Scenes and Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas Part 15

On this head, it is very difficult to procure proper information. The desultory manner in which the mines have been wrought, and the imperfect method in which accounts have been kept, when kept at all, with other circ.u.mstances, which are in some measure incidental to the operations of mining in a new country, oppose so many obstacles in the way of obtaining the desired information, that I find it impossible to present a correct statement, from authentic sources, of the annual product of the mines for any series of years. When Louisiana was first occupied by the United States, Mine a Burton and Mine La Motte were the princ.i.p.al mines wrought; but the few Americans who had emigrated into the territory, under the Spanish government, were fully aware of the advantages to be derived from the smelting of lead, and, united to the emigrant population which shortly succeeded, made many new discoveries, and the business was prosecuted with increased vigor, and to a much greater extent. The interior parts of the country, and such as had before been deemed dangerous on account of the Indians, were now eagerly explored; and the fortunate discovery of several immense bodies of ore near the surface of the ground, whereby the discoverers enriched themselves by a few days' labor, had a tendency greatly to increase the fame of the mines, and the number of miners. But, as generally happens in new countries, among the number of emigrants were several desperate adventurers, and men of the most abandoned character. Hence, the mines soon became the scene of every disorder, depravity, and crime, and a common rendezvous for renegadoes of all parts. It is by such persons that many of the mines were discovered, and several of them wrought; and it is, therefore, no subject of surprise, that, on inquiry, no accounts of the quant.i.ty of lead made, and the number of hands employed, are to be found.

To secure the public interest, and remedy, in some degree, the irregularities practised at the mines, a law was pa.s.sed in Congress, a few years after the cession of Louisiana, reserving all lead-mines, salt-springs, &c., which should be discovered on the public lands, subsequent to that period; and the Governor of the Territory was, at the same time, authorized to grant leases to discoverers for three years.

The great defect of that law appears always to have been, that a specific agent was not at the same time authorized to be appointed for the general superintendence, inspection, and management of mines--an office which, from its nature, can never be properly incorporated with that of the territorial executive, and which, with every inclination, it is presumed his other avocations would prevent him from discharging either with usefulness to the public, or satisfaction to himself. But, whatever be the defect of the law, certainly the advantages which the government proposed to derive from it have not accrued. No revenue, it is understood, has yet been realized under it, and we are now as much at a loss how to arrive at a true statement of the mineral product of Missouri, as if the mines had never been a subject of governmental legislation.

When a discovery of lead has been made, the miners from the neighboring country have flocked to it, and commenced digging as usual, no one troubling himself about a lease; and thus the provisions of the act have been in a great measure disregarded. Men of respectability, and of sufficient capital to carry on mining in a systematic manner, have, it is believed, been frequently deterred from making applications for leases, from the short period for which only they can be granted. It would not warrant the expense of sinking shafts, erecting permanent furnaces, galleries, and other works necessary for prosecuting the business to advantage; for, no sooner would such works be erected, and the mines begin to be effectually wrought, than the expiration of the lease would throw them into the hands of some more successful applicant.

But, although we have no data to form an authenticated schedule of the annual product of the mines for any required number of years, there is something to be obtained by collecting and comparing facts, detached and scanty as they are. Something also is to be acquired by consulting the books which have been kept of late years in the warehouses on the Mississippi, where the lead is sent for exportation, and some information is also to be gleaned from various other sources. It is from information thus obtained that I proceed to an enumeration of the products of the different mines, and the number of persons to whom they furnish employment and support, satisfied, at the same time, that although the information may not be all that could be desired, yet it is all which, without the most extraordinary exertions, could be obtained.

