Glendale, Montana 1883
"Birdseye View"

 

In order to share the history of Glendale, one must understand the history of the Bryant Mining District and how each mining town played a specific role, not only as a community but also, in conjunction with the operations of the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company which gave the district it's economic infrastructure and served as the, "lifeblood" to Miners, their families, and business establishments.

 

            Located in the East Pioneer Mountain Ranges of Southwest Montana, Glendale was a community of approximately two thousand inhabitants. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children made their way through Glendale and it's sister camps during the course of it's mining boom era which lasted well over thirty years, spanning from the early 1870’s through the turn of the century.

 

Debate arose as to what the new Smelter town should be named. The men building the road to Lion Mountain in derision of the pilgrims occupying this place, called it “Soonerville,” and posted up mile stakes that read, “one mile to Soonerville,” but the pilgrims paid them back in their own coin, by naming the place they occupied “Sucker Gulch,” which name has “Stuck” ever since.

 

Various legends tell a different story of how and why Glendale came to be known as Glendale but the most written version tells of the names Glendale and Clinton being written on opposite sides of a wood chip. It was then thrown over the Hecla Mining Company Assay wall with Glendale landing face up. There is yet to be discovered, any written evidence of who and why these particular names were chosen, however, we do know the end result. Glendale it was, and Glendale it is! The town of Glendale quickly grew, drawing in miners from all comers of the world. There were people from every ethnic background including the Chinese.

 

 

            Much has been written and re-written by past and present historians, authors, and newspaper accounts, on the life and times of the Hecla Mining Company and the Bryant Mining District. There exists, many short biographies and stories which touch on common points of interests with each version telling a slightly different story than the one previously told. Many times the stories are the same but the names change dramatically leaving serious researchers and historians to wonder. One such story involves the naming of Glendale. Legend divides accounts of the names, "Clinton" and "Clifton" as being the alternate name to "Glendale". We may never know for sure which of these two names were accurate but the important thing to know is that "Glendale" prevailed.

  

Although the goal of the writers is to share the history and to educate their readers, people tend to trust what is written and often times, in their own writings,  re-word and re-arrange the information to meet their writing needs rather than going to the source of the information, to seek the truth and facts for themselves

 

The many books and accounts written on the Bryant Mining District and the communities within, can all be sourced through a handful of historians works, mainly Sassman, Leeson, and Winchell. Early day news paper accounts (though not always accurate) are great sources of information often overlooked as the facts and details are still fresh in the minds of the people writing and also living these stories. One example I can offer here would be to reference some of the newspaper accounts dating to the 1870s (Butte Miner and Helena Independent) which tells of life in the new mining communities of the Bryant Mining District. Newspaper accounts dating to the 1930s and 1940s were not as clear and information was quite different than that written closer to the time period in which these events occurred. Newspaper accounts dating to the 1870's seem to be more specific to names and dates as well as to specific details of events unfolding, that it leaves little room for doubt to the reader as to it's accuracy. With that stated, one must read these articles, keeping in mind that the traveling correspondent may have reported back incorrectly, additionally, check these newspapers for retractions and corrections which newspapers generally did if they went too astray on the facts and details. One thing I find helpful is to look for common denominators in the various stories and articles written as well as the bibliographies to locate the source of the information.

 

 

Discovery of the "Trapper Lode" was made in 1872 by William "Billy" Spurr. He was partners with James Bryant in this discovery, or so James thought, as James later learned that William (Billy) Spurr had recorded the claim in his own name. Spurr never started development on the location so the following year, James Bryant returned to the area with a group of men while on a "Hunting Expedition" and proceeded to search out the lode discovered the previous year.  The Mining district was named in honor of James A. Bryant.

 

James Bryant and his men camped for several days at a spring just above the presumed prospect site. According to one account, they located Spurr's claim. As the men were about to leave, they realized that their horses had decided to get a, "head start", so the men split up and headed off in search of their horses. Jerry Grotevant stopped to get some rest on what would later become known as Trapper Hill and while sitting down on a log, he kicked over a rock which he discovered had silver on it. Grotevant searched and came upon the outcropping of what would later become the Trapper Lode.

 

Forgetting about the lost horses, he hurried back to camp to tell the guys of his discovery and at once they all started on staking their claim. One of the men, Bill Hamilton, reached Bannack to record the discovery and word quickly spread as a group of Bannack prospectors returned to the area. Noah Armstrong, who had some men working at Birch Creek in Madison County, sent a group of men and soon discovered the Cleve and Avon Mines.

 

Trapper City, the area's first settlement, included a hotel, several saloons, a whore house, general store, butcher shop, livery stable, and cabins which lined up and down both sides of Trapper Creek being bridged to form the main street of town.  Quite a" flutterment"went on in camp when the first cook stove made its appearance. The stove was brought in on pack mules by Noah Armstrong and John Longley.

 

            The town boasted a population of about 100 to 200 people. A post office (Burnt Pine) was established in 1873 with James L. Hamilton serving as postmaster. John Cannovan, owner of the Trapper City Hotel and livery stable would become postmaster following Hamilton. As the various mines and properties were being developed, there was a need for a road to connect the mines to the main artery of travel along the Big Hole River. The area was still wooded, so the miners cut their own road. The district was producing good ore from the start and reportedly was shipped by ox-team to the Central Pacific Railroad at Corrine, Utah and then by rail to San Francisco, continuing on to Swansea, Wales.

 

As mines were being developed on Lion Mountain, Trapper city started to decline and by the summer of 1878, most everyone abandoned the town and moved to the new mining settlement of Lion City situated at the base of Lion Mountain, Andrew Mose Morrison, being the last remaining citizen of Trapper City, packed up and headed on to the new camp. Trapper City was dead, and all that was left were empty cabins and buried hopes.

 

Lion City gained it's namesake from the mountain, "White Lion Mountain". The silver/lead outcrops on this bare, white rock upthrust were discovered shortly after the strikes at Trapper Ridge. The legend states that a man, Joe McCreary, was wandering around one day when he came across what he thought was a mountain lion standing on a cliff. In a panic, he hurried back to camp to report seeing a lion and when the men accompanied him back, they discovered that the "Lion" was actually Grotevant's Mule. And from that point forward, Lion Mountain was so named. When his mistake was discovered, the other miners made sure McCreary would never live it down.

 

The mining camps of Hecla and Lion City and much of the mining district is located in a large glacial cirque basin in the eastern Pioneer Mountains, about 16 miles west of the town of Melrose. The district is drained by Trapper and Sappington Creeks and is surrounded by high mountains with Granite Mountain rising to 10,633 feet in the south; a high divide to the west; and by Lion, Sheriff, and Cleve mountains to the north and northwest. In the center of the district is the Hecla basin at an altitude of about 8,500 feet. Knippenberg a religious man found the town of Lion city to be sinful, and moved the company headquarters a mile away and created the new town of Hecla. At this same time Knippenberg had the Mill and Leeching rebuilt at Glendale.

 

Raymond Rossiter reported for the year 1873 that Mr. Armstrong had machinery on the way for concentration and reduction works. By 1874, he was preparing the building for these works. A saw mill was erected, but owing to the great distance from railroad communication, and slowness of ox and Mule trains, and the inconvenience and expense of so many middle men and agents, the difficulties in the way of successful mining operations this coming season are very great.

