Mingo Smelter, Sandy
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This page was last updated on June 19, 2026.
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Mingo Smelter
-- Mingo Smelter (formerly Mountain Chief)
-- Aerial photos from 1937 show a large slag dump remaining on the site, south of 9000 South, between State Street and the Union Pacific (now UTA TRAX) railroad tracks.
-- By 1889, the Mingo smelter was the only smelter still operating in Sandy.
"Mingo Furnace Company. Two stacks were built in 1872, and were known as the Mountain Chief furnaces. They ran a few months, and then were idle until November, 1876, when the property came into the possession of the Mingo Company, a branch of the Pittsburgh Lead Company. The old stacks were repaired, and two others were erected in October, 1877. One or more furnaces have been run quite steadily upon ore purchased in the Salt Lake market. The works are situated a half a mile south of Sandy, on the Utah Southern railroad, are complete, clean, airy, and well managed." ("Department Of The Interior, Statistics And Technology Of The Precious Metals," published in 1885)
Mountain Chief (1872-1874)
(The Mountain Chief mine was located in Dry Canyon in the Ophir District. Operated during late 1872 by Davis & Co. After its sale to British investors, dividends were paid in only one month, in January 1873. There is no reference in online newspapers to the Mountain Chief being sold to British investors until January 11, 1873 when the price of its stock on the London Open Stock Market is shown, as of December 4th, along with seven other Utah mining companies. These quotes on the London market continued through late August 1874.)
February 11, 1873
"New Furnaces. - The managers of the Mountain Chief mine, the stock of which company is owned in England, have just let contracts for the construction of two large furnaces at Sandy, near the Saturn works. The furnaces are to be built as rapidly as possible, and will be able to smelt a large quantity of ore. Mr. W. S. Valentine, Manager of the Saturn Company is to manage the new works, and Mr. Gerrish is to be Superintendent. It is sure to be a great success." (Utah Mining Journal, February 11, 1873)
April 26, 1873
"The Mountain Chief Furnaces. - Are in course of construction only a few yards south of the Saturn works. The buildings and outhouses are nearly completed, and one blast furnace is erected. It is expected these works will be in running order by the end of May." (Salt Lake Weekly Tribune, April 26, 1873)
May 17, 1873
"The Mountain Chief Furnaces. - Are also in course of construction at Sandy, a few yards south of the Saturn works. The buildings and outhouses are nearly completed, and one blast furnace is erected. The works are expected to fire up by the end of May. The works are under the management of Mr. Valentine, who is also manager of the Saturn works." (Salt Lake Weekly Tribune, May 17, 1873)
(Beginning in November 1873, there were a series of law suits that attached the Mountain Chief smelter and its property for unpaid smelter returns owed to mines. The Saturn and Mountain Chief (Mingo) were both affected and research suggests they were both shut down while under attachment.)
November 15, 1873
"On Tuesday [November 11], deputy Sheriff Golding served an attachment on the smelter at Sandy, belonging to the Mountain Chief Smelting Company. The attachment was served to recover $1,600 due to the Emma Silver Mining Company, limited." (Utah Mining Gazette, November 15, 1873)
February 14, 1874
"At a special meeting of the Saturn Company, it was decided to wind-up the present company with a view to its re-construction upon a more extended basis. The latest advices state that the smelting works at Sandy, then under attachment, were about to be 'fired-up' again. It appears that the Mountain Chief and Saturn Works had been closed for some time." (Utah Mining Gazette, February 14, 1874)
(On April 24, 1874, the Third District Court found in favor of the plaintiffs in the five law suits against the Mountain Chief Mining company. The Mountain Chief smelter and mine were both dormant at the time, as was the Saturn "furnace".)