The amount of crude ore delivered at the furnaces of Mine s.h.i.+bboleth, during one of its most productive years (1811), was something rising of 5,000,000 of pounds. The ore of this mine is estimated to yield, in the large way, from 60 to 70 per cent., reckoned at 62, which is probably a fair average. The product of the mine in 1811 was 3,125,000 pounds. s.h.i.+bboleth is, however, one of the richest mines in the Territory, and this is the product of one of those years in which it was most profitably worked. It was then a new discovery, vast bodies of ore were found near the surface, and the number of miners drawn together by the fame of its riches was uncommonly great. It has since declined, although the ore is still constantly found; and I am informed by Colonel Smith, the present proprietor, that the product this year (1819) will be about one million of pounds.

The number of persons employed in digging lead at Mine a Burton has been constantly lessening for the last four or five years; and this celebrated mine, which has been worked without interruption for more than forty years, and is stated to have yielded as high as three millions per annum, is manifestly in a state of decline. During the last summer (1818), the greater part of which I resided at that place, there were not more than thirty miners employed; and the total product of the different pits, shafts, and diggings, composing this mine, did not exceed half a million of pounds. Of this quant.i.ty, Messrs. Samuel Perry & Co. were the manufacturers of about 300,000 lbs. They contemplate realizing an increased quant.i.ty during the present year. John Rice Jones, Esq., is also engaged in penetrating the rock in search of ore, with the most flattering prospects, and is determined, as he informs me, to sink through the upper stratum of limestone, and ascertain the character of the succeeding formations. It is highly probable, reasoning from geognostic relations, that the lower formations will prove metalliferous, yielding both lead and copper; a discovery which would form a new era in the history of those mines. The present mode of promiscuous digging on the surface would then be abandoned, and people made to see and to realize the advantages of the only system of mining which can be permanently, uniformly, and successfully pursued, viz., by penetrating into the bowels of the earth.

Several other persons of intelligence and capital are also engaged in mining at this place, and it is probable that the total amount of lead manufactured at this mine during the year 1819 will fall little short of one million of pounds.

It is not to be inferred, however, that because the number of miners at Potosi has decreased, the mines are exhausted. On the contrary, there is reason to conclude, as already mentioned, that the princ.i.p.al bodies of ore have not yet been discovered, and that it is destined to become the seat of the most extensive and important mining operations. The ore heretofore raised at these mines has been chiefly found in the stratum of earth which forms the surface of that country, and is bottomed on the limestone. This stratum consists of a stiff red clay, pa.s.sing in some places into marl, and in others partaking more of the silicious character forming a loam, and imbedding the ores of lead, accompanied by the various mineralogical species before mentioned. These minerals are often of a very attractive character for cabinets.

The depth of this soil is sometimes thirty feet; and in this the diggings have been chiefly done, requiring no other machinery than is used in well-digging; and the stratum of rock has generally put a stop to the progress of the miner, although veins of ore penetrating it have often invited him in the pursuit. But it requires different tools, machinery, and works, for mining in rock; the process is also more tedious and expensive, and is considered especially so by those who have been accustomed from their youth to find bodies of ore by a few days'

digging in the earth, and who, if they should work a fortnight at one place, and not fall upon a bed of ore, would go away quite disheartened.

The princ.i.p.al search has therefore been made in the sub-stratum of clay, where large bodies of ore are sometimes found by a day's, and sometimes by an hour's work. Hence, in the neighborhood of Potosi, the ground has been pretty well explored, and more search and labor is required to find it than in other and more distant places, where new mines continue annually to be discovered. But, with the exception of Austin's shaft, who sunk eighty feet, and the mines opened by Jones, the rock at this mine remains unpenetrated. Austin found large quant.i.ties of ore filling crevices in the rock, and the appearances were flattering when the last work was done. In sinking down, a change in the rock was experienced, pa.s.sing from compact solid gray limestone, by several gradations, into a loose granulated limestone, very friable, and easily reduced to grains.

