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The
role of copper mining in the industrial, economic, and
social life of Utah has been most significant, as has
been its impact on Utah's geography. Prospecting began
in earnest in Utah in the 1860s, but commercial mining
awaited the joining of the transcontinental railroad in
May 1869 to provide the needed inexpensive transportation
to render mining a viable commercial venture. With the
railroad came large-scale mining operations and outside
capital investment. As demands for copper increased, Utah's
role as a copper producer became more significant; and
although it remains always susceptible to the upswings
and downturns of the mineral industry, copper continues
to play a vital part in the state's economic development.
Copper in Utah was noted in the 1860s in the Camp Floyd
area and in Bingham Canyon. California Volunteers under
Colonel Patrick E. Conner made discoveries of copper around
the mountains of the Salt Lake Valley. The Walker brothers
hauled the first wagonloads of copper from Bingham Canyon
in 1868. The metal was also discovered in the Tintic Mining
District (Juab County); the Lucin District (Box Elder
County); the Beaver Lake, San Francisco, and Pruiss districts
(Beaver County); along with other deposits in Millard
and Washington counties. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s
copper was basically a by-product of the lead and silver
ores mined.
The copper market moved with the economy, hitting a bottom
with the depression and panic of 1893 only to rebound
after 1896. During the mid-1890s Thomas Weir and Samuel
Newhouse emerged on the scene, primarily in the Bingham
Canyon area, and brought copper mining and smelting into
importance in Utah. These entrepreneurs attracted other
investors, including William Rockefeller and the Standard
Oil people, as well as the Guggenheim and international
interests. This led to the establishment of the Salt Lake
Valley smelters that would solidify the importance of
Utah's copper industry.
The plants of the American Smelting and Refining Company
(Murray), the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining
Company (Midvale), and the International Smelting and
Refining Company (Tooele) exerted a controlling influence
on the burgeoning copper industry. In 1903 the Utah Copper
Company was organized by Daniel C. Jackling, a metallurgical
engineer from Missouri, who ushered in a rich era of copper
mining in Utah. Throughout the first decade of the twentieth
century there was a consolidation of mining companies,
and in 1910 the Guggenheims' Kennecott Copper Corporation
merged with the Boston Consolidated Mining Company and
the Utah Copper Company to form one large operation. Jackling's
introduction of open-cut copper mining (mining deposits
from the surface using first steam and later electric
shovels to remove the surface rock and dig out the ore)
had both statewide and worldwide significance. Jackling
became known as the "father of Utah copper mining,"
and Kennecott became an important worldwide producer.
Jackling demonstrated that the mining of low-grade ores,
containing only two percent copper, could be economically
feasible when mined and processed in mass production.
Jackling also utilized new methods of metallurgical extraction,
primarily those involving an improved flotation process
for the concentrating of low-grade ores. ("Concentrating"
is the process of separation of copper minerals from the
waste material, "smelting" extracts copper from
these minerals, and "refining" is the purification
of the metal.)
Mining of copper in Bingham Canyon expanded so rapidly
that most other operations in Utah disappeared. With the
Magna mill and the Garfield smelter and refinery, Kennecott
(with Utah Copper as a subsidiary) developed to become
one of the leading copper producers in the United States.
The town of Bingham grew to become an important center
for the influx of southern and eastern Europeans, Japanese,
and Mexicans who came to provide the unskilled labor necessary
to mine copper.
During the 1870s Irish and English miners populated the
Bingham area, and in the 1880s British and Scandinavians
continued the northern European make-up of the camp. By
the end of that decade and into the 1890s Chinese, Finnish,
and Italian workers began moving in. The southern and
eastern European presence in the canyon grew during the
early 1900s as eastern Mediterranean and Balkan peoples
came. Specific ethnic sections developed in the area--Copperfield
(Greeks), Highland Boy (South Slavs), Japtown, Carr Fork
(Finns and Swedes), and Frogtown (native-born "Americans"),
among others. During the 1912 strike, Mexican laborers
were introduced, with that group becoming a major ethnic
force in the area.