 

 

In the Spring of 1877, Noah Armstrong having solicited Philadelphia and Indianapolis Capitalists, organized the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company for the purpose of developing the Lion Mountain properties. Armstrong, who owned the Atlantis mine in the Trapper area, took over most of the workings on Lion Mountain under the newly formed Hecla Consolidated Mining Company. Armstrong bought virtually all the major productive properties, including the Cleopatra, Trapper, Franklin, Cleve-Avon, Mark Anthony, Ariadne, True Fissure, and Atlantus lodes giving the Hecla Mining Company a monopoly of Lion Mountain and making it one of the principal mining outfits in the territory.  Although working conditions in the mines were extremely difficult due to the bitter cold and rarified air, some twenty miles of underground workings were driven into the center of Lion Mountain.

 

Naming the newly formed mining company was decided from a painting that had been hanging in the Company's payroll office at Glendale which depicted Mt. Hecla, a volcano found on the Icelandic continent. On some early company checks, a logo showing the volcano spewing forth dollar signs was used as the vignette. It is reasonable to assume that Noah Armstrong having initiated the formation of this new company probably held the honor in naming it as well. It is not clear what Armstrong’s connection was (if any) to this Volcano or Iceland but Hecla it was.  He purchased the Cleopatra and the True Fissure claims which gave the Hecla Mining Company complete control of Lion Mountain. Noah Armstrong served as General Manager of the new company from 1877 to late 1878.

 

In 1877, the Helena Independent ran a story of the new Smelter town and it’s rapid development; To a stranger visiting Glendale for the first time, the reduction works of the Hecla Consolidated Mining company are the center of interest.  Upon these works, the business of the entire camp directly or indirectly depends, not only of Glendale indeed, but of Trapper to almost an equal degree for although some of the ores of Trapper are sent to Argenta for reduction, their amount, and the employment furnished in their shipment, is but little when we consider the steady stream of ore demanded by the Glendale works, and the great number of persons who find employment in supplying it.

 

The foundation of the reduction works was laid a little over two years ago.  Ever since then, improvements have been going on until the present time, when the works look as complete as anything can be, although we hear there are still additions to be made to them. The works as they stand consist of two water-jacket cupola furnaces, one reverberatory furnace already finished, and another, to be used in smelting copper, now in course of construction. The power furnished by a 28 inch leffel turbine wheel.  By this wheel are worked a blake crusher, a set of cornish rollers, a rotary force blast of immense force, and the different lathes, etc that are occasionally used.

 

By the crusher and the rollers, the iron ore used as a flux for the copper, is pulverized. When sufficiently fine, it is mixed with the copper ore which is so soft as not to require crushing, and the mixture is then ready for the furnace.  From the furnace there are three spouts, one for metal and two for slag, and by some improvement in the interior construction of Glendale furnaces stream of metal is constant, while others are tapped for slag.  By this improvement, the slag is kept from reaching the bottom of the furnace, and , consequently from chilling. The smoke stack through which the smoke and fumes from both furnaces escape, stands off at some distance from the works. If the blast were to ascend through the furnace and escape through a stack directly over it, a quantity of valuable metallic dust would be lost every day. Instead of ascending vertically, the smoke from the furnaces passes off through a horizontal flue leading from the dust chamber to the stack, through which it finally escapes. In the chamber some hundreds of dollars worth of dust are saved every day that would be lost. This fine dust is placed in a reverberatory furnace together with other ores which it will combine, so as to assume a massive form, in place of being an almost impalable powder, and is then returned to the smelter.

 

The small furnace only has as yet been used. The large one has been finished and ready for work for some time, but the 50 or 60 tons of ore necessary to keep it running could not be delivered with the teams engaged in transportation. The contract of supplying the needed amount of ore has been taken, and the work of delivering it will begin this week, when the large furnace will likely be started.  In working the small furnace 600 bushels of charcoal per day are used; but the large one will consume somewhere between 1200 and 2000 bushels of charcoal every twenty-four hours a day.

 

The smelter and the village that has sprung up around it are on Trapper Creek, about 8 miles from the Big Hole river into which the creek empties. The village is built in the creek bed, and as the banks are quite steep, it not being very high, there has been no room for the ambitious town to spread itself but instead lies along the creek, a town of one street, about a quarter mile long and approaching pretty near the mathematician’s description of a line i.e. length and width, but it’s citizens were not attracted to Glendale by the beauty of the town site, and the many improvements going on prove them to be confident that their village has a prosperous future before it. 

 

Among these improvements we noticed a fine brick store now being erected by Messrs. Thomas and Co., with a very large stone fire proof warehouse adjoining it.  Several new dwelling houses are going up. One owned by our friend Frank Luton, who was probably lead to believe by a little occurrence mentioned in another column under the head of married that more roomy quarters are needed-or may be by and by.

 

The town boasts of several saloons, The “Pony” owned by Fairfield and Peck. The “Bit Saloon” by Dillabaugh, whose Kentucky whiskey we can vouch for as being better than some in Butte and at half the price. Luton’s Saloon in front of the Glendale House and a large billiard hall kept by J.C.Metlin. There are one or two more, but we could not “smile” enough to go round, but will make a heroic effort to make the round trip on our next visit. John Mannheim is proprietor of the only brewery, which is quite a large affair.

 

            Chester and Mahan own the meat market and a livery stable of 22 stalls. John Cannovan is landlord of the Glendale House, at which you can put up with confidence, for it is a well conducted hotel, and it’s landlord makes a point to treat his guests with politeness and to see that their wants are attended to. The population of Glendale is about 125 and in this number are included but very few idlers, as almost every one about the village is busy.  As the reduction works increase in size and in working capacity, a greater number of employees will be kept at work, and occupation given to a large number of citizens engaged in trade, etc. in the neighborhood. 

 

Upon the whole, Glendale is a very substantial little town about whose prosperity there is nothing speculative; nothing transitory. Being essentially a mining town, and it’s citizens engaged in the same industry as those of Butte, a constant intercourse is kept up between the two towns by this identity of occupation. But this intercourse is limited and compared with what it should be, as Butte is much nearer Glendale, I interest as well as in position, than any other town in Montana

 

In 1878, Elias C. Atkins, founder of Indianapolis Saw Works, was appointed General Manager of the Mining properties and after two years in this position, led the mining concern into a debt of $77,000. The forty- ton smelter built by Armtrong and Dahler in 1875 and the ten- stamp mill and leaching works which was added in 1878, ran irregularly on Hecla ore until fire destroyed all the buildings except the roaster, in 1879. This calamity, coupled with poor management, prompted a call from the stockholders to appoint a new General Manager.

 

 

In 1879, the unthinkable happened, the smelter that provided financial stability to the new camp burned. It started with an explosion and the smelter building went up in flames which they brought under control the following day. At first, it was unclear as to the source of the fire but some smeltermen coming off shift noticed two men in the area. They reported it to the sheriff who apprehended the men and gained a confession of arson from them. They stated that they had soaked a pile of wood with Kerosene and then lit a stick of dynamite. The two men had been fired for missing work about three times.

 

 Before the sheriff could act, the local Vigilante community brought the two men down the road and placed them both up on the bed of a wagon which was positioned below a big tree next to the road. The men begged for leniency but their pleas fell to deaf ears. The foreman informed them that they would hang for their deeds and that they had put other men out of work. The foreman slapped the horse’s rear and the wagon came out from below the men, sealing their fate. Attendance was not an issue for quite some time after that. There would be lots of discussion around town as to whether or not the hangings were justified, and most everyone had concluded that they were! Noah Armstrong, who was not present during the hangings, wrote a memo letting people know that there would be no more hangings on the company property and that Law and Order were to prevail.

 

In September of 1879, a newspaper reported that fifty carpenters are at work upon the main building being erected to replace that destroyed by fire some time ago. The smelter was temporarily shut down to admit of a new water jacket hearth being put in. The improvements going on are so extensive a scale that 400,000 feet of lumber will be used within the next three or four weeks, says the managing superintendent. H.H. Avery serving as Justice of the peace at Glendale.

