Railroads and Mining in Utah
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B. H. Roberts, "Development Of Mines In Utah"
In the expanded edition of "A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints", published first in 1930, republished in 1957 and reprinted in 1965, B. H. Roberts relates the history of early mining in Utah, and feelings of both General Conner and Brigham Young about the mining activity (Century I, Volume V, Chapter CXXIV [124], pages 61-70).
(Volume 5 being the more secular history of Utah with excellent histories of railroads, mining and early Utah politics. The sections on railroads and mining were completed for the 1930 edition (and possibly in the original 1909-1915 serialized articles in Americana Illustrated magazine), and remained unchanged in subsequent editions.)
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(B. H. Roberts' text...)
Almost from the time of his advent into the territory, General Connor was convinced that there were extensive deposits of the precious minerals in Utah. That conviction found confirmation in the following manner: A man of the name of Ogilvie while logging in Bingham canon found a piece of ore which he sent to General Connor who had it assayed, and found that it contained the precious metals, gold and silver. (B. H. Roberts note: Tullidge's Western Galaxy, March, 1888, article, Mines of the West, I. Utah Mines)
A few days later a kind of pleasure or picnic party was organized composed of the officers of Camp Douglas and their wives, and a drive made to Bingham canon. While encamped here one of the ladies of the party found a piece of ore on the mountain side, the soldiers of the party prospected for the vein, found it, and staked off a mining claim.
B. H. Roberts note: This story is by Stenhouse, who, ignoring or else not knowing the part Ogilvie took in the matter, gives the following account of the initial step of mining history in Utah: "A portion of the horses of the California volunteers had been sent to Bingham canon to graze, and with them a company of men as a guard. A picnic party of officers and their wives from Camp Douglas was improvised, and Bingham was selected, as the troops were there. During the rambles of the party on the mountain sides, this lady, who had a previous acquaintance with minerals in California, picked up a loose piece of ore. The volunteers immediately prospected for the vein and found it, stuck a stake in the ground, made their location, and from that hour Utah has been known to the world as a rich mining country." (Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 713). Bancroft says that Captain Heitz; and a party from Camp Douglas -- doubtless Stenhouse's picnic party -- made the discovery of the argentiferous ore in Bingham, in 1863. (Bancroft, History of Utah, p. 741)
These two stories if blended no doubt mark the beginning of the history of mining for precious metals in Utah. Ogilvie and parties from Camp Douglas united in working the first gold and silver mining prospect in Utah, called "The Jordan," this in September, 1863.
Discovery Of Precious Metal Ores In Utah
A few days after the Bingham picnic incident General Connor held a miners' meeting at Gardner's mill, on the Jordan, where the "mining laws" or rules drawn up by the general were adopted, and "Bishop Gardner elected recorder." (B. H. Roberts note: Tullidge's Western Galaxy for March, 1888, p. 1) A mining district was organized and called the "West Mountain Mining District," usually, though quite erroneously called the first mining district of Utah, but which in reality had been preceded by the Lincoln District, organized in 1861, in Beaver county.
B. H. Roberts note: While Tullidge puts the organization of the West Mountain Mining District as occurring "a day or two after" the Bingham canon picnic incident, (Western Galaxy, p. 1). Bancroft says that the district was organized in December, 1863. (History of Utah, p. 741). Mr. A. S. Kenner, author of Utah As It Is (1904), holds that there was a mining district organized in Utah at an earlier date than this. "As far back as 1858," he writes: "It became known that there were great veins and deposits of lead near the young town of Minersville, in Beaver county. It was deemed advisable to work them to some extent for the purpose of keeping the settlers in that and some other parts of the territory supplied with bullets." etc. Work was begun on a fissure vein, that became known as the "Rollins Lead Mine"; and as work proceeded the "lead" grew harder, which experience taught those who worked the mine could come but from one circumstance--the presence of silver with the lead. There were no available means at hand for separating the metals, however, and the work "was not prosecuted to any great extent." Not only was the extraction of ores from the Old Rollins Lead Mine, as it was called, in 1858, the first mining done in Utah by civilized agencies, but the region of country in which it is situated became the first organized mining district in the territory; this was accomplished in 1861, the name "Lincoln" being given it, which name was also subsequently given to the old lead mine. It and the adjoining properties have since been worked systematically and thoroughly by capitalized companies representing other parts of the Union as well as Utah, and in the districts other locations have been made in later years until now [1904], there are fully 100 recorded claims. (Utah As It Is, p. 323; also Bancroft's Utah, p. 746, note 75, where the "Old Rollins Mine" is referred to as the first silver mine in Utah).
