White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1910-08-21

unused smelter, while a number Of
houses have been erected nearby and
county officials are making use of the
Stag, but the plant itself is a thing OF
the past.
The Highland Boy smelter was the
next to go. This particular plant was
perhaps next to the largest in Salt
Lake county. 1t ran for a good many
Llyears, enjoying a good output before
"a damper was put on the works by
the farmers thereabouts. The smell
ter would still be occupying its ped
estal of fame had it not been for a
few farmers who owned scanty tracts
of lucern land on the outskirts of the
smelter property. The smelter
officials were eager to be at peace
with the owners of this land and
made all kinds of overtures. They
installed a smoke consume at the
big copper refinery, but this did not
satisfy the farmers in the least. They
kicked and finally the matter was
CARRIED to the courts, where the
smelter people were assessed until
they were forced TO quit business
there. The farmers kept up their
fight until the smelter officials gave
up the fight in disgust.
A little town sprang up near the
Highland Boy, and ii was here that
more than 300 families lived. When
the big plant closed. many remained,
hoping that the smelter would again
begin operations. The plant remain
ed inactive, and it vas then that the
residents began to move to more al
Turing fields.
At the present time little remains
of the smelter. The big steel strue-
lures and even the big smoke stack,
from which poured volumes of thick
black smoke for SO many years has
been torn down. About the space
where the refinery once stood are a
few old vacant houses. The plant
employed more than 100 men and
was the means of building up a big
portion of the country in that vicinity
Enshrouded in its silent sprround-
ing is the old Germania, at one time
operated by the American Smelling
and Refining company, now &C.
cupying the old site but without its
former activity. The veteran smelter
man T. r. Jones, once had charge of
the Germania, and such men as Aus
tin Tucker and many others helped
to make it the strong industry at
Murray that it used TO be.
When work on the Murray plant
the hill south of the city was start
ed more than six years ago, it was
contended that the Germania would
still remain. But wise heads who
had studied the smelter game in this
and who had watched other
plants with less pull than the Ger
mania go under, predicted that the
American smelter would be the only
one in that neck of the woods. True
to the prophecy, when the American
began work, the Germania
was closed down. Inc big smelter
which stands on the hill south of the
city proper has in reeent years forged
to the front, and more than doubled
it's output and has easily lived up to
the expectations of the heads of the
company.
In speaking about the smelter in
in this valley in general in the
past, it must be said that the city of
Murray is the only town in the Uni
ted States where so many smelters
have been built and left to decay,
easily marks the stride of
times and progress. The smelter
will always go under the
old name, and in years to come
he dilapidatei institutions of the
wealthy will again be cited and per-
haps other smelters erected.