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Rogers Mill at Bingham

This page was last updated on December 5, 2017.

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Rogers' Mill (First)

(1891-1895)

(Research suggests that the site of the first Rogers mill was on the same site as the Jackson and Bennett Mill of 1877.)

The following summary of the first Rogers Mill comes from Eva Hoffman's EPA report of 2005:

December 24, 1892
"Rogers' Mill." "John Rogers, who has been running a one-stamp in the gulch immediately below the South Galena and other big mines, has increased his capacity to five stamps, and handling a great deal of tailings and other refuse, out of which he makes a very fair profit." (Salt Lake Herald, December 24, 1892)

Rogers' Mill (Second)

(1895-1904)

(Research suggests that the site of the second Rogers mill was on the east side of Bingham canyon, located on the line of the horse tram, across from the intersection with Copper Center Gulch, very near the surface workings of the Columbia mine, which was later Ohio Copper.) (This site also matches the documented 1.5 mile distance along the horse tram from its lower terminal adjacent to the Rio Grande Bingham depot.)

The Rogers mill was located "at about the center of the Utah Copper property", along the line of the Copper Belt railroad. (Salt Lake Mining Review, October 30, 1911)

A map printed in The Utah Copper Enterprise, page 23, shows the Rogers mill at the bottom of Bingham canyon, adjacent to the All's Well claim of Ohio Copper company.

The following summary of the second Rogers' Mill comes from Eva Hoffman's EPA report of 2005:

January 1, 1896
"Rogers Mill." "Mr. Rogers one year ago had a mill up near the Old Spanish and was doing well with it. The operations of the mills and jigs above there cut off his supply of suitable water, so last fall he moved it down the gulch a mile and now has a fine stamp mill having a capacity to handle sixty tons of ore each twenty-four hours. His is a wet crushing and dressing process, the pulp going from the battery to hydraulic sizers, thence to jig, where concentrates are collected, while tailings are run into two round tanks or puddlers having revolving booms. This arrangement collects concentrates, while permitting slime to pass down the canyon. Before moving the mill, Mr. Rogers ran it about four months and handled over 250 tons of ore. The removal and changes in his mill, increasing the capacity much, cost about $1200." (Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1896)

March 1, 1896
"Standish & Jimpson, lessees of the Galena tram, are grading for connection with the Rogers mill. The mill is doing custom work, but will be run principally on Ashland ore. The Ashland is another fine property that is coming into prominence." (Salt Lake Tribune, March 1, 1896)

Throughout 1897 and 1898, there were regular news items about various mines, usually the Northern Chief mine and the Giant Chief mine, shipping concentrates from the Rogers mill by way of the Standish & Jimpson horse tram, usually in lots from 35 to 50 tons each.

January 1, 1898
"Rogers Mill." "The Rogers mill consists of crushers, stamps, jigs and puddlers, which reduce twenty tons of ore each nine-hour shift. It does good work in handling low-grade ores. During the past year it ran about nine months, in which time it concentrated 6500 tons of ore furnished by the Northern Chief, Giant Chief, Eighteen Eighty-nine, Spanish, Rough and Ready and leasers on the Old Jordan and South Galena mines. On base ore its concentration is about two and a half tons into one, while carbonate ores run as high as six into one. The product of concentrates the past year was about 2000 tons shipped to the smelters. The mill, with one shift per day, was operated by four men. J. B. Rogers, proprietor of this plant, has done well in handling such ores the past four or five years." (Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1898)

January 9, 1898
"The little Rogers mill has had a steady run during the past five months. It reduced between 5000 and 6000 tons of ore in 1897, and work was very satisfactory to customers." "The Markham mill, after resting about a year and a half, has been busy all week on Giant Chief ore and appears to be running smoothly and doing good work. The Giant Chief will give it a steady job." (Salt Lake Tribune, January 9, 1898)

March 27, 1898
"The Rogers mill started up yesterday on ore from All's Well, under lease to the Butte Bingham Copper company." (Salt Lake Tribune, March 27, 1898)

May 31, 1898
Capt. De Lamar leased the old Rogers mill to use as the site of experimental processes to extract value from water from the Starless mine that has a high concentration of copper. (Salt Lake Tribune, May 31, 1898)

During the last half of 1898, the Rogers mill continued to process ore from other mines, including the leased Old Jordan (300 tons monthly), the Northern Chief (150 tons monthly), and the Greeley.