 

 

Henry Knippenberg formally accepted the position of General Manager on March 01,1881, but only after an on-the-spot tour of company property the month before. Following the inspection, Knippenberg's report to the Board of Directors was not an optimistic one. Despite this report and his initial reservations, Knippenberg believed he could make the Hecla properties turn a profit so he accepted the position.

 

He based his decision on fifteen years experience in the manufacturing business and his five years as a Pennsylvania coal mine manager. Knippenberg immediately obtained financing to correct the company's unstable condition. After getting $95,000 from New York backers he wasted no time in getting to Glendale in April, 1881. Within three months the firm's debt had been repaid and a ten percent monthly dividend was returned to the stockholders.

 

Alva Noyes in his,"Story of the Ajax" tells of a conversation he once had with Henry Knippenberg in which Mr. Knippenberg spoke as follows,”When I came to the United States from Germany, I happened to get acquainted with a countryman of mine, this old gentleman was quite wealthy, He took a liking to me and gave me much wholesome advice, when I found out the exact financial condition of our company and after having satisfied myself that a certain amount of money would place the mines on a paying basis, I went to this gentleman explaining just what was needed and asked for a loan, he let me have the money on my personal note and I went ahead and made a success.

 

 It was a mighty good thing that the ore was there in paying quantities or I would have  been placed in a very disagreeable position”, To quote Mr. Noyes "These mines were in large pockets and required an immense amount of dead work to find them, I am told that one of these pockets contained two million dollars.  The impression that this young German made on the old financier proved to be the one thing needed to place a mine on a paying basis that was about to go under after thousands had been spent in its development.

 

 

Henry Knippenberg quickly went to work reorganizing the new company into three divisions, appointing a superintendent for each. James Parfet was in charge of Mining, headquartered at Hecla, George G. Earle in charge of reduction at Glendale and John M. Parfet, in charge of the iron mines at Norwood in Soap Gulch. By December 31 of 1881, the company's reorganization paid off with a profit of $237,729.76

 

The year 1881 saw the arrival of the Utah & Northern Railroad at Melrose, allowing for a smooth transition in the Hecla Mining Company's reorganization. The railroad made it possible to ship bullion out to the refinery at Omaha and also allowed supplies and coke needed for the company's workings, shipped in. At the Glendale furnaces, the bullion was molded into bars weighing about ninety pounds each. At times, a great many bars were piled up in the smelter yards, awaiting transportation.

 

 

Henry appointed George B. Conway to serve as cashier and book keeper for the company. Conway arrived from Indianapolis with his new wife and would serve as Knippenberg's right hand man.  By 1886 the Hecla Mercantile and Banking Company, a separate subsidiary of the mining company, was organized with capital stock of $100,000. The company was a consolidation of Gaffney and Purdam of Melrose; Armstrong & Losee, Noah Armstrong & Company of Glendale, and Wilson, Rote & Co. of Hecla.

 

 These represented three mercantile firms and one bank. Henry Knippenberg also served as the concern's president. He also involved himself in local politics, serving for a time as a Beaverhead County Commissioner, a state representative, and a member of Montana's 1889 Constitutional Convention. The production of bouillon increased drastically that in 1885, the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company built at the Glendale Plant 3 blast furnaces, 2 crushers, and a large roaster. A four mile long tramway was built between Hecla and the mill at Greenwood to improve transporting of the ore from the mines.

 

Supplying charcoal to the smelting furnaces at Glendale developed as a major satellite industry since the company used up to 100,000 bushels of charcoal a month. The smelting furnaces at Glendale used large amounts of charcoal and coke for fuel. Coke was shipped in from Pennsylvania at $19.00 a ton. At peak production, ten tons were consumed in a single day. Charcoal, which the company used in amounts up to 100,000 bushels a month, was prepared in the canyons adjacent to Glendale. There was an ethnic division to the enterprise with most of the logging being done by Canadian and French woodcutters while Italian laborers burned in pits to produce the finished charcoal which sold to the furnaces for 11 cents a bushel. These workmen lived in cabins scattered throughout the mountains. The company built and operated several Charcoal Kilns on Canyon Creek in order to supply the more than one million bushels of charcoal the smelters used each year. The ruins of kilns and pits may still be seen north of Glendale in Canyon Creek. Flux for the smelters came from the Norwood Iron Mines in Soap Gulch, northeast of Melrose.

 

 

 

The Dillon Tribune described Glendale as a "shoe-string like town of one street, a mile long on the right bank of a small creek, pure as crystal in winter but muddy and yellow in summer from concentration of the concentrator at Greenwood, six miles above town." Its lower end was called Ragtown, and its upper portion, opposite the smelter where the officials and their families lived, was known as Toney Hill. The company hospital opened in 1881 with Dr. Schmalhausen in charge, was "kept scrupulously clean and patients received kind attention and considerate treatment." Employees paid $1.00 a month from their wages toward its support.

 

It has been said that Trapper City and Lion City were towns of pine shanties and tents, and that when it rained or when it was time of melting  snows, both men and mules floundered around in mud up to their knees. But Hecla and Glendale had substance. Glendale even had class. The first social centers there, as in most western mining camps, were the saloons.

 

Glendale’s first saloons were tents with rough boards laid across whiskey barrels for bars. Tents soon gave way to sturdy buildings when the ore wagons, returning from Corinne, Utah brought in handsomely carved back bars and highly polished mahogany serving counters. The first miners were young, unattached men, but families with children soon followed, giving the camps an air of permanence. A two-room school was built and A.F. Rice, who later established a business college at Butte, was one of the teachers.

 

The Glendale kids and the smeltermen enjoyed a perpetual feud, the men constructed a bath house, the warm water from the smelter was carried to the building by a trough, The lads of the smelter town, like young jungle monkeys, had the knack of perpetrating their mischief where it would cause the most annoyance, They would choose an opportune moment and dam the water in the bath house where they never tired of attempting to swim. (Ordinary bathing was "sissified" and to be avoided as long as possible) The smeltermen kept a supply of charcoal, tar and oil handy which they sometimes poured into the bath house during a swimming party. This was found to be a positive method of routing the bathhouse parasites pro tempore, of course the boys retaliated by throwing trash into the pool, with great foresight, just when the men wished to bathe there

 

The furnace's at Glendale wasted much of the valuable ore through flue dust. Consequently, a reverberatory was installed. The fumes from the latter, however, were unpleasant and sometimes noxious. It was said that when one of the smelter foreman became displeased with an employee, the offender was put on the furnace to atone for his transgression, fancied or real. Road and Poll taxes and hospital dues were deducted from the wages of those on the Hecla Company's payroll. A number of serious altercations ensued from this practice. The paymaster frequently received word that" so and so" was on his way up to collect his wages minus the taxes and intended to shoot the works if the words "poll","road", or "hospital" were so much as mentioned. But threats failed to prevent the company from imposing its levies upon the earnings of the laborers.

 

The Hecla Company built a tramway extending from the base of Lion Mountain all the way down to Greenwood which was about four miles in length. The ore was loaded into the cars and men were positioned in “Brake” cars which kept the speed down so as to avoid accidents or “runaway” cars. This happened on more than one occasion and lives were lost as a result. Occasionally, the men would use the cars to transport liquor which was frowned upon by company officials. Mules would pull the cars back up again to Lion Mountain where the process repeated itself. The track was also covered with a snowshed most of the way.

