EIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS OF SMELTER OPERATIONS IN MURRAY, UTAH, MERCUR, UTAH, AND ANACONDA, MONTANA, MADE IN 19O2 AND 1903. Silver gelatin prints

(Utah and Montana; Murray, Utah; Mercur, Utah; Anaconda, Montana; Mines and Mining). Unidentified Photographer

Verlag: 1902-1903, N.p. [Butte, Montana?], 1903

Beschreibung

Eight photographs, each approximately 12x9 cm (4 3/4 x 3.5 inches), on dark gray mounts, each with handwritten identification on the verso. A series of pictures taken during the winters of 1902 and 1903 during visits to western mineral processing operations by the Metallurgy Class of the Montana School of Mines. The pictures taken in Murray show the infrastructure of the American Lead, Smelting & Refining Co. "Opening in 1900 as the Montana State School of Mines, Montana Tech's funding and land came from the Enabling Act of 1889, which admitted Montana to the Union and allocated 100,000 acres of public land to establish a state school of mines" (Wikipedia). Murray was an agricultural area until 1869 "when a body of ore was found in Park City, Utah, and additional ore deposits were found in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Because of South Cottonwood's (later Murray's) central location and access to the railroad, the first smelter was built there in 1870 and over the next 30 years Murray became home to some of the largest smelters of gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc in the region . Murray's central location in Salt Lake Valley made it a convenient location for industry. Construction of the Woodhill Brothers' smelter in 1869 initiated Murray's industrial history. In 1870, Murray produced the first silver bars smelted in Utah. In 1899, American Smelting & Refining Company (ASARCO) was organized by combining the Germania and Hanauer smelters. The smelters continued to dominate the local economy until the close of the ASARCO lead smelter in 1949. Business and commercial enterprise prospered along with the smelter industry. Murray's industry would later include a water plant, lighting system, canning factory, flour mills, and brickyards" (Wikipedia). "Mercur is a historical hard rock mining ghost town in Tooele County, Utah. In 1891, it became the site of the first successful use of the cyanide process of gold extraction in the United States, the dominant metallurgy today. The town first came into being in 1870 as Lewiston . when gold was discovered at the head of the Lewiston Canyon, six miles west of present-day Cedar Fort. A small gold rush began, peaking about 1873; the population reached as high as 2000. During the mid-1870s, silver boomed, and silver mines were opened and quartz mills to process the ore were built. A million dollars worth of silver bullion was shipped down the valley, but the ore quickly gave out, and Lewiston became a ghost town by 1880" (Wikipedia). "Anaconda was founded by Marcus Daly, one of the Copper Kings, who financed the construction of the Anaconda smelter on nearby Warm Springs Creek to process copper ore from the Butte mines. The Anaconda Company expanded smelting capacity over time; by 1919 the Washoe Reduction Works could boast that its 585-foot smokestack was the tallest masonry structure in the world and that the smelter-refining complex constituted the world's largest nonferrous processing plant . In 1980, Atlantic Richfield Company closed the smelter, bringing an end to almost a century of mineral processing" (Wikipedia). At the beginning of the twentieth century this would have been the "grand tour" of ore processing in the western states. Mounts worn at edges, just a bit of silvering to the edges of some images, very good. (167120).

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 167120

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: EIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS OF SMELTER OPERATIONS IN MURRAY, UTAH, MERCUR, UTAH, AND ANACONDA, MONTANA, MADE IN 19O2 AND 1903. Silver gelatin prints
• Verlag: 1902-1903, N.p. [Butte, Montana?]
• Erscheinungsjahr: 1903