Railroads and Mining in Bingham Canyon, Utah, Early Copper Era, 1900-1914

To Move A Mountain

Railroads and mining in Utah's Bingham Canyon

Early Copper Era, 1900-1914

By Don Strack

This page was last updated on July 25, 2002

The Copper Belt Railway was built in 1900 to replace the pioneer mule-powered tramway that was completed in 1875 to serve the early transportation needs of the Bingham mining camp, and which had played a major role in the development of Bingham Canyon as one of the most important mining districts in the American West. The completion of the Copper Belt's line made the movement of the ore more economical, keeping the costs of the mining operations low enough so that many marginal mines were able to remain in production.

The seeds for the organization and construction of the Copper Belt railroad got their start in 1895 when the Bingham Gold Mining Company bought the "old" Commercial claim, in Galena Gulch above the Old Jordan claim. The new owners of the Commercial mine soon found that the gold ore was playing out and that they were finding more and more of the copper ore that so many of the other mines in the district were also being "bothered" with. In late 1896, the Highland Boy mine of the Utah Consolidated Gold Mines, Ltd., in another part of Bingham canyon, had begun shipping large quantities of copper ore. The owners of the Commercial mine found that their mine was in the same geologic formation and that they had copper ore reserves equal to those of the Utah Consolidated company.

In December 1898 the Bingham Gold Mining Company was reorganized as the Bingham Copper & Gold Mining Company by its majority owner, William Bayley of Los Angeles. Bayley took control of the company to develop the mine into a paying property by developing the copper sulfide copper ores of the former Commercial mine. The development work was started at a new opening at the head of Copper Center Gulch. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 255) The Bingham Copper & Gold Mining Company was the first of the mining company consolidations that would the main force in the development of the Bingham as one of the richest and most productive mining districts in the United States.

(RESEARCH: Check Los Angeles newspapers of the period for possible reference to Bayley's activities. Also, check Salt Lake Tribune for coverage, since this was before the Salt Lake Mining Review began publication.)

Bayley and his associates had decided that the mine needed to be expanded for it to become an important copper producer. The financing became available because of the organization of the new company allowed them to begin development of a new opening for the mine at the upper end of Copper Center Gulch, across the ridge north from the old opening in Galena Gulch.

Expansion of the company included control of the entire copper production process, from the mine to semi-finished copper product from the smelter, ready for refining on the east coast. In the first major step in this expansion project, in October 1899, less than a year after the Bingham Copper & Gold Mining Company was organized, the new company began construction on a copper smelter. The site selected for the smelter was Midvale, adjacent to the Rio Grande Western's mainline between Salt Lake City and Grand Junction, Colorado.

The mining of copper requires the handling of larger quantities of ore. The old mule tramway had been working just fine for the low quantities of high value gold and silver ores that it was being used for at that time. But the expanded operations of the new Bingham Copper & Gold Mining Company would be needing something more efficient than the tramway.

In 1900, Bayley and one of his associates, J. G. Jacobs (already involved in the Salt Lake & Mercur Railroad), negotiated with Rio Grande Western for a lease of the right-of-way of the old 3.5 mile mule tramway between Bingham and the Old Jordan & Galena Mine. (Spendlove, p. 30) Jacobs became involved because of his experience with his Salt Lake & Mercur Railroad, which was serving the gold mining camp of Mercur, also in the Oquirrh range, but ten miles to the south. Jacobs announced that he would rebuild the Bingham tramway to operate the same as his Salt Lake & Mercur, using a Shay locomotive over standard gauge track, with steep grades and tight curves.

The contract to rebuild the old mule tramway was given to Utah Construction Company, as one of that company's first efforts. Work began in early November 1900. (Engineering News, July 24, 1902, p. 59 states that construction began on November 1, 1900; Bingham Bulletin of February 15, 1901 states that construction began on December 1, 1900; D&RGW's corporate history for the ICC valuation project, published in Volume 26 of the ICC Valuation Reports, p. 927; 26 Val Rep 927; contract to Utah Construction in ICC Valuation Reports, Volume 26, p. 928; 26 Val Rep 928) By December, the construction company had 150 men working on the contract for the building of what was called the "Upper Bingham Railroad". The mining company announced that it would soon be shipping 200 tons per day over the new line. (Engineering and Mining Journal, December 29, 1900, p. 770)

Bingham Copper & Gold Mining Company had started construction on its Midvale smelter in October 1899. Construction was completed in January 1901, with test runs begun on January 15th. Full production began on January 31st. The new railroad was not yet complete, so the mining company was shipping ore from the mine to the smelter in what was called "a steady stream of wagons". To get the smelter into full production, in addition to their own ore, the mining company used custom ores from the Grand Central and the Tesora mines in Tintic, along with reprocessing the slag dumps from the old smelters at Stockton. Pending completion of the company's Copper Belt rail line, the mine began shipping its sulfide copper ore to the smelter by wagon and team. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 254)

As the mule tramway reconstruction was nearing completion, the local press took to calling it the "Copper Belt line", and the name stuck. The new rail line was completed in February 1901, and was built on the roadbed of the old mule tramway for 1.75 miles of its 2.9 mile length. The upper terminus was about 600 feet northeast of Bingham Copper & Gold's Commercial mine, at 6,915 foot elevation. Maximum grades were 3.7 percent on the lower portion and 7 percent on the upper portion, with a 7.4 percent grade on the coal spur to the Commercial mine. The lower end of the line, at Bingham, had curves up to 34 degrees while the upper part had 40 degree curves. (Engineering News, July 24, 1902, p. 59)

The lower terminus was at the Rio Grande Western station at Bingham, elevation 5,890 feet. The Copper Belt line was laid with 52-pound rails and was operated with a 50-ton Shay locomotive, leased from Jacob's Salt Lake & Mercur. The capacity of the locomotive was three empties up and three loads down, using special built 50-ton capacity all-steel gondolas. (Engineering News, July 24, 1902, p. 59) Almost all rail cars to this time were made entirely of wood. On February 14th, the Copper Belt Railroad moved its first car of ore. (Bingham Bulletin, February 15, 1901)

To finance additional expansion, on April 24, 1901 the Bingham Copper & Gold Mining Company was reorganized as the Bingham Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company. The expansion included the purchase of the Dalton & Lark mining properties. With the reorganization, the new Bingham Consolidated company also announced that they would formally purchase the interests of the "Copper Belt Railroad". (Engineering and Mining Journal, May 4, 1901, p. 572; USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 99)

To give a brief history of the Dalton & Lark mines, these properties were first brought together in 1895 with the organization of the Dalton & Lark Gold, Silver & Lead Mining Company. The company was organized to consolidate sixteen mining claims, on 155 acres, that made up the Dalton, Lark, Brooklyn and Keystone (earlier called the Yosemite) properties.

The mines of the Dalton & Lark company had become inactive in 1899 because of water drainage problems. Prior to the end of mining operations, the Dalton & Lark company had built a four mile horse tramway. This tramway was built along the eastern slope of the Oquirrh Mountains, outside of Bingham Canyon, to connect the Dalton & Lark mines with the Rio Grande Western at Lead Mine station, at the mouth of Bingham Canyon.