 

The mountain was steep to the Cleopatra mine, and a rope was strung along the trail to enable the miners to pull themselves up hand over hand. At one time, there was a flight of stairs at the steepest part, so nearly perpendicular that it resembled a ladder. It eventually burned and was not replaced. The workings of the Cleopatra mine were intensely cold. The miners who worked there wore heave gloves, clothing and overshoes. That made it uncomfortable for the miners but advantageous to the owners, in those hammer and drill days, for the boys had to keep hitting the steel in order to keep warm. The production from the double hand teams was particularly heavy, for the man who twisted a drill for 15 minutes was anxious to get his circulation started again when it came his time to swing the double jack, and thus operations were well nigh continuous during a shift.

 

At the Lion Mine in Hecla, a bay mule called Jack dragged eight tramcars in and out of the tunnel. On one occasion, the loaders were late and just as Jack emerged from the tunnel followed by a train of loaded cars, the noon whistle blew.  Now Jack knew that a blast of the whistle meant eating time, so down and away galloped the mule, the cars tumbling behind him, and their contents cascading over the dump. The company also had a mouse colored mule named Susie, Susie not only pulled the tramcars, but learned to push them as well.

 

When Susie was brought out of Hecla in the winter, she wore her webs or snow shoes, these were made for her individual use, and she walked on them as nonchalantly as though she was on bare ground. Another equine favorite was Fatty, the Glendale smelter horse, Everybody agreed that he was as smart as a whip and as foxy as they made em, Fatty with his cart did the light hauling around the smelter. He knew by the feel of the load exactly where it was to go and hauled it without guidance, If the driver happened to be weighing ore, he simply loaded it into Fatty's cart and the horse backed around and headed for the scales.

 

The driver sometimes took a short-cut, knowing that Fatty would appear at the proper place, But the wise horse was very stubborn, he rested at certain spots while pulling up the hills, Fatty did this whether the cart was empty or otherwise and no amount of urging could interfere with his rest periods, He certainly had no intention of becoming wind broken, When the melodious smelter bell rang at noon or the end of the shift, its deep toned voice said to Fatty as plain as anything "Go to the barn!" He had the proclivities of a road hog too. Business was business with Fatty, and when he took to the road with his cart, pedestrians stepped aside or were trampled.

 

            Company officials, women and children were merely a part of the road to Fatty.

After the smelter closed, the old smelter horse was turned out on the range, Once about 15 cowboys who were staging a round up at Browns Gulch tried to corral Fatty but Fatty by then had slimed down to the proportions of a race horse, was able to outdistance his pursuers, It was for this that Fatty preserved his "wind" while on the Smelter job.

 

 

Glendale reached the peak of productiveness in the early 1880's.  In those days it was generally thought that the town was destined to flourish permanently, Glendalites were confident that the smelter camp was an embryonic city. Some of the old timers insist that Glendale was once in line for the state capitalship. In 1881 when the bitter county seat fight was being waged in Beaverhead County, Bannock slyly nominated Glendale, a clipping from an old issue of the Dillon Tribune quotes a spokesman for the Bannock tribe."Why not Glendale? Why not Glendale? Its mines will make it permanent, Glendale will be growing when the train goes through Dillon without whistling. Glendale was then larger than Dillon but the rough country in which the smelter town lay made it unsuitable for a county seat. The 'Bannock constituency was suspected of trying, by adroit flattery, to secure the solid vote of Glendale for Bannock, However, the strategy of the Bannock tribe failed, Dillon is on the map, but Glendale and Bannock thrives only on memory.

 

The skating rink which occupied a prominent position on the hill overlooking the town, was the largest hall in the state and was constantly enlivened by dances and skating parties. Former residents of Glendale still recall the thrill of the big rally held at the rink when J,K. Toole was campaigning for Governor of Montana. Toole was the democratic entrant in the gubernatorial race and Gannon was a candidate for superintendent of education on the Republican ticket, both were elected. The people organized a great torchlight procession. The column wound through the streets of the town and up the hill to the rink, and the flickering light of the torches made a brave showing against the somber darkness of the barren, encircling hills. Dances held in the big hall were attended by people from Bannock, Argenta and many other points. The rink was large enough for twenty sets (four people to the set) to dance quadrilles at one time.

 

 

At that time Glendale had a Bank, two drug stores. several dry goods stores, barber shops. A harness and wagon shop, seven of eight groceries, a justice of the peace. several doctors a company hospital, a number of restaurants, a tailor shop, a fine jewelry store, an opera house, several lodge halls, a meat market, a couple of confectionaries, two shoe stores,  a photograph gallery, and a school house which could accommodate 200 students. Glendale did not lack for recreation. There was Bannock Lodge of the LO.O.F. and for the Masons, Glendale Lodge No. 23. A race-track was laid out on the flat behind the two-story schoolhouse, and a roller-skating rink stood two blocks east of Henry Knippenberg's residence on a hillside. Socials were held in the church hall or in private homes, and by the middle 1880's, theatrical companies performed in Glendale's Opera House. Frequently, troupes from Maguire's Opera House in Butte gave "Fanchon the Cricket" and other popular melodramas to the play-hungry miners. The Rosedale Dramatic Players, and other troupes staged performances and drew capacity crowds. On show nights, people from Hecla and Lion City flocked to Glendale to enjoy a type of entertainment usually found only in the larger cities. Such productions brought whole families down from Hecla and Lion City despite storm and bad roads, especially in the winter when entertainment was scarce. Once, when a traveling company was caught in a blizzard between Melrose and Glendale, the audience waited four hours for the curtain to go up. The performance ended long after midnight, to the complete satisfaction of the audience.

 

            Sometimes, after a play, there was a free dance that went on until dawn. Dances were held at Hecla too. Mrs. Chinn said that she and other young folks would ride horseback the ten miles over steep mountain roads to Hecla, dance all night and ride back to Glendale in the morning. She remembered that although there were plenty of saloons there, drinking at dances was frowned upon and there was very little of it.

 

 

Glendale had the usual homegrown entertainment, church socials, Sunday school picnics, school programs, card parties, and those featuring charades. Glendale’s younger crowd, and some not so young, could boast also that they went roller skating on the biggest skating rink in the northwest.An article in the Dillon Tribune dated to September 26, 1885, talks of one of Glendale’s favorite past times “A stranger entering Glendale last Sunday might have believed it to be a legal holiday, judging by the large crowd of people who turned out to witness the horse race.  The race was between E.R. Alward’s black horse and a gray horse belonging to A.L. Pickett. Alward’s horse won.  It is said that about $1300 changed hands that day.”

 

The Post Office at Glendale was formerly established on July 23, 1875, when Ulysses S. Grant appointed Louis Schmalhausen as the first postmaster. The Business became very lucrative.  When J.C. Keppler became the postmaster, his reports disclosed that the receipts for money orders reached $2000 per month, and the sale of postage stamps were $200 monthly.

 

 

               The Hecla Company also built a waterworks and fire protection system. Water from Trapper Creek was diverted through a ditch from where it was conveyed downhill at a drop of 130 feet above the smelter. The twelve inch wrought iron pipe brought the water into a turbine and then transferred it throughout the city.  According to a map drawn by the Sanborn-Perris Map Company, of New York, in October of 1891, nearly a mile of three inch pipe carried the water to several two inch hydrants, located at strategic points in Glendale.  A force of 100 to 135 pound per square inch was the estimated pressure at each outlet, where hoses of 50, 100 and 150 foot lengths were found. Many fires in Glendale resulted in considerable loss. One such fire broke out at the blacksmith shop and the Hiram Stuart Furniture store and Brown photo gallery were destroyed.

 The company built large flue dust chambers at the smelter reducing the number of lead poisoning cases at Glendale. At the insistence of the town's people, the furnace stacks were built higher so as more effectively to dissipate the fumes.

