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Show The History of Mining in Utah ,f , '." . P''v ' n. , .-'"I E ' s . . - - J L : - -' I From small beginning, Utah Copper division of Kennecott rose to one of state's large industries. (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the sixth of a series of eitrht articles on the hisl'ory of the metal mining industry in Utah.) After the original locations in 1863, Bingham Canyon was the scene of more or less profitable mining. Siliceous gold ore and silver bearing lead ores were sought in the early days. Until 1900, Bingham remained essentially essential-ly a lead-silver mining camp. Smelters had been built at Murray and Bingham Junction, now Mid-vale, Mid-vale, near the Jordan river, 12 miles below Bingham, and a substantial sub-stantial portion of the intake of these plants came from between 15 or 20 comparatively small mines in Bingham Canyon. All operations opera-tions were underground mining and there was nothing visible to intimate that within a few years Bingham was to be the theater of the biggest mining excavation measured in cubic yards of material ma-terial moved in the world. In 1887 E. A. Wall a miner, trader who had roamed pretty much all of the west, visited Bingham Bing-ham Canyon. He noted the usual green stains of copper mineralization mineraliza-tion and made detailed examination of several openings. He found that locations on much of the ground had lapsed and he immediately immedi-ately filed upon a number of them. During the succeeding 10 years Wall added to his holdings and financed considerable development, which proved the presence of a great mass of low grade ore. In the nineties D. C. Jackling recognized recog-nized the possibi1 itles of mass production pro-duction of the low grade property. He acquired Wall's property after considerable difficulty and finally succeeded in launching the Utah Copper mine in 11103. After the eaerly discoveries at Bingham, interest in Utah's resources re-sources spread rapidly a.nd attracted at-tracted attention of veterans from the Mother Lode in California and the Comptock in Nevada. Development Develop-ment of Alta, Stockton, Camf Floyd, Dry Canyon, Park--City Frisco and Euieka followed ir rapid sutcc-ssion. (The seventh article ar-ticle in this Paries will appear sook in these columns.) |