January 1, 1899
"Rogers Mill." "This reduction works up main Bingham ran about ten months in 1898, in which time about 5000 tons of ore were put through, yielding 1200 tons of concentrates. Two classes of ore were concentrated of which 225 tons was carbonate, averaging from 40 to 45 percent lead, while the other 4775 tons of base an average of 20 percent lead. These crude ores came from the Old Jordan & South Galena, Rip Van Winkle, Spanish, Eighty-nine, Northern Chief, Queen, Greeley, Silver Shield, and some other mines. This mill, belonging to J. B. Rogers, has a capacity of twenty tons per day of nine hours, and consists of crushers, stamps, jigs and puddlers and saves the metals up to a high percent." (Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1899)

March 5, 1899
"Standish & Jimpson, having secured a half interest in the Rogers mill, will immediately increase its capacity to forty tons. The building is to be enlarged and supplied with a new engine and boiler, rock crusher and Wilfley table. The latter has arrived, and as soon as it can be set up the mill will start on a 300-ton lot of carbonate from Rogers' Old Jordan lease. The new outfit will be known as the Rogers Milling company, with veteran mill man J. B. Rogers, as manager." (Salt Lake Tribune, March 5, 1899)

March 20, 1899
"Standish & Jimpson are putting in the new boiler at the Rogers mill." "Rogers mill will soon be running on a lot of second-class ore from the Northern Chief." (Salt Lake Herald, March 20, 1899)

June 26, 1899
Capt. De Lamar has leased the Rogers mill to sample and experiment copper-bearing porphyry ore from the properties being promoted by Col. E. A. Wall, in which Capt. De Lamar "recently became interested." The mill had a capacity of 25 tons per day, and was equipped with crushing rolls, two Wilfley tables, and a Frue vanner. The mill was leased on June 8, and went into operation on June 26. Previous tests had been run at the Markham mill, but were unsuccessful. By July 3, the five-stamp mill was running three shifts per day, processing 18 tons per day. Several new tanks had been added to leach the tailings from the Wilfley tables. Hartwig A. Cohen, De Lamar's chief of staff, was the new mill manager. (Salt Lake Herald, June 8, 1899; June 14, 1899; Salt Lake Tribune, June 27, 1899; Salt Lake Herald, July 3, 1899)

(D. C. Jackling was a metallurgist working for De Lamar at his Golden Gate mill at Mercur, and was sent to Bingham to explore the potential of the ores on Wall's properties. Jackling remodeled the Rogers mill to test and experiment on the low-grade copper porphyry ore. -- The Utah Copper Enterprise, page 18)

November 12, 1899
The Rogers mill was processing 200 tons of copper-bearing ore from the What Cheer mine of Columbia Copper Mining Co. Reduction was 12 to 1, and the final product was 30 percent copper. (Salt Lake Tribune, November 12, 1899)

December 5, 1899
The Columbia Copper Mining company shipped a carload of concentrate from the Rogers mill. The product was 40 percent copper, with $7 in gold and some silver. The ore was being reduced 15 to 1. The company was very happy with the results from the Rogers mill, but was looking forward to increased concentration of its ore from a mill built specifically for its ore. (Salt Lake Tribune, December 5, 1899)