 

The Hecla Company officials and their families lived in spacious and elegant residences built opposite Smelter Hill. Some of the houses were fronted by terraced lawns and were the secret envy of the citizens who lived on the "other" side of the tracks, Most of the company families employed Chinese houseboys. The people dwelling on the Glendale Acropolis were considered high toned by the inhabitant of Rag town or lower Glendale, and so the hill where the former resided was dubbed "Toney Hill" which it is called to this day. Toney hillites, however, did not have the hill entirely to themselves, a number of Rag town Squatters lived there in not so elegant abodes.

 

 

 

The rag town kids did not allow the Toney Hill kids past a certain line of demarcation near Pond's store. A fight ensued if Toney boys were caught in Rag town territory. The boys from lower Glendale were noted battlers, What if the feet of some of the Rag town lads were not as well shod they might have been? And what if their stomach were not too well filled? They still could put Toney Hill to flight and nothing else mattered. If Glendale enjoyed good times, it also felt the depression brought on by the panics of the period. People with large families sometimes had a hard struggle for existence. But they were too busy to be gloomy and they often danced on the pine knotted floors of their cabins to the strains of, “Pop Goes the Weasel” and other tunes, Dave Terry was usually the fiddler on these occasions.

 

Two of the most disastrous Hecla snow slides occurred in the 1880s, During the winter and early spring, giant combs of snow hung menacingly on the rims of the mountains around the Galena Camp. Bert Rusks and Billy Sparks, two miners whose cabins lay in the path of a snow slide which roared down between Sheriff and Cleve mountains, were killed and their shack demolished, The bodies of the men were removed from the avalanche and taken to Glendale. The next evening, immediately after the men had returned from taking the bodies of Rusk and Sparks to the smelter town, a second slide descended, in which Nick Bergstrom and his two small daughters met their death.

 

The Bergstrom's had been unable to move out of the danger zone because of the illness of their two little girls who had contracted scarlet fever. George Collins, one of the rescue party, stepped on something that twitched under his foot. Digging in that spot, he uncovered Mrs. Bergstrom and her tiny Collins, the mother and child were nursed back to health, Nick Bergstrom and his little girls occupy one grave in the Glendale cemetery. Three days later, another avalanche trapped fourteen people in their cabins in Lion City. The Company came up with an idea to set charges off causing the remaining snow to come down and come down it die, causing considerable damage to the tramway and mining equipment. 

 

The Nixholm family was also buried in the slide that took the lives of the three Bergstrom's but were saved by quick work on the part of the rescuers.  The same avalanche covered the cabin of two miners, Antone Rosini and an Irishman named Gilvary. A superstitious digger heard a peremptory tapping beneath the snow. He cast his shovel away and ran down the hill, vowing that he drew the line at digging for ghosts. Some of the men went up the hill and soon discovered that the tapping was a signal in the miner's telegraphy sent out by Gilvary. The partners were found at either end of a log, which preserved an air space and saved the men from suffocation.

 

Rosini was unconscious but the cool headed Gilvary kept tapping on the log to attract attention. Spectators say they will never forget the sight of the tall, one eyed Gilvary, who came down the trail yelling like a madman and clad in underwear, overshoes, a topcoat and a plug hat. Nobody ever knew where the Irishman unearthed the hat, The snow slide scene that night was one of terror and desolation. Cabins had been literally hurled through one another. One woman was temporarily crazed by the catastrophe. On the day following the second slide, the remainder of the overhanging comb was blasted from the mountain, A few years later, Jack Hassett and Frank Weber were killed in a Hecla snow slide.

 

The autumn of 1893 brought excessive snowfall at Lion City. Forty to sixty feet accumulated during October and November. The east slope of Lion Mountain was devoid of trees and provided a skidway with a 45 degree pitch. Yet the miners continued to climb daily and descend 3500 feet into the Cleopatra Mine. In the dark of night on November 29, 1893, the mountain gave up it’s burden. Millions of tons of snow skidded down and buried most of the cabins. The first victims were five miners and a Chinese cook, Ah Wing, sleeping in the Mining Company boarding house. Later, rescue operations saved three of the miners, but two miners were smothered to death. Ah Wing was pushed out of his bed and his body was later recovered.

 

 

At the annual meeting of the company in January of 1882, not satisfied with the great work he had accomplished in his first year, Henry Knippenberg asked the board for the go ahead to build a concentrator needed to process second class ore which was stock piling. On June 10th of 1882, work had begun erecting the large concentrator at Greenwood. This 100 ton concentrator had a telephone line that connected Glendale, Greenwood and Hecla. The concentrator ran off water power supplied by a water flume from Trapper Creek about one half mile with a vertical drop of two hundred feet processing low grade ore. A tramway was built to move ore between Hecla and Greenwood which measured about four miles in length. There were three cars, each with a brakeman which constituted a train and the empties were pulled back to the ore house at the base of Lion Mountain by Mules. The Grade was steep and when the heavily loaded cars were in motion, they occasionally jumped the track causing injury and sometimes killing the brakemen.

 

The concentrator, which was a marvel of efficiency, treated about 100 tons every twenty four hours and treated 177,092 tons of second class ore between 1882 to 1898. The machinery was supplied by Fort Scott Machine Company, of Fort Scott, Kansas. Besides the concentrator, the Hecla Mining Company owned a boarding house, four dwellings, office, stable, and blacksmith shop, and the installation of a telephone line. Henry Knippenberg was responsible for the naming of Greenwood.

 

 

An article in the Dillon Tribune reports: (1882 JUL 01), Trapper Gulch has a new “city” which has sprung up suddenly.  Mr. Knippenberg, the manager of the Hecla Company has named the new town “Greenwood.”  A steam saw mill is engaged in cutting lumber to build up the place.  The large Concentrating Works of the Hecla Company are being erected at Greenwood.  It is possible that this incipient city may yet fight with Glendale for the county seat. The new town has a beautiful location, seven miles from Glendale.  Greenwood may yet prove to Glendale what Hecla city has to Lion City.  When the Concentrating Works are put in operation Greenwood will be a live town.

 

 

GREENWOOD ITEMS The Hecla Company’s Big Concentrator.  (1882 AUG 26)

No one can have any conception of the magnitude of the improvement that the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company is making at Greenwood without personally visiting the place and seeing the immense ore concentrator. Now nearly completed.

 

            Greenwood is located seven miles west from Glendale on the old Lion Mountain wagon road and has been placed by General Manager Knippenberg into the mining department of the company superintended by James Parfet. The town of Greenwood contains the concentrator, a neat office located several hundred feet from the main building, a large boarding house, blacksmith shop, stable, saw mill, and three dwelling houses.  The company expects soon to erect some half dozen more dwelling houses.

 

            The Hecla Company has taken up some three or four mill sites at Greenwood and will prevent the erection of any saloons, as they are not essential to human happiness or successful mining operations. Owing to bad weather and a late Spring, the concentrator was not commenced until June 10th.  When one visit’s the place now and sees the amount of work done in so short of time he is impressed with the fact that energy has been displayed in constructing the works.  Mr. Henry Kemper is the efficient master of construction and millwright and when the immense structure is finished it will certainly reflect credit on his skill as a builder.

 

            A narrow gauge railroad is being finished with T rail from the mines to the highest point of the concentrator, a distance of three miles.  The road will be completed by September 1st. A ditch and flume, one-half mile long, is nearly ready for use.  The flume is two feet high and one and one-half feet wide.  It carries the water from Trapper Creek to the summit of the mountain above the concentrator, and from the fore bay to the water wheel a twelve inch gas pipe is laid 575 feet.  This, which is a vertical fall of 100 feet, furnishes the water power and water for the concentrator.

