PHILADELPHIA SMELTER Processing Facility for Wood River Valley’s Silver Key Component to the Silver Rush of the 1880s

Presentation to The Community Library, Regional History Department by John W. Lundin, June 30, 2015.

Pictures courtesy of the Community Library, Lundin collection, and other sources.

9/29/15

Matt & Isabelle McFall (the authors’ great-grandparents) moved to Bellevue in 1881. They built the International Hotel on Main Street (above right), which became the premier place to stay in the Wood River Valley. It burned down in 1909. The McFalls moved to Shoshone in 1893, where they built the McFall Hotel (bottom right). Photos from Lundin collection,, & the Community Library.

Neil and Katherine Campbell, and sons Stewart & George. Neil was the authors’ great-grandmother’s brother who moved to Bellevue, Idaho in the early 1880s. He had Bellevue’s first blacksmith shop, and ran a stagecoach line between Bellevue & Muldoon. Stewart was Idaho’s Inspector of Mines from 1920 – 1932. George was Blaine County Sheriff in the 1920s & 1930s.Photos from Lundin collection

Neil Campbell built the original headframe for the Minnie Moore mine outside of Bellevue. The Campbell family owned 41 silver mines over the years.

Photo from Idaho State Historical Society

Silver Rush to Wood River Valley Begins in 1880 In the fall of 1879, silver was discovered in the Wood River Valley. A major silver rush began in spring of 1880, the year of the “Wood River Boom.” Thousands of hopefuls from all over the world poured into the WRV in 1880 and 1881, to seek their fortunes. The Idaho Spokesman ran a tongue-in-cheek ad in 1880, saying “Wanted, the man, woman or child who does not want to go the Wood River country in the spring.” One writer said that the hunger for gold or silver “is a disease more contagious than measles, and once in the blood it is seldom, if ever, eradicated.”

Claims were staked, mines were opened, and towns were formed in the WRV and surrounding areas. In 1881, UP publicist Robert Strahorn wrote “Wood river is the center of one of the most extensive belts of heavy galena ores in the world.” Another publication said the Valley’s silver belt was “one of the richest as well as one of the most extensive in the world…The Bullion belt and district is the richest yet discovered.” 15,000 people were expected by 1882.

The Wood River Valley was remote, isolated, and difficult to reach. Ore and goods had to be shipped by wagon to and from railheads at Blackfoot, Idaho, on the Utah & Northern line (135 miles from the WRV), or Kelton, Utah, on the transcontinental line (a 160 mile trip taking 7 days). Ore was sent to Salt Lake or to Omaha for smelting and processing.

Map from the Community Library

Map showing the many mines around Bellevue. On July 1, 1881, the first load of 22,000 pounds of WRV bullion, was shipped in 6 wagons to Kelton, Utah, then 1,400 miles by train to smelters in Omaha, Nebraska, at a cost of $90 per ton for sampling, transport, and smelting. Smelters were needed in the WRV to reduce the volume and oxygen content of the ore before it was shipped, but smelters required huge capital investments.

Metsker Map, 1938.

Philadelphia Investors Look at WRVIn May 1880, a group of wealthy Philadelphians came west in a private rail

car looking for “bonanza investments.” After visiting Colorado, they came to the Wood River Valley where the newest silver rush was occurring, and they liked what they saw. They believed the district “would be a second Leadville.” Other writers say that James M. Rhodes and Col. Edmund Green played a significant role in getting the Philadelphia investors interested in the Wood River Valley.

In July 1881, they formed the Philadelphia Mining and Smelting Co., with 50 shareholders and $2,000,000 of paid in capital (worth $47.8 million in 2015 dollars) to build and operate a smelter in the WRV, and the Alturas Land Improvement and Manufacturing Co. to acquire and hold land in Idaho. James M. Rhodes became president of both companies. They made plans to build a smelter in the Wood River Valley using the most advanced methods and equipment. The investors also formed the Little Wood Mining & Smelting Co. to buy mines and build a smelter in Muldoon, in the Little Wood River district. The techniques for smelting galena ore (an amalgam of silver, lead and zinc), found in the WRV, was developed in Eureka, Nevada in the 1870s using a newly developed furnace, and improved in Leadville, Colorado.

Philadelphia Smelter Site Selected A 160 acre site was acquired on the bench where Warm Springs

Creek enters the Big Wood River, then ½ mile north of Ketchum, a convenient location for power, timber, and lime and iron ore for flux used to process ore. The location “was probably the very best that could be had in this region.” McLeod, History of Alturas and Blaine County. Roads could bring ore to the smelter from the west over Dollarhide Summit from the Little Smoky Mining District, from the north over Galena summit from the Sawtooth mines, and eventually from the east over Trail Creek from the mines around Challis.

In summer 1881, the Columbia & Beaver toll road was built over Galena Pass so ore from the Sawtooth Valley could be brought to Ketchum for smelting. Charges were $1.50 for a wagon with a single span of horses; $.50 for each additional span; $. 75 for each additional wagon; and $1.50 for each rider and horse. The grade was improved in 1882. Roads were later built over Dollarhide summit and Trail Creek pass.

