Salt Lake Copper Plant
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Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing Company
(The focus of this information is to establish a timeline using sources not previously readily available.)
"Salt Lake City Copper Company" was formed in February 1893. It organizers were W. S. McCornick, W. H. Rowe, M. J. Gray, Colonel J. W. Donnalian and R. W. Macintosh, all Salt Lake City residents.
The financing behind the project was S. M. Green of Denver, Colorado. Green was also the principle backer of the Ute and Ouray mines at Lake City, the Enterprise mine at Rico, the Silverton mine at Silverton, and the Durango smelter at Durango, all in Colorado.
During February, March and April 1893, Green was a resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, traveling to Denver and Salt Lake City. he remained a resident of Milwaukee the entire time, and resigned in September 1894 using his distant residence as the reason.
There was a note in the December 15, 1893 Tintic Miner newspaper specifically denying that the Salt Lake City Copper company was involved in the organization of the Ajax Mining company that was the result of an encroachment settlement between the Copperopolis mine and the adjacent Champlain mine. It stated that although the copper plant company and the Copperopolis company were owned by the same principle owners, namely Otto Mears, the two companies were not affiliated with each other. Mears resigned his post as a director of the copper plant company after the Copperopolis mine was taken by the Champlain company.
Location
The Salt Lake copper plant was located in the southeast corner of Section 22, of Township 1 North, Range 1 West.
Although the railroad spur to the copper plant diverged from the Rio Grande Western mainline to Ogden, the trackage within the copper plant property was jointly built and owned by RGW and Oregon Short Line. There was a crossover between the OSL mainline, and the RGW mainline, just south of where the RGW Copper Plant Spur connection was located.
The Salt Lake copper plant is shown on the 1898 Sanborn fire insurance map, sheet 84, with the notation, "Plant not in operation since 1895; in hands of receiver. Two men living on premises, acting as watchmen; Buildings very substantial, mostly brick and iron and built on solid stone foundations; Plant only partly completed; Furnaces, boilers and part of machinery not yet all in place."
The Salt Lake copper plant is shown on the 1911 Sanborn fire insurance map, sheet 97, with the notation, "Plant not in operation since 1895; Family lives on premises in charge, act as watchmen; All machinery except engines, removed."
Using today's street addresses, the copper plant was at approximately 1400 North and 1500 West, on the east side of the Jordan River. The site today is part of the Rose Park Golf Course.
Timeline
January 24, 1893
"S. M. Green, president of the Standard Smelting Company of Durango, Colorado, and O. P. Posey, a heavy stockholder in the same enterprise" attended a meeting at the Knutsford hotel, together with 40 men who were members of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce and the Business Men's Association. The purpose was to discuss the location of a copper refining and smelting plant. The proposed plant would have a capacity of 25 tons of copper plate and copper wire per day. The crude output of the smelter at Durango would be sent to the new plant for refining instead of sending it to Bridgeport, Connecticut, reducing the transportation costs of shipment of crude billets to the East, and the costs of shipping finished copper back into the West. (Salt Lake Tribune, January 24, 1893)
February 18, 1893
"A dispatch from Salt Lake City says: By the action of the business men of Salt Lake City the city will secure one of the largest copper smelters in the world. S. M Green of Philadelphia, for a bonus of $100,000 and 160 acres of land, will at once begin the construction of a refinery to cost $500,000. Three hundred men will be given employment in the smelter when it is finished. The city council assisted the business men in raising the required bonus by appropriating $25,000 with which to purchase land for a site." (Spanish Fork Sun, February 18, 1893)
March 15, 1893
S. M. Green and the Salt Lake City business men signed a memorandum of agreement for Green to build a copper refining and smelting plant in Salt Lake City on what was known as the Petit property.
(The Salt Lake Tribune of March 21, 1893 published the agreement in full.)
(Otto Mears of Denver became involved with Samual Green and the Salt Lake copper plant as early as March 1893, when Mears financed Green's bond to Salt Lake City for the location of the copper plant.)