When Bayley and Jacobs took the lease on the Rio Grande Western tramway in 1900, they had intended to operate the new standard gauge line as a carrier for all of the mines in the district. Much of the traffic was to come from Bayley's Commercial mine, but Jacobs and Bayley were also figuring on additional traffic from the newly formed United States Mining Co.'s Old Jordan, Galena, Telegraph, and Niagara mines. The U.S. company, however, built its own aerial tramway for its transportation needs.

As already mentioned, the United States company had been organized in April 1899 to consolidate 62 mining claims. As the United States Mining company developed their properties, they decided that an aerial tramway would better suit their needs. The company soon completed their aerial 11,400 foot tramway between their mines in Galena Gulch and the Rio Grande Western's Bingham station, with operating costs that were about two-thirds those of using the new Copper Belt rail line; with the resulting loss of traffic to the railroad.

The consolidation that formed the new Bingham Consolidated company also saw Bayley lose his control of the company. In early May 1901 an agreement was reached between the new owners of the Bingham Consolidated properties and William Bayley, who along with Jacobs, held the lease on the Copper Belt railroad's roadbed. Bayley, who had also arranged for the actual construction of rebuilding the old tramway, would buy out Jacobs' interest in the lease and would in turn sell the lease on the roadbed and the lease of the former Salt Lake & Mercur locomotive to the Bingham Consolidated company.

On May 18, 1901 the Copper Belt Railway was incorporated by the owners of the Bingham Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company. Controlling interest in the company was turned over to William Bayley in return for his lease of the tramway and locomotive, formerly Salt Lake & Mercur number 7. Jacobs was also named as a director of the new railway company. J. G. Jacobs, of the SL&M, was also a director of the new railway company. (Utah corporation files, index 3147) The end result was that although the Copper Belt Railway owned the lease on the right of way of the former mule tramway, and the lease of the locomotive, Bayley, who also controlled the mining company, controlled the Copper Belt.

By the fall of 1901 the development work on reopening the Dalton & Lark properties was nearing completion. In October 1901, in order to provide dependable transportation to the Dalton & Lark, Yosemite, and Brooklyn properties, the Bingham Consolidated company began construction on what would later become Rio Grande Western's Dalton & Lark Branch.

During January 1902 Bingham Consolidated completed construction of the 3.6 mile "Dalton & Lark Railroad" as a connection between the portal of its Dalton & Lark Drain Tunnel and the Rio Grande Western's Bingham branch. The new line was to replace the four mile horse tramway that had been built by the mine's previous owners in the late 1890s between the old Dalton & Lark mine, and Lead Mine station on the Rio Grande Western. The new line was built with 3.6 percent grades using 56-pound rail, and was operated with Shay locomotives. (Engineering and Mining Journal, July 24, 1902, p. 59; Hansen, p. 273)

Pending completion of the Drain Tunnel itself, "within five years", the ore was to be brought down from the mine (1,000 feet above the Drain Tunnel portal) by way of a new four mile, 24 inch gauge electric line. This "temporary" electric would be built with five percent grades and operated with ten-ton electric locomotives.

Both the new Dalton & Lark line and the Copper Belt line were built under the supervision of Rio Grande Western engineers and were operated by the "railroad department" of the Bingham Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company.

The first shipment of copper ore from the Dalton & Lark mine wasn't until 1903. It took Bingham Consolidated over two years to develop the property and to drain the water that had accumulated in the mines after they were shut down in 1899. With the shipment of ore actually beginning, in November 1903 Bingham Consolidated sold the Dalton & Lark line to Rio Grande Western. (Interstate Commerce Commission Reports, Volume 26, p. 809; 26 ICC 809; the sale was dated November 3, 1903.)

The expansion of operations for Bingham Consolidated brought other changes. In May 1902, a year after the Copper Belt was brought under the mining company's control, the smelter was expanded to allow the production of lead. (Hansen, p. 273) In 1903, Bingham Consolidated began shipping copper sulfide ores from its former Brooklyn property. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 381)

In 1903 the Copper Belt Railway built a couple extensions to get the ore traffic of other mining companies in the canyon. The new construction included a spur to Boston Consolidated mine and the Yampa Consolidated mine, both in Carr Fork, along with another spur to the Yampa Consolidated's smelter. (1909 Bingham Commercial Club Souvenir booklet) The Yampa Consolidated Mining Co., had been organized in April 1901 as a consolidation of Yampa mine and seven other properties, all located on the north slope of Carr Fork. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 382) The Yampa smelter was completed in December 1903 and was located on the north slope of the canyon, about a quarter mile below Rio Grande Western's Bingham station. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 302) The spur to the Yampa smelter crossed the canyon just above the Bingham station and continued along the north slope to the smelter.

The new Copper Belt spur for Boston Consolidated was built after the mining company signed a two-year smelting contract to supply the Bingham Consolidated smelter in Midvale with 200 tons of ore per day. By October 1903, Boston Con was shipping as much as 500 tons per day from the Carr Fork mine. The mine was shipping 4,000 tons by February 1904. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 381) Considering that the average rail car at this time had a 30-ton capacity, 500 tons per day would have been about 16 carloads per day, and 4,000 tons per month would have been a total of about 133 cars per month, or just four carloads per day, averaged out over the month. This ore was all moving over the Copper Belt line to Bingham, then by RGW to Midvale.

The Boston Consolidated Mining Company had been organized in November 1898 to develop a copper producing property from 51 mining claims located in the upper portion of Carr Fork, with all of the copper coming from sulfide ores. Boston Con was involved in development work until late 1903 when they went into actual production. Up to that time, they had been shipping some sulfide copper ore taken as part of their development work. With the Bingham Consolidated smelting contract in 1903 they were ready for full production.

Another company, Utah Consolidated Mining Company, was also shipping large quantities of ore in 1903, from their Highland Boy mine, also in Carr Fork. Utah Consolidated Mining Company was a 1903 reorganization of a British company of the same name. The British company had been organized in October 1896 to develop the Highland Boy mine in Carr Fork as a gold and silver property. The Highland Boy mine had been first located in 1873. However, no work was done on the claim, other than assessment work, until 1896 when the British Utah Consolidated company began its development of the property. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 265) At the time of the 1903 reorganization, the new Utah Consolidated Mining Company of New Jersey property consisted of 31 claims on 239 acres, mostly along north slope of Carr Fork. (Wegg, p. 73)

But within two years the mine was mostly shipping sulfide copper ores. In 1897, three years before the Copper Belt was built, and to overcome the lack of cheap transportation, Utah Consolidated constructed a 12,500 foot long aerial tramway between the Highland Boy mine and the Rio Grande station at Bingham.

In September 1899 a study had been made of the copper producing potential some of the mining properties in Bingham Canyon. The study showed that there existed vast reserves of very low grade copper ore throughout the canyon. That low grade ore is called porphyry ore, and the study showed that the ore averaged 1.5 to 2 percent copper. This compared to the sulfide ore being processed at the time, with an average content of about 15 to 20 percent. The Boston Consolidated company, the Bingham Consolidated company, the Yampa Consolidated company, and the Utah Consolidated company were all shipping this higher grade sulfide copper ore, in addition to whatever higher value silver and lead carbonate (very high grade) ores that they could.

The mining engineer that had done the 1899 study, Daniel C. Jackling, also put into his report that this low grade ore could be processed at a profit, if the ore could be mined in quantities greater than was possible with the then current underground techniques.