The Philadelphia smelter was located on a 160 acre bench where Warm Springs Creek enters the Big Wood River. Remnants of the smelter can be seen along Exhibition Blvd.

Remnants of the Philadelphia smelter foundation from Exhibition Blvd.

Philadelphia Smelter is Built in Summer of 1881 The Philadelphia Company constructed a state-of-the-art smelter with

barns, offices, scale rooms, coal houses, ore bins, mess houses, bunk houses, assay and business offices, and buildings for two 40-ton smelting furnaces. Equipment was hauled in by wagons from Kelton, Utah. 20 kilns were built to produce 60,000 bushels of charcoal per month. A 160 acre saw mill site was established three miles west of the smelter (now Lower Board Ranch), and on a 5 acre site on the West Fork of the Warm Springs Creek, to provide wood for its buildings and furnaces. Frank Gooding, later Idaho’s Governor and Senator, had the contract to provide wood, and used 15 men to cut and raft timber down river to the smelter. A source for lime for use as flux was located nearby. Col. Edmund S. Green was the first manager of the smelter.

A ditch was dug to carry 400 inches of water from Warm Springs Creek from four miles above its site, where wood was cut and floated to the smelter for its buildings and to make charcoal. Water was also used to propel its machinery. Ultimately, $500,000 was spent on the smelter, worth at least $11.9M in 2015 dollars.

Drawing of Philadelphia Smelter from Elliot, History of Idaho Territory, 1884, and picture showing the smelter, stacks of its two 40-ton smelting furnaces, and some of its 20 kilns, from the Community Library.

Philadelphia Smelter Opens in 1882The Philadelphia smelter opened for a 10 day test on October 8, 1881, with one 40 ton

furnace, and it prepared for major production in 1882. Its first bullion production created bars weighing 92 pounds, which were shipped by wagon to Kelton, Utah, then by train to refineries elsewhere. A second 40 ton furnace was installed in spring 1882. The Alturas Mining Reporter of 1883, said the Philadelphia Company “did more toward the development of the Wood River Country than any of the other five mining companies on the river. With a few men like Col. Green and a few companies as the Philadelphia to back them, this country would loom up among the bullion producing regions on the Pacific Coast.” Col. Edmund Green was the first superintendent of the smelter.

By 1882, outside investors had poured $1.5 M into the Wood River Valley. Wood river mines produced over $1M in ore, a portion of which was smelted at the Philadelphia smelter. Processed and unprocessed ore was still hauled by wagon to railheads at Blackfoot or Kelton. There were at least 14 major sales of mines in 1882, each in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Smelting Process

Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy, involving heating ore with a reducing agent with a carbon source, such as coke or charcoal, to decompose it, and purifying agents to produce a base metal. As most ores are impure, “flux” such as lime and iron ore is used to remove the accompanying rock gangue, which is dumped as slag. Gangue is the commercially worthless material surrounding or mixed with the mineral in an ore deposit.

It was not until the 1870s that it was possible to smelt galena, an amalgam of silver, lead and zinc, such as is found in the Wood River Valley. The technique was developed in Eureka, Nev., and involved layering charcoal and ore in a newly developed Stetefeld furnace, and blasting air through nozzles to intensify the heat. When the metal melted, impurities rose to the top, and silver and bullion was drawn off the bottom and poured into molds. The process of smelting galena ore was further refined in Leadville, Colorado.

Smelting of WRV Ore Was Complicated Concentrating mills eliminated much of the base and refractory materials,

leaving relatively clean concentrates for the smelter. Ore was taken from the mines to the Bellevue or Hailey Sampling Works to be tested before being sent for smelting. A sampling works opened in Ketchum in 1884, following the arrival of the railroad.

The Philadelphia smelter experimented with various treatment processes to find the right approach for smelting the local galena ore. The ore often contained arsenic, antimony and other base metals that were difficult to handle, and added $7 to $10 per ton to remove. A special oxidizing charge was imposed to remove antimony. Iron ore, lime and charcoal was used in its smelting process, resulting in an average smelting cost of nearly $12 per ton.

The Philadelphia smelter could make a profit on high grade silver-lead ore, but not on low-grade ores with a variety of impurities. It refused to process ore with 50% or more lead content, eliminating the product of some important local mines such as the Mayflower, which had to ship their ore out of the valley. Ultimately, the smelter erected five roasting furnaces to treat high grade lead ore to eliminate impurities before smelting.

1882: Philadelphia Company Buys Local Mines In anticipation of the arrival of the railroad in the Wood River Valley, in 1882,

the Philadelphia Co. planned to expand its smelter, and it bought a number of local mines to take advantage of its additional capacity.

The company purchased the West Fork Group, 7 miles west of Ketchum; two mines on Boyle Mountain, 12 miles west of Ketchum; the Muldoon Group and mill site in the Little Wood drainage; the North Star on the East Fork of the Big Wood River; the Star of Hope; and the Silver Star over Dollarhide Summit in the Little Smoky district (for $50,000).

