Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1921-12-22

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Mile Stone, Pennington and Iron
Mountain.
Over this road for years there pass
ed innumerable wagons loaded with
ore, The loaded wagon had the right
of way and empty conveyances were
compelled to give way.
The Plank Road finally disappeared
and today there is no trace of it, the
original hard surface highway in Mis-
souri,. All the lumber laid more than
sixty years ago, has gone, but the last
toll gate did not disappear until 1903
when the county bought the final
strip of right -of-way.
The construction of this road gives
some idea of the business and in
dustry which once thrived at Iron
Mountain. Today the town is but a
shadow of its once busy and growing
self.
The tract of land formerly owned
by the Iron Mountain Company con-
sists of Is, 900 acres, some of it tillable
while much of it is billy and noun
tainous. In the last twenty years it
has changed hands repeatedly.
Mining was carried on differently
then. The company surface mined,
quarry mined and tunneled. The
mountain has big cuts, gigantic quar-
ries, some 300 feet deep. One look
ing into these great gulches cannot
but wonder of the immense amount of
labor that must have been expended
and the thousands oftons of ore haul
ed by teams forty-two miles to Ste.
Genevieve, to be shipped by barge
down the river.
| A mile from the mountain, dam
was thrown across Indian Greek.
The back water covers more than 300
acres. Its depth varies from the
shallow to 20 and 80 feet. On the
shore and near the stone spillway,
the company built pump house
| which forced water to the top of q
high hill. From here the water was
piped down to Iron Mountain and to
the mines. Huge streams of water
were turned on the side of the hills
and the clay and mud washed from
the surface ore. 1t was hydraulic
mining, the same as was used in the
west.
Then great quarries were made and
the ore blasted out. There are three
of these cuts and one may go to the
edge before the great depth is seen.
The walls are very abrupt and sheer
and at the bottom is water 80 to 40
feet deep.
Today there are approximately 100
men employed. A few years ago,
there we're even fewer than that
number, the mining activities almost
coming to standstill. There are a
few shafts and the company buys sur
face ore picked up by individuals.
The cause of the downfall of mining
at Iron Mountain was the discovery
that Iron ore could be mined in
Michigan with a steam shovel and
since the eighties Iron Mountain has
dwindled and died.
Scattered over that big red hill,
SCARED and gashed by men seeking
the wealth, are wrecks and ruins of a
great industry. Here is the crumbl-
ing base of shaft, here an iron rail
sticks out and over the entire hill
great six and ten-inch water mains
run like veins. Just one or two shafts
and three or four signs of industry
where once a mountain teemed with
men-and the story ends.
But not quite. Down in the little
valley and at the base of this hill, are
a few buildings. Once it was a thriv-
ing town, happy people, busy merch-
ants, indust rious people-then the
blow fell, the town became deserted,
homes fell into decay and were burn
ed. Today it is but a small mark on
the map. A large frame building,
the company Office, and one or two
stores, and the tale is told. Iron
Mountain, fourishing and thriving
fifty years ago, unless some stimulus
comes to industry, is to be remember
ed. It's days of glory have fed.
In commenting on a recent redis-
trictiuo of Missouri and the formation