The method that Jackling proposed was to use steam shovels to strip off the surface overburden, and then to also remove the actual ore itself with shovels, a process called open cut mining. The overburden would be moved in trains to other locations for disposal. The ore would then be moved by train to mills that would be designed and constructed to have the capacity to process the large amounts of ore needed to be profitable.

After shopping his proposal around to several potential investors, Jackling was finally able to organize his Utah Copper Company in July 1903, for the purpose of mining the low grade copper ore using his proposed, and as yet untried new methods. Utah Copper Company was formally incorporated on June 4, 1903, in Colorado. (Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 38) In August 1903 Utah Copper began construction of an experimental concentrator mill located at the mouth of Dry Fork Gulch, about two and a half miles down canyon from their mine, and about a mile and a half down canyon from Rio Grande Western's Bingham station. The new mill would have a daily capacity of accepting 300 tons of unprocessed low grade copper ore. (Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 39) The Copperton Mill, as the new mill was called, was built to test the new methods required to concentrate the low grade ore down to the 30 percent level that could be handled by the smelters.

In November, within three months of the start of construction of the experimental mill in August, Utah Copper began underground development of the mining property that was the basis for the formation of the company. (Rickard, p. 47; Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 40, says that the development work began in September) The Utah Copper mine was located very near the Copper Belt's route in Bingham Canyon, about a mile above the Rio Grande's Bingham station.

Utah Copper completed their Copperton mill in April 1904, and commenced operations in September, shipping its low grade ore from the mine to the Copperton mill, by way of the Copper Belt and the Rio Grande Western. (Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 39; Kennecott's own Historical Index says that operations commenced on July 1, 1904) At the same time, on April 29, 1904, Utah Copper was reorganized as a New Jersey corporation. This new company was organized to provide the finances necessary for further expansion of both mining operations, and milling operations, assuming that the experimental mill at Copperton would be successful. (Kennecott Historical Index) Until June 1907, all of the ore came from the underground mine. The concentrates from the Copperton mill were shipped to the Bingham Consolidated smelter at Midvale, by way of the RGW.

All of this growth of mining activity in Bingham Canyon brought with it the companion growth in the canyon's population. To better serve the canyon's residents, and to gain the benefits of having its own government, the City of Bingham Canyon was incorporated in March 1904. (Kennecott Historical Index) This would allow the city to tax its citizens and make necessary improvements. With the mostly male population, having a town organization would also allow the concerned residents to have their own police force.

With the sudden increase in traffic, the Copper Belt needed more locomotives. Additional power came in 1904 in the form of two more Shay locomotives, numbered as 2 (delivered in January) and 3 (delivered in April). (Koch, Shay locomotive builder's list) The new traffic began to tax the capacity of the Copper Belt. As an example, during October 1904 the Copper Belt handled 35,000 tons of ore, more than 1,000 tons per day. (Salt Lake Mining Review, November 15, 1904, p. 31) The ore was coming mostly from the sulfide mines, but Utah Copper's porphyry ore was becoming an important source of traffic.

On January 1, 1905 the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (not the hometown Rio Grande Western) purchased William Bayley's interest in the Copper Belt Railway and took over the operations of the railroad. (Interstate Commerce Commission Reports, Volume 26, p. 927; 26 ICC 927) The acquisition of the Copper Belt by the D&RG was part of George Gould's expansion plans to rebuild the rail empire of his robber baron father, Jay Gould, but which had fallen apart following the elder Gould's death in December 1892. The story of George Gould's expansion of the Denver & Rio Grande and his goal of the west coast has been told by others. When viewed in the context of Gould's plans for the Denver & Rio Grande, that road's control of the Copper Belt, comes as no surprise, since the Copper Belt was the originating carrier for all but two of the district's biggest producers: Bingham Consolidated, Boston Consolidated, Utah Copper, and Yampa Consolidated. The two other mine consolidations, Utah Consolidated and United States Mining, used aerial tramways from their mines down to loading tipples at RGW's Bingham station. In May 1901 the Denver & Rio Grande (in Colorado) had taken control of the Rio Grande Western (in Utah), and began operating the two roads as one system, so even these two users of aerial tramways depended on RGW to get their ores out of the canyon and to the smelters.

The traffic levels from the Bingham mines continued to increase so that in November 1905 the Copper Belt purchased another locomotive, Shay number 4. Still more power came when Shay number 5 was received in December 1906. Ownership of all five Copper Belt Shay locomotives passed to Denver & Rio Grande in 1908 with the consolidation which formed that company.

(QUESTION: Where and how were these former Copper Belt Shay locomotives used after the completion of the RGW's Low Grade line in 1907, and Utah Copper's own Bingham & Garfield in 1911, and until their retirement in 1926?)

Utah Copper Expansion

The year 1905 was one of great expansion for the mines and mining companies in Bingham Canyon, especially for Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated. Utah Copper's experimental Copperton mill was proving Jackling's theory of economies of scale, and the copper company was looking to build a large mill at a location outside of Bingham Canyon. Several things seemed to happen at the same time, and were likely all dependent on each other. During 1905, Utah Copper announced that it would build a mill on the south shore of Great Salt Lake, and American Smelting & Refining Company announced that they would build a smelter at a nearby location. The benefits for this location were twofold; first, there was plenty of fresh water from wells and springs that flowed into the lake. Second, there was ready railroad transportation to get the finished smelter product to market.

The expansion of Utah Copper's operation came from the Guggenheims, who also held majority interest in Standard Oil. One of their investment vehicles, the Guggenheim Exploration Company, provided the funding for Utah Copper to build its new mill at Magna, and the reorganization of Utah Copper in April 1904 was the result of the influx of Guggenheim money. The Guggenheims were also the majority owners of American Smelting & Refining (ASARCO), who had bought majority interests in most of the Salt Lake Valley smelters, wanting to consolidate the smelting operations in one large location to benefit from economies of scale that such an operation would provide. To tie their two new properties together, i.e., funding the expansion of Utah Copper, and consolidating the Utah smelters into a new large smelter at Garfield, Utah Copper signed a 20-year contract with ASARCO that would both guarantee a market for Utah Copper mining operations, and through their new mill at Magna, provide copper concentrates for the new Garfield smelter. (Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 46) Construction on the new Utah Copper mill began in November 1905. (Engineering and Mining Journal, March 17, 1906, p. 534; see also Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 50) Construction of the smelter began in same year. (Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 47) To formally get the new smelter organized and under construction, the Garfield Smelting Company was incorporated on November 17, 1905, as a subsidiary of the American Smelting & Refining Co. (Utah corporation files, index 5411) The smelter began operations in August 1906. (Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 47)

Along the same lines as their developments in Utah with Utah Copper, in 1906, the same Guggenheim interests backed the organization and development of Kennecott Mines Co., in Alaska. The Kennecott company would later become the Guggenheim vehicle for all of their mineral interests. (Kennecott Historical Index) In 1911, Kennecott Mines Co., began actual copper ore mining operations at its mine in Alaska. The mine had been in development since 1906 awaiting completion of the Copper River & Northwestern Railway, also owned by the same interests. The railroad was completed in 1911. (Source??)

