The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-02-03
Prospector Finds
Lead Ore Mine In
Hills Of Colorado
Years Of Poverty and Hard
Work End When Rich
Strike Is Made.

:. KREMMLING, COLO. - II the
TEX Mcdaniel family ever should
need money in hurry, they can
60 down cellar with pick and dig
out enough rich lead and zinc ore to
meet the emergency.
The McDaniels knew years OF
poverty, hard work and disappoint-
ment before they found their rich
mine Ave years ago. The strike
meant SO much, after the long lean
years, that they built their log cabin
home right over the mine tunnel.
It's on top OF the world, where the
mine had put them.
In Ave years Walter {aTex') Mac
Daniel, his wife, Frances, and their
four children have taken out about
500, 900 worth Of ore, with little out
side help. They call the mine the
big four, for the four kids.
With money In the bank and more
where that came from, Mcdaniel
and his wife were ready to take
things easy. But they can't. The
War Production board wants to ex-
pand their unique family-size mine
into a three-shift 24-hour- a-day OPP
Grafton.
Winters Are Rough.
Because winter Is rough at the.
mine, high on the side Of Green
mountain, Mr. and Mrs. Mcdaniel
had quit working it for the season
and were settled for a quiet winter
in Kremmling, where their two
youngest, Mary, II. and John, is,
60 to high school.
The WPB man found them there.
He told them war factories must
have every bit OF lead and zinc that
can be produced.
So Mcdaniel and his Wife-who
works, herself, inside the mine in
pants, jacket and miners helmet,
are back at their cabin ready to
work harder and faster than ever
before.
The WPB is seeing to construction
Of an ore mill across the valley. It's
arranging for more machinery and
equipment. Mcdaniel has three
miners now, and he wants to hire 20
more.
Mary and John are disappointed
that they must stay In school and
can't be at the mine. They both
feel, says Mcdaniel, that they're
better than any hired miners.
The older boys, Joseph, Il, and
James, 10, are going to Colorado
school Of mines at Golden. Joseph,
q sophomore, is going into the army
air force. James is q freshman.
They Studied Well.
The McDaniels came from Texas
to Colorado in 1927 and homestead
ed north Of Kremmling. They found
ore outcroppings, and spent some Of
their small savings to have the sam
pies assayed.
I'VE spent $4,000 trying to develop
a mine there before we discovered
the assays we'd had made were no
good" Mcdaniel says.
$50 we decided we would have to
make assays ourselves. We got
books and studied"
They studied we'll. They learned
geology and metallurgy. They went
out to Green Mountain, 16 miles
south Of Kremmling and there, in
an area passed over by mining geol-
ogists as worthless, they uncovered
the big four veins.
Before they found the mine, the
McDaniels lived in a dugout home
below Green mountain. They were
too poor for their children to 60 to
school. Mrs. Mcdaniel, a Texas
school teacher before her marriage,
was their instructor.
Two years ago they built their
| present home. It's sturdy log
cabin, with white-enameled kitchen
and trim furnishings, clinging to the
side OF precipitous cliff.
Mrs. Mcdaniel, Womanly house
keeper if she does wear a miner
clothes and can work like one, prob
ably had big hand in the decision
to build the home right over thu
mine. She mothers 1t Like she does
her family.
TITS my life," she says, matter
of-factly. II wouldn't be happy II
didn't keep my sye On The mine md
J the work inaide.''