Show biography of leading mining men NUMBER FIVE T BY WILL C HIGGINS I 1 captain B W tibby of salt lake was a white headed ruddy faced youth when he landed in the united states of america more than fifty years ago he is white headed now and his countenance nas the coloring of a california peach after it has been caressed by the sun and kissed by the dew and while he is not as spry on his feet as he was some years before he began to be called grandpa he is still a sturdy and rugged specimen of the western mining man and more he knows more about ores formations and the proper combination of rocks for the existence of great bodies of ore than he did when he first set foot on the shores of this great and glorious country and this accounts for the high esteem in which he is held by a big coterie of the bests leading mining men and for the fact that his name is held in reverence and respect from the treeless mountains of butte the greatest copper camp on earth to the land of the Monte where a white man is often looked upon as a god and where to this day candles are burned and sacrifices made and offered to the memory of the captain for he was a great dope while engaged in mining in that country where he made fortunes for his eastern clien telle and a reputation as a successful expert which still clings to him like a sick kitten to a hot brick although in his extreme modesty he asserts that what he has accomplished is hardly worth talking about for a number of years captain tibby was identified with the coal industry of pennsylvania his early associates in this pursuit being a pair of texas mules which were heavy on the bit and extremely active with their hind feet with these he made a hit and when he became a complete master of these hybrids and of conditions surrounding him he made a hit with the foreman also and was promoted to positions of more responsibility and less danger from this time on the captain began to see light ahead but it was always the golden hue of the setting sun and by the time he had graduated at the head of his class in all matters pertaining to coal and coal mining he began to have a persistent itching about his person which noted physicians declared was the first symptoms of a malignant attack of mining fever extreme remedies were tried to eradicate the disease he bought an interest in a gold brick which an indian was reported to have found near the remains of a prospector who had perished on the burning sands of death valley he accumulated a trunk full of mining shares at two cents per which were guaranteed to pay dollar dividends within a period of six weeks and he even went so far as to purchase a salted mine still the fever clung to him then he came west it would be a difficult thing in the limited space of this article to record all of the experiences of the captain in the mining camps of this intermountain region but he brought all of his energy his indomitable perseverance with him the same bulldog bull dog tenacity with which he conquered the mules in the pennsylvania coal mines and more he still had the same insatiable thirst for practical knowledge which had made him such a favorite with the first foreman under whom he had served in his earlier days one day he landed in montana and soon found employment in one of the rich copper producers of that camp but 60 ea f A aj af t Z capt benj W tibby it soon became noised about that he be was no common pick and shovel miner for he used his brains as well as his hands he soon discovered the difference between ore and country rock but the latter possessed more interest for him than the former for he wanted to know why ore should exist in the formation characteristic of that region and so he studied the rock he inspected it closely while in place in the drift and examined it more carefully when it had been thrown over the dump he noted its physical condition near the surface and the changes occurring with depth the leaching of values at the grassroots grass roots together with the secondary enrichment in the lower levels became such a profound study with him that he forgot to go home for his meals and could hardly remember whether young tibby jr was a boy or a girl in short the captain had become an accepted authority on butte formation by this time and old heads beads young heads and tenderfeet tender feet with money to put into mining investments mine owners with unprofitable properties on their hands began to sek his advice and assistance for seventeen years he was with the parrott mining company as superintendent and consulting engineer and it was largely through his knowledge of the mineralogy of that section that the company has since paid out in dividends from butte the captain was sent into mexico where his deep knowledge of mining affairs and his appreciation of pretty senor lettas soon made him an universal favorite and he was feted and honored by highborn high born and self until it was feared that his hot blood would get the better of his good common sense but he survived the ordeal which was more trying than mucking in a butte mine on the 2500 level with the thermometer registering in the shade and he returned to his friends unscathed in reputation and w with ith a complexion more than ever suggestive sug cestive of peaches and cream it was about this time that the mascott copper company with T N mccauley in charge began the initial work in the development of its great mining enterprise at DOS cabales in cochise county arizona and the whole pinkerton force was sent out in search of a mining engineer whose qualifications justified his employment in the management al of this huge affair records were scanned and were sought for from hammond up to the head of the U S geological survey the choice falling like the mantle of elijah on to elisha on the broad and sturdy shoulders of captain tibby would the captain accept of the position he would subject to a preliminary examination this he made in due time at this period the company was mining near the surface and taking out large quantities of high grade black oxide and copper glance ore As a matter of fact the company was up in the clouds singing its song of triumph in high C when the captain appeared on the scene he disliked to dampen the ardor of the management but he brought the company back to earth when he said to hell with your oxides your copper glance and your surface development your big mine is down in the sulphides sulp hides your enormous zones of secondary enrichment exists at depth one can generally lead the captain by a silken thread so genial tender and loving is his nature but in this instance he was like a bull in a china shop the management who thought he was nursing a good thing retired to the privacy of his room and mourned like moses mo ses when he was leading the children of israel out of captivity in the end however he gave in and the captain far down the hill began his underground der ground workings when in a distance of feet his tunnel cut a body of sul aphides which was thirty feet in width the entire mass being of commercial value from wall to wall seventy five feet further on another ore body twenty five feet between walls was cut and this also disclosed the correctness of the captains theory regarding secondary enrichment this was two years ago but the captain looks loohs ten years younger for since then he has uncovered several more immense depos deposits ts of grand copper ore and he states that the end is not yet and he is not at all modest in his assertion that in the mascot the mining industry will in time find its greatest copper producer captain tibby is not at all puff puffed ed up over the magnificent successes which have crowned his efforts in the mining line he i is as gentle as a dove and as affable as president taft he is inclined to underrate his own splendid achievements and yet an hour in his company is an education in itself and a pleasure which his friends look forward to with keenest anticipation |