Also in 1906, in an unusual example of cooperation, ASARCO, Utah Copper, and Boston Consolidated organized the Garfield Improvement Company to build the Garfield town site for the workers at their mills and smelter. Three-fifths was owned by ASARCO, with one fifth each owned by Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated. The three companies also organized the Garfield Water Company to develop and supply water to their mills and smelter and to the new town site. (Arrington: Richest Hole, pp. 47, 50)

(RESEARCH: smelter suit in Salt Lake valley)

Utah Consolidated closed its smelter in January 1908. (Mining Science, January 2, 1908, p. 29)

After the settlement of the smelter suit in 1907, in which several area farmers sued the smelters at Midvale and Murray over crop damage from sulfuric acid emissions, the smelters either closed or changed their operations. United States Mining Company closed the copper portion of its Midvale smelter and Bingham Consolidated closed its Midvale smelter completely due to smoke litigation (sulfur fumes from smelting of copper sulfide ores). (Hansen, p. 274; Kennecott Historical Index)

For the United States company, the changes were so extensive that they organized a new company to fund the changes in its Midvale smelter. The new company, named United States Smelting Company, was organized on March 7, 1907 as a new subsidiary of the larger United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co. (Utah corporation files, index 4172)

Ground was broken on Utah Copper's new Magna Mill during mid 1905, and all necessary concrete foundations were in by late in the year. Contracts for the steel structures were let in late December, and actual construction began during the first week of March 1906. (Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 81, January 6, 1906, p. 24, ground was broken "several months ago"; March 17, 1906, p. 534, item dated March 9, 1906, construction to commence "this week") Full operation began in November 1908. (Rickard, p. 51)

Although Boston Con beat Utah Copper in having its steam shovel for open cut mining delivered in December 1905, Utah Copper had intended using shovels for its own open-cut mining of low grade ore right from the start. In January 1906, Engineering and Mining Journal, a national mining trade publication reported that Utah Copper had ordered its first three shovels, and later that month they reported that the first shovel was shipped from the factory in mid month. It was expected to arrive in Utah by February 1st. (Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 81, January 6, 1906, p. 24; January 27, 1906, p. 198, item dated January 17) However, the local Salt Lake Mining Review reported in April 1907 that Utah Copper had ordered its first shovel, a standard gauge 95-ton model from Vulcan, for open-cut mining operations. The shovel was ordered from S. G. Shaw & Co., of Denver, along with three Davenport locomotives, and fifty K&J-brand dump cars. (Salt Lake Mining Review, April 30, 1906, p. 30; June 15, 1906, p. 32) The specifics of the later report adds to its credibility. The records of Utah Copper's later parent company, Kennecott, show that a second shovel, a second-hand model also from Vulcan, was added in December 1906. (Kennecott Historical Index) In July 1906, the Mining Review reported that Utah Copper had ordered an additional single locomotive from S. G. Shaw & Co. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 8, Number 7 (July 15, 1906), p. 32) By the end of 1908, Utah Copper was operating eight shovels and 17 locomotives in their open-cut operations. (Kennecott Historical Index)

The first use of steam shovels for open cut mining purposes in Utah was at the Cactus Mine in Beaver County, where one machine was used to strip capping from the ore bodies. (Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 81, March 3, 1906, p. 436) To observe successful use of open-cut mining methods, in April 1906 Utah Copper's Jackling and Gemmell traveled to iron mines in Minnesota. Their September 1899 report showed that open-cut methods were intended from the start, but the purchase of the shovels was delayed due to costs of construction of the experimental Copperton mill. (Rickard, p. 47; Arrington: Richest Hole, pp. 40, 52)

Open-cut operations began on the canyon slope directly above the opening to Utah Copper's underground mine. The trackage at the level of the underground mine became the ‘A-Level,' the starting point for the method of designating the 50 to 75-feet levels for open-cut operations. Utah Copper steam shovel open-cut operations begin in August 1906 on C-Level and D-Level, between 100 and 150 feet above the mine opening. Open-cut operations began with second-hand equipment, consisting of two Marion shovels, four small Davenport standard gauge locomotives, and several wooden six-yard dump cars. (Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 52) During the spring of 1907, Utah Copper completed the survey to extend the C-level line to the east side of Main Canyon, and a new timber trestle was built to reach the new extension. (Kennecott Historical Index) This new line was needed to connect the new Low Grade Line to other existing trackage.

A large portion of underground mining is done using the stoping method, which is the removal of ores from the ore body, and building a scaffolding of wood timbers to support mine roof and provide a working platform for the miners as they continue to remove ore from the face of the ore body. The structure of wood timbers is called a "stope."

During February 1906, open cut mining had yet to start, and all copper ore from Utah Copper's Bingham mine is being mined by stoping methods. Prior to November 1904 all ore was taken in development work, with the Copperton mill having been placed into operation in April 1904. (Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 81, February 10, 1906, p. 289; Rickard, on page 47, states that all ore taken previous to March 1907 was in development work.)

By September 1906, Utah Copper was working 165 men in both underground and open cut operations. (Engineering and Mining Journal, September 8, 1906, pp. 435, 436) In January 1907, Utah Copper stopped development work on its underground mine, with enough ore having been blocked out to last for several years. (Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 53)

In a further expansion move, in September 1907 Utah Copper enlarged the openings to the main haulage tunnels of its underground mine to allow standard gauge gondolas to be moved inside loaded from the ore bins inside the mine. (Engineering and Mining Journal, September 7, 1907, p. 437) Just a year earlier, Utah Copper had been using five-ton, 500 volt electric locomotives on 24 inch gauge track, hauling the ore in 2-1/2 ton side dump cars to the ore bins on the route of the Copper Belt railroad. (Engineering and Mining Journal, September 8, 1906, pp. 435, 436) By the end of 1907, Utah Copper was taking a third of its ore from the underground mine. (Mines & Minerals, January 1908, p. 262) Easier loading of standard gauge cars directly in the Utah Copper underground mine would further stretch the Copper Belt to its operational limits.

Also in September 1907, and because of lack of space in the Main Canyon, Utah Copper began grading down canyon for a new dump line, to be located above Rio Grande Western's new "Low Grade Line." Rio Grande Western had offered 7 cents per ton to remove the waste over its own line. (Engineering and Mining Journal, September 7, 1907, p. 437)

Boston Consolidated Expansion

Boston Consolidated had been working the higher grade sulfide ores in its mine in upper Carr Fork, but they too had discovered low-grade porphyry ores, very similar to those being worked by Utah Copper. In January 1905, the Boston company announced that they would begin working their porphyry property, and in June, they announced that they would build a concentrating mill adjacent to the new ASARCO smelter. This mill would use a different method than the one selected by Utah Copper to concentrate its low-grade copper ore. The final location was selected in November. (Mines & Minerals, May 1908, pp. 453, 455)

As part of its 1905 expansion, Boston Consolidated began planning for open-cut mining of its own porphyry property. In July, the company sent representatives to iron mines in upper Wisconsin, and to the Sun Rise iron mine in Wyoming to investigate open cut mining by steam shovel. In December, they received their first steam shovel, after having ordered it just a month before. Although the shovel arrived in December, getting it shipped up to the site of the open-cut operations, and getting it properly assembled took almost six months, and shovel operations finally began on June 24, 1906. In February 1906, at the same time Utah Copper was just installing their first shovel, Boston Con ordered its second steam shovel, along with five locomotives and forty cars. They also began surveys for a two-mile rail line that would connect the steam shovel porphyry levels of mine with the Copper Belt line. Construction of the new line, located at the top of Carr Fork, was delayed by winter weather. (Mines & Minerals, May 1908, p. 454; Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 81, March 3, 1906, p. 436, item dated February 24) In July, they ordered from the S. G. Shaw Co., of Denver, another forty cars. these would be of seven-ton capacity. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 8, number 7 (July 15, 1906), p. 32)

