Bingham & Eastern

This page was last updated on December 19, 2024.

Overview

The Bingham & Eastern was one of the earliest copper mines in Bingham. It failed as a company but demonstrated that there was copper ore that could be worked for economic benefit.

In December 1896, the first "important" shipment of copper ore came from the Highland Boy mine, which was being operated by Samuel Newhouse and Thomas Weir. (A. B. Parsons, The Porphyry Coppers, 1933, page 47)

Three years later, during 1899 Colonel I. S. Pine purchased the Jersey Blue group of claims. These claims formed the basis of the Bingham & Eastern mine, located near the junction of Carr Fork and Bingham Canyon. (Salt Lake Tribune, December 31, 1899)

Although much was made in the press about the potential of the initial copper ore that was coming from the Bingham & Eastern company, the ore veins soon ran out and the company failed. The ore veins were rich in copper content but were in the wrong location in relation to the other areas, higher in Carr Fork and being exposed by the Highland Boy and Boston Consolidated companies.

Timeline

June 12, 1899
A combined eight claims in Bingham Canyon (Little Cottonwood, Big Giant, Jersey Blue, I.X.L., Albatross, Manila, Howard Harrison, and Chandler) comprising 100 acres were sold to a group of investors in Connecticut "yesterday." The group of mining claims was assembled through the efforts of John C. Dugan, and his partners including Dr. J. W. Bracken, Manuel Ranch, Walter C. Hazelgrove, C. H. Lashbrook, all of Bingham, and Frank Pence of San Francisco. The transaction involved $75,000. The Jersey Blue claim had two 500-foot tunnels, and the I.X.L. claim had a 700-foot tunnel, with an upraise to the Jersey Blue ore bodies. The ore was mostly lead, with good amounts of silver and gold. The Little Cottonwood also had copper ore. (Salt Lake Herald, June 13, 1899)

(A review of maps shows that the claims straddled Cottonwood Gulch, in the southeast quarter of Section 27 on the northwest side of Carr Fork, with the Shawmut on the north and the Phoenix on the south. Parts of the Big Giant, Little Cottonwood, and Manila claims also straddled Carr Fork itself to the southeast.)

A letter in August 1899 to Charles E. Graham of New Haven, Connecticut, president of the newly organized company, described the property in Bingham Canyon. The letter was written by a Denver lawyer who along with a surveyor examined the property. The property consisted of three groups of claims: the I.X.L. claim, the Jersey Blue claim, and the Little Cottonwood claim. All were located in what was called Little Cottonwood Gulch. The highest was the I.X.L. claim, "near the top of the mountain." The Jersey Blue claim was 100 feet below the I.X.L., with several tunnels, drifts and winzes having been completed. The third claim was the Little Cottonwood, situated 400 feet below the Jersey Blue, and "beginning at a point near the bottom of the gulch of Carr Fork, and extending thence westerly upon the Cottonwood vein about 1200 feet." The letter noted that by extending the Little Cottonwood tunnel, the company would intersect first the Jersey Blue vein at 400 feet, then the IXL vein at 500 feet. The letter noted that the three claims were on a steep hillside, cut by two gulches, and that the claims themselves were on both sides of Carr Fork, and that high quality copper ore would likely be struck at depth below the claims.

The Bingham & Eastern Copper Mining Company was incorporated on May 18, 1899. (Boston Globe, August 3, 1903)

By February 1900, the prospects looked promising, with over 1000 tons available "on the dumps." Plans were made to erect a concentrating mill of 100 tons daily capacity.

In May 1901 a law suit was filed against the mining company by Issac M. Ullman, a shareholder in the company, alleging that the property was sold for $75,000, in the form of 16,500 shares in the mining company, but that the shares had not been delivered. The suit was settled, and the ownership of the claims passed from J. C. Dugan, current superintendent and former owner of the claims, to the mining company. (Hartford Courant, September 4, 1901; Ogden Standard, September 3, 1902)

The Bingham & Eastern Copper Mining Company was reorganized as the Bingham & Eastern Mining Company on August 4, 1903. (Boston Globe, August 3, 1903)

November 18, 1903
John C. Dugan filed suit on November 13, 1903 to foreclose a mortgage against the Bingham & Eastern Copper Mining Company, and the Bingham & Eastern Mines Company. The mortgage had been issued on November 23, 1902, and covered the I.X.L. and eight other claims, for a total of $24,500, including lawyer's fees. (Salt Lake Telegram, November 18, 1903 , "today")

A review of issues of the Copper Handbook, an investment guide that described all known copper mines and mining companies, reveals many details, including that the company was "Dead" by 1906, having been reorganized in 1903.

Copper Handbook, Vol. III (1902): "no returns secured and property idle at last accounts."
Copper Handbook, Vol. IV (1903) and Vol. V (1904): Bingham & Eastern Copper Mining Co. Organized under laws of West Virginia. Charter was proclaimed forfeited, 1902, and company was reorganized, 1903, as Bingham & Eastern Mines Co. under laws of New Jersey, with a reduction of capital from $1,000,000 to $200,000. Lands include the Jersey Blue, I X L, Little Cottonwood and other mines, which had been occasional shippers since circa 1890, and are opened by a 1,400-foot tunnel. Property is well located and with proper development might make a mine.
Copper Handbook, Vol. VI (1906): Dead. Formerly at Bingham Canyon, Salt Lake Co., Utah. Presumably dead. All letters returned.

In January 1906, a newspaper account mentioned that leasers were cleaning out the 1400-foot tunnel of the former Bingham & Eastern company, preliminary to resuming exploration work.

In the five year period between 1895 and 1900, copper became more important as a product of the mines in Bingham. The history of the Bingham and its railroads and mines would change in ways no one at the time could have seen.

By this time, the big mines included the following:

Bingham Copper & Gold Mining Company (later Bingham Consolidated)
Dalton & Lark Mining Company (later Bingham Consolidated)
United States Mining Company
Utah Consolidated Mining Company

Given the location of the Jersey Blue, I.X.L. and other claims in lower Carr Fork, research suggests that they lay inactive until purchased by the Utah Apex Mining company at about the same time as Utah Copper's purchase of the Shawmut group in 1910.

(The expansion of the Parvenue tunnel in the 1909-1912 period may have also seen the Utah Apex company purchase the claims of the former Bingham & Eastern group, which lay adjacent to the Phoenix property immediately to the northeast. The Bingham & Eastern group of claims spanned Carr Fork, and extended up Cottonwood Gulch. A corporate family tree of Atlantic Richfield's ownership of Anaconda shows the Bingham & Eastern as being part of the Utah Apex Mining Company.)

(Read more about Utah Apex)

It should be mentioned that the United States Mining Company's mines in Galena and Bear gulches at the top end of Bingham Canyon itself, never did become large copper producers. Whether by choice, or by the happenstance of the ore veins themselves, the U. S. company continued to focus on mining lead and silver, as well as taking whatever gold was present. (Read more about United States Mining Company)

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