Later General Connor personally found silver bearing rock at the head of Little Cottonwood canon, which was the first known discovery of the precious metal in the great Wasatch range.
B. H. Roberts note: Bancroft's History of Utah, p. 742. "The first shipment of ore from Utah was a carload of copper ore from Bingham canon, hauled to Uintah on the Union Pacific, and forwarded by the Walker Brothers to Baltimore, in June, 1868. In 1864 free gold was discovered in this district by a party of Californians returning from Montana to pass the winter in Salt Lake City. Between 1865 and 1872 the production of gold was estimated at $1,000,000, and up to 1882 the total product was 500,000 tons of ore and 100,000 of bullion, from which was extracted $1,500,000 in gold. $3,800,000 in silver, and $5,000,000 in lead." The output of the precious metals in Utah for 1913 was, gold, $3,581,900; silver, $8,109,450. "Mining of true gold ores on a large scale is on the decline in Utah. In gold yield a steady decrease is noted, due largely to the closing of the Mercury gold mines. This loss has been partly made up, however, by the increase in gold from the copper ores;" (of which copper there was produced in 1913 to the value of $24,884,860). (Report of V. C. Heikes, United States Geological Survey, 1913).
Mining Industry Development
Naturally General Connor was enthusiastic over the confirmation which these discoveries gave of his conviction of the existence of precious metals in the mountains of Utah, and he hastened to make proclamation of the news to the world, at the same time inviting prospectors and miners to come to Utah to aid in the development of her mineral resources, and gave such orders to the volunteer troops in his military district as would allow them large opportunities for prospecting.
B. H. Roberts note: This in the very first number of the Union Vedette: "The general commanding the district has the strongest evidence that the mountains and canons in the territory of Utah abound in rich veins of gold, silver, copper and other minerals, and for the purpose of opening up the country to a new, hardy, and industrious population, deems it important that prospecting for minerals should not only be untrammeled and unrestricted, but fostered by every proper means. The general also directs that every proper facility be extended to miners and others in developing the country; and that soldiers of the several posts be allowed to prospect for mines, when such course shall not interfere with the due and proper performance of their military duties. Commanders of posts, companies and detachments within the district are enjoined to execute to the fullest extent the spirit and letter of this circular communication.
Incidentally also (or was it his main purpose?) General Connor made this proposed mining development in Utah contribute to what he evidently regarded as his mission in the territory-viz., the subversion of the "Mormon" church authority "in temporal and civil affairs." Writing to Lieutenant Colonel R. C. Drum, Assistant Adjutant General, United States of America, San Francisco, under date of July 21st, 1864, General Connor said:
Having had occasion recently to communicate with you by telegraph on the subject of the difficulties which have considerably excited the Mormon community for the past ten days, it is perhaps proper that I should report more fully by letter relative to the real causes which have rendered collision possible.
As set forth in former communications, my policy in this territory has been to invite hither a large Gentile and loyal population, sufficient by peaceful means and through the ballot box to overwhelm the Mormons by mere force of numbers, and thus wrest from the church- disloyal and traitorous to the core-the absolute and tyrannical control of temporal and civil affairs, or at least a population numerous enough to put a check on the Mormon authorities, and give countenance to those who are striving to loosen the bonds with which they have been so long oppressed. With this view I have bent every energy and means of which I was possessed, both personal and official, towards the discovery and development of the mining resources of the territory, using without stint the soldiers of my command, whenever and wherever it could be done without detriment to the public service." (B. H. Roberts note: Connor's Report to Colonel Drum will be found complete in History of Salt Lake City, Tullidge, pp. 328-330.)