Philadelphia Company Builds a Smelter at Muldoon The Little Wood Mining & Smelter Co. (a Philadelphia concern “which was

closely linked to the Philadelphia smelter in Ketchum” according to Clark Spence), owned by the same Philadelphia investors, purchased the Muldoon mine in winter of 1882, for $100,000.

A modern smelter was opened there in summer 1882, lighted by electric lights, with two 40-ton furnaces, 20 kilns to make charcoal, and a sawmill. The company spent $75,000 to build a modern concentrating mill at Muldoon to prepare clean concentrate for the smelter, and a tram system to bring ore from the mine. People and supplies came in from Blackfoot, or on a new road from Bellevue served by the Brown & Campbell Blacksmith line. Ore was sent by wagon to the rail-stop at Blackfoot. In 1883, Muldoon had 300 inhabitants and three general merchandise stores. The site never developed as hoped, and in 1884, the smelter closed, and the mill was transferred to the North Star Mine. The smelter was destroyed by a forest fire in 1887.

In 1882, a road was built connecting Muldoon and Bellevue, and the town was served by the Brown & Campbell Stagecoach line, operated by Neil Campbell. Neil Campbell’s blacksmith shop and livery stable in Bellevue are shown in the pictures,

Muldoon smelter, 1883, with two forty ton furnaces lighted by electric lights.

Picture courtesy of The Community Library

Twenty Charcoal kilns at Muldoon to produce charcoal for use in the smelting process.

Picture courtesy of The Community Library.

Bullion at Muldoon smelter waiting for transport to the Oregon Short Line stop in Blackfoot ,where it would be shipped to national markets.

Photo courtesy of The Community Library.

Little Smoky Mining District Had Great Potential The Silver Star mine was located in the Little Smoky Mining District, about 5

miles west of Dollarhide Summit. The District was seen to have great potential in the 1880s.

In May 1882, the Wood River Times said the Little Smoky consisted of a “large metaliferous belt…of rich argentiferous rock..that lay thick around.” Hundreds “were in pursuit of fortune in the new El Dorado.” Good mining properties were available “at reasonable prices.”

In June 1886, the Wood River Times said “the Little and Big Smoky Mining Districts are attracting deserved attention this year, as they contain more promising mines than any other region of equal extent in the world, with the exception of the incomparable Comstock and Butte Districts, and the Smoky districts even promise to surpass these in time.”

The Lewis Fast Freight hauled from the Smoky mines by small wagons to an ore transfer point east of Dollarhide Summit. There, the ore was transferred to large ore wagons and brought to Ketchum for smelting.

Remnants of ore transfer point east of Dollarhide Summit, after the Beaver Creek fire of 2013. An historic site was lost. Left top, looking at site from Warm Springs Road. Left bottom, looking up to road from transfer point. Pictures on right show the transfer site along Warm Springs creek.

Photos from Lundin collection

1881 – 1884: U.P. Builds the Oregon Short Line to Portland In 1880, Union Pacific decided to build a rail line connecting its transcontinental line through Idaho to Portland, to provide access to the rapidly growing Northwest. It would start at Granger, Wyoming, and then go through the Snake River plain in Idaho to Oregon, following “the path of those who plodded westward along the historic Oregon Trail.” Since U.P.’s 1862 charter did not permit it to operate branch lines, in April 1881, it incorporated a subsidiary, the Oregon Short Line, to build a standard gauge road on “the shortest line to Oregon.”

In May 1881, work began on the Oregon Short Line at Granger, Wyoming. In August 1882, UP surveyed a 69.2 mile branch line from Shoshone to Hailey, and a right-of-way was acquired for its Wood River Branch. The Wood River Branch was completed from Shoshone to Hailey in May 1883, the intended terminus. In November 1884, the OSL was completed to Huntington, Oregon, where it joined tracks from Portland built by the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company.

Idaho & Oregon Land Improvement Co. In 1881, investors associated with the Union Pacific formed a company to buy land in advance of the construction of the OSL, where railstops would occur. Its owners included Robert Strahorn (a Union Pacific publicist), Kansas Senator Caldwell (president of the Kansas Pacific RR, a UP subsidiary), and others, who knew the route of the OSL in advance. Andrew Mellon, heir to a great fortune in Pittsburg and later Secretary of the Treasury in the 1920s, joined the company. The company bought worthless desert land, platted and developed townsites, constructed irrigation and water systems, and sold lots, making huge profits. The company purchased and developed the townsites of Shoshone, Hailey, Mountain Home, Caldwell, Weiser, and Ontario, Oregon.

In June 1882, the company purchased the townsite of Hailey, the 2,500 acre Croy Ranch, and the 8,000 Quigley Ranch for $100,000. The Wood River Journal said the company “takes the whole loaf.” Hailey was intended to be the terminus of the Wood River Branch of the OSL.

1883 – RAILROAD ARRIVES. The Wood River Branch of the Oregon Short Line was completed from Shoshone to Hailey in May 1883, and it opened up the Wood River Valley to the outside world. The arrival of the first train was met “with a brass band and all the enthusiasm of a Fourth of July,” with “several kegs of beer emptied in succession.”