Otto Stalmann was manager of the copper plant, and he also held patents for which $100,000 in company stock was paid to him by the copper plant company for the use of his patents.
May 24, 1893
The Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing company filed its articles of incorporation with Utah Territory "today." The company was organized in Colorado and filed its articles in Colorado on April 22, 1893. The purpose of the company was to "carry on the business of smelting, reducing and refining gold, silver, copper and lead bearing ores; the manufacturing and selling of copper wire, copper sheets and all other forms of copper products; the buying, leasing, acquiring, holding, operating, selling and conveying of mines producing gold, silver, copper, lead, coal and other minerals, also of stone quarries; the buying and selling of mineral bearing ores and their products, the buying, leasing, holding, using, selling and conveying of real estate; the erecting, acquiring (by purchase or otherwise), holding and operating of smelting plants, mills and refineries for the reduction and refining of mineral bearing ores." The five directors were Samuel M. Green, Milwaukee; Oliver P. Posey, of Whitewater, Wisconsin; Otto Mears, Denver, Colorado; Otto Stalmann and Stephen A. Estes, of Salt Lake City. (Deseret News, May 24, 1893)
The contract for the construction of the copper plant was awarded to Frazer & Chalmers, of Chicago. The 50-page contract included provisions for a 1000-horsepower triple expansion Corliss engine to be delivered in mid November 1893. The contract also included a 300-horsepower triple expansion engine. Iron work for the plant was to be done by Gillette-Hathron Manufacturing Co. of Minneapolis. Excavation work and masonry work for the foundations began on May 23rd. (Salt Lake Tribune, May 22, 1893)
The railroads built a spur to serve the new plant in late May 1893, which allowed building materials to be delivered to the site.
Work at the site of the copper plant began in late June 1893, including preparations for the steam power plant.
The engine built for the Salt Lake City Copper company was first displayed in the Machinery Hall at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, May 1, 1893 through October 31, 1893. The engine was described as follows: 1000-horsepower, 4-cylinder, triple expansion, condensing Corliss engine, one 20-inch high pressure cylinder, one 34-inch intermediate cylinder, two 34-inch low pressure cylinders, built by Fraser & Chambers, Chicago. (Salt Lake Herald, September 22, 1893)
March 11, 1894
The following comes from the March 11, 1894 issue of the Salt Lake Herald.
On the outskirts of Salt Lake city there has been almost completed one of the most stupendous industrial enterprises that exist in the western country. It consists of the largest copper plant of its kind in the world, to be owned and operated by the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing company. It will begin operations within a month or two, and by that time $500,000 will have been spent on the plant alone. It will have a capacity for smelting from 250 to 300 tons of copper per day.
The principal source of ore supply being from the Copperopolis group in Juab county, the Copper Mountain in Box Elder county, and the Nancy Hanks group in Nevada. The product of these works will be fine copper in the shape of wire, bars, cakes, sheets or ingots as the market demands, and in the refining department fine gold and silver will be produced. Storage houses have been erected capable of holding 5,000 tons of ore, and the heavy handling at the works will be done by electric travelers.
Powerful crushers will reduce the ore for the blasting furnaces, which latter have a capacity of 150 tons per day; here ores will be reduced or transformed to copper matte. Thence the product will be taken to the converter plant, from which the copper will be delivered 98 per cent pure. It is then ready for casting into shape for treatment by the electrolytic process. This will be accomplished in a building 364 feet long and 150 feet wide, supplied with five large Elwell dynamos with a capacity for turning out forty tons of fine copper per day. The power for this portion of the plant is derived from a one thousand horse power triple expansion engine, the one which secured the first prize in Machinery hall at the World’s fair, and was pronounced the finest engine of its kind ever made. It is now being put in place.
The process consists of dissolving the copper in an acid solution, from which the electric current deposits it in an absolutely pure condition on sheets of paper. During this process the gold and silver contained in the copper are separately collected, and after undergoing a cleansing process are ready for the mint. The boiler house contains eleven boilers and another triple expansion engine of three hundred horse power supplies the motive power for other portions of the plant.