Assuming that there would be opposition by the "Mormon" church leaders to this program of mining for the precious metals, General Connor also thought it necessary to offer "protection" to prospectors and to "warn" those whom he suspected would make opposition to the opening of the mines, not to use violence; and threatened to try as public enemies those who attempted the use of violence in this matter, and to punish them to the utmost extent of martial law.
B. H. Roberts note: "The mines are thrown open to the hardy and industrious, and it is announced, that they will receive the amplest protection in life, property and rights, against aggression from whatsoever source, Indian or white. In giving assurance of entire protection to all who may come hither to prospect for mines, the undersigned wishes at this time most earnestly, and yet firmly, to warn all, whether permanent residents or not of this territory, that should violence be offered, or attempted to be offered to miners, in the pursuit of their lawful occupation, the offender or offenders, one or many, will be tried as public enemies, and punished to the utmost extent of martial law." (Circular issued from Camp Douglas, date of March 1st, 1864, a copy will be found in Tullidge's History of Salt Lake City, p. 327).
In this the general went beyond all that was in any way necessary, and assumed the tone and attitude of a military despot, seeking to supplant the civil by the military authority. His whole bearing at this time was one of extreme arrogance, and more likely to provoke than allay the opposition he anticipated.
Opposition Of Brigham Young To The Mining Industry
As already shown in earlier chapters of this History, Brigham Young was opposed to his people rushing to the gold mines of California in 1849, and also in the early years of the decade following. He held that such a course was foreign to their mission, since they had settled in the Great Basin to found a city and a commonwealth to which their coreligionists scattered in all the world, might be gathered and "become a great and a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains," in fulfillment of the prediction of their first prophet. President Young was equally and consistently opposed to any policy that would likely result in the Latter-day Saints being overwhelmed by incoming hordes of adventurers and semi-desperadoes of the surrounding western states and territories, attracted by the supposed opportunities for the sudden acquirement of wealth, which the opening of mines of the precious metals would give. And hence when ever reference was made to the existence of the precious metals in the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City-and such reference was common before the Connor days-Brigham Young discouraged the consideration of the subject, pointed out to his people the danger to them as a community that lurked in the opening of the mines at that time; and urged the postponement of such enterprises until a later day, when such dangers as then existed would not menace their community life; to a day when the Latter-day Saints would be sufficiently strong, numerically-notwithstanding the presence of a large non-"Mormon" population following mining or other pursuits-to give the dominant moral and spiritual tone to the community life that would result from and be characteristic of that high purpose that had brought them in the first instance to the Great Basin of the Rocky Mountains. Brigham Young had seen wave after wave of the gold seekers of (1849 and early 1850s) pass over the mountains and valleys occupied by his people, and they had survived as a community by accepting his counsel "not to follow after them." He had seen the evil effects of contact with the military command of Colonel Steptoe in 1855-6; and the more serious contact of his people with the army of the "Utah Expedition," and the demoralizing effect of the Camp Floyd period; is it any wonder that he and his associates in church leadership were opposed in the early (1860s) to the incoming of an adventurous, reckless, not to say lawless, mining population, such as then occupied the mining camps of the western states and territories? And yet, for all that, there was no justification for supposing that there would be any resort to violence on the part of the "Mormon" church leaders to prevent prospecting for the precious metals or the opening of mines; and General Connor acted unworthy of himself and of his office by assuming the attitude of a petty military despot in the issuance of his circulars on prospecting and mining development in Utah.
At the very time that the first Connor excitement about opening the mines was at its height--September and October, 1863--Brigham Young said:
"If the Lord permits gold mines to be opened here he will overrule it for the good of his saints and the building up of his kingdom. We have a great many friends who are out of this church--who have not embraced the gospel. We have a great many friends, and if the Lord suffers gold to be discovered here, I shall be satisfied that it is for the purpose of embellishing and adorning this temple which we contemplate building, and we may use some of it as a circulating medium." (B. H. Roberts note: Discourse at conference in Salt Lake City, Oct. 9th, 1863, Journal of Discourses, vol. X, p. 253. Reference to the temple is of course to the temple in Salt Lake City.)