To test their own proposed method of concentrating the low grade copper ore, during the autumn of 1905, Boston Con built a small 20-ton experimental mill. The mill went into operation during early 1906. (Mines & Minerals, May 1908) On April 14, 1906, the company broke ground for its new concentrating mill at Garfield. The national press saw this as a good opportunity to compare the methods of reduction to be used by the two companies: Utah copper would be using roller mills to crush the ore and Boston Consolidated would be using stamp mills. (Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 81, April 21, 1906, p. 724, item dated April 14)

The mill of the Boston Consolidated company was not placed into operation until January 1908. The company had chosen the site, about two miles west of the Utah Copper Magna mill, in July 1905. But because of construction delays caused by the sudden demand in San Francisco for structural steel and other construction materials to rebuild from the April 1906 earthquake and fire, Boston Con was not able to complete its new mill as rapidly as did Utah Copper.

In May 1907, Boston Con was using four steam shovels, with five-yard dippers, and nine small narrow gauge steam locomotives in its porphyry operations to mine and ship as much as 750 tons per day. The company was also still shipping from its underground sulfide mine. In addition to moving Boston Con's 750 tons, the Copper Belt line was being kept busy with the other producers in the district, including (in Carr Fork) the Utah Consolidated's Highland Boy mine, the Utah Apex mine, and the Bingham-New Haven mine; and (in Main Canyon) Utah Copper, Ohio Copper, and Bingham Consolidated. U. S. Mining was using its aerial tramway to move its ores down to a loading bin on the RGW Bingham Branch at Bingham. (Mining & Scientific Press, May 11, 1907, p. 597) Of the producers in Carr Fork, the Bingham-New Haven Copper & Gold Mining Company had been organized in October 1902 to consolidate the Zelnora, Morning Star, and Frisco properties, located along north slope of Carr Fork. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 383) Utah Apex Mining Company had been organized five months earlier, in May 1902, in Maine to consolidate 33 claims (254 acres), also on Carr Fork's north slope. (Wegg, p. 77)

In a 1907 mortgage to fund its continued expansion, Boston Con listed four 90-ton steam shovels, one 90-ton Shay standard gauge steam locomotive, two 25-ton narrow gauge steam locomotives, nine 17-ton narrow gauge steam locomotives, two 40-horsepower electric narrow gauge locomotives used in its underground mine, 200 four-yard narrow gauge dump cars, 4,000 feet of standard gauge track, 5-1/2 miles of narrow gauge track, including underground trackage, and one locomotive roundhouse. (Source?) In September 1907, a contemporary trade publication, Mines & Minerals, stated that Boston Con was using four of the five shovels they owned (four Marions and one Vulcan, all being 90-ton shovels with five-yard dippers). Boston Con was also using ten 18-ton Porter locomotives (each pulling trains of 10 to 12 four-yard capacity cars) and two 28-ton Porter locomotives (each pulling trains of 15 to 20 four-yard capacity cars). ("Mining at Bingham, Utah," Mines & Minerals, Volume 28, September/October 1907, p. 90; photo of Boston Consolidated on page 92; photo of Utah Copper on page 92; photo of Bingham canyon on page 92)

The Boston Consolidated's open cut mine was located at the top of Carr Fork and reached around the mountain high above the workings of the Utah Copper company's mine at the bottom of the main canyon. In 1903 the Copper Belt had built a connection to the Boston company's sulfide ore bins located high in Carr Fork, above Highland Boy, using a system of torturous switchbacks. To ship the large quantities of ore from the porphyry mine that would be needed to keep the new mill in operation, in November 1907, Boston Consolidated completed a gravity tramway and ore storage bin. The 2,100 foot long tramway designed and built by S. B. Stine & Co., Oseola Mills, Pa., at an average 27 percent grade with three 400-ton wooden storage bins located at the top (open cut mine) and at two intermediate (underground mine) levels. The tramway consisted of two parallel pairs of tracks, with counter-balancing skipcars of 12-ton capacity each, giving the tramway a 300 tons per hour total capacity. At the bottom, the skips fed a 3,000-ton storage bin, 36 feet in diameter and 40 feet high.

At the same time, in late 1907 to allow movement of its copper ores to RGW's new Low Grade line, Boston Consolidated completed a one-mile rail connection between the new Copper Belt Junction (where the upper end of the new Low Grade Line connected with the Copper Belt) and the ore bin of the new gravity tramway. The cost of the connection, which included a tunnel, was $22,842. (Mines & Minerals, May 1908, p. 455; Mining Scientific Press, April 17, 1909, p. 553; Mines & Minerals, December 1909, p. 264)

With its new rail connection completed, and its new gravity tramway and storage bin in place, the new expanded Boston Con's operations began. Although Boston Con's open-cut shovel operations began in June 1906, they were involved in testing, development of the new method, and removal of overburden to get at the ore itself. The first ore was mined by the new open-cut operations on January 13, 1908, and on January 27, the new concentrator mill at Garfield (later referred to as the Arthur Mill, was placed into operation. (1908 Boston Consolidated directors report)

Boston Consolidated was dependent on the Rio Grande to furnish the needed switching to keep empty cars at its ore bin at the base of the gravity tramway, and to move the loaded ore cars over to the assembly yard at Cuprum. The switching fees Rio Grande charged were steadily increasing, so in 1909 that Boston Consolidated purchased a second-hand Shay locomotive, one that had been built as number 10 for the Clarion River Railway of Hallton, Pa. With the merger of the two mining companies in 1910, and the completion of the Bingham & Garfield in 1911, (which served as the common carrier in the canyon), Boston Con's Shay was no longer needed. In 1913 the locomotive was sold. (Koch, Shay locomotive builder's list, serial number 461)

RGW Low Grade Line

The expansion of Utah Copper to feed the new Magna mill, along with the likewise expansion of Boston Consolidated, would need a much better transportation system to get the very large quantities of low-grade copper from Utah Copper's Bingham mine, out of Bingham Canyon and 16 miles north to the new Magna mill. At the center of all this was the Rio Grande Western, and its Copper Belt connection at Bingham. With the Copper Belt being the only way to get Utah Copper ore out of the canyon, it was obvious that it would immediately be a serious bottle neck in the transportation process.

The construction of Rio Grande's Bingham Low Grade Line was in response to the need for higher capacity rail transportation in the booming Bingham Mining District. Both Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated were building mills outside of the district and both would soon be needing transportation facilities to move the projected vast quantities of low grade copper ore.

The Copper Belt Railroad, then in use, was both too steep, with 7 percent grades, and was not constructed to allow movement of the tonnage needed to keep the two companies mills in operation.