The operations of this concern will not only furnish a ready market for the copper produced in our midst, but other industries will spring up in the manufacture of copper-ware of every description. Salt Lake city contributed a bonus of $100,000 to induce the location of these works within its limits, and this alone should be proof of the willingness of our people to contribute towards the inauguration of legitimate manufacturing institutions.
(This item from March 1894 suggests that Otto Mears and others in the copper plant company already held a financial interest in the Copperopolis mine, to ensure a source of copper ore for the copper plant.)
June 4, 1894
"The Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing Company has just completed an extensive plant in that city at a cost of between $600,000 and $700,000, and will commence operations at once." (Baltimore Sun, June 4, 1894)
June 26, 1894
"Out at the plant things are rushing ahead and the works will he ready for operation, at least partially, by the middle of the month. The electrical apparatus has not commenced to arrive." (Salt Lake Herald, June 26, 1894) (The news item also made mention of a possible second contract in the amount of $25,000.)
June 30, 1894
The copper plant was built using a $100,000 "bonus fee" from Salt Lake City residents which was paid into by citizens on the basis of subscriptions. The money was to be disbursed to the company in parts of the total upon completion of certain milestones of construction and final completion. On June 30, 1894 the "Citizen's Copper Plant Committee" granted the copper company a four month extension to fully complete the copper plant. "The request for the extension to November first was accompanied by the guarantee that the south half of the works, known as the smelters, would be in operation by the 10th of July and the remainder of the plant immediately upon its completion, which should not require more than a month more, but four months were requested in order to keep on the safe side. Very rapid progress is being made at the works and the machinery, excepting the electrical apparatus, which has not yet been shipped from Chicago, is nearly all in place." (Salt Lake Herald, July 1, 1894)
July 6, 1894
A strike by railroad workers had shut down railroad operations, which in-turn impacted the delivery of coal as fuel to the copper plant. The copper company laid off its 110 workers as a result. Also, the deliveries of ore from the company-owned mines (Copperopolis in Juab County, and Copper Mountain in Box Elder County) were delayed as a result of the railroad strike.
(Salt Lake Herald, July 6, 1894)
(The railroad strike was national and was called by the American Railway Union, but not all locations took part. Chicago area railroads were the focus of the strike. In Utah the Rio Grande Western was hit by the strike, but only in certain locations, on a rotating basis. Some trains were allowed through. The union was holding meetings every night to determine the next location to be struck. The mail trains were allowed through, with each train having U. S. Marshals on board. Troops from Fort Douglas were stationed at the Ogden depot due to threats that were later found to be false. By July 13th the effects of the strike were much reduced, as more railroad workers chose to ignore instructions to strike and return to their normal duties. There had been no word of changing work conditions in Chicago, or any other location in the country.)
July 13, 1894
The copper plant workers were called back as the effects of the railroad strike were reduced. The strike was still taking place, but not in the areas important to the copper plant company.