And the harshest thing Brigham Young ever said of the Connor mining program was a criticism upon the injustice of the government furnishing the supplies for men engaged in prospecting for mines for their own personal advantage, and at the same time giving to the whole proceeding an anti-"Mormon" bias. This criticism appears in the discourse before quoted.
B. H. Roberts note: "I now wish to present a few questions to the congregation, for I think there is no harm in asking questions to elicit information. Do the government officials in Utah, civil and military, give aid and comfort to and foster persons whose design is to interrupt and disturb the peace of this people? and are they protected and encouraged in this ruinous design by the strong arm of military power, to do what they will, if they will only annoy and try to break up the `Mormon' community? Does the general government, or does it not, sustain this wicked plan? Is there in existence a corruption-fund, out of which government jobbers live and pay their traveling expenses while they are engaged in trying to get men and women to apostatize from the truth, to swell their ranks for damnation? Is this so, or is it not so? Those who understand the political trickeries and the political windings of the nation, can see at once that these are political questions. Who feeds and clothes and defrays the expenses of hundreds of men who are engaged patrolling the mountains and canons all around us in search of gold? Who finds supplies for those who are sent here to protect the two great interests--the mail and telegraph lines across the continent--while they are employed ranging over these mountains in search of gold? And who has paid for the great number of picks, shovels, spades and other mining tools that they have brought with them? Were they really sent here to protect the mail and telegraph lines, or to discover, if possible, rich diggings in our immediate vicinity, with a view to flood the country with just such a population as they desire, to destroy, if possible, the identity of the `Mormon' community, and every truth and virtue that remains? Who is it that calls us apostates from our government, deserters, traitors, rebels, secessionists? And who have expressed themselves as being unwilling that the "Mormons" should have in their possession a little powder and lead? Who have said that `Mormons' should not be permitted to hold in their possession firearms and ammunition? Did a government officer say this, one who was sent here to watch over and protect the interests of the community, without meddling or interfering with the domestic affairs of the people?" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. X, pp. 254-5. Discourse was delivered Oct. 9th, 1863).
Apart from this, the opposition to General Connor's mining program was confined to puncturing some of the wildly inflated reports respecting the existence of gold in great abundance in Utah; calling attention to the high cost of living, owing to the scarcity of staple necessaries of life in proportion to the population; and the great expense attending upon mining in Utah.
B. H. Roberts note: See Deseret News editorial of March 2nd, 1864. Relative to the great expense in mining it may be said that blasting powder during the summer of 1864 was $25.00 per keg; twenty-four years later it cost less than one-sixth of that price. The first systematic work done in the Jordan Mine was by commencing a tunnel at a cost of sixty dollars per foot, which twenty-four years later could be done for ten dollars per foot. (See Western Galaxy, The Mines of the West, p. 1). At the Boise mines in the summer of 1863, flour was reported to be worth "$40 per hundred weight; salt, $35 and $40 per hundred weight; onions, $60 per hundred weight; butter, $1 per lb.; beans, $35 per hundred weight; bacon, $60 per hundred weight, and everything else in proportion." (See Boise correspondent of Deseret News, impression of Sept. 23rd, 1863). Prices did not range that high in Utah, but the above affords some index to what would be the cost of living in the mining districts of the west in those early days of the mining industry.
President Young also urged the members of the church to remain true to the call of common-sense duty, that of building homes, making farms, planting orchards, establishing home manufacture, developing coal and iron mines-proceeding, in a word, along these more certain and substantial lines of founding a commonwealth, as was becoming in a people laying the foundation for a gathering place for tens of thousands of their coreligionists from every nation of the world. This course was represented as being better for Latter-day Saints than joining in the mad rush for the finding of the precious metals and for the questionable good of suddenly acquired riches.