 

            The water, after providing the motive power for the concentrator, passes into a large tank and from that to the trammels, jigs and tables.  This arrangement was made to economize water in case of a low stage in the creek and to prevent any waste of water. The large engine now idle at Lion is to be brought down and put in place, and in case of a failure of water the concentrator will be run by steam power. The principal office of the Hecla Company’s mining department will hereafter be at Greenwood, with which an assay office will be connected.

   

The concentrator is one of the most important mining enterprises undertaken by the Hecla Company.  It will concentrate one hundred tons of second-class ore daily. In a newspaper article dated (September 1,1882),“The Management of Greenwood, the Hecla Company’s new town, will prevent the erection of any saloon buildings within the sacred precincts of that village. The principal office of the company is to be erected in greenwood. On November 2nd, 1882, his daughter, Miss Mamie opened the water wheel and set the machinery in motion.

 

THE HECLA CONCENTRATOR AT GREENWOOD (1882 NOV 25)

 

            General Manager Knippenberg, of the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company, of Glendale, has decided one of  the most important questions, not only for the Hecla Company but for Montana Territory, that has troubled every mining man owning or holding low grade ores.  Every mining camp or low grade quartz district in our Territory indirectly owes that gentleman a debt of gratitude for deciding for them so important a question as the successful concentration of ores of an inferior grade.  About eighteen months ago Mr. Knippenberg took charge of the immense Hecla property, when he found deposited in all of mines of the Trapper district large bodies of second-class ores, assaying from seven to fifteen per cent in lead and running from twenty to fifty ounces in silver to the ton.  How to make this worthless wealth available has been his constant study.  During the first year of his management the condition of the mines and company made it utterly out of the question to make a great improvement, but having redeemed the property and placed it on the dividend-paying basis, the manager resolved that during the second year the work should be accomplished.  During the present year there has been expended in the erection of the Greenwood Concentrator over $50,000.

 

            On November 15th the large concentrator at Greenwood was put in operation, running day and night, and the results were entirely satisfactory.  The product from the jigs was brought up to fifty-four per cent in lead and one hundred and seventeen ounces in silver to the ton; the table product was brought up to fifty per cent in lead and fifty-four ounces in silver; the silica was brought down as low as eleven per cent in much of the product.  The loss in silver in the tailing will be materially reduced.  The first few days run on the concentrator was not an average test as Supt. Parfet furnished it with Cleve and Franklin ores owned by the Hecla Co. to concentrate, as they only run seven per cent in lead.

 

            The Fort Scott Machine and Foundry Co. furnished the beautiful machinery for the concentrator, which was designed by Prof. Few Stivolinska.  The Professor is a man of large experience in concentrating machinery and he has been at Greenwood for over one month.

 

 

THE HECLA CONCENTRATOR (1883 APR 21)

 

 

The Madisonian has a report, presumably from Mr. Dahler, that the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company, at Greenwood, is preparing to double the capacity of their concentrator before the year closes.  The concentrator has proven a complete success, showing that  Manager Knippenberg exercised wise discretion in erecting it for his company.  The present capacity of the concentrator is one hundred and fifty tons of ore per day, and if this capacity is doubled all the ore extracted from the Hecla mines will be treated by the concentrator before being hauled to the furnaces at Glendale for reduction.  At present all of the first-class ore is sent to the smelter in crude state.  The vast ore reserves in the mines owned by the Hecla company will justify the doubling of the capacity of the concentrating works.

 

  (1883 OCT 13)

One of the sixteen mule ore teams recently hauled 1,000 sacks of ore, weighing 50,300 pounds, from the concentrator at Greenwood to the smelter, at Glendale.  This is probably the biggest load ever hauled, by the same kind of team, in the Territory.

 

(1883 DEC 08)

The tramway being snowed under, and the concentrator in consequence having been shut down, J.T. Murphy & Co. have to send their teams up to Lion Mountain for ore.  They haul from the mines to their camp five miles below on sleds and cow hides, and from there to the smelter on wagons.

 

Knippenberg would also build himself a beautiful mansion that was above and beyond anything that would seem appropriate of a mining community of the day. It boasted of six fireplaces, silver doorknobs, Brussels carpeting, closets lined with cedar, and a very large retaining, rock wall surrounding the home which sat atop the hill overlooking the Smelter and town.

 

In 1883, a correspondent of the Salt Lake Tribune visited the Glendale camp and writes a favorable report of the active operations of the Hecla Company, the most successful mining organization is Southern Montana.  The full capacity of both smelters at Glendale is the reducing of one hundred tones of ores and fluxing daily.  The base bullion product of the smelters is shipped to the Omaha Smelting Works, at Omaha, and from two hundred to three hundred tons are forwarded monthly, worth upwards of $70,000.  There are 30,000 shares of Hecla stock at $50 per share.  The company pays a monthly dividend of one per cent on its capital stock regularly. Last year $75,000 of dividends were withheld from the stockholders to erect and equip the concentrator at Greenwood.  The mines belonging to the company at Lion Mountain are in excellent shape and yielding plenty of ore that averages fifty ounces in silver to the ton and thirty-three per cent in lead.  Fully 50,000 tons of second class ore is developed in the different mines of the company.  This ore will be concentrated at the Greenwood concentrator.

 

In September of 1883, a newspaper article ran the following story:
Many of our readers know that last month, at the urgent request of General Manager Knippenberg of the Hecla Co., four of the prominent stockholders, viz: Hon. Thos A. Hendricks, Judge E.B. Martindale, Hon. J. C. Wright and Hon. A.D. Lynch, visited the Glendale camp and made a thorough and minute examination of that vast enterprise.  In their report to the board of directors, at Indianapolis, signed by these four gentlemen, they speak thus of the management;

   

The general management of the property, under Mr. Henry Knippenberg, is characterized throughout by intelligence, integrity and economy. He has surrounded himself by the best class of men that could be collected in a large mining enterprise, and has succeeded in instilling into the mines of each the desire with is uppermost in his own mind, that is, to promote the interests of the stockholders.  While we cannot enter into details, we think it proper to say that the company is peculiarly fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Knippenberg as general manager, and of Mr. James Parfet as superintendent of the mines.  Mr. Parfet has displayed great skill in opening up the mines and great energy and sagacity in keeping his reserves in sight, so as to be able at all times to point our the ores required to keep the concentrator and smelter employed, for a full year in advance without additional development.  We are under obligations to the general manager and the men under him for making our stay at Glendale and the mines, in all respects, pleasant and comfortable, also for facilitating our investigation.

 

 

The following is a letter written to Henry Knippenberg from the Board at Indianapolis concerning his leadership and management of the Hecla Company’s concern:

 

Indianapolis, Ind., Feb. 12, 1884

Henry Knippenberg, Esq.,

General Manager Hecla Con. Mining Co.,

Glendale, Montana:

 

Dear Sir:  At the annual meeting of the stockholders held on Tuesday, the 5th inst., (and at which 90 per cent of the stock voted,) after hearing your annual report read the stockholders directed the Secretary to express to you their feelings and opinions in reference to the management of the property belonging to the company by you since March, 1881.

 

            Your personal manliness and loyalty to friends, and your ability to take a tottering business and make it successful and prosperous  were well known before, having had a practical illustration in that line right here in our own midst.  You have repeated this in on a much larger scale in Glendale, accepting charge of our property when it was in debt and demoralized in every department, and by close, accurate figuring, strict economy as being indispensable to their connection with the company, you have placed the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company at the head of the list in Montana as the steadiest and largest dividend paying mine in the Territory, with no debt, a large development of reserve ore, and cash on hand, making it strong, solid and substantial commercially.