The Low Grade Line was surveyed starting in late July 1905. (Salt Lake Mining Review, July 30, 1905, p. 31) Utah Construction Company began the grading work in April 1906. (1909 Bingham Commercial Club Souvenir booklet) In September 1906 the shovels of the construction company struck copper ore while excavating for the new line. (Salt Lake Mining Review, September 15, 1906, p. 39)

The construction of the new line included a new assembly yard called Cuprum, located high on the south slope of the canyon, about 200 feet above the Rio Grande Western's depot for the town of Bingham. The new Low Grade Line connected with the Copper Belt's line about a mile further up the canyon, at Copper Belt Junction, just up-canyon from the surface workings and ore bins of the Utah Copper Company. The grade of the new line was kept low by building south along the east slope of the Oquirrh Range, outside of Bingham Canyon, and gaining elevation by looping back north, using a spectacular horseshoe curve, thereby entering the canyon about 500 feet higher than the Bingham Branch at the same point. The abandoned roadbed of the loop is still visible in aerial photographs of the area today.

Rio Grande Western's new Low Grade Line was about 13 miles in length, between the lower end at Loline Junction and the upper end at Copper Belt Junction. This compared to less than six miles for the combined RGW Bingham Branch and (by this time) D&RG's Copper Belt Railway that the new line replaced between the same two stations.

The first ore train operated over the new Low Grade Line on January 2, 1907. (Salt Lake Mining Review, October 30, 1911, p. 18) The line was not formally completed and turned over to the operating department until February. (Mines & Minerals, May 1908, p. 454)

(COMMENT: Other sources (26 ICC 809; Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 55; Utah Copper 1906 Annual Report) mistakenly state that the line was completed in April 1906, the date construction started.)

As part of the same expansion of railroad line capacity that saw the construction of the Low Grade Line, in August 1905 Rio Grande Western began work on the construction of a new branch to Garfield, to serve the new Utah Copper concentration mill, and the new ASARCO smelter. (Salt Lake Mining Review, August 15, 1905, p. 31) The new line would be built from a connection with the Bingham Branch at a new station called Garfield Junction (later Welby), and continue northwest to the new smelter site at Garfield, and was completed in November. (Salt Lake Mining Review, October 31, 1911, p. 18)

The new Garfield Branch (sometimes called the Garfield Beach Extension) connected with the Bingham Branch at a new station called Garfield Junction, later renamed Welby after A. E. Welby, the General Superintendent of the combined Rio Grande Western/Denver & Rio Grande system. The 16 mile Garfield Branch was completed to the new smelter site in November 1905 and work on the expansion project was stopped for the winter. Construction resumed the following April, with the grading work on the Low Grade Line.

In an agreement dated January 22, 1906 between Rio Grande Western on one side and Utah Copper, Boston Consolidated, and American Smelting & Refining on the other side, the railroad agreed to provide for the movement of ores and concentrates between the mines at Bingham and the mills and smelter at Garfield. (Source?)

On April 19, 1907 Utah Copper shipped its first train of low grade copper ore to its new Magna mill, by way of the new Low Grade Line and the new Garfield Branch. (Kennecott Historical Index) Work on Utah Copper's new 6,000-ton capacity concentrator mill, located on the new Garfield Branch at Magna, had began in November 1905 and the mill was placed into partial operation in June 1907. (Rickard, p. 51) The mill was formally completed and placed into full production in November 1908.

As already mentioned, Utah Copper's expansion included the start of open cut mining, using steam shovels to strip waste from above the low grade copper ore. That stripping operation would produce large amounts of waste rock, which had to be disposed of. In the initial proposal, Jackling had suggested that the various side canyons and gulches would be filled with the waste material. But Utah Copper only controlled a small number of empty gulches in the immediate vicinity of its mine. To give itself more room, Utah Copper made arrangements for surface rights to other property in the canyon, both above its mine, and further down canyon. To gain access to the down canyon property, they made surveys for a rail line that it would build. Rio Grande Western had offered to transport the waste rock themselves, but Utah Copper objected to the RGW's price of 7 cents per ton.

Copper Belt operations

Copper Belt Junction soon became a very busy point on the Copper Belt. A switching yard was constructed there to relieve some of the congestion. In later years this same yard was expanded to become Utah Copper's "A" Yard and was the starting point for the copper company's system for assigning a letter designation to each of the levels of its open cut mine. Still later when the copper company converted to a numbering system that reflected the elevation (in feet) of each level, the "A" level became the 6340 level.

Even though the Low Grade Line took most of the traffic, the Copper Belt still was kept in operation moving ores from the other mines down to the Rio Grande's Bingham station, along with ore for Utah Copper's Copperton Mill, which was still in operation. Even with most of the traffic going over the newly completed line, the tonnage moving over the Copper Belt was affecting the condition of the track. Derailments were starting to become regular events.

There were at least two spectacular derailments. The close proximity of homes and businesses just below the Copper Belt's line made for a great potential for damage should a train leave the tracks and fall down the hillside into any part of the town. And that is exactly what happened on February 12, 1912 with the derailment of one of the Copper Belt's Shays. The locomotive crashed through a shoe store and a lady's dry goods store, with one of the locomotive's trucks stopping across the street, standing on end against a telephone pole. The location was such that the locomotive's boiler could not be moved back up to the tracks. Instead it was loaded onto a wagon and freighted slowly down Bingham Canyon's main street, behind a team of 28 horses, to the Rio Grande Western's Bingham station where it was loaded on to a waiting flat car for a trip to the Copper Belt's locomotive shop to be re-mated with the locomotives frame and truck assemblies.

In another derailment, the Copper Belt's locomotive rolled only a short distance from the tracks, demolishing a laundry. The locomotive's boiler settled close enough to the tracks to be winched back up and loaded onto a flat car.

Bingham & Garfield Railway

Almost as soon as the mining companies began shipment of their ores to their respective mills, they started having troubles with the Rio Grande Western management, and the road's ability to move the copper ore out of the canyon. The mining companies wanted to move as much ore as possible and they wanted Rio Grande Western to buy more locomotives and cars and increase the capacity of the rail lines between the mines in Bingham Canyon and the mills at Garfield.

Rio Grande Western was reluctant to make the improvements, so on August 28, 1907 Utah Copper organized the Bingham Central Railway to build a new rail line between Bingham and Salt Lake City. The new railroad would also serve the adjacent smelting and mining districts. The projected line was said to include the construction of long tunnel. All of the officers were also officers of Utah Copper, including A. C. Ellis, Jr., who was president of both the railroad and the copper company. The projected road would connect with the newly completed lines of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake, and the Western Pacific at Salt Lake City. Then, either the San Pedro or the WP would move the ore trains over their own lines along the south shore of Great Salt Lake to Utah Copper's new mill at Garfield. (Utah corporation files, index 6542; Railway Gazette, Volume 43, number 10, September 6, 1907, p. 277; Railway Gazette, Volume 44, number 19, May 8, 1908, p. 655)

Utah Copper was unable to reach an agreement over the level of service which the San Pedro could provide in combination with the Bingham Central, so in July 1908 Utah Copper organized the Bingham & Garfield Railway. (Utah corporation files, index 7037; organized on July 8, 1908)

Utah Copper incorporated the Bingham & Garfield to give themselves full control over the movement of their own ores between their mine at Bingham and their mills and the smelter at Garfield. However, the most important reason the Utah Copper organized the Bingham & Garfield was that Utah Copper, as a corporation, did not have the power of eminent domain (the power to condemn property for the common good) -- an advantage that a railroad corporation does have.