Poster issued by Union Pacific

The Philadelphia Smelter was adding two 50 ton furnaces, so it would control the entire “Wood River country.” Ketchum will be the “Great Smelting Centre of the West” which would compete with the world. It offered to pay cash for ore from local mine owners, from 200 pounds to 10,000 tons, at the Hailey Sampling Works.

Ketchum Keystone, May 4 & 5, 1883

The OSL Dramatically Changed the Wood River Valley The railroad transformed the Wood River Valley and provided a huge economic boost. Passengers and goods could travel rapidly and cheaply in and out of the Valley. The cost of transporting goods was reduced by over $20 a ton, so the Philadelphia smelter could import coke from Pennsylvania and iron ore from Wyoming for use in its operations .

WRV residents had new mobility. Travelers could connect with Union Pacific’s transcontinental tracks in Utah, and travel all over the country. In 1881, it took the McFalls over 2 weeks to travel from Nevada to Bellevue by wagon. After 1883, residents could travel to Shoshone in 2 hours, Boise in 3 ½ hours, and be in Portland 8 hours later. They could reach Salt Lake in 9 hours, and New York a few days later.

Travel in the Valley was made much easier. In 1885, 300 people from Hailey accompanied its baseball team on the train to a tournament in Shoshone. A fist fight between fans had to be broken up by the Sheriff, but the trip was a success.

Railroad Transforms the Wood River Valley Economy

The arrival of the railroad brought an end to “pick and shovel” mining, and introduced an era of industrialization and capital intensive exploitation of the WRV’s mines. “As it did everywhere, the coming of the railroad expedited the flow of capital and the exploitation of a region’s resources.” The WRV “passed from lusty infancy to a more orderly adolescence.” Clark Spence, For Wood River or Bust.

The railroad expedited the flow of capital from Europe and all over the U.S. into the Valley, allowing exploitation of what Idaho’s Territorial Governor said “is now generally conceded to be the richest silver-lead producing country in the world.” Ore production increased from $4 M in 1884, to over $9 M in 1887, with most of the ore processed at the Philadelphia Smelter and shipped out on the OSL. Wood River mines produced $20M of ore in a decade, worth $537M in 2015 dollars.

The Oregon Short Line Modernized the Valley

The arrival of the OSL brought modern technology to the WRV. The Philadelphia Smelter had an electric light system by fall 1882, and by the winter of 1882—1883, Hailey had an electric power system designed by Thomas Edison, the first in the NW. By November 1883, a telephone connected four WRV cities, Ketchum, Bullion, Hailey, and Bellevue. Ketchum had two telephones, one at the Post Office and the other at the Philadelphia Smelter. Subscribers paid 25 cents a call and non-subscribers paid 50 cents. The following year, telephone service was extended to outlying areas (Elkhorn, Warm Springs & Boyle Mountain).

By 1883, Hailey had a municipal water system, Bellevue had two daily newspapers and Hailey had three, and the National Bank of Ketchum was formed with $50,000 of capital.

Hopes for a Ketchum Extension Even though Hailey was the terminus of the Wood River Branch, Ketchum residents hoped that an extension would be built further north. The Philadelphia Company brought heavy pressure on Union Pacific to build an extension to access its smelter. However, in May 1883, a Union Pacific executive said rumors that a grading contract had been signed to Ketchum “were willful lies.”

In spring 1884, the Oregon Short Line did a preliminary survey of a Ketchum extension, but the UP Idaho manager said “the road is not going to be built to Ketchum.” Union Pacific did not want “any more road in the snowy country north of Shoshone” due to the high costs of keeping it open the winter. Union Pacific was in such financial difficulty because of the huge costs of building the Oregon Short Line that its Board considered cutting its dividend, “which would be a sad calamity.”

Union Pacific changed its mind in spring 1884, due to the amount of business offered by the Philadelphia smelter. It obtained a right-of-way for a Ketchum extension, and the Oregon Short Line tracks reached the smelter in August 1884, located north of the Ketchum townsite.

1883 - Philadelphia Smelter Expands In 1883, the Philadelphia smelter doubled in size and expanded so its grounds were

big enough to hold 50 teams and wagon trains at once. Its lodging house was large enough to handle 80 employees of “the small army of men and teams” its operations required.

Two new buildings were built, an ore house with bins where ore was prepared, and a building for two state of the art smelting furnaces based on those of the Grant Works in Denver with a capacity of 50 tons each, to go along with its two Pacific smelting furnaces, each with a 40 ton capacity. This increased its smelting capacity to 180 tons of ore a day, although it “had more capacity than it needed.” The smelter was one of the largest enterprises in Idaho, and the largest employer in the Valley. It processed 100 tons of ore daily on average from 52 mines, producing 40 tons of bullion, enough to fill three rail cars. It was “the most complete smelting works in the West,” making Ketchum the most healthy mining town on Wood River. Elliott, History of Idaho Territory.