(Salt Lake Herald, July 14, 1894, "yesterday")
July 14, 1894
Concerning the payment of the bonus fee from Salt Lake City citizens to the copper plant company, "The copper plant people are not worrying themselves unduly on account of the procrastination of the members of the city council in the matter. The purchase of land with the twenty-five bonds pledged to them as part of the bonds of $100,000. Of course, they hold that the paper is rightly due them and its receipt would he welcome, but the gentlemen hold that if the city, either through its citizens or council, can afford to break an engagement made in the hopes of securing the great industry now being so rapidly built up by the company, they can bear their consequent loss without a murmur. The work will go on as though the entire bonus had been paid. There is too much money invested to throw away at this stage of the game." (Salt Lake Herald, July 14, 1894)
August 29, 1894
"It is more than likely that the first shipment of copper bullion will be made from the plant within the next day or two." (Salt Lake Herald, August 29, 1894)
September 12, 1894
"For some time past the company has been contemplating the shipment of part or all of the copper bullion on hand, all of which is the product of the two furnaces which have been in operation for some weeks. The shipment was delayed until after the gentlemen [visiting investors from New York and St. Louis] now here arrived and it is now probable that a car or two of the metal will be sent east. All of the copper has been refined and it is now practically pure, the ingots averaging over 99 per cent fine." (Salt Lake Herald, September 12, 1894)
September 21, 1894
Following a two-day meeting of the board of directors of the copper company in Salt Lake City, on September 21st it was announced that S. M. Green had resigned as president and was replaced by David May. Green gave his reason for his resignation as his living in Milwaukee, too distant to Salt Lake City to be able to see to the business of the company. It was also announced that Otto Mears had resigned his post as a member of the board. The decision was also made to bring the electrolytic department into operation, and to fully complete the entire plant, using funds that had been recently pledged in New York City. Discussions among board members began with their arrival in Salt Lake City on September 19th and continued through September 21st. Construction of the plant was at a standstill and would remain so until word of funding had been received. "There are now on hand in the neighborhood of 200 tons of refined copper, and shipments to New York are to commence next week. This bullion is practically pure and is ready for commercial purposes." (Salt Lake Herald, September 22, 1894)
September 27, 1894
"Several cars of the converter machinery have been received within the past three days and others are expected at once. Immediately upon their arrival the machinery of this portion of the plant will be set in place and then the reverbatories are to be fired up and the matte now on hand reduced to ingots of commercial copper. Pending the receipt of news from the directors, who are now in the east, or on their way thither, the furnaces will not be blown in. Ore is being extracted from the properties of the company and stored in readiness for shipment to the works." (Salt Lake Herald, September 27, 1894)
September 30, 1894
"By the end of the present week the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing company should receive six more cars of converter machinery and immediately upon the arrival of the same the work of finishing the plant is to be resumed." (Salt Lake Herald, September 30, 1894)
October 4, 1894
"Advices were received at the offices of the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing company yesterday afternoon to the effect that two of the six cars of converter machinery had passed Denver and should arrive in this city any day. The remaining four cars should be rapidly nearing this point. Immediately following the arrival of the machinery the completion of the converter portion of the works is to be proceeded with, and not allowed to lag." (Salt Lake Herald, October 4, 1894)
(In early October 1894 there was a kerfuffle between Otto Stalmann, superintendent of the copper plant, and L. C. Trent, a local machinery dealer and distributor. Stalmann was publicly claiming in court testimony that Trent owed him finder's fee of $10,000 after Trent traveled to Chicago to arrange for the contract to the Frazer & Chalmers company to furnish the machinery to the copper plant. Trent strongly denied Stalmann's statement. As a side note, Trent was the local dealer for Lima locomotives.)
October 12, 1894
"President May of the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing: company, left for the east yesterday morning on special business. The announcement was made that he would be absent some time. During the gentleman's absence Superintendent Stalmann will be in charge." (Salt Lake Herald, October 12, 1894)
October 17, 1894
"Treasurer L. D. Shoenberg of the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing company, arrived in the city from his home in Denver yesterday afternoon and went out to the Copperopolis last evening, for the purpose of making an inspection of the property. It is the intention of the company to at once commence a more systematic development of the mine and to that end the officers of the company have recently made some inspections of an official nature in order that they might act with intelligence when the proper time arrives." (Salt Lake Herald, October 17, 1894)
