, has recently been
transferred To II new company, and
it is now proposed to inject some OF
the old-time life into it. The build
ings are To he repaired, shafts are
to he pumped ont and again worked.
Already three carloads of ore are
being shipped daily. This, however,
is not being taken from shaft, it
is being washed out of the mountain
side by means of hydraulic water
power. The water is hoistcd from
lake to q reservoir situated on top
of another mountain, the pressure
Eull'N ''lllb --' l''"i''H " wv
square inch. Eight-ply rubber hose
four inches in diameter with huge
brass noZzles is pointed at the en-
bankmcnt ard the water is turned
on. BY this means, what Is called
surface ore is burrowed ont. Chunks
weighing hundreds Of pounds down
to little nuggets are washed from
the bank and loaded ON cars.
The immensely of the work done
by the company is attested by a
huge shaft about - yards square,
which sinks into the mountain to u
depth of pa feet. This yawning
chasm is filled with water up to
within 100 feet OF the top. 70 stand
and gaze down into the abyss with
out shuddering is an impossibility.
The water is crystal clear, but the
craggy and rusty walls give the sur
r0undings Il horrifying aspect.
The houses in the village were
once numbered. Passing down II
street, now grown up with briars
and thorns, we read the number,
ny, over the door of II cottage Of
possibly seven rooms. The roof
had fallen in, the window panes
were broken and only the moss
covered walls remained to tell the
story of former days.
Yet with all its dcsolatiOn there
are some things connected with the
village that redeem it to certain
extent. One of these is n lake of
water about two miles long and n
half mile wide. This lake was made
forty years ago by placing dam
across Indian creek just one mile
east of the town. The lake IL filled
with fish of all kinds. In the fall
and early spring it is II rendezvous
for ducks and geese, thus atfording
those stricken with that awful dis
ease known ms rod and gun, place
for treatment.
The editor of this paper and Col.
f. G. Rankin took n course OF treat
ment there last Friday and Satur-
day. Boys, its fine.--DeSoto Re-
publican.