There was evidently great need of holding a steady hand over the members of the church in respect of rushing into mining for the precious metals. President Young in a tabernacle sermon thus describes the effect Connor's first announcement had on some members of the "Mormon community:
"It is a fearful deception which all the world labors under, and many of this people, too, who profess to be not of the world, that gold is wealth. On the bare report that gold was discovered over in these west mountains, men left their thrashing machines, and their horses at large to eat up and tramble down and destroy the precious bounties of the earth. They at once sacrificed all at the glittering shrine of the popular idol, declaring they were now going to be rich, and would raise wheat no more. Should this feeling become universal on the discovery of gold mines in our immediate vicinity, nakedness, starvation, utter destitution and annihilation would be the inevitable lot of this people. Instead of its bringing to us wealth and independence, it would weld upon our necks chains of slavery.
And then alluding to the more substantial process of commonwealth founding, he said:
"Can you not see that gold and silver rank among the things that we are the least in want of? We want an abundance of wheat and fine flour, of wine and oil, and of every choice fruit that will grow in our climate; we want silk, wool, cotton, flax and other textile substances of which cloth can be made; we want vegetables of various kinds to suit our constitutions and tastes, and the products of flocks and herds; we want the coal and the iron that are concealed in these ancient mountains, the lumber from our sawmills, and the rock from our quarries: these are some of the great staples to which kingdoms owe their existence, continuance, wealth, magnificence, splendor, glory and power; in which gold and silver serve as mere tinsel to give the finishing touch to all this greatness. The colossal wealth of the world is founded upon and sustained by the common staples of life." (B. H. Roberts note: Discourse of 25th Oct., 1863, in Deseret News of Nov. 18th, 1863)
It was not difficult, of course, for General Connor to induce many of his California friends to join him in his mining schemes in Utah. He erected the first smelting furnace in the territory at Stockton, Tooele county, 1864; this was soon followed by a number of other furnaces of various kinds.
But the treatment of ores by smelting was a task new to these Californians, and their experience in milling the gold ores of their state was of no service to them in the task. This disadvantage was increased by the fact that charcoal was not abundant, that rates of transportation were excessively high, and both the materials of which the furnaces were built, and those used in the daily operations were very dear. The Californians, unused to the work failed entirely. A good deal of money was spent with no result, excepting the establishment of the fact that the ores were easy to treat. During this time of trial the usual history of new mining fields was repeated, and companies which were organized with high hopes spent large sums and became bankrupt. With the failure to work the mines profitably came the disbanding of the volunteer troops in the latter part of 1865-66. (B. H. Roberts note: Western Galaxy. Mines of the West, March, 1888, p. 2)
Happily for the views of the "Mormon" church leaders and for the interests of the Latter-day Saints, the mining industry developed gradually, and the discovery of gold was so meager -- found chiefly in connection with the less precious but more abundant silver ores -- that there was no mad rush of miners to overwhelm numerically the Latter-day Saints in Utah or disturb them in the steady march of their substantial -- though slow -- progress in empire -- founding for a highly religious purpose -- the assembling of their coreligionists of all nations -- the gathering of a modern Israel to whom God would reveal a fullness of his truth, and through whom he would especially manifest his power to the world.
Transformation In The Attitude Of General Connor
An identification with the material interests of the territory, perhaps, also, a closer association with the business men of the "Mormon" church, seems finally to have lessened somewhat the former intense bitterness of General Connor towards the "Mormon" church leaders; and those who quote some passages of the general's reports and circulars in the first two years of his residence in Utah, as showing his distrust of the "Mormon" church --"disloyal and traitorous to the core," as he declared it at one time to be; and of the church leaders, whom he proclaimed to be tyrants, spiritual and temporal -- will need to consider them in the light of his more conservative attitude in the later years of his residence in Utah.
B. H. Roberts note: Later, the provost marshal of Salt Lake City in the summer of 1864, Captain Chas. H. Hempstead, "was Brigham Young's counselor and advocate in 1872; and that General Connor offered to go bail for Brigham Young in the sum of $100,000 when he was on trial (1870) in the court of Chief Justice, James B. McKean." (History of Salt Lake City, Tullidge, p. 330.)
There are good reasons for believing that this man of restless energy, and of such intense loyalty to his country that he could not tolerate a merely passive loyalty, to say nothing of indifference to, or opposition, even in sentiment, to the United States government in its struggle for existence-this soldier, both by instinct and training, in the early months of 1865, underwent, later, a radical change in his attitude towards the "Mormon church leaders and people.
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