The smelter had an electric light plant, using a generator built by Thomas Edison. It went into operation on November 11, 1882, but was not widely admired. The Wood River Times said “a new fangled” electric light had been imported into the Valley but “it only makes the citizens mad” because “the dadgasted thing can’t be made to work when wanted.”

1883 - Philadelphia Smelter Takes over the WRV

In 1882, there were four smelters in the Wood River Valley: the Wood River smelter Company in Bellevue; the Wood River Smelting Company in Hailey, owned by David Falk and Alonzo Wolters; the Philadelphia smelter in Ketchum; and a smelter at Galena on Senate Creek. That year, Wood River mines produced over $1 million of ore, and the Philadelphia smelter handled one fifth of the total.

After the Philadelphia smelter doubled in size in 1883, the lessons of Eureka, Nevada proved to be true, that small smelters do not work well, economies of scale prevail, and all the smelters went out of business except the Philadelphia smelter, which used the most advanced methods and equipment.

The Philadelphia Smelter was larger than all but a handful of smelters in the country, and “is the most complete smelting works in the West.” It was the Valley’s largest employer, had its highest payroll, and was the biggest enterprise in Idaho Territory. It made Ketchum “the most healthy mining town on Wood River.” Elliott.

Picture from the Community Library #F-00372

The Philadelphia Smelter had two buildings with 4 smelting furnaces, 20 charcoal kilns, a boarding house, assay & business buildings, mess houses, barns, and a manager’s house, all lighted by electric lights. The site had room for 50 teams to move around at once.

Picture from the Community Library #07662

Philadelphia Smelter, main building and slag pile. The slag contained lead, zinc, arsenic, antimony and other minerals. The small building on the top picture was for storage of bullion before it was shipped out of the Valley.

Pictures from the Community Library # F-00367, F-00379.

Man on horse entering Philadelphia Smelter. Several charcoal kilns can be seen behind the far building.

Picture from the Community Library #F-00379

Picture of a state of the art 50 ton smelting furnace inside the Philadelphia Smelter, installed in the summer of 1883, “designed after the famous Grant works at Denver.”

Picture from the Community Library #F-00376

Kilns at the Philadelphia Smelter where wood was burned to produce charcoal for use in its operations. One can imagine how the smoke from the kilns would fill the valley.

Picture from the Community Library # F-00371

In 1884, H.C. Lewis built a toll road over Trail Creek Summit, and his Lewis Fast Freight brought ore from mines around Challis to the Philadelphia Smelter for processing. He used large ore wagons that can be seen in Ketchum’s Labor Day parade. This picture shows Lewis Fast Freight in the foreground and the Philadelphia Smelter in the back.

Photo from the Community Library, #00787.

Lewis Fast Freight wagons hauled ore to the Philadelphia Smelter for processing from mines located over Trail Creek Summit, Galena Summit, and Dollarhide Summit. Silver was then shipped to national markets on the OSL. The wagons carried up to 18,000 pounds of ore and covered 12 to 14 miles a day.

Photos from the Community Library.

Alturas Land Improvement Co. Buys Land

The Alturas Land Improvement & Manufacturing Co., owned by the same Philadelphia investors who owned the smelter, purchased 988 acres of land between 1884 and 1887, from several land owners, east of the Big Wood River across from the smelter in what is now the Warm Springs area. In 1884, the Oregon Short Line Railroad acquired (or was given) land for its depot and tracks on this land. Lewis Fast Freight was also located on this land, providing space for its teams that brought ore from outlying areas to the smelter.

In 1884, the Rhodes addition was incorporated into the town of Ketchum, which included the smelter site and the Alturas Land Company’s land. Prior to this time, the area was ½ mile north of the city limits.

1884 Rhodes Addition to Ketchum, showing 988 acres of land east of the river owned by Alturas Improvement & Manufacturing Co. It included the OSL tracks & depot, & the Lewis Fast Freight site. The “Y” track was built in 1887, to access the smelter on the west side of the river.

NEW BRANCH LINES PLANNED FROM HAILEY.The Gold Belt RR would go west out Croy Canyon to Bullion, Camas Prairie, & Smoky Mining Districts. Other lines would go north over Galena Summit to Stanley, Challis and Salmon; up the East Fork of the Big Wood River to Muldoon; and out Deer Creek. None were built .

Map from McGonical, Spring of Gladness

Stagecoaches were still important. They ran up and down the valley to supplement train service, to Kelton, and to outlying mining districts from Bellevue, Hailey and Ketchum. Ketchum stages ran west to the Smoky Districts, north over Galena Summit to the Sawtooth district, and east over Trail Creek to the Challis mines. Ketchum Keystone, 5/5/84

Financial Problems Emerge in mid-1880sEven though the Wood River mines produced over $2M a year for

three years after the railroad arrived in 1883, financial problems emerged undercutting the economy. A national panic in 1884, affected the Valley, and money was tight. The OSL machine shops in Bellevue suspended operations, and the completion of the line to Ketchum in 1884, left many unemployed. In 1886, the price of silver dropped, leading to problems all over the west. Tariff laws permitted the importation of low cost duty-free silver/lead ore from Mexico, which undercut domestic prices. In 1886, the Wood River Times said “the shadow of hard times is creeping over this region.”