 

            Now the property is in the condition you should have received it in, ready for a quiet, steady, systematic development, so that the stockholders can deal in facts, not fiction or speculation, and buy and well just what they have, no more, no less.  Your friends among the stockholders count, 100 per cent, and are sincere for your personal welfare and continued success as a mine manager.

Yours, with respect,

(Signed) J.C. McCutcheon, Sec’y.

   

            Certainly such a compliment coming unsolicited and unexpected from such a source, and from a body of men, of which any State might be justly proud should satisfy the ambition of most any man.  We are certain that the best business men of Montana, who are acquainted with the history of the Hecla Co., will endorse the expression of the stockholders toward the present wise and successful management.

 

A SELF-MADE BUSINESS MAN

            Mr. Knippenberg is in the prime of life, somewhere near forty years of age.  He is a German by birth, having arrived in America at the age of six years.  At eleven he was left an orphan.  With only eighteen months of schooling, he educated himself by close study and diligent application during leisure house, after the daily routine of labor.  It may be properly mentioned that in politics Mr. K. is a strong Republican, and in religion, a Baptist.  In traits of character he is a man of unswerving integrity in thought and deed - shrewd in business, but not deceptive.  A man of strong likes and dislikes he is true to friends, whether present or absent.  He counts disloyalty an unpardonable sin, and his word, written or verbal, is at par.  His enemies do no refuse him this honor.

 

PRESENT STANDING OF THE CO.

             The Hecla Company, three years ago, was bankrupt, bankrupt in treasury, bankrupt in mines, bankrupt in credit.  Today it stands, if not the first, at least among the first mining companies in Montana.  It is liberal in dividends toward its stockholders.  It is a mammoth mining concern.  It was organized in the year 1877 by Noah Armstrong, Esq., a mining man of whom Montana is proud to number among her most enterprising citizens, and a gentleman always foremost in any of the great enterprises that go to build up the great and growing commonwealth he has selected as his home.

 

            General Manager Knippenberg took charge of the company’s business in April, 1881.  From that date things assumed a different shape in and around the property.  Order grew out of chaos and assessments and indebtedness were followed by dividends and a surplus. At present, the Hecla Company pays the largest dividend of any mining corporation in Montana, if not in the West.

 

 

THE WORKS AND OPERATIONS

 

            The operations of the company cover about twenty-five miles of Territory.  The towns of Glendale, Hecla, Norwood and Greenwood simply mean the Hecla Company  for, when the furnace fires of company are put out to burn no more, those towns will be merely monuments for the past prosperity.

 

             There is consumed in the smelters at Glendale, every year, 12,000 tons of silver-lead ore, 6,000 tons of iron ore, 6,000 tons of lime rock, 3,000 tons of coke, 1,000,000 bushels of charcoal, and some three hundred head of mules are constantly working for the company, directly and indirectly.

 

            When running full handed the pay roll of the company counts up over 400 men, and including those working on contracts nearly as many more.  The monthly pay roll foots up an average of $50,000 and pay day never fails on the 25th of each month.  The company ships every year 3,000 tons of silver-lead bullion and 500 tons of copper matte, and pays the Union Pacific R.R. for freight charges on incoming and outgoing freight $150,000

 

    PERSONAL M.ANAGEMENT

            This vast business is handled by General Manager Knippenberg in the most quiet, orderly and effective manner, and apparently without the least clashing among the different departments.  The General Manager is aided in the most harmonious way by Chas. R. Kappes, assistant general manager; Jas. Parfet, superintendent of mines; Geo. B. Conway, cashier; John V. Seybold, superintendent of reduction works; J. S. Street, superintendent of the iron mines and J.M. Parfet, superintendent of the concentrator.  Then entire system is under the supervision of the General Manager, who is himself an accomplished book keeper and accountant.

 

THE CONCENTRATOR

    The concentrator, at Greenwood last season reduced 27,000 tons of second-class ore - reducing it to 3,000 tons.  The tailings were all saved and will some day be worked by mill process.

 

IMPROVEMENTS, ETC.

    While at Glendale recently we noticed considerable improvements being made by the company.  At the furnaces new beds were being put in and a new smoke stack was going up.  A fine office for the company’s use is under course of erection, and it will contain a vault 10 X 10, and have all modern conveniences for the clerical force of the company.

    We understand that at Hecla, the company contemplates erecting twelve dwellings and also a public hall for reading and the amusement of its employees.

    General Manager Knippenberg is a Hecla director and stockholder, and he is also a director of the First national Bank of Dillon, a bank that commands the confidence of the people.

    The future of the Hecla Company is exceedingly promising.  It is the big mining institution of Southern Montana.  With a large number of excellent mines to operate it will prosper for years to come.

 

THE HECLA MINING COMPANY (1884 NOV 22)

 

A Well Deserved Tribute to General Manager Knippenberg - The Company’s Affairs in Splendid Condition. The following from the Board of Directors of the Hecla Mining Company at Indianapolis speaks for itself with no uncertain emphasis.  Beaverhead County seconds the words of praise bestowed upon Manager Knippenberg, and we trust he will be willing to continue his business-like and successful management of the Hecla Company’s property for an indefinite length of time.

 

Henry Knippenberg, Esq., General Manager  Indianapolis, Ind., Nov. 8, 1884

 

Dear Sir - At a meeting of the Directors of the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company this day, held at the office of the company in this city, the report of John C. Wright, Esq., Treasurer, upon the condition of the company’s property in Montana, and the several letters from yourself, informing the Board of the completion of the new furnace, and of the improved development of the mines, were read and considered by the Board, and upon motion of Thomas A. Hendricks, seconded by E.B. Martindale, it was unanimously resolved by the Board, that the personal inspection and report of the committee who visited the company’s property in Montana last summer, supplemented and confirmed by the report of John C. Wright and the correspondence this day read, the payment of three years to the stockholders of a regular monthly dividend and the accumulation of a large surplus in the treasury, the company clean of debt, with large additions in the past year to its plant and mines, all go to confirm the opinion heretofore expressed by the Board of Directors that the company is the fortunate owner of one of the very best mining properties in the country, and that too much cannot be said in praise for the intelligent, faithful and honest management of Mr. H. Knippenberg, the General Manager, to whom the company is mainly indebted for the successful development of the property. The President and Secretary were instructed to prepare and send you a letter expressing the kindly regards of the Directors for you personally and their great confidence in your ability and integrity and their entire approval of your work in every department.

Yours respectfully,

JOHN THOMAS, President.

Attest; J.C. McCutcheon, Secretary.

 

 

THE HECLA CONSOLIDATED MINING COMPANY (1885 JUN 13)

 

            In a recent visit to Glendale we obtained much interesting information relating to the operations of the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company, the largest and most successful mining company in Beaverhead County. This large and quiet corporation operates day and night turning out bullion and paying its employees monthly some $60,000.  The company now runs three furnaces, with a capacity of one hundred and fifty tons each twenty-four hours.  The mines furnish the smelter and concentrator daily with from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty tons of first and second class ore.  The company now employs directly three hundred men and indirectly about two hundred more.  The company’s disbursements sustain the town of Glendale and give life to Trapper Gulch. 

 

The present general manager, during the past four years, has brought the company out of bankruptcy and placed its affairs on a solid foundation.  At present the furnaces, which are of the approved water jacket pattern, turn out about eight tons of bullion daily, which is valued at $200 a ton, so that the margin on which the company is working is exceedingly small, and consequently it requires able and economical management to run the business at all.  We were informed by Manager Knippenberg that he will not boom mining matters this year, but will sail near the shore, and thereby be enabled to shut down at any moment should the company’s interests demand a suspension of operations. The Hecla Company is a credit to this county, and it is a great mining enterprise, one that should receive honorable recognition from our people. The company is today, the largest tax payer in Beaverhead County. While the company does not ask or seek favors through public influence, it pays out every year for roads, bridges and hospital a large sum of money, much of which might, under many circumstances, be justly paid by the county.