The surveys and construction of the Bingham & Garfield began as soon as the road was incorporated in 1908.

Utah Construction Company was awarded the contract for construction of the new railroad on March 30, 1910, and work began on April 22nd. (Kennecott Historical Index; Salt Lake Mining Review, July 30, 1914, p. 15) Possibly to take advantage of the eminent domain clause of B&G's common carrier charter, on April 1, 1910, all of Utah Copper's mine trackage (over 25 miles) was transferred to the B&G subsidiary, then leased back to Utah Copper. (Interstate Commerce Commission Reports, Volume 106, p. 452 (106 ICC 452))

By November 1910, the Bingham & Garfield was about 70 percent graded, with the main line between Magna and the Garfield smelter being about 90 percent graded. All track materials were on hand, and track laying would begin shortly. (Salt Lake Mining Review, November 15, 1910, p. 37) The grading for Bingham & Garfield was complete by June 1911, with the track laid across the Dry Fork bridge on July 14, 1911. The grading for the Bingham yard was completed by the end of July. The locomotives also arrived at the end of July. (Salt Lake Mining Review, August 14, 1911, p. 18)

On September 14, 1911, Bingham & Garfield operated its first train, using new 2-8-8-0 Mallet number 100 and 41 new 60-ton hopper-bottom ore cars. At the beginning of operations, the Bingham & Garfield was truly a common carrier as there were approximately 25 other mines producing ore in Bingham canyon, and the Bingham & Garfield provided switching services between the mines and the Rio Grande Western at both Bingham and Cuprum, high on the south canyon wall. (Kennecott Historical Index) By the end of 1917 the Bingham & Garfield was moving an average of 32,019 tons of copper ore per day.

Because the line had to connect with Utah Copper's mine trackage, the Bingham & Garfield's depot at Bingham was considerably lower than the line's actual trackage in its Bingham yard. To allow passengers access from the rail line down to the town's streets, in 1911, B&G built a twin track inclined tramway from their street-level Bingham depot up to their Bingham yard (and Utah Copper's mine office). The site of the Bingham & Garfield depot was later taken by the Gemmell recreation building. (Kennecott Historical Index)

Merger of Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated

The 1910 merger was the result of the intense competition between the two mining giants in Bingham Canyon. The workings of the Boston Consolidated were high above those of Utah Copper and there were continuing safety problems with the control of loose materials and slides from above. Both companies wanted to expand their operations but each was hindered by the other. Jackling was quoted as saying "I knew that either they would take us or we would have to take them".

During early 1906, preliminary talks were started, but mid March, the talks broke off because the two parties could not agree on the tonnage of ore reserves that each company had available. the talks had been between Samuel Newhouse for Boston Consolidated, and Daniel Guggenheim, president of American Smelting Securities, which held controlling interest in Utah Copper. (Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 81, March 31, 1906, p. 630, item dated March 24, 1906)

By 1909, the initial success of Boston Con's open-cut operations was dimming. The company found that the high iron content of the ore it was taking by open-cut operations made the difficult to concentrate, and the costs were too high. The company announced that they would end their open-cut operations, but continue to mine both sulfide and porphyry ores from their underground operations. (1909 Boston Consolidated annual report)

On March 1, 1910 the Boston Consolidated Mining Company was merged with the Utah Copper Company, with two and a half shares of Boston stock being traded for each share of Utah stock. (Source??)

After the merger of Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated, and with the completion of the Bingham & Garfield, the traffic levels for the Rio Grande in Bingham Canyon were greatly reduced.

Most of the ore was going by the Bingham & Garfield and the other mines were also making changes to reduce their transportation costs.

Utah Copper purchased more equipment in 1910, including eight shovels, 12 standard gauge locomotives, and 80 12-cubic yard all-steel dump cars. (Source??)

Some of the Utah Copper ore continued going to their original mill at Copperton. But that mill was closed and dismantled in August 1910. (Rickard, p. 51; Arrington: Richest Hole, p. 40; the mill was formally closed on August 1, 1910) The mill had been built to have a 300 ton per day capacity. By the time that it was closed, the Copperton Mill had been expanded to the point that Denver & Rio Grande was delivering 1,000 tons per day. When the mill was closed, its machinery was installed in Utah Copper's Arthur Mill, formerly the Boston Consolidated mill, about a mile west of the company's Magna Mill. The 1,000 tons per day that Denver & Rio Grande had been moving to the Copperton Mill then began moving over the Bingham & Garfield to the mills at Magna.

Between 1908 and 1911, while the Bingham & Garfield was being built, the traffic patterns from the mines in the canyon were changing. The three large smelters that had been built in Salt Lake Valley, starting in 1899, were the subject of a suit brought in 1905 by farmers over crop damages from air pollution in the agricultural areas surrounding the smelters. The settlement of the suit called for the mining companies to stop processing copper sulfide ores at their Salt Lake Valley smelters.

Rail traffic on the Bingham Branch increased to its capacity after the Yampa smelter at Bingham burned in 1909. (Kennecott Historical Index) The Yampa smelter had been the earlier destination for sulphide ores, but these ores now had to be moved to the Garfield smelter, located on the Garfield Branch. The increased traffic on the Bingham Branch, along with the ore trains coming off the Low Grade Line was causing a bottle neck at Loline Junction. To relieve some of the congestion, the railroad added a second track from there down to Welby in 1910. Additional traffic was also coming to the Bingham Branch from the Lark Branch, which Rio Grande Western had purchased in November 1903.

Ohio Copper Company and the RGW Lark Branch

In 1901, the Bingham Consolidated company, as the reason for its Dalton & Lark Railroad, had projected the construction of the Dalton & Lark Drainage Tunnel. Although the tunnel was never completed, the idea for a tunnel between the mines in Bingham Canyon and the east slope of the Oquirrhs, outside of the canyon, did not die. The Ohio Copper company was organized in October 1903 to work 120 acres of mining claims that included the Columbia and Erie claims in Bingham Canyon. Having discovered the same low grade copper ore that both Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated were taking from their mines, the Ohio company began working the Columbia mine's copper-bearing ores in pioneering What Cheer and All's Well claims. (USGS Professional Paper 38, p. 381; Arrington: Richest Hole, pp. 87, 88)

Ohio Copper decided against the open-cut mining methods used by Utah Copper. Due to their unique location within the ore veins, the Ohio company saw that the best way for them to process their ore was to transport it by way of a tunnel from the company's underground mine to a concentrator mill which they would build at Lark, on the east slope outside the canyon, located on the Lark Branch of the Rio Grande Western.

In August 1907 Ohio Copper was reorganized to finance the construction of the Lark mill. At the time the company projected that it would be shipping between 1,500 and 2,000 tons of copper per day. (Wegg, p. 75) Early in 1908 the tunnel was completed and in June 1908 the Lark mill went into partial production, with a stated daily capacity of 3,000 tons. (Salt Lake Mining Review, May 15, 1908, p. 33) The first section was formally completed in 1909. (USGS Professional Paper 111) The mill's third, and last, section was completed in April 1913 and the mill went into full production, by which time, Ohio Copper had produced 690,001 pounds of copper from 71,225 tons of ore processed (9.7 pounds of copper per ton of ore). (Engineering and Mining Journal, June 7, 1913, p. 1172) Ohio Copper began calling the tunnel the Mascotte Tunnel, for one of the company's organizing directors.

