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Show UTAH THRIVES . ON TINTIC MINERAL DISCOVERIES I ' ' - -'-"t -,' , f - .. - T -S a t. j. - - JJi- - i ay I. E. DIEHL CHIEF TIXTIC, a renegade Goshute In.lian, was the West's first billionaire, though he did not live to know It. He and his fullowers pitched their tepees on the slope of what is now Eureka gulch, 55 miles south of Salt Lake City, and claimed all the land lying between Utah lake and the desert to the west. Then, and for ten years after Tintic's d'..h In 1859, the claim was unlLpuied. Flnnlly whilj ..'.en discovi'ivd mineral on the land an I a new form of title can: j into eiYoct. Slowly the mineral showings were expanded. Demonstrations of rich silver-lead and gold mines occurred oc-curred periodically for sixty years, bringing into existence villages, towns and cities in place of tepees, and peopling the district with progressive pro-gressive white mine-owners and workers in place of the nomadic Goshutes. A cowboy and a horse found the first mineral. The animal's hoofs dislodged a specimen of ore and the rider, George Rust, took the piece home to Payson. Although It was winter, five of Rust's neighbors neigh-bors went scouting and located the first claim the Sunbeam simultaneously simul-taneously organizing a mining district, dis-trict, on December 13, 1869. The claimants were S. B. Moore, William Wil-liam Harris, Joseph Hyde, S. T. Worsley, E. M. Beck, Moroni Bill-ingsley Bill-ingsley and I.. T. Whitney. Other claims were staked and during the spring of 1S70 production produc-tion started. Shipping ore was expensive business. Teamsters charged $25 per ton for hauling to the Southern Pacific, the nearest railroad. Numerous attempts at local concentration were made, the first two being at Diamond and Homansville in 1S71. More than 25 mills and furnaces were erected within the next few years, but complexity com-plexity of the ores, scarcity of water wa-ter and crudeness of equipment hampered their operation. The failures were a foretaste of difficulties to be encountered ii one form and another in subsequent subse-quent years sufficient to defeat all but the hardiest and most determined deter-mined of the metal-seekers. The winners stand out conspicuously in the history of the state. Samuel and William Mclntyre traded cattle for a major interest in a prospect called the Mammoth. The mine is credited with a production pro-duction of four million dollars and is even now paying dividends to their grandchildren. John Beck, after losing one fortune, acquired by perservering labor on the Bullion-Beck, made another, lost it. and died a poor man. Col. E. C. Loose, by sinking a 700-foot shaft and spending $125,000, opened the Grand Central, from which $2.175.-1 271 was taken. John Q. Packard, John F. Wood-; man, William Hatfield and John McCrystal were among the early arrivals at the new camp whose ventures in unpvoven ground resulted re-sulted in the production of great wealth and the organization of important companies. The Cen-tennial-Eureka formed by Woodman Wood-man and W. W. Chisiiolm, is credited with the shipment of one car of ore woih $200,000 and net earnings of more than $15,000,000. Nature, however, reserved some of her richest prizej for later comers. Several of the greatest mines of Tintic were developed in the 'nineties and as late as 1915. Jesse Knight, elderly and In straitened circumstances, persisted in developing a location known as the "Humbug". After a heartbreaking heartbreak-ing struggle he drove his tunnel Into a rich ore body. Provided with funds, Knight opened mine after mine in Kast Tintic. His new fortune was devoted to enterprises which employed hundreds of men and added to the industries of Utah. He built a town and smelter, smelt-er, developed coal mines, financed factories and started a great tunnel tun-nel and irrigation project at Tintic. Walter Fitch, coming from Michigan, solved a geological problem prob-lem brought a new area into production pro-duction and gave the Chief Con- solidated a profit of nearly seven million, most of which has been reinvested in property and improvements. im-provements. E. J. Kaildatz, going miles east of the recognizei mineral area of Tintic, sank HMO feet and made the Tintic Standard one of the largest silver-lead shippers and biggest employers of Utah. More than SO minerals have been identified at Tintic. In 05 years, to 1!K!5, $343,54 1,997 was realized for the nonferrous metals. They included 231.510,158 ounces of silver, 850,000 tons of lead, 2,226,858 ounces of gold, 110,000 tons of copper and 15,000 tons of zinc. Returns Re-turns for iron, bismuth, manganese, antimony, silica, limestone, etc., bring the grand total value to about $41)0.000.000. This money, on its travels, has fed and clothed miners and smelter-men, erected homes and skyscrapers, endowed libraries, hospitals and churches, financed fanning and manufacturing industries, indus-tries, supported hade, paid taxes, and It still moves tirelessly on, repeating the cycle. Tintic has worked out its near-surface near-surface ore. It must now depend on deposits lying 1000 to 2500 feet deep, the recovery of which Involves In-volves the risk of hu'ger capital, intelligent use of scientific equipment equip-ment and large Investments in exploration. |