 

GLENDALE GATHERINGS.

            Glendale merchants and business men are doing well.

            The brass band is gaining ground, and the organization is well balanced.

             The dump pile of slag at the furnaces contain about 250,000 tons of slag.

            The three stacks of the Hecla Co. are rolling out eight to nine tons of base bullion daily.

            The Hecla Company paid its regular monthly one per cent dividend on June 1st, amounting to $15,000.

            Bishop Brewer will visit Glendale on Tuesday, the 16th inst., and hold Episcopal service at 8 o’clock p.m.

           When the principal street of Glendale is ankle deep with black mud it is not fordable by slippered pedestrians.

            Cadet Will Knippenberg, of the Kentucky Military Institute, will spend his vacation with his parents at Glendale.

            Chas. R. Kappes, assistant manager of the Hecla Co., with his bride are expected to arrive from Chicago on the 20th inst.

            The pay roll of the Hecla Company for May will reach $60,000 - which will be paid on June 25th, the company’s regular pay day.

             A.H. Foster, the celebrated Glendale Christian, is slowly recovering from the injuries he received by a horse falling on him.

            Recently, there was a glamour of gloom thrown over Glendale which was not occasioned by the furnace smokestacks.  A superannuated tombstone peddler paralyzed the town for a day.

            The health of Glendale is good, and as a consequential consequence the medical practitioners have time to “read up.”  The Hecla Hospital is well conducted, with only two patients being treated. The talk about running a branch railway from Melrose to Glendale is a local question which is of interest to those interested.  A branch could be built at a reasonable cost, provided the right of way could be obtained.

             The church edifice needs the attention of those who use it to worship in it.  Its outside appearance is of so dark a color that a visitor recently suggested that, “the church be washed.”

            Mr. and Mrs. H. Knippenberg celebrated their seventeenth marriage anniversary last Tuesday, the 9th.  Mrs. K. received from her husband a nice present of a very valuable gold watch.

            The resignation of Postmaster Keppler has been heretofore announced.  He will go to Anaconda.  During his incumbency of the Glendale post office, Joe has enjoyed the confidence of the people.  Honest, popular and obliging, he will relinquish the office with a host of friends and few, if any enemies.

 

            The thoughtful, observing and philosophical visitor to Glendale should always enter the town with a certificated of good moral character and innocence in his pocket, as strangers can not fully comprehend the merits or demerits of “Glendale rackets” they should drink lemonade and retire at half-past nine.  This recipe, if closely observed, will prevent the visitor from falling into the hands of the deputy sheriff or any other man. The unsafe and condemned condition of the Melrose bridge creates considerable uneasiness.

 

  If the bridge goes out the furnaces will shut down temporarily, and that will throw a large number of men out of employment.  Manager Knippenberg is already taking steps in every department to dismiss all the men in case he is forced to suspend operations.  The Melrose bridge is of such importance that it should receive the immediate attention of the Commissioners of Beaverhead and Silver Bow counties, and the importance of keeping the bridge in a same an passable condition would seem to justify the holding of special meetings by the Commissioners of both counties for that purpose.

            The interest taken in school matters is commendable.  The trustees are active in advancing educational work.  A visit to the public school, which is about closing, elicited the fact that the good reputation of the school has been earned by industrious, zealous and competent teaching.  The discipline, drill and deportment of the scholars is excellent in both departments.  In Miss Coffin’s room, a hasty examination of a couple of classes of the more advanced scholars showed that they were interested in and attentive to their studies, and among the pupils apt and bright ones were numerous.  In Miss Mintzer’s room the training of the juveniles evidenced painstaking on part of the teacher.  Object teaching, an approved method, was working admirably, and the little ones were progressing finely.  The school term, about closing, will end creditably to both teachers and scholars.

 

 The Hecla Company:  (1885 JUL 25)

            It is the object of the Tribune to correctly report the standing of every legitimate mining enterprise in Beaverhead County and throughout Southern Montana and Eastern Idaho.  We have frequently alluded to and reported the working operations of the Hecla Consolidated Mining Co. of Glendale. The Hecla Corporation sustains a considerable proportion of the population of this county, directly and indirectly, and there are few of our citizens who fully realize or appreciate the value of this large mining enterprise to this county. Its disbursements are large. During the past fifty one months, Mr. Knippenberg, General Manager of the Hecla Co., has paid out in Glendale to employees the enormous sum of $2,550,000, making nearly $2,000 in cash every day. 

 

This amount does not include what has been paid to the Union Pacific Railway Co. for freight on bullion. This large outlay benefit’s the ranchmen and producers of the county. The company has been no burden on the county for in searching the court records we find it has in no way been an expense to the county, as the company has during the present management had no case in court. Besides being the largest tax payer in Beaverhead County, the company does all it can in the way of collecting the county poor and road tax from its employees, and also in maintaining the Hecla hospital at a cost of over $5,000 a year, which, if given up would be a heavy expense to the county.  With this showing, we think the time has come when the citizens of the county should cease to manifest all sectional hostility toward the company.  It would be a blessing to Beaverhead County if we had a dozen more such mining enterprises in constant operation, for thereby the wealth of the county would be largely augmented and all kinds of property enhanced in value.

 

 

As early as 1893, production began to slow down, so that only two furnaces were kept in operation in Glendale. Eventually the smelters were shut down on August 29, 1900. Ore was then shipped to the American Smelting & Refining Company at Omaha, Nebraska. That fall, Knippenberg ordered the furnaces dismantled. The Hecla Consolidated Mining Company ceased operations in 1904. In August of 1900, Glendale closed it's post office. The closest mail would be Melrose. In January 1903, the Atlantis mine closed down, followed a short time later by the Cleve. In 1904, all the company's operations ceased.

 

Knippenberg acquired ownership of the properties in 1904 at a sheriff's sale for $28,011.26, the amount that the company owed him. Perhaps he could have pulled it out of the red again if he had not been hampered by litigation. The Penobscot Mining Company then mined the Atlantis, True Fissure, Trapper, Cleve, and Franklin lodes from 1913 to 1915, under an agreement with Knippenberg. A 20-stamp concentrator was constructed at Lion City and ore valued at $243,427 was mined by the company. When the mines closed in 1915, the district continued to prosper from the ore and slag piles at the old smelter at Glendale with nearly $903,000 worth of ore being shipped from 1916 to 1922. Finally, around 1924, a settlement was reached and the mines were sold to a Philadelphia syndicate.

 

            This new company did little with the mines, and in 1927, George B. Conway, Knippenberg's former cashier, acquired the property and shipped slag from the smelter and ore from the mine dumps for more than a year. In 1928 he sold his holdings for about $500,000. For the next few years, various people leased and worked the mines.

 

The Hecla company stands out as one of the more successful mining companies in Montana. During its long productive history, the company paid dividends every year for 21 years (with the single exception of 1898). During the 20-year period of operations under Knippenberg, one of Montana's most successful mining entrepreneurs, the mines produced over $22 million worth of silver and other metals; paid out $7,765,245 for labor, supplies and taxes; and paid dividends to stockholders totaling $2,057,500. Geologists sav that the largest single body of ore in the world was found in the Cleopatra mine on Lion's Mountain.

 

The Hecla properties then went through a series of convoluted ownership changes starting in 1923, when the properties were sold for $