Newhouse Mines and Smelters Company
Newhouse, Copper Gulch & Sevier Lake Railroad (1903-1915)
This page was last updated on May 29, 2011.
(This is a work in progress; research continues.)
Additional Information
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Timeline
May 13, 1903
Newhouse Mines and Smelters Company was incorporated on May 13, 1903 in New York. Capitalization was reported as $6 million. "It is understod that mills and smelters capable of 1500 tons of copper ore per day have already been contracted for and are about to be constructed. (New York Times, May 14, 1903, "yesterday") Filed in Utah on May 16, 1903. (Utah corporation index number 4450)
February 29, 1904
News item about the Newhouse Extension of the Frisco Branch being surveyed. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 5, number 22, February 29, 1904, p.36)
April 30, 1904
News item about Samuel Newhouse and his building of the Newhouse and Cactus
mine and mill. $100,000.00 was to be spent for the railroad extension. (Salt
Lake Mining Review, Volume 6, number 2, April 30, 1904, p.20)
April 30, 1904
Samuel Newhouse paid $99,688.65 to the SPLA&SL for the construction of the Newhouse Extension, including the terminal at the Cactus Mine, near the mouth of Copper Gulch. The railroad was seven miles in length. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 6, number 2, April 30, 1904, p.36)
As part of the construction of the Newhouse Extension, SPLA&SL also constructed the three-mile long "Newhouse, Copper Gulch & Sevier Lake Railroad" which operated between the mining company's Cactus Mine and their mill at Newhouse. (source not recorded)
August 30, 1904
The grading of the Newhouse Extension was begun, with work on grade to the
Cactus mine commencing at mouth of Copper Gulch. (Salt Lake Mining Review,
Volume 6, number 10, August 30, 1904, p.31)
September 1904
SPLA&SL completed the 5.96-mile Newhouse Extension, from Frisco on the Frisco Branch to Newhouse, to serve the copper mine that was being developed near there. The line was surveyed in February 1904. (Salt Lake Mining Review, February 29, 1904, p. 36) Construction was begun in June 1904, using $99,688.65 advanced for the purpose by Samuel Newhouse, owner of Newhouse Mines & Smelters. (SPLA&SL corporate history; Salt Lake Mining Review, April 30, 1904, p. 36)
October 30, 1904
News item about Camp Newhouse. The Newhouse Extension was being graded between
Newhouse and the Cactus mine, with four and a half percent grade and three
mile length. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 6, number 14, October 30, 1904,
p.23)
December 17, 1904
The Newhouse, Copper Gulch & Sevier Lake Railroad was incorporated in Utah on December 17, 1904. The line included 4.5 percent grades and was operated using a 65-ton Shay locomotive. The mill went into full production in March 1905. (Salt Lake Mining Review, October 30, 1904, p. 23; December 30, 1904, p. 15; February 28, 1905, p. 25) (Utah corporation index number 4988)
December 30, 1904
Article about Samuel Newhouse's enterprises at Newhouse, with two photographs of the Cactus Mill at Newhouse. A 65-ton Shay (spelled "Chay") locomotive was used to "steady" trains of side dump cars down the four percent grade from the Cactus mine to the mill, three miles from the mine. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 6, number 18, December 30, 1904, p.15) The Newhouse, Copper Gulch & Sevier Lake Railroad had been incorporated. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 6, number 18, December 30, 1904, p.21)
In 1905, Samuel Newhouse, a mining profiteer from Pennsylvania, bought these mines, originally named the Cactus Mines, renamed them the Newhouse Mines and Smelters, and built the small town Newhouse around the mines. The venture was very costly, but did produce some capitol for Newhouse. Because of debt and other economic hardships, Newhouse sold and abandoned the town and mines in 1910. (Summary for "Newhouse Mines and Smelters Records," Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)
December 15, 1905
Article about Newhouse Mines & Smelters, with photographs. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 7, number 17, December 15, 1905, pp.19-27)
June 15, 1906
The first steam shovel used in Utah was of Vulcan make, and was used at the Cactus group near Newhouse. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 8, number 5, June 15, 1906, p.27)
April 30, 1907
Description of tour of Frisco and Newhouse. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 9, number 2, April 30, 1907, pp.25,26)
March 15, 1909
News item about the shutdown and closing of Newhouse Mines & Smelters mine and mill. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 10, number 23, March 15, 1909, p.20)
October 30, 1909
News item about South Utah Mines taking over the Newhouse mill. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 11, number 14, October 30, 1909, p.30)
November 15, 1909
News item about South Utah Mines & Smelters, formerly Newhouse. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 11, number 15, November 15, 1909, p.33)
November 15, 1910
News item about the first annual meeting of the South Utah Mines & Smelters Company. The company was the reorganized Newhouse Mines & Smelters. Samuel Newhouse, credited with the largest block of shares, was elected as a director upon the resignation of L. A. Kramer. Newhouse had not been officially connected with the company prior to this. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 12, number 15, November 15, 1910, p.32)
August 30, 1911
"Description of South Utah Mine & Mill", article describing South Utah Mines & Smelters at Newhouse, with photographs (same photographs used in the earlier Newhouse article, including the view of the Shay pushing loads up the trestle). (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 13, number 10, August 30, 1911, p.13)