Labor and shipping costs were high for Valley businesses. Depressed silver prices and disputes over miners’ wages led to the shutdown or a drop in production of Valley mines. Militant miners’ unions organized all over the west, and local unions formed in Broadford and Bullion in the Wood River Valley.

1884 & 1885 - Financial Problems Lead to Miners’ StrikesIn 1884, mine owners faced financial problems as the price of silver

dropped, and they cut workers pay. In July 1884, miners at the Minnie Moore mine in Broadford went on strike for 10 days to stop a pay cut from $4 per day to $3.50. There were management problems at the Minnie Moore, and by 1885, the English owners, who had purchased the mine for $500,000, had debts of ¼ of a million dollars, and its works were in the hands of a mortgagee. The superintendent was arrested for debt as he tried to go to England to seek more capital.

In the winter of 1885, union miners at the Minnie Moore and Queen of the Hills mines in Broadford went on strike, opposing another attempt to cut their wages. The strike lasted for 119 days, one of the longest at the time. Sheriff’s posses escorted strike breakers (“scabs”) to work and guarded the mines. National Guard troops were brought in from Boise, with infantry, cavalry, and two Gatling guns. There were threats of violence on both sides. Eventually, the mine owners won, and in May, the miners accepted a pay cut to $3.50 a day, and the mines went back into full operation.

Matt McFall & His Hotel Were at Center of Miners StrikeMine owners, miners who continued to work, and sheriff’s deputies stayed

at Matt McFall’s International Hotel in Bellevue, which was the site of major demonstrations. Armed guards were posted at the hotel. McFall was nearly taken hostage one night by striking miners, during what the Wood River Times called the “St. Patrick Day confrontation,” and the Riot of the 17th [of March 1885]. 20 union officers and miners were put on trial for “unlawful, felonious conspiracy, and riot” and 15 were convicted. McFall and his brother-in-law Neil Campbell testified at the trial.

The night manager of McFall’s hotel was killed by a strike-breaking miner during a discussion of the strike. The Wood River Times of April 15, 1885, said Shot through the Heart, William Thompkins Killed at McFall’s Hotel in Bellevue Last Night.

The Wood River labor strikes were not as serious as the strikes in the Coeur d’Alene mining district in the 1890s, where buildings were dynamited, many people shot, and the U.S. Army mobilized against the miners. Those times were discussed in Anthony Lucas’ book, Big Trouble, a Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a Struggle for the Soul of America.

Philadelphia Smelter Faces Financial TroublesHigh labor and shipping costs affected the Philadelphia smelter. It had “the

big payroll in Ketchum,” and its wages were 55% of its gross income. Its operations required 75 workers, 15 charcoal burners, and a substantial number of teamsters and teams. The smelter operated seasonally, as ore could not be transported in the winter, and it was limited in the kinds of ore it could handle. It rarely ran at full capacity and faced management problems.

George Moulton took over as manager in 1884, and ran the smelter until March 1885. Huge amounts of iron ore supplies had accumulated, locking up over $200,000 of the company’s capital. He determined that the smelter had four smelting furnaces and no roasting furnaces, while it needed one smelting furnace and four roasting ones. Moulton addressed these issues, closed all but one smelting furnace, built four roasting furnaces, and put the smelter on a “satisfactory business basis,” so it could be operated at full capacity.

1887- Financial Problems Lead to “Amicable Reorganization”In 1887, the Philadelphia smelter’s financial problems led to an “amicable

reorganization,” according to Clark Spence. A mortgage was foreclosed on the Philadelphia Mining and Smelting Co. and its property in Ketchum and Muldoon, by the company’s Philadelphia investors. A new entity, the Philadelphia and Idaho Company, led by James Rhodes, the director of the original smelter company, obtained the assets of the old company, including the smelters and mines.

The new company made substantial improvements at the Ketchum smelter, and built concentrating mills at its North Star and Silver Star mines. A new building was built at the smelter for storage of smelting materials with elevators used in hoisting , the ditch bringing water to the smelter to propel its turbines was put into a flume, and trackways were installed so ore could be delivered directly to the railcars, doing away with horses and wagons previously used.

Operations initially looked promising, but the onset of the International Silver Depression that began in 1888, halted operations. The company “overdid” investments, and made “extravagant outlays” at the North Star mine, and in building a 20-stamp concentrating mill at the Silver Star mine that cost $76,000. The Silver Star mill opened in November 1887, and closed in December 1887. The company dug 6,200 feet of underground workings, and invested $500,000 at the Silver Star Group.

The “Y” track from the OSL Ketchum depot, over the Big Wood River into the smelter. It was built in 1887, after a reorganization resulted in improvements being made at the smelter.

Picture from the Community Library

The Philadelphia Smelter had water rights from Warm Springs Creek, and built a dam just below Guyer Hot Springs and dug a ditch to bring water to the smelter propel its turbines. In 1887, a V shaped flume was built to replace the ditch to bring water to the smelter.