(Read more about the Copperopolis mine, which became the Ajax mine in 1894, then the Gold Chain mine in 1909)
October 19, 1894
"That Copperopolis-Champlain Suit. -- On Monday the great Apex damage suit instituted by the owners of the Champlain against the owners of the Copperopolis, the copper plant people, will be called up in the First district court at Provo for trial and both sides are preparing for the battle royal which is sure to ensue. During the past week several parties of experts have inspected the properties, the last being that shown over the Copperopolis by Treasurer Shoenberg, of the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing company. Mr. Shoenberg and the people who will appear as witnesses for the defense, returned from the mines yesterday, and are now prepared for the opening of the campaign. Mr. Shoenberg yesterday made his first inspection of the works since his arrival here for the purpose of assuming the temporary management of the affairs of the company." (Salt Lake Herald, October 19, 1894)
October 23, 1894
The trespass and encroachment suit between the American Eagle Mining company, owners of the Copperopolis mine, and the adjacent Champlain mining company was settled out of court, with the Champlain company taking control and ownership of the Copperopolis mine. The new combined company was reorganized as the Ajax Mining Company. "As is very generally known, the Copperopolis was owned by the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing company, and out of it considerable of the ore now stored at the copper plant was taken." (Salt Lake Herald, October 23, 1894)
October 25, 1894
The new Ajax Mining company took possession of the combined Copperopolis and Champlain mines "last night." The Champlain mine was to be worked through the Copperopolis mine until a drift could be driven from the Phoenix, another property of the new company, which adjoins both properties. The Copperopolis hoist was to be moved to a new location. It was reported that the owners of the newly organized Ajax company was to pay the former owners of the Copperopolis company [the copper plant owners] a sum of $35,000, with all suits being dismissed. (Salt Lake Herald, October 26, 1894)
November 5, 1894
Operations at the copper plant were at a standstill, awaiting the results of a board of directors meeting in New York City. A New managing superintendent, J. W. Flintham, of Colorado, had been named, and Treasurer Shoenberg had returned to Denver. The current superintendent, Otto Stalmann was still "on the coast" and his return and future connection with the company may be affected by the outcome of J. C. Trent's testimony on the witness stand. (Salt Lake Herald, November 5, 1894)
December 1, 1894
An attachment suit was filed "last evening" by the Northwestern Wheel and Foundry company of St. Paul, Minnesota, against the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing company, in the amount of $4,487.31 in outstanding debt, for iron castings and machinery sold and delivered "last summer." (Salt Lake Herald, December 2, 1894)
December 6, 1894
There were reports from the sitting board of directors, who were in New York City, that new sources of funding had been identified and would soon applied to finishing the copper smelter, making it as fine as the one in Anaconda. There were also reports that the $280,000 so far spent on machinery may have been with a hint of fraud, since the machinery installed actually had a value of $50,000 to $60,000. The current directors had taken control after they discovered the nature of the game that was being played on them by Green, Stalmann and Singer. The Chicago firm of Frazer & Chalmers was threatening legal action and foreclosure, and the settlement resulted in the recent change of management. The Northwestern Wheel & Machinery company had filed its claim of $4487, and very soon the Standard Smelting & Refining company of Durango filed its claim for $4800, and the contractors, Cosgrove & Green, filed their claim of $7800. Samuel M. Green, one of the initial organizers in 1893 held financial interest in the Northwestern Wheel & Machinery, Standard Smelting & Refining and Cosgrove & Green companies, and his wife added her claim against the copper company for $4000. There were rumors that Green and his wife were now legally separated, and that she was entitled to a shared interest in the monies the shared companies were owed by the copper plant company. (Salt Lake Tribune, December 6, 1894)
(In 1901, Frazer & Chalmers was consolidated with other companies to form the Allis-Chalmers Company, said to be at that time the largest machinery company in the world. Allis-Chalmers was formed in 1901 as an amalgamation of the Edward P. Allis Company (steam engines and mill equipment), Fraser & Chalmers (mining and ore milling equipment), the Gates Iron Works (rock and cement milling equipment), and the industrial business line of the Dickson Manufacturing Company (engines and compressors). It was reorganized in 1912 as the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company.)
December 8, 1894
The copper plant would likely be sold under foreclosure to satisfy a large debt. Up to this time, the plant had produced 31 tons of copper bullion, from the treatment of 2700 tons of ore from the Copperopolis and Copper Mountain mines. The bullion sold for $5000, less than $2 per ton for the ore as treated. This figure was too low for the plant to repay its expenses, which in-turn were the result of bad construction contracts and bad management. (Salt Lake Herald, December 8, 1894)
(This 31 tons of copper produced through November 1894, barely a railroad carload, was apparently the only copper produced by the copper plant.)
