St. Croix Riverway Time and the River: A History of the Saint Croix

CHAPTER 3:
"The New Land": Settlement and the Development of Agriculture in the St. Croix Valley (continued)

Mining Illusions

Farming, however, was not the only lure for settlement in the St. Croix Valley. The prospect of striking it rich piqued interest of many individuals in mining when valuable minerals were found locally. It had been known since the early days of settlement that there was some mineral deposits in the area. Caleb Cushing and the Boston Group hoped there was enough to create a base for the development of manufacturing. Mining prospects offered the illusion of fortunes hidden beneath the feet of hard-working farmers or loggers. Typical of its power to feed fantasy was the story of Thomas Dunn. After the Civil War, he built a dam on the Yellow River. When water levels were reduced, some of his men found coal near the dam. When the men showed it to Dunn, he figured he did not have the time to check it out then since he was too busy with the rich harvest of timber to concern himself with a coal mine in a sparsely populated area. However, Dunn later tried to buy the land, but a claim for the land had already been entered. When the land was deeded back to the county, Dunn bought it all. In 1883 he began to mine it. "If it proves to be as represented by the discoverers," wrote the Burnett County Sentinel, "it will be a bonanza for Mr. Dunn and is good as a gold mine." [211] The bonanza coal mine, however, proved as illusory as most of the mining excitements that followed.

Copper finds generated the most excitement in the St. Croix Valley. [212] "Excitement runs high on copper discoveries hereabouts," wrote the Taylors Falls Journal. [213] In 1879, copper was found on the farm of Richard Turnbull below St. Croix Falls. The ore was reputed to contain seventy-three percent copper and seven percent silver. "The shaft at Turnbull's is down about ten feet," reported the Burnett County Sentinel in October 1879. "The workmen are now working in a vein of quartz rock about 12 inches wide, which they claim to be rich in silver ore." The discovery prompted a company of Milwaukee capitalists to put up $300,000 toward the mining venture. [214] Lumber baron Isaac Staples was not one to miss out on an opportunity to strike it rich. In 1879, he spent several thousand dollars to develop his mining interests near St. Croix Lake in southern Douglas County. George R. Stuntz brought in a party of experienced Cornish miners to do the work. [215] Confidence was high that the mining prospects would pay. "Copper is being found in astonishing quantities on the other side of the river," proclaimed the Burnett County Sentinel in 1880. [216] The Taylors Falls Journal was fairly smitten by copper fever. "The mining boom hereabout is on the rampage," it wrote, "and it might be well in this connection to mention that all the lighter colored beds of trap rock in this neighborhood are permeated with copper ores and virgin copper. In many localities rich silver ore is lavishly distributed upon the surface. . .and the present season will doubtless prove one of unparalleled activity along the St. Croix mineral belt." [217] In October 1880, D.A. Canady of Taylors Falls brought in a crew to open up a copper mine near the Kettle River rapids. "We hope he will strike it rich," wished the Burnett County Sentinel, "but we have our doubts." In 1881, the Berger brothers from Taylors Falls began work on a copper mineshaft on the Wisconsin side of the Dalles. [218]

The only serious copper prospecting on the Upper St. Croix River, however, occurred along Crotty Brook some time in the 1870s where three shafts were sunk. The site is located near the Coppermine Dam. However, this mining area did not bear much mineral results. [219]

In the 1890s, gold, silver, and iron were discovered on what some geologists called the St. Croix range near Knapp, Wisconsin in St. Croix and Dunn counties. Many mining companies formed with the expectation that they would find success. "Gold! Gold! At last we have it," proclaimed the Burnett County Sentinel in 1892. "P.E. Peterson has discovered that this village is built on a bed of gold." Mr. Peterson apparently noticed glittering metal in his water pump. He claimed that every pail full of water contained a teaspoon of gold. "Mr. Peterson says he will have it tested and should it prove to be of any value he will begin work at once and find out what amount there is." [220] "Verily this State is destined to become a second Pennsylvania," predicted the Burnett County Sentinel, "iron is being discovered all over the State." [221]

In the 1890s, genuine iron mining took place in Pierce County near Spring Valley, thirty miles east of the St. Croix River. These were open pits mined with picks and shovels. Nearby quarries south of Spring Valley provided the limestone necessary for smelting. From 1892 to 1900 the Eagle Iron and Ore smelter produced pig iron and formed the economic backbone for the area. At its height of operation it employed nearly one hundred men, mostly immigrants. In 1900, the operation was sold to a Chicago firm and named Spring Valley Iron and Ore Company. By 1910, the furnace was shut down due to the lack of demand for pig iron, as well as the difficulty of competing with larger and more highly mechanized iron mines in northern Minnesota and Michigan. The economy of Spring Valley declined until it became a small agricultural trading village rather than an industrial town. Interest in the iron mines reappeared during World War II. Although it was estimated that over a million tons of iron ore still existed, it was deemed an insufficient quantity to warrant the effort and expense to get at it. [222]

Another iron mine in the river valley was located near the town of Cable in Bayfield County near the Namekagon River. By World War I the mine had no longer been operational. Its open shaft was filled with water, and local children played in its trenches and pits. [223]

Overall, mining frontier riches did not come to fruition in the St. Croix River Valley. In a 1901 report written for the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey Professor of Geology at Northwestern University, Ulysses Sherman Grant, explained that although the St. Croix copper range, particularly in the area around Taylors Falls and St. Croix Falls, had numerous exposed copper bearing rocks, most of the valley had been covered with heavy glacial drift sediments thus burying copper deposits that were estimated to be as productive as that of Keweenaw Point in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. While Grant did not deny the possibility of finding copper deposits here, he intimated that it would be difficult and costly. Thus despite some initial excitement in finding a few exposed outcrops, mining in the St. Croix never proved to be a serious industry. It, therefore, never served as an attraction for settlers to the valley. Farming remained the principle draw for settlement. [224]