This stone was in some instances completely disintegrated, forming a calcareous sand; and the most compact bodies of it, on a few weeks'

exposure at the mouth of the shaft, fall into grains. These grains are, however, wholly calcareous, and readily soluble in nitric and muriatic acids. The portion which I submitted to experiment was taken up completely, nor was any sediment deposited by many months' standing. On going deeper, the rock again graduated into a compact limestone, very hard, and of a bluish-gray color, in which were frequently found small cavities studded over with minute pyramids of limpid quartz. These variations in the structure of the earth and rock in that place, are still observable by the stones, spars, and other minerals, lying around the mouths of the mines; and, upon the whole, the appearances are such as to justify a conclusion that the lower strata of rocks at Potosi, and the numerous mines in its vicinity, are of a highly metalliferous character, and such as to warrant the expenditures incident to a search.

From a statement lately drawn up, and certified by the proprietors of warehouses at Herculaneum, it appears that the total quant.i.ty of pig and bar lead, and shot, exported from that place, from January 1, 1817, to June 1, 1818, a period of eighteen months, was 3,194,249 pounds.

Herculaneum may be considered the depot for the lead of Mine s.h.i.+bboleth, Richwoods, Bellefontaine, a portion of the lead of Mine a Burton and Potosi, and a few other mines in that neighbourhood. Perhaps nearly or quite half of the whole quant.i.ty of lead yearly smelted at the Missouri mines, is s.h.i.+pped from this place. Here then is an average product of 2,395,667 pounds per annum, for the years 1817 and 1818, from those mines which send their lead to Herculaneum.

a.s.suming the ground that these mines produce only half of what is annually made at the whole number of mines, which I conclude may be a true estimate, we shall arrive at the conclusion, that the annual product of the Missouri mines for those years was four millions, seven hundred and ninety-one thousand, three hundred and thirty-four pounds.

This, estimated at the present price of four cents per pound, gives us a sum of one hundred and ninety-one thousand, six hundred and fifty-three dollars. This is the produce of one year; and supposing the mines to have produced the same average quant.i.ty during every year since they have been in possession of the United States, we have a sum of three millions, sixty-six thousand, four hundred and forty-eight dollars; which is more than the original cost of Louisiana, as purchased from France during the administration of President Jefferson. Let those who have any doubts of the value of our mines, reflect upon this, and consider that it was the product of a year when the mines were in a manifest state of decline, and wrought wholly by individuals, with a foreign compet.i.tion to oppose, and without the benefits resulting from a systematic organization of the mining interest.

Nearly all the lead smelted at the Missouri mines is transported in carts and wagons from the interior to St. Genevieve and Herculaneum. As it must necessarily be deposited for storage at those places, it was naturally expected that authentic accounts of the lead manufactured in the Territory for many years, might be obtained on application. But in this, I experienced some degree of disappointment. At St. Genevieve, although a warehouse has been kept at the landing for many years, the lead sent to town has not all been stored. From the earliest time, and before the establishment of a warehouse by Mr. Janies, the French inhabitants of St. Genevieve had all been more or less engaged in the storage, purchase, and traffic of lead. Every dwelling-house thus became a storehouse for lead, and, in these cases, no regular accounts were kept of the quant.i.ties received or delivered. The same practice has, in some measure, continued since, so that it is impossible to obtain, with any precision, the amount s.h.i.+pped from this place. At Herculaneum, a warehouse has been kept since the year 1816; and on application to Mr.

Elias Bates, the proprietor, he was so obliging as to allow me permission to peruse his book of receipts, for the purpose of making extracts. The following details embrace the receipts of lead at that place for a period of two years and eleven months, ending May 18, 1819.

I. _A Series of Receipts, from June 16, 1816, to December 31 of the same year, being a period of six months and fourteen days._

Fol. 1. Aggregate of receipts 52,781 lbs.

2. 57,097 3. 55,039 4. 58,892 5. 50,639 6. 63,787 7. 55,663 8. 47,287 -------- Aggregate of separate individual acc'ts during same period. 322,134 -------- Total. 763,319

II. _A Series of Receipts from 31st Dec. 1816, to 31st Dec. 1817._

Fol. 1. Aggregate of receipts. 12,375 lbs.