There was another tunnel from Bingham out to a mill. In December 1909, Utah Metal Mining began work on tunnel from Carr Fork, west through and under the Oquirrh Mountains to the International smelter. Utah Metal Mining Company had been organized in 1909 to consolidate the Bingham Central Mining Co., Bingham Standard Copper Co., and Bingham Mining Co. properties. By the end of 1912, the 11,490 foot Bingham-Tooele Tunnel of the Utah Metal Mines Company was 92 percent complete. Work had been delayed at the Bingham end by the strike in September. Cost of the tunnel work was about $16.45 per foot. (Engineering and Mining Journal, March 1, 1913, p. 496) The tunnel was completed in June 1913. (Wegg, p. 52)

International Smelter

The International Smelter near Tooele was completed in February 1912. First furnace "blown in" on the 29th. (Engineering and Mining Journal, January 11, 1913, p. 87)

Further expansion of operations

During 1911, 74 percent of all Utah Copper ore was mined by steam shovels in the open cut mine, 4 percent came from the Utah Copper underground mine, and 22 percent came from the former Boston underground porphyry mine. (Kennecott Historical Index) In October 1911, Utah Copper equipment consisted of 25 steam shovels, 53 locomotives, and 408 cars. (Salt Lake Mining Review, October 30, 1911, p. 19)

(QUESTION: What percentage, if any, was coming from the underground Boston sulfide mine?)

A strike was called by the Western Federation of Miners on September 17, 1912 for all underground miners, for an increase of 50 cents per day. To replace the striking workers, on October 9, Utah Copper and Utah Consolidated brought in strikebreakers and most producers were back in reduced production by mid October. The strike resulted in Utah Copper closing the underground workings of its original mine due to costs (76 cents per ton) being much higher than open cut mining (35 cents per ton). Work resumed in November in the former Boston mine, with costs of 66 cents per ton. (Engineering and Mining Journal, May 17, 1913, p. 1008; Rickard, p. 48) The strike ended on December 1, 1912 when Utah Copper raised wages of surface labor to $2.20 for a 10-hour shift (an increase of 20 cents), "as long as copper stays above 17 cents". (Engineering and Mining Journal, January 11, 1913, p. 87)

During 1912, Utah Copper removed 4,835,479 cubic yards of overburden, and during the same period, the company mined and shipped 28,720,234 tons of copper ore. (Wegg, p. 89) The company was taking 78 percent of ore from the open cut mine, 18 percent from the former Boston underground mine and 4 percent from the original Utah underground mine. (Engineering and Mining Journal, May 17, 1913, p. 1008; Wegg, p. 93)

The 1913 Utah Copper annual report shows the following Bingham & Garfield equipment: four Mallet locomotives; eight heavy switcher locomotives; one light switcher locomotive; 375 steel hopper bottom ore cars; 75 steel concentrate cars; and 50 general service hopper bottom gondolas.

Utah Copper production for 1913 saw an increase in mill production of 41 percent, over the same period in 1912. Most of the increase came from converting the former Boston Consolidated Arthur mill to match the methods used at Utah Copper's own Magna mill. During 1913 both mills were processing 24,000 tons of ore daily, with 14,000 tons going to Magna and 10,000 tons going to Arthur. Arthur managed an 81 percent increase, from 1,860,521 tons in 1912 to 3,376,692 tons in 1913. Magna's 19 percent increase resulted in 4,142,700 tons in 1913 compared to 3,454,800 tons in 1912. Also the grade of the ore being mined was going down; 1912 saw 1.36 percent ore (18 pounds of copper per ton of ore mined) and production for 1913 was from 1.25 percent ore (16 pounds of copper per ton of ore mined). (Wegg, pp. 43,45) Ore production for 1913 had 91 percent of the ore coming from the open cut operations at a cost of 29 cents per ton. The cost of underground mining, in the former Boston mine, was 69 cents per ton. (Engineering and Mining Journal, August 8, 1914, p. 270)

In April 1913, the Bingham Consolidated company connected their Yosemite shaft with Ohio Copper's Mascotte Tunnel. (Engineering and Mining Journal, April 19, 1913, p. 828; the work was completed on April 6, 1913.) By this time the Ohio Copper tunnel had been greatly improved and was the home of a high production, three-mile long, double-track, electrified mining railroad that had been christened the "Bingham Central Railroad". During this time, the Ohio Copper company alone was shipping over 65,000 tons of copper ore per month to their Lark concentrator mill, by way of the Mascotte Tunnel. (Wegg, p. 48)

Bingham Consolidated was selling its ore to both American Smelting at Garfield, and to International Smelting at Tooele. Its own smelter had been closed, and in March 1913, they had sold the facility to Utah Junk Co. (Engineering and Mining Journal, March 29, 1913, p. 679)

Other smelters operating in 1913 included the American Smelting & Refining plants at Garfield and Murray, the International plant at Tooele, and the United States Smelting & Refining plant at Midvale.

Equipment in 1913 at the American Smelting & Refining copper smelter at Garfield (owned by Garfield Smelting Company, a subsidiary of American Smelters Securities) included: 16 miles of standard gauge track; five 6-ton general Electric locomotives; three 3-ton general Electric locomotives; four other General Electric locomotives; one Browning 15-ton locomotive crane; two bay City 15-ton locomotive cranes; two American 26-ton saddle tank locomotives; and one American 45-ton saddle tank locomotive. (Wegg, p. 114)

Equipment in 1913 at the International smelter in Tooele included four 12-ton electric locomotives. (Wegg, p. 111) Utah Consolidated shipped 181,077 tons of 1.98 percent copper ore during 1913 from the Highland Boy mine to the International smelter, via their aerial tramway. (Wegg, p. 46)

Equipment in 1913 at the United States smelter at Midvale included: four 10-ton electric locomotives used at the lead blast furnace, possibly operating on 6-foot gauge track. (Wegg, p. 109) United States Mining shipped 78,165 tons of lead ore to their Midvale lead smelter during 1913, along with shipping 123,757 tons of copper ore to the other smelters. (Wegg, p. 49)

Although ores from Bingham were the focus of smelters by this time, other metal ores were coming to the smelters from other mining districts, and were mainly used to balance the metallurgy of the smelting process. The Salt Lake & Alta Railroad was completed between Sandy and Wasatch, at the mouth of Little Cottonwood canyon in November 1913, to transport the Alta district ores to the smelters. (Wegg, p. 69)

In 1914 United States Mining stopped using their aerial tramway between their mine in Galena Gulch and the Rio Grande station at Bingham. With the Bingham Consolidated's connection with Ohio Copper's tunnel, Bingham Consolidated sold its Niagara Tunnel to the United States Mining company to use as their main haulage tunnel. The new United States operation used three 8-ton Porter compressed air locomotives to deliver the ore to ore bins located outside the former Niagara portal, where the company built new machine shops, power plant, and compressor house. (Wilson thesis, p. 28) The new ore bins were served by the Bingham & Garfield as part of its common carrier service to all of the mines in Bingham Canyon, further reducing the ore traffic for Denver & Rio Grande.

To Move A Mountain

Railroads and mining in Utah's Bingham Canyon

Early Copper Era, 1900-1914

See also:

See also: