"Prospectors discovered gold in Alder Gulch, Idaho Territory, on May 26, 1863. Within weeks, the countryside was teeming with thousands of prospectors, but the easily extracted placer gold soon played out. B.F. Christenot, acting independently or perhaps as agent to Philadelphia backers, began' acquiring claims in the Summit Mining District in 1864. Christenot later concealed a substantial amount of gold on his person and traveled to Philadelphia where he convinced investors to back construction of a mill. The transition from placer to lode mining, an expensive undertaking that required heavy financial backing, is well documented here at Union City. Machinery, transported in twenty-six ox-drawn wagons over the Bozeman Trail, arrived in October of 1866. Thompson and Griffith of Virginia City constructed the mill which operated by spring, 1867. In ]ume, journalist A.K. McClure arrived from the east to assume its management. Most milling of this period was accomplished by stamping, but the Union City operation employed a process using Chilean rollers for crushing the quartz. Although the mill was reported to be the most efficient in the territory, the ore was soon exhausted and the mill closed down in spring, 1868. $60,000 was said to have been extracted from the company's nearby Oro Cache lode, but the equipment alone cost $80,000, the operation was a financial disaster. At peak production the Christenot Mill employed up to forty workers, and the site, representing all aspects of gold milling technology from processing to management, fills a significant chapter in the history of
mining in Montana."
After visiting the Mill we continued to ride west to Virginia City. While riding down along the river, it's hard to ignore that the landscape will be perminatly scarred from all of the mining activities. Piles and piles of overburden and stone cast aside.
comment, vote, resteem
@qwasert, very informative post and great use of pics! Keep up the good work.
It is really a shame that activities that took place about 150 years ago still scare the landscape.
Who can imagine what our world will look like in 150 more years? Hopefully we will be good student of history so that we can be great teachers to future students.
Thanks for the comment, It was getting dark and wasn't able to get photos of the destruction. It is truly amazing the affect that mining activities have on the landscape. Obviously there was no plan to rebuild the environment. The way they minded completely removes all of the soil and only left large rock and rubble behind. Nothing will ever be able to take root and grow again.
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://rubyvalleychamber.com/community/history/
Thanks for keeping everyone honest cheetah!
This post has received a 0.63 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.
Congratulations @qwasert! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP