Salt Lake Valley Smelters In The 1890s

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This page was last updated on May 31, 2026.

Overview

During the 1890s, the Salt Lake Valley was a major center for the smelting industry, processing silver, lead, and copper ores from the surrounding mountains (Bingham, Little Cottonwood, Park City, and Tintic mining districts). The valley's communities of Murray, Sandy, and Midvale (then known as Bingham Junction) were at the heart of this industrial activity. These locations were chosen for their central position, ready access to the Jordan river and Big and Little Cottonwood creeks for water power, availability of railroad transportation (critical for shipping ore and bullion), and proximity to mountain mines that supplied lead, silver, and copper ore.

The 1890s was a major transitional decade for the industry. It marked the final years of smaller, independent "custom" smelters which had dotted the valley since the early 1870s. The 1890s preceded the period just before many smaller smelters were consolidated in the period of 1899–1902 when giant industrial national trusts such as the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) and the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company (USSRM) came on the scene.

The development of the smelting industry in the valley went through three phases: an early period of experimentation, then a phase when skilled German mining engineers enabled financial success, followed by a late-19th-century wave of industrialists and capitalists who consolidated smaller smelters and built larger, more efficient plants.

Smelters active in the 1890s included plants at Murray, Sandy and Bingham Junction (Midvale). But the largest and most active were the Germania, Morgan/Hanauer, and Utah Consolidated (Highland Boy) at Murray, and the Mingo at Sandy. The status of the Old Jordan smelter at Bingham Junction during the 1890s is not well established.

The earliest smelters were built specifically to process high-value lead and silver carbonate ores, which also contained good values of gold. However, as the mines went deeper, these carbonate deposits transitioned into lower-value, more plentiful sulphide ore. Many of the early smelters couldn't adapt their smelting process to treat this tougher, lower-grade material and were forced to close.

Thanks to low-cost railroad transportation, some of the larger mines could also ship their ore out of state. This ore usually went to the Omaha and Grant Smelting and Refining Company smelters in either Omaha or Denver.

Murray

Murray was the powerhouse of lead-silver smelting in the late nineteenth century. Due to an abundance of water, seven different smelters were built in Murray alone, though several earlier operations—the Woodhull Brothers, W. & M. Robins, Wasatch Silver Lead Works, and American Hill—had closed by the early 1880s.

The following smelters were active during the 1890s:

Germania Smelter (1872–1902)

Located near 5200 South and State Street. One of the most technologically advanced and consistently successful plants in the valley during the 1890s, it relied on skilled engineers to refine complex lead-silver ores. The plant functioned throughout the decade and was purchased by ASARCO in 1899.

Morgan / Hanauer Smelter (1874–1902)

Also known as the Hanauer Smelter or Mingo Furnace (in Murray). This active merchant lead-silver smelter operated throughout the 1890s and was likewise purchased by ASARCO in 1899.

Horn Silver / Francklyn Smelter (1880–1890)

Located near 200 West and 4800 South. This facility processed the exceptionally rich lead-silver ores from the famous Horn Silver Mine in Beaver County. It was active until 1890, covering the early part of the decade.

Utah Consolidated / Highland Boy Copper Smelter (1899–1908)

Built in 1899, this was the first "modern" copper reduction smelter in the Salt Lake Valley. It was financed with British capital through Utah Consolidated Gold Mines, Limited, under the leadership of Samuel Newhouse and Thomas Weir, with a capacity of 250 tons of ore per day. The smelter was constructed to handle the massive copper sulfide deposits newly discovered in Bingham Canyon.

Sandy

Sandy had been a major smelting center in the 1870s and 1880s, but by the 1890s its operations were beginning to wind down or consolidate into larger Murray plants. Smaller smelters at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon (Flagstaff, Davenport, McKay) had operated earlier but were largely defunct by the 1890s.

The primary smelter active in Sandy during the 1890s was at the Mingo smelter.

Mingo Smelter (1870s–1898)

Originally known as the Mountain Chief Smelter when it began in 1873, it was renamed the Mingo Smelter in 1876 upon expansion. Built in Sandy in 1878 (or earlier), it was the largest single producer in Utah of metals such as gold, silver, and lead. The smelter was active in 1890 and continued until it was dismantled and relocated to Murray in 1898. It was later purchased by ASARCO.

(Read more about the Mingo smelter)

-- Flagstaff Smelter -- Closed by 1877.

-- Saturn Smelter -- Closed by 1876, with some parts still in use as late as 1889.

Note: Sampling mills and residual smelting infrastructure remained active in Sandy during the 1890s to test and grade ores before they were sent to the larger furnaces (smelters).

Bingham Junction (Midvale)

Midvale was originally called Bingham Junction because it was where railroad lines from the Bingham Canyon mines met the main valley lines, hosted several smelting works. Changed to Midvale in 1909.

(The Sheridan Hill Smelter was built at Bingham Junction in 1873, but closed in 1876.)

Research has found that there were no active smelters at Bingham Junction in the 1890s. In 1880 Liberty Holden's Old Jordan Mining and Milling Company built a reduction mill on the site of the Galena smelter, which had closed in 1878.

Galena Smelter / Old Jordan Smelting Works (1873-1878)

The Galena Silver Mining Company's (later Old Jordan) smelting works began in late 1872, located where the Bingham Canyon & Camp Floyd Railroad crossed the Jordan River. This early smelter is believed to have operated into the 1890s (research has not yet found a specific closing date). By the end of the decade, this plant, or at least the property where its was located, became part of the United States Mining Company, laying the groundwork for the larger USSR&M Midvale facility that opened after the turn of the century.

Bingham Consolidated Smelter (1899-1907)

An adjacent site a short distance north of Bingham Junction was selected by the Bingham Copper and Gold Mining Company for its new copper smelter. Construction began in 1899 and the smelter went into production in January 1901. The smelter was a three-stack semi-pyritic smelter of 250-ton capacity.

In April 1901, to finance additional expansion, the Bingham Copper and Gold Mining Company was reorganized as the Bingham Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company. The expansion included the purchase of the Dalton and Lark mining properties.

The Bingham Consolidated smelter at Bingham Junction was closed in 1907, as a result of the so-called smoke wars. In its weakened financial condition, control of the company was taken by F. Augustus Heinze and the company was reorganized as the Bingham Mines Company.

Consolidation

The smelting and refining business boomed in the Salt Lake Valley in the 1890s and early 1900s. In 1899, the newly formed American Smelting & Refining Company (ASARCO) trust bought out and dismantled most of the independent 1890s operations (such as the Germania, Hanauer, and Mingo plants) in order to consolidate all lead smelting into one single, massive facility in Murray, which opened in 1902.

The very similar United States Smelting Company was organized in 1903. This new company was controlled by the larger United States Mining Company, and the smelting company was organized to build a new up-to-date smelter on the site of its parent company's Bingham Junction smelter. Both companies were consolidated in 1906 as part of United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company (USSR&M).

While these smelters provided hundreds of jobs and contributed to the economic growth of the new state of Utah, their operations also led to environmental conflicts, including a "smelter war" with local farmers in the early 1900s.

Map

Salt Lake Valley Smelters -- A Google Map showing the locations of many of the railroad-served smelters in the Salt Lake Valley.

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