In 1923 there was a U. S. Supreme Court case brought by South Utah Mines & Smelters against Beaver County, concerning the value, for taxing purposes, of a deposit of mill tailings located on the mining company's lands. The U.S. Supreme court reversed the lower court's decision, affirming the mining company's statement that the tailings were of lower value. (U.S. Supreme Court SOUTH UTAH MINES & SMELTERS v. BEAVER COUNTY, 262 U.S. 325, Argued and Submitted March 15, 1923. Decided May 21, 1923) (Findlaw article)
The plaintiff is a mining corporation organized and existing under the laws of Maine, and since 1909 has owned mining property in Beaver County, Utah, consisting of mining claims, a concentrating mill, now obsolete and largely dismantled, and other property incident thereto. The property was continuously operated until August, 1914. The ores were copper-bearing and upon extraction were transported to the mill and there crushed and concentrated; the resulting concentrates being shipped and sold to smelters at some distance away. As a result of the concentrating operations refuse material, still retaining small quantities of copper and other metals, was deposited near the concentrating mill as tailings. This deposit was begun by plaintiff's predecessor as early as May, 1903, and from then until August, 1914, approximately 900,000 tons of tailings were accumulated upon desert land owned by plaintiff, nonmineral in character, and located about three miles from its mining claims. At the time of the accumulation of these tailings there was no known process by which th small percentage of metals which they contained could be profitably recovered. In August, 1914, plaintiff stopped work on its mining claims and has never since resumed. In January, 1914, plaintiff made an agreement with the Utah Leasing Company for the treatment and reduction of this deposit upon a royalty of 10 per cent. The leasing company took possession of the tailings, constructed reduction works, using in connection therewith some of the plaintiff's improvements on its mining property, and, as result of its operations, recovered from the tailings in the year 1918 the net amount of $ 120,547, 10 per cent of which was paid over to the plaintiff, under the terms of the agreement.
(click here for more information about the abandonment and removal of the Frisco Branch and the Newhouse Extension.)
Samuel Newhouse Biography
The following comes from an undocumented source:
Samuel Newhouse (1853-1930) was born on October 14, 1853 in New York City. Newhouse was the son of Jewish immigrant parents from Europe. He grew up in Pennsylvania. He studied law before going to Leadville, Colorado in 1879, where he was involved in the freighting business. Newhouse married Ida Stingley in 1883; she was a sixteen year old girl whose mother ran a boarding house in Leadville, Colorado. Together, the Newhouses operated a hotel there. Samuel later acquired mining property at Ouray, Colorado, and he eventually sold it for several million dollars. Afterward he moved to Denver where he operated as a speculator and promoter, and cultivated contacts in the eastern United States, England, and France.
In 1896 Newhouse moved to Utah, where he and Thomas Wier acquired the Highland Boy mine and other properties at Bingham Canyon. Newhouse secured English investments in the enterprise, and then organized them as the Utah Consolidated Gold Mines, Ltd. These properties were originally purchased for their gold potential; however, when high-grade copper ore was discovered, Newhouse pushed for construction of a copper smelter in September 1898 which was built at Murray and put in operation on May 23, 1899. In 1899 Standard Oil Company acquired the Utah Consolidated Gold Mines in a twelve-million dollar transaction. In 1898 Newhouse and Wier developed the Boston Consolidated Copper and Gold Mining Company, Ltd. They maintained control of that company until 1910, when it merged with Utah Copper Company.
In 1905 Samuel Newhouse acquired mining property in the San Francisco Mountains of Beaver County. He spent $2,000,000 there developing the mine, mill, and town of Newhouse. Newhouse was perhaps, at the time, the wealthiest of Utah's mining magnates, and occupied four residences: a home at 175 East South Temple in Salt Lake City which he renovated as a colonial style mansion in about 1905; an estate on Long Island; a chateau outside Paris, France; and a mansion in London, England.
Newhouse liked living in Salt Lake City, but his wife preferred living outside of Utah. In 1907 he launched a significant building program in Salt Lake City. Its purpose was to shift the city's center from the Temple Square area to Exchange Place between 300 and 400 South streets and between Main and State streets, about four blocks south. In 1907 construction began on the Boston and the Newhouse buildings, the city's first skyscrapers. Just east of the two buildings, Newhouse donated land for construction of the Salt Lake Stock Exchange and Commercial Club buildings. Exchange Place was to be a little "Wall Street" with a grand hotel, the Newhouse Hotel, and would be constructed between 1909 and 1915 across Main Street on the southwest corner of Main and 400 South. Newhouse was also involved in the development of the exclusive residential area of Federal Heights in the northeast section of Salt Lake City.
Over-extension ultimately proved to be Newhouse's financial downfall. Money from his mines failed to finance his elaborate projects, and there was addition strain caused by World War I. It became very difficult to obtain loans from eastern U.S. and European sources. Samuel and Ida separated in 1914. The South Temple mansion was sold. From 1915-1919, Samuel resided at the Newhouse Hotel. He then sold his interest in the hotel and left for France, where he lived with his sister in her chateau, outside Paris, which he had given to her. He died there, at the age of seventy-six, on September 22, 1930.
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