Strikes in the copper industry became practically a way
of life for most copper workers and company personnel.
The first large-scale strike occurred in 1912, brought
on to achieve recognition of the Western Federation of
Miners union (later the International Mine, Mill, and
Smelter Workers, and the United Steelworkers of America)
and, more importantly, to bring about an end to the Greek
padrone system. Up to that time, the importation of labor
by a boss, or padrone, supplied much of the early labor
for both the metal and coal mining industries. Leonidas
G. Skliris extracted money from Greek men in return for
finding them work, and pressured them to shop at his Pan
Hellenic store. Although the 1912 strike was lost in terms
of union recognition, Skliris was forced out. Because
of this strike many suffered; it took five months to restore
normal operations.
The Garfield and Magna areas developed as a direct result
of copper mining. In 1906 Utah Copper had constructed
the Magna Mill--a facility for the coarse crushing, fine
crushing, concentrating, and dewatering of copper ores.
The site was selected for its availability of water and
because it was suitable for the adequate disposal of waste
(tailings). Expansion of the tailings pond occurred from
1915 to 1918, culminating in over 5,000 acres used for
disposal purposes. Also in 1906, a steam electric generating
plant was begun below the Magna complex. As power requirements
increased, Utah Power and Light Company supplied electricity
to meet demands. Additional transforming stations were
added above the mill, and a power plant was added in 1918.
By 1916 Magna was a well developed town with active business
and residential sectors, and an ethnically diverse population.
The land which would form Garfield was purchased in 1905
by Utah Copper and the area soon became a company town,
where the workers rented housing. Services were also available
there.
In the 1920s Kennecott (Utah Copper) launched the building
of a unique company town--Copperton, east of the open-pit
mine in Bingham Canyon. Planned for company supervisory
and skilled personnel, the town was to be a show place
for the use of copper and copper-related products. Copper
was utilized for strip shingles (fastened with copper
nails), copper valleys, hips, ridges, and downspouts,
copper gutter straps, downspout stays, and chimney saddles,
copper vents, bronze hardware and screens, and brass pipes,
pipe fittings, and shower fixtures.
Utah's copper industry initially dealt with growing demands
for unionization of employees by creating alternate programs
of their own. In 1919 Kennecott developed a welfare department
under which baseball leagues, ball parks, swimming pools,
golf courses, etc., were constructed. In 1925 the Utah
Copper Club building was erected at the Arthur Mill (Bingham
had its R. C. Gemmel Club). Movies, entertainments, and
Christmas parties were sponsored by the company. By 1939
most of Kennecott's labor force for its milling operations
lived in either Garfield (14 percent), Magna (63 percent),
or Salt Lake City (23 percent). These mills had gone from
approximately 152 employees in 1906 to 1,336 in 1938.
A peak employment of 3,298 was reached in 1917. In Garfield,
records indicate that approximately 2,000 people lived
in the town in 1940. In 1955 Kennecott sold both Garfield
and Copperton to the real estate firm of John W. Galbreath
and Company. Garfield was dismantled, with some of the
homes moved to Magna. Copperton homes were sold to private
individuals (the town remains today).
Copper production reached a high point during World War
II, and Puerto Ricans were imported to help augment the
labor shortage in Bingham Canyon. The Bingham mine is
said to have produced one-third of the copper used by
the Allies during the war. By the year 1963, Bingham had
produced approximately 8 million tons of metal. In was
at that time Kennecott decided upon an expansion project
at the mine--the town of Bingham, as well as the town
of Lark, was dismantled to make way for improvements.
The copper industry suffered into the 1970s; in 1987 the
company was sold to BP Minerals America, a British-owned
affiliate of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. Between
1987 and 1988 Kennecott invested $400 million to modernize
facilities at the Utah Copper Division, making them highly
efficient. From a total work force of some 7,000 in the
1960s, in 1989 the company had 2,240 employees. In July
1989, RTZ Corporation, also British owned, acquired BP's
interests, renaming the company Kennecott Corporation.
The company continues to be a major force and factor in
Utah's economy.
Philip F. Notarianni
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