(The pending foreclosure was the result of promissory notes in the amount of $250,000 given to stockholders and local investors to obtain the funds needed to pay the settlement from the reorganization on September 24th, 90 days before. The notes were due on December 24, 1894, and disagreement among copper plant company directors and officers concerning another reorganization, would likely result in the company being foreclosed. Abraham Hanauer became the trustee to oversee the trust deed issued to cover the notes. The property would likely be sold for the value of the notes, to a syndicate made up of those who hold the notes. -- Salt Lake Tribune, December 16, 1894)
(The foreclosure sale was set for January 14, 1895. The real and personal property included the plant site, and several mining claims in the Box Elder and Lucin districts in Box Elder County. The sale was postponed until February 4, 1895. -- Salt Lake Tribune, December 24, 1894; January 15, 1895)
(Note that the copper plant company no longer owned any part of the Copperopolis mine in Juab County, following that company's reorganization as the Ajax company in October 1894)
(The newspapers did not carry any details of the foreclosure, or the wide variety of suits and counter-suits that followed as all parties attempted to protect their interests, and there were a lot of individuals and companies involved. In early April 1895, there was a court-ordered injunction to prevent Northwestern Wheel & Machinery from removing the machines it had installed.)
March 30, 1895
The Ajax Mining company paid the payment of $10,000 due on March 30th, for the purcahse of the Copperopolis mine. The came from the settlement of the encroachment law suit in October 1894. The other payments coming due in the following months were also paid. (Salt Lake Herald, March 30, 1895; April 27, 1895)
(Several meetings were held in New York City during April and May 1895, among all parties or their lawyers to decide the fate of the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing Company, but the talks failed.)
July 12, 1895
A receiver was appointed for the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing Company, after all the creditors were unable to reach any agreement or settlement. (Salt Lake Herald, July 11, 1895)
(The appointed receiver was C. P. Mason, who by mid 1898 filed a total of twelve quarterly reports with the court as to the progress of the receivership.)
July 15, 1898
The Utah Supreme Court found in favor of Edward Singer in his claim of his holding an unrecorded trust deed dated June 1894 in the amount of $100,000, as the result of his part in funding the reorganization of the company. Singer had been one of the first organizers of the company in 1893, and remained as a director of the company. The later trust deed from September 1894 held by other stockholders, with Hanauer as trustee, was found to be null and void, giving Singer first rights to liquidation of the company. The court ordered that the property of the copper plant be sold. (Salt Lake Tribune, July 15, 1898)
The real estate property of the copper plant was sold at a Sheriff's auction on October 24, 1898, and the last of the mining property in Box Elder County was sold on January 6, 1899. The final sale of the "personal property" (buildings, tools, machines, etc.) of the copper plant, situated at the plant itself, took place on January 7, 1899, for a reported $6,136.95. At the end, the liquidation of the copper plant real estate, property and assets brought a total of $221,109.95, on a reported original cost of about $500,000. The mining properties alone brought $165,000. (Salt Lake Herald, October 2, 1898; January 8, 1899; New York Sun, January 16, 1899)
(Research indicates that after all the dust settled from the various sales, it was the Lewissohn Brothers of New York, through various representatives, that ended owning everything previously owned the the Salt Lake City Copper Manufacturing Company.)
September 27, 1899
The ownership of the real estate property of the copper plant was transferred to S. W. Peck in May 1899, then transferred again in September, in the form of a deed to a representative of the Lewissohn Brothers of New York City. The value of the real estate at the time of transfer was reported as being $50,000. The Lewissohn Brothers had also purchased the mine in Box Elder County and there were rumors that the copper plant would be started up to process those ores. But the ores from the Box Elder mines held too much silica ("siliceous") and could not be processed at the copper plant. (Salt Lake Herald, May 9, 1899; September 28, 1899, "yesterday"; Salt Lake Tribune, November 26, 1899)
(This might explain the failure of the entire project - that the copper plant was unable to process the ore from the only mine the company owned, with subsequent finger-pointing by all parties involved.)
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