May 28, 1874
"On Wednesday the Sheriff of this county sold at public auction to the highest bidder, the Mountain Chief Smelter and real property, located at Sandy Station on the U. S. R. R. The property was sold to satisfy a judgment in favor of T. E. Clohecy and others, and was purchased by Mr. Clohecy for $12,400." (Helena Montana Independent Record, May 28, 1874)
"T. E. Clohecy, formerly of Deer Lodge, a few days since purchased at sheriff's sale at Sandy Station, Utah, the Mountain Chief Smelter and real property at $12,400." (Anaconda Recorder, May 30, 1874)
June 6, 1874
"Mountain Chief. - This mine was incorporated in London under the name of the Mountain Chief Silver Mining Company (Limited) [a British company] with a capital stock of $250,000. The company erected two vertical blast furnaces at Sandy Station, and made successful operations until the financial panic of last Fall; since that time work has been suspended by the company. The furnaces were lately purchased by Thos. E. Clohecy, Esq., and the mine was sold at Sheriff's sale at the county Court House of Tooele County, on the 25th ult., and purchased by E. M. Wilson, Esq., for the sum of $3,500." (Utah Mining Gazette, June 6, 1874)
Mingo Starts (1877)
January 1, 1877
"The Mingo Smelter, or the Mountain Chief, which adjoins the Saturn, and has been lying idle for several years, has been leased by a Pittsburg company and put into repair. Two large furnaces have been built, from the ground up, new machinery put in and other extensive and substantial improvements made. It is now one of the most convenient smelters in the country, of a capacity of fifteen tons of bullion daily, and is under the management of men who have had life long experience in the business. It begins operation with the new year, under most flattering prospects for a continued and successful run." (Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1877)
August 23, 1877
"The Mingo Smelter, at Sandy, appears to be doing a thrifty business, under the excellent management of Mr. Knapp. No water-jackets or fume-catchers are used, yet everything about the place looks clean, snug and orderly." (Deseret News, August 23, 1877)
December 14, 1877
"At Sandy none of the smelters were at work except the Mingo. This smelter has lately been enlarged to four large stacks, and is now one of the most complete establishments of the kind in the United States. It is worth a trip to Sandy to see these works, the immense floors of ore ready to be put into the furnace, and see the bullion turned out below, everything as neatly done and in as perfect order as it is possible to have it. No sales of bullion to report. The market, however, is about $42 for lead and $1.18 for silver." (Chicago Inter Ocean, December 14, 1877)
During 1890, the Mingo Furnace company at Sandy produced 10,075,171 pounds of unrefined lead, no refined lead, and 530,538 pounds of copper. As comparison, the Germania Lead Works at Cottonwood (later Murray) produced 5,6082,800 pounds of refined lead, and 2,198,776 pounds of unrefined lead, along with 257,270 pounds of copper; the Ontario Silver Mining company at Park City produced 3,204,578 pounds of unrefined lead, no refined lead and no copper, and the Daly Mining company also at Park City produced 1,417,274 pounds of unrefined lead, no refined lead and no copper. (Deseret News, November 3, 1891)
July 1, 1891
The Mingo Smelting Company was incorporated in Utah "yesterday" (July 1), with James E. Schwartz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, holding 4,970 of the 5,000 shares. Schwartz was also president and director. (Salt Lake Tribune, July 2, 1891)
August 28, 1896
"The closing down of the Mingo smelter is said to be from causes largely political. As exclusively announced in The Tribune, orders were received on Friday last [August 28] to convert the ore on hand into bullion and blow out the furnaces. That this order had been received and that it would be executed was confirmed by Manager Frank H. Officer. The controlling interest in the Mingo, or, as it is christened, the Pennsylvania Smelting company, is held in the East. J. E. Schwartz of Pennsylvania is its president, and William Reid its secretary." (Salt Lake Tribune, August 31, 1896)
Mingo Disposal
(The Mingo smelter was dismantled in 1902.)
January 1937
The U. S. Rock Wool set up a plant on the old Mingo smelter site to process the slag into mineral-based insulation, also known as stone wool, slag wool, and rock wool.
"Rockwool is created by heating natural basalt rock and industrial slag to extreme temperatures (around 2,700 degrees F.) until the mixture melts into a liquid. The molten rock is then poured into a spinning machine, which whips it into fine fibers, similar to how cotton candy is made. These fibers are combined with a binder, compressed into dense mats or boards, and cut into various shapes." (Rockwool.com)
The U. S. Rock Wool company was a Utah corporation based in Orem, Utah, using the slag from the nearby U. S. Steel Geneva steel mill as their source material. This was until December 1963 when the company, owned and operated by the Ekins family, rebranded itself as Triple E Inc., with the triple 'E' of the name referring to the owners Grant Ekins and his two sons John "Jack" and Phyl Ekins. By 1963 the Ekins were selling aluminum windows and home appliances and televisions, and the rebranding was seen as a move to improve name recognition of the company. After 1963, the Ekins family continued with the U. S. Rock Wool insulation business. According to the Orem Times, January 2, 2003, Grant Ekins started U. S. Rock Wool in 1935, moving to Orem in 1946.
September 4, 1965
The Mingo slag pile was still in place, with slag being used as fill material for the construction of the Interstate 15 overpass at 8000 South. "The site is the old Mingo Smelter which smelted much of the ore mined many years ago in Alta. For several years a rock wool insulation company operated on the site and it was then sold to Sandy City several months ago. The slag was in the process of being sold to a private individual although the city will retain title to the ground." (Salt Lake Tribune, September 4, 1965)
November 15, 1965
Sandy City bought the old Mingo smelter site from the U. S. Rock Wool company "a few months ago" for a reported $26,000, but within a short period made the money back, plus another $11,000 by selling the slag as fill material to both the State Highway Department and Salt Lake County, which hauled the entire slag pile away for use across the valley. (Deseret News, November 15, 1965)
More Information
Jacob Barlow's Mingo Smelter Page -- Photos of the historical marker.
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