2. 51,521 3. 49,023 4. 60,576 5. 54,242 6. 47,321 7. 60,956 8. 51,420 9. 43,774 10. 42,694 11. 47,958 12. 15,482 ------- 537,343 Aggregate of separate individual acc'ts during same period. 501,903 --------- Total 1,039,246

III. _A Series of Receipts from 31st Dec. 1817, to 31st Dec. 1818._

Fol. 1. Aggregate of receipts 24,261 lbs.

2. 45,981 3. 31,041 4. 39,424 5. 34,711 6. 44,266 7. 31,315 8. 56,442 9. 33,932 -------- 341,372 Aggregate of separate individual acc'ts during same period. 112,203 -------- Total 453,575

IV. _A Series of Receipts from 31st Dec. 1818, to 18th May 1819._

Fol. 1. Aggregate of receipts 14,764 lbs.

2. 44,323 3. 44,628 ------- 103,715 Aggregate of separate individual acc'ts during same period. 26,211 ------- Total 129,926

RECAPITULATION.

1816 763,319 lbs.

1817 1,039,246 1818 453,575 1819 129,926 --------- Total 2,386,066

During eighteen months of the same period, from Dec. 31st, 1816, to June 1st, 1818, there was deposited with, and s.h.i.+pped by, sundry other persons in Herculaneum, as ascertained by Colonel S. Hammond and M.

Austin, Esq., 517,495 pounds of lead, together with patent shot, manufactured by Elias Bates and Christian Wilt, to the amount of 668,350 pounds. For the remaining part of the estimated term, (two years and eleven months,) it is reasonable to presume that a like quant.i.ty of lead was exported through private channels at Herculaneum, and a like quant.i.ty of shot manufactured by Messrs. Bates and Wilt. This will make the quant.i.ty of pig and bar lead s.h.i.+pped by individuals, 1,034,990 pounds, and the quant.i.ty of patent shot manufactured, 1,356,700 pounds; which two sums, added to the receipts of Mr. Bates's warehouse, as detailed above, gives us an aggregate amount of 4,757,990 pounds, for the period of two years and eleven months. St. Genevieve, as has already been mentioned, is probably the storehouse for one-half of the mines, and may therefore be estimated to have received and exported the same quant.i.ty of pig and bar lead during the same period, making a total of 9,515,512 pounds, which gives an average product of more than three million of pounds of lead per annum.

It would be interesting to know in what proportion the different mines have contributed to this amount. The above details show us their collective importance; but we should then be enabled to estimate their individual and comparative value. With this view, I have compiled, from the best information, the following:

ESTIMATE.

Mines. Pounds of lead. No. of hands.

Mine a Burton 1,500,000 160 Mine s.h.i.+bboleth 2,700,000 240 Mine La Motte 2,400,000 210 Richwoods 1,300,000 140

Bryan's Mines } Dogget's Mines } 910,100 80

Perry's Diggings 600,000 60

Elliot's Mines } Old Mines } 45,000 20 Bellefontaine }

Mine Astraddle } Mine Liberty } Renault's Mines } 450,000 40 Mine Silvers } Miller's Mines }

Cannon's Diggings } Becquet's Diggings } 75,000 30 Little Mines }

Rocky Diggings } Citadel Diggings } Lambert's Mine } 1,160,000 130 Austin's Mines } Jones's Mines }

Gravelly Diggings } Scott's Mine } Mine a Martin } 50,000 20 Mine a Robino } ---------- ---- 11,180,000 1,130

In this estimate are included all persons concerned in the operations of mining, and who draw their support from it; wood-cutters, teamsters, and blacksmiths, as well as those engaged in digging and smelting lead-ore, &c. The estimate is supposed to embrace a period of three years, ending 1st June, 1819, and making an average product of 3,726,666 lbs. per annum, which is so near the result arrived at in the preceding details, as to induce a conclusion that it is essentially correct, and that the mines of Missouri, taken collectively, yield this amount of pig-lead annually.

