The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1918-03-23

victor RakoWSky was born and rear
ed in Duluth. He graduated from the
Central high school and was promi-
nent in athletics. Graduating from
the Houghton College of Mines he
did some of his first technical work
on the Guyana iron range and then
at Butte, Montana.
Mr.. Rakowsky had his ups and
downs even in the early days of his
practice as a mining engineer. At
one time he was very close to the
bottom of the flour barrel. But he
had skill, ample self-confidence and
a valuable knowledge of men prom
inent in the mining business.
Less than half a dozen years
ago Mr.. Rakowsky located in the So
called Miami district of the Okla
homa zinc and lead fields. Great sue
cess eventually came to him. Today,
he is reputed to be worth 100000,
to say nothing of almost unlimited
prospects for the future. He resides
in mansion at Joplin, Mo-, and goes
to and from his lead and zinc mines
in the largest of automobiles. To
date, he has not endowed any insti-
tutions in his native town but all
that may come later
Mr.. T. A. Richard, editor of the
Mining and Scientific Press, one OF
the highest authorities on mining In
Europe and America, recently publish
ed an article on the Miami, Oklahoma,
district and Mr.. Rakowsky's successes
there, in part as follows, viz:
"This is a comparatively old min
ing region. Lead was known to ex-
it's in southwestern Missouri fully
a hundred years ago, but the first
mining was started in 1S4S by William
Tingle, in Jasper county, two miles
from Joplin
"This locality received but little
attention at first, the principal activ-
ity being centered around CRANKY,
where 300 shafts had been sunk by
1857. A smelter was built in 1852.
The zinc mineral accompanying the
lead was ignored at the time, be-
cause it had no commercial value.
"The Civil War interrupted the work
but the completion of the first rail-
road, the st. Louis & San Francisco,
stimulated development in 1865. About
1870 many discoveries of lead and zinc
ores were made near Joplin and, in
1870, the first ore was marketed.
"By 1880 the Missouri production
of lead ore had increased to 28,319
tons and zinc ore to 34,344 tons. In
1870 the ore-bearing ground was traced
westward into Cherokee county, Kan
sas, and by 1877 Galena became prom
inent as a producer of lead and zinc.
1.-THE first mining in Oklahoma was
begun in 1891 at Peoria. In 1904 the
first shaft in the Quapaw district was
sunk and in August, 1907, the first
mill was completed. Railway connec-
ton with Miami, on the Frisco rail-
road, was made the following year.
BY 1913 the productive ground had
been traced by drilling and shafts
to the Kansas line.
'The Missouri lead region is i'm
portant in the history of American
mining, not only on account of it's
production of metals but because it
deserved as a school of mines for
training many men that made their
mark further west. For example,
George Hearst and David Moffat
started their careers in the Joplin
district.
"The recent story of this mining
region finds it's central fipure in a
young mining engineer Victor Ra-
kowsky. AS is not unusual in the
history of mining, the human interest
of the record is at least as impress
sive as the industrial result.
"Mr. Rakowsky was born in Min
nesota Duluth) in 1882 and graduated
from the Houghton College of Mines
in 1904. In the fall of 1909 he came
from Duluth to make an examination
of the Commerce Mining & Royalty
Company's property for A. M. CHS
holm.
AT that time, Commerce could be
described as an unimportant Zinc-min-
ing district linked in loose way with
the well known Joplin district; the
one was in northeastern Oklahoma
and the other in southwestern Mis-
souri,, the distance between them be-
ing "a miles.
"Mr. Rakowsky's examination Of
the group of small mines at Com
merce showed that three distinct ore
channels, or runs of ore, had been
developed at a depth of 100 feet. He
made careful survey and recognized
the parallelism of these runs which
might be described as lodes along
lines of fracture in beds Of ebert.
"The deal on which Mr.. Rakowsky
was asked to give an opinion involved
the. payment of $175,0O0 for half in
terest, 100000 of this to be used
for development and $4,000 to 60 to
the owners. Mr.. Rakowsky recon-
mended the deal to Mr.. Chisholm, but
financial conditions happened to be
bad that year, particularly in the tim
Der and iron trades, in which Mr..
Chisholm was heavily interested,
therefore the business was dropped
"Mr. Rakowsky kept in touch with
the owners Of the mines. In July,
1912, three years later, he obtained
an option on the same property for
| $1,250,000. By this time two more
runs of ore had been found and 16
mills were in operation on the prop
critics of the Commerce Mining &
Royalty Co! and its lessees.