December 31, 1899
Capt. De Lamar no longer has an interest in the so-called Wall group, and let his option expire. Col. E. A. Wall continued looking for investors for his low-grade porphyry copper properties south of the Boston Consolidated. It was reported that an "almost limitless amount of material" existed in a vast quarry of millions of tons of ore that was 1 to 2.5 percent copper. The extensive and elaborate tests first at the Markham mill "last winter," then at the Rogers mill "last summer," showed that a mill of 500 tons capacity could be built to pay "handsomely." (Salt Lake Herald, December 31, 1899)

"The Rogers mill, at Upper Bingham, is smaller, and during 1900, was running fairly steadily on leasers' ore. It is equipped with 5 stamps of 650 pounds each, 2 revolving screens of 8 and 16 mesh, 3 jigs, 2 Wilfley tables, and a hydraulic sizer. Both copper and lead ores are treated. The capacity averages 20 to 25 tons in eight hours, but varies with the hardness, ranging from 10 to 30 tons. In 1900, during 250 days, 5,500 tons of ore were concentrated." (Economic Geology of the Bingham Mining District, Utah, by John Mason Boutwell, USGS Professional Paper 38, 1905, page 95)

During 1900 and 1901, the Rogers mill, still apparently a small five-stamp mill, continued to process copper ore from the Columbia mine, as well as lead ore from the Old Jordan. Ore was also coming from the Butterfield mine in Butterfield canyon, by wagons over the divide into Bingham canyon.

December 13, 1901
Col. E. A. Wall purchased the Rogers mill, also referred to as "the old mill" and "the little mill." He intended to continue testing ore from his porphyry copper-bearing claims to develop the best methods to treat the ore. There was a reserve of 200 million tons of 1 to 2 percent copper, at $2 of copper in each ton. Previously, Capt. De Lamar was to purchase a three-quarter interest in the claims, but Col. Wall is now in it alone. (Salt Lake Tribune, December 13, 1901; Salt Lake Herald, December 15, 1901)

February 11, 1902
Col. Wall has finished his tests and will turn over the Rogers mill to the processing of ore from the Columbia group. (Salt Lake Herald, February 11, 1902)

July 11, 1902
John B. Rogers passed away "yesterday" (July 11) in his home in Bingham canyon, from cancer from which he had been suffering for a long time. "The deceased was the owner of the Rogers mill at Bingham and was perhaps the most familiar figure in the mining camp." He was 59 years old and was survived by his wife and nine children. (Deseret Evening News, July 12, 1902)

John B. Rogers was born on March 24, 1844. Upon the death of his wife Mary Bond Rogers on August 19, 1934 in Salt Lake City, it was shown that the family had lived in Bingham for 32 years, until 1909, when they moved to Salt Lake City. Their nine children (four daughters) were Elizabeth Jane, Mary A., Carrie, Grace A.; (five sons) Samuel J., William Henry, Richard R., Louis J., and Frank B. Two sons, William and Richard were still living in Bingham in 1934.

July 29, 1903
The Rogers mill now had electric lights and a second shift was to be put on "Saturday" (August 1) to increase the processing of Columbia ore, increasing capacity to 30 tons per day on two shifts. The ore was coming from the What Cheer claim and was being reduced from 4.5 tons to one ton. (Salt Lake Herald, July 29, 1903)

January 17, 1904
The Winnamuck mill was standing ready to replace the Rogers mill, as soon as the railroad spur was completed and 500 tons had been loaded into the new mill's ore bins. (Salt Lake Tribune, January 17, 1904)

May 29, 1904
Col. Wall was using the Rogers mill to reduce a 400-ton lot of low grade ore. (Salt Lake Tribune, May 29, 1904)

In July 1904, Wall purchased the old Dewey mill, located between Markham Gulch and the junction of Carr Fork and Bingham Canyon. The Dewey mill was larger and would permit Wall to continue his testing and development of concentrating methods for low-grade copper ore.

(The last online newspaper reference identified for the Rogers mill was in early August 1904, showing a John Rogers using the Rogers mill to process ore from mines owned by the Rogers estate.)

(In the time frame after 1910, there was a Rogers mill in Manhattan, Nevada, owned by Thomas D. Rogers.)

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