The United States acquired possession of the mines in the year 1803, fifteen years ago last December; and, a.s.suming the fact that they have annually produced this quant.i.ty, there has been smelted, under the American government, fifty-five million pounds of lead.

On the view which has now been taken of the Missouri mines, it may be proper here to remark--

1. That the ores of these mines are of the richest and purest kind, and that they exist in such bodies as not only to supply all lead for domestic consumption, but also, if the purposes of trade require it, are capable of supplying large quant.i.ties for exportation.

2. That although at different periods the amount of lead manufactured has been considerable, yet this produce has been subject to perpetual variation, and, upon the whole, has fallen, in the aggregate, far short of the amount the mines are capable of producing. To make these mines produce the greatest possible quant.i.ty of lead of which they are capable, with the least possible expense, is a consideration of the first political consequence, to which end it is desirable that the reserved mines be disposed of, to individuals, or that the term for which leases are granted be extended from three to fifteen years, which will induce capitalists, who are now deterred by the illiberality of governmental terms, to embark in mining. That there be laid a governmental duty of two and a half cents per pound on all imported pig and bar lead, which will exclude foreign lead from our markets, and afford a desired relief to the domestic manufacturer. The present duty is one cent per pound. But this does not prevent a foreign compet.i.tion; and the smelters call for, and appear to be ent.i.tled to, further protection.

3. That although the processes of mining now pursued are superior to what they were under the Spanish government, yet there is a very manifest want of skill, system, and economy, in the raising of ores, and the smelting of lead. The furnaces in use are liable to several objections. They are defective in the plan, they are constructed of improper materials, and the workmans.h.i.+p is of the rudest kind. Hence, not near the quant.i.ty of metallic lead is extracted from the ore which it is capable, without an increase of expense, of yielding. There is a great waste created by smelting ore in the common log furnace, in which a considerable part of the lead is volatilized, forming the sublimated matter which adheres in such bodies to the sides of the log furnaces, and is thrown by as useless. This can be prevented by an improvement in its construction. To pursue mining with profit, it is necessary to pursue it with economy; and true economy is, to build the best of furnaces, with the best of materials. At present the furnaces are constructed of common limestone, which soon burns into quicklime, and the work requires rebuilding from the foundation. Not only so, but the frequency with which they require to be renewed, begets a carelessness in those who build them, and the work is accordingly put up in the most ordinary and unworkmanlike manner. Instead of limestone, the furnaces ought to be constructed of good refractory sandstone, or apyrous clay, in the form of bricks, which will resist the action of heat for a great length of time. Both these substances are the production of that country, and specimens of them are now in my possession.

4. From the information afforded, it has been seen that the mines are situated in a country which affords a considerable proportion of the richest farming-lands, producing corn, rye, wheat, tobacco, hemp, flax, oats, &c., in the greatest abundance, and that no country is better adapted for raising cattle, horses, hogs, and sheep. The country is well watered, and with the purest of water; the climate is mild and pleasant, the air dry and serene, and the region is healthy in an unusual degree.

Every facility is also afforded by its streams for erecting works for the manufacture of white and red lead, ma.s.sicot, litharge, shot, sheet-lead, mineral yellow, and the other manufactures dependent upon lead. The country also abounds with various useful minerals besides lead, which are calculated to increase its wealth and importance. It is particularly abundant in iron, zinc, manganese, sulphur, salt, coal, chalk, and ochre.

5. That a systematic organization of the mining interest would have a tendency to promote the public welfare. To this end, there should be appointed an officer for the inspection and superintendence of mines. He should reside in the mine country, and report annually to the proper governmental department on the state of the mines, improvements, &c. His duty should consist in part of the following items, viz.: