USSR&M's Ax-I-Dent-Ax Magazine

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Ax-I-Dent-X Magazine

Ax-I-Dent-X was the employee magazine of the United States Smelting Refining & Mining company. It was published between 1916 and 1933.

A strange name for an unusual company publication. It was the brainchild of Edgar M. Ledyard, an extremely competent historian who had a special interest in the history of mining and of western trails, at a time that many of the people who first mined the mines and followed the trails were still living. The name Ax-I-Dent-Ax was intended as a play on words: an ax to cut "axidents." It is probable that Mr. Ledyard's explanation to management was that if employees of the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company were given something to look forward to, they'd try to stay alive long enough to receive it.

Instead of Volume and Number, the early issues were playfully labeled as "Chop" for volume, and "Chip" for number. The magazine was very popular, and the envy of the industry. Unfortunately, when Edgar M. Ledyard died in 1933, the magazine died with him; its final issue carried his obituary and little else.

Ax-I-Dent-X magazine was started with Volume 1, Number 1 ("Chop 1, Chip 1"), dated September 5, 1916. The magazine was published by the United States Metals Refining Company at its offices at East Chicago, Indiana. (Ax-I-Dent-X, July 1931, page 19)

(Ledyard and his wife were residents of Salt Lake City throughout his years of employment with USSR&M. From 1922 on, they also owned a ranch near Colville in western Washington.)

In 1915, Ledyard was director of the USSR&M Agriculture Department, and was a recognized expert on the animals of the Phillipine Islands, having lived there for 10 years. He regularly gave "lantern slide shows" and lectures and the subject of the Phillipines, and later on the pioeer trails of the West. He authored long-read newspaper articles about the histories of mines and pioneer trails in the West

"Edgar M. Ledyard of Salt Lake who is a writer and western historian as an avocation while serving the agricultural department of the U. S. Smelting, Refining & Mining company as a vocation." (April 12, 1928)

Edgar Ledyard was instrumental in the organization in 1929 of the Utah Historical Landmarks Association and was elected as the Association's first president.

Edgar M. Ledyard was editor of Ax-I-Dent-X magazine until his death on March 6, 1933. The magazine's March 1933 issue was devoted entirely to a tribute. At the time of his death he was still the director of the USSR&M Agricutural Department, a position he had held for 17 years.

(Although Ledyard was editor of this internal company magazine for its entire existance, the fact was never mentioned in available online newspapers during the full range of years from 1916 to 1933, including the various obituaries written in 1933. It was occasionally mentioned that he held a position with USSR&M.)

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