Flume bring water from Guyer Hot Springs to Philadelphia Smelter.Flume bring water from Guyer Hot Springs to Philadelphia Smelter.

North Star mill on the East Fork of the Big Wood River, one of the most productive mines owned by the Philadelphia Mining & Smelter Co. In October 1885, the company moved its tramway, cars, track, and wire rope from its Muldoon mine to the North Star, to transport ore from the mine down to the railroad in the Valley. A concentrating mill was built there in 1887.Photo from Carl Massaro

In July 1886, a road was built over Dollarhide Summit to the Smoky Mining District, so ore could be brought to the Ketchum smelter. These pictures show the $76,000 stamp mill at the Silver Star mine taken in the 1980s and in 2012. The mill opened in November 1887, and closed in December 1887.

Photos from Lundin collection.

Twenty stamp mill at Silver Star Mine, 1980s.

The Silver Star mill has incredible stonework, presumably using material from a local quarry. The mill processed either 523 or 1.350 tons of ore during its one month of operation, depending on which source one reads. In 1893, the machinery at the smelter was disassembled and transported to a mine in Atlanta, Idaho.

Photos from Lundin collection.

Silver Star mine, 2012. Note the size of the beam and the single piece of granite.

Photos from Lundin collections

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Silver Star mine, 2012. The area around the mine is covered with yellow Lupine (Longspur Lupine) in the summer.

Photos from Lundin collections

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Diagram of the Silver Star Group, 13 connected mines, with 6,200 feet of underground workings.

From abstract in Alonzo Price collection.

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Example of underground workings at Nay Aug mine on Deer Creek. This diagram by Evelyn Phillips can be seen at the Ore Wagon Museum in Ketchum.

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Financial Problems Worsen at Philadelphia Smelter

After the “amicable reorganization” in 1887, operations were restructured at the Philadelphia smelter. Wages were reduced, and the smelter worked at half capacity thereafter, employing 56 men, plus 63 in its mines, and 75 working on improvements. The smelter closed in 1890, because of the International Silver Depression. It restarted in autumn 1892, utilizing a new process to recover gold from galena ore from the company’s North Star mine, since silver prices were so low that processing silver was unproductive. The Ketchum smelter closed for good in early 1893, a casualty of the Depression.

James Rhodes, the president of the Philadelphia companies, said the smelter suffered from its remote location where qualified specialists were hard to find and repairs hard to make. Large smelters elsewhere could get ore from all over, and mix ores in combinations to satisfy the complex chemical requirements for processing lead ore.

1888: Silver Depression Ends WRV BoomIn 1888, there was a sharp decline in silver prices which precipitated a major,

world-wide depression. 1893 marked the end of silver’s financial dominance, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed (called the “Death of Silver” by the Wood River Times), and the U.S. went off the silver standard. 15,000 businesses and 642 banks failed, and 20% of the work force was out of work. Most of the railroads in the U.S. went into bankruptcy, including the U.P. and O.S.L. The Panic of 1893 was called a “painful end of the Gilded Age.”

By 1888, most of the Wood River Valley’s mines closed, bust replaced boom, “and many inhabitants left.” The Philadelphia Smelter permanently closed in 1893. This was a “decade of turmoil” for Idaho, and the Wood River Times said the valley’s Mining District was “deader than a lime fossil.” Many WRV towns were abandoned, including Bolton, Bullion, Gilman, Broadford, Gimlet, Galena, Doniphan, Hays and Muldoon. By 1890, Hailey’s population had dropped from 4,000 to 1,073; Bellevue’s from 3,000 to 892; and Ketchum’s from 2,000 to 465. “For Wood River, the silver boom days were over.” Clark Spence.

Clark Spence on the Wood River Valleys’ Mining Boom

For mining communities, like mortals, there is a time to be born and a time to die. Most lived fleetingly, a brief and intense blaze of glory across the pages of history, either to perish completely or to survive with economic bases much altered or their province diminished. According to Idaho’s Mining Inspector in 1898, Wood River Valley’s moment of brilliance spanned the decade of the 1880s. Its production record has been phenomenal. Twenty nine of its mines had taken out $14 million in silver and $5 million in lead. Even though not comparable in the long run to Leadville or the Coeur d’Alenes, Wood River has never been given its due, either in its heyday or by later historians.

Spence, For Wood River or Bust: Idaho’s Silver Boom of the 1880s.

1898 GOLD RUSH ENDS DEPRESSION. The Silver Depression was ended by the Klondike Gold Rush, which began on July 17, 1897. Within a week, newspapers were announcing that the Depression was over. By spring 1898, Klondikers spent $25 M in Seattle, and by 1900, its assayers handled $18 M in gold.

Seattle PI, July 17, 1897.

1894 - Property of Philadelphia & Idaho Co. is Put into Trust

Because of the Depression, the owners of the Philadelphia & Idaho Co. and the Alturas Land Improvement & Manufacturing Co. decided to shut down their Idaho operations and sell their property. The Philadelphia & Idaho Trust Co. was established to manage the property, for the benefit of the Philadelphia investors, with James M. Rhodes as Trustee. In February 1894, property of the two companies was transferred to the Trust, including:

Smelter site of 241 acres, canal ditch, flume and 2,000 miners inches of Warm Springs waters right dating to July 18, 1887. 160 acres of land three miles west of smelter, and a five acre West Fork Saw Mill site. Also, the Muldoon mill site, ditch, flume & water rights.

