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Show I' GLIMPSE OF OLD CORINNE AS PRESENTED BY ONE OF PIONEERS ! Geo. F. Brown Recalls Interesting Events of the One-Time 1 ' Metropolis of Utah, When a Regular Steamship Line Was i Established Between Corinne and Garfield on Great Salt Lake and Bear River Was Navigated ' People Later Moved to Ogden Smelter Built at Corinne Why It Failed $1,200 For a Single Tune on ' ' the Fourth of July. Ii ( Remarkable courage and enterprise 1 was evinced by the early settlers ot ,Utah In the manner In. which they undertook to develop little known re-, re-, jBOurces with almost total lack of fa-icilities, fa-icilities, 1b the opinion of George F. , Brown, now of Oakland, Cal., who is i in Ogden again on business and pleasure for a few weeks. Mr. Brown also calls attention to vast improvements improve-ments in smelting methods over those which wero the cause of heavy loss-J loss-J i8 of metals in the operations of the Jpioneers. Mr. Brown, who waB an early teleg Tapher on the Overland route, recalls fthe oarly shipments of high-grade voro from the "Washoe (Nevada) mine, (just northwest of Virginia City, that was hauled by ox teams to Yuma, fArlz., and from thence shipped via jCape Horn to Swansea, Wales, for (smelting. That was before the discovery dis-covery of the "famous Comstock Lode. Somewhat later, ore from Tecoma, Nev., (near Montello), was shipped 1 to the Selby smelter at Port Costa, Cal. Small smelters were built also lat Stockton, Corinne, and Ogden, the i fatter being located near the present ' Islte ,of Pierce's canning factory The tsmelting furnaces were crudely constructed con-structed in the shape of foundry Cupolas, the ore coke being cast in in lalternate layers. The flames shot out !of the opening at the top, and a large pencentage of the metal was lost In i vapor, and this loss made the busi- I ness profitless. In the case of the fOgden smelter a leak occurred unobserved unob-served in the bottom of the furnace, 'and years after it ceased operations, discovery was made in plowing in rthe ruins of about two tons of bullion which had leaked and become covered cov-ered by the soil. High grade hematite was brought from Rawlins, Wyo., for us in fluxing. flux-ing. Navigation of the Lake. Upon the completion of the Union Pacific-Central Pacific line, and before be-fore the construction of the Utah Central connecting these with Salt Lake City, the plan was conceived of making the connection by water. Fox Dierfendorf, who had hud experience in water transportation, designed a boat with a stern wheel of the river craft style, 135 feet long, which cost something like $65,000 or 67.000, the greater part of which was advanced by the builder. The material was fashioned at Sacramento, shipped to Corinne, by rail, put together there, and launched into Bear river with much celebration. Jeter Clinton, an early mayor of Salt Lake City, bad built a summer home just west of Garfield, and here at a" big rock it was planned to effect a landing, at which (Ore from Stockton would be loaded for transportation to the Corinne Cor-inne smelter, and passengers from Salt Lake City for the railway or stage lines out of Corinne. As might be expected, the launching launch-ing of the "City ot Corinne" was the signal for a gala day. The maiden voyage Was in the nature of an excursion excur-sion round Promontory Point, on which the contributors to the enterprise enter-prise and their families were given a free ride. Nearly the whole town Joined the party, including the publishers pub-lishers of the Corinne Daily Reporter, Messrs. Huyck and Wilson, and the editor, J. H. Beadle, who afterward wrote a history of Utah. In the ab- eencc of the newspaper force, some practical jokers collected all in town who thought they could set type, and got out an edition which must have rivaled the "Elks' Booster." In It was a thrilling nccount of the wreck of the steamship with the usual Incidents Inci-dents of heroism and suffering. The excursionists wero met at the wharf with copies of the papor tolling of their hair-breadth escape or drowning. The next clay tho ship steamed for Clinton, passing on the west of Antelope An-telope or Church Island, and Mr. Brown asserts that ho never saw a more charming sight than that of the lake from tho boat on that day. One trouble with the boat was that It was too largo Tor the depth ot water, and not only was it prevented from going near the shore, but on account of its length it was with difficulty that the g ten miles of crooked course of the Bear rivor was traversed on tho way" to the lako, or that the rpid current was overcome on the war back to I Corinne. A day was taken to cross the lake either way. J It is Interesting to note that Pres- I "ident Garfield visited Salt Lake City I and bathed in tho lake, and from a this incident the boat which was 1 moored thore and the resort wero i given their names. The "City of Corinne" was equipped equip-ped with a band and a ball was usually usu-ally given in the cabin in the evening. even-ing. Tho reraaliiB of the boat, which are relatively well preserved by the briny lako water considering the four decades of sun and wave, can be seen 1 in the edge of the water near Gar- I field. & Corinne was then a city of 4000, i and had expectations of being the H permanent junction of tho two great 1 railways. Prices were high, lumber H $165 a thousand; doors, ?C5 apiece; a and 125 a month rent was paid for m the telegraph office, a one-room adobe H structure with a lean-to about ten I feet square. u Enterprise was not lacking, how- I ever, and a Methodist minister who solicited funds for the construction I of a church obtained, it was said, 20,- I 000, yhlc as much as $1200 was ex- I ponded for a single tune to enliven a 3 Fourth of July celebration. It hap- ! pened in this way: Corrine had no band and was too proud to borrow . from its neighbors. As July 4th ap- proached the lack of a band to lead f the Indispensable parade became I more and more apparent. Finally the H business men threw in $1200. instru- ments were got by express, and a band 9 of tyro musicians were hastily drilled fl by the two or three who knew some- I thing about band music. This was y late in June. As a result, the band was able on Independence day to play j one piece, which, it must bo confess- ed, became noticeably familiar before a the close of the day. W Successful Mining in Utah. m The noticeable advance in mining H in Utah, and corresponding growth of I Salt Lako City, seems to date from I the opening of the Emma mine near a the present town of Alta. This was before the rich discoveries at Park C City and in the Tintic district About I this time the Germania smelter was I built at Murray by German capital, I of which Billings was the representa-I representa-I tive. This was built scientifically, a with a condenser from the top of the 1 furnaces which saved the valuable m metals which had hitherto been lost 1 Some of the coke for early smelting f in Utah was brought from Wales via j 1 Cape Horn by the ship load nad I S large quantities of charcoal were pro- I 3 duced by George W. Carlton in some 0 twenty large .stone charcoal pits about 15 miles southeast of Evanston, 1 Wyo. I Lodgepole pine cordwood was I brought down from the mountains, I now included in the Uinta natibnal 0 forest by an extensive, line of flames. 1 The length of this transportation sys tern was 2SN miles. Different tribu-s tribu-s taries of Bear river supplied the wa-; wa-; ter, which was readily accessible for "feeders" at many points along the a flumes. Today the different brancli- Ies of the system may be located by the old cutting areas, many of wliich are fairly well stocked with young lodgepole trees in spite of the slashing slash-ing methods of the old cutters. While coal and coke have driven charcoal almost completely out of the smelting and forging works, there Is still a fair market for the charred N wood for sanitary purposes, for the manufacture of certain kinds of iron and steel, and for many minor uses, such as tests in assaying and for charcoal drawings. Most of the char- !coal used nowdays is a by-product of wood distillation, by which process tho volatile parts of the wood, formerly for-merly a total loss, are saved for refinement re-finement into wood-tar, turpentine, iwood alcohol, pyrolyneuos acid and various oils, depending on the species of wood employed. oo |