Alturas Land Improvement. & Manuf. Co. land, 998 acres east of Big Wood River.Mines including Ervine Group on Boyle Mtn; Muldoon Group; North Star Group; Silver

Star Group in Little Smoky; West Fork Group seven miles west of Ketchum; and ¼ interest of Star of Hope.

1894 – 1960 Trust Manages & Sells Property

The Alonzo Price Collection in The Community Library’s Sun Valley - Ketchum Historical Museum contains documents that describe the actions taken by the Trust from 1894 to 1960, to manage and sell the Trust property. Maj. William Hyndman, a lawyer, was the first agent for the Trust. He ordered the immediate demolition of the smelter. The furnaces and roasters were dynamited, and the best of the machinery at the Ketchum and Muldoon smelters was sold, along with the machinery at the Silver Star mine. Everything that could be sold from the buildings was sold, some as junk.

In 1894, Morris Price, the last smelter manager, leased the smelter property, converted it to farmland, and lived in the manager’s house on the grounds.

In 1902, Alonzo Price, Morris’ son, became resident agent for the trust, and continued to live in the 14 room manager’s house until 1928. He managed the trust properties until his death in 1953, when his son took over as agent. Trustee James Rhodes died in 1928, and Louis Borie of Philadelphia took over as Trustee.

In 1903, the OSL purchased the land from the Trust surrounding its depot for use as corrals and sheep loading pens. In the 1920s, Ketchum & Hill City shipped more sheep than anywhere in the world except one station in Australia.

Photo from Community Library

Sheep grazing replaced mining n Muldoon, and the Trust leased its land to ranchers. This picture shows sheep grazing around the abandoned charcoal kilns at Muldoon.

Photo from The Community Library

Pictures showing sheep around the Muldoon kilns , and the remnants of abandoned kilns.

Photos from The Community Library

Stewart Campbell. Idaho’s Inspector of Mines from 1920 – 1932. He was an active speculator in mining properties, and had lease/ purchase options on the Silver Star in the 1920s & 1930s. He formed the Silver Star–Queen of the Hills, Inc. to sell the mines. The Campbell family owned at least 41 mines over the years.

Efforts to Sell/Develop Silver Star Mine Stewart Campbell worked for a decade to sell his lease/option in the Silver Star mine.

In 1929, his Silver Star – Queen of the Hills, Inc. built a road in cooperation with the US Forest Service from Fairfield to the Silver Star mine (and the Carrie Leonard mine also under lease/option to Campbell), making the mines accessible to the Hill City Branch of the Oregon Short Line Railroad built from Richfield to Hill City in 1913. Campbell had an abstract of title prepared for the mine, which he provided to the trust

in 1936, Campbell reported his efforts to sell the mine. He arranged for three mining concerns to examine the mine, and his report on the mine was in the hands of four large mining companies. His report was taken to potential investors in New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburg. Campbell said he had a potential buyer if the terms of the lease/option could be changed. At the same time, Campbell was raising funds to reopen his Queen of the Hills mine near Bellevue, using the same company, and negotiating a joint operating agreement with the Minnie Moore mine to work both mines together. Neither of the sales came to fruition

Price tried to lease the dumps at the Silver Star in the late 1930s to recapture ore left from its historic operations. In 1941, Price unsuccessfully tried to buy the mine from the trust.

Management of Trust Property by Alonzo PriceFrom 1902 until his death in 1954, Alonzo Price tried to sell the Trust’s properties,

leasing them when he could to generate cash flow. In the 1950s, when ore prices were up, tailing piles were leased to operators to recover ore that had been left from historic operations. However, most of the properties produced no significant returns.

The North Star Group located near the Triumph Mine, which produced $600,000 for its owners, was sold for $60,000 in 1918, to the Federal Mining & Smelting Co., who also bought the nearby Independence Mine. The mine produced huge profits for its new owners. The North Star was a continuation of the Triumph vein, and the three mines were operated together. In 1938, it produced over $2.6 M. Over the years, over $100 M was taken from the Triumph/Independence/North Star mines, according to Alonzo Price.

The West Fork mine produced $50,000 for the company, and the Silver Star certainly produced profits as well as 523 tons of ore were from the mine were smelted. The smelter operations were likely more profitable than the company’s mining operations.

In 1928, Price bought the old smelter site for less than $1,000. Grazing rights to land around the old Muldoon smelter were leased. Price documents end in 1960, and the Trust still owned much of the property it acquired in 1894. The Trust realized only $70,100 through 1952, from Price’s efforts, including $4,450 from the Alturas co.’s land.

Avalanche at North Star mine, February 25, 1917, that destroyed the bunkhouse and killed 17 men. This tragedy may have convinced the Trust to sell the mine in 1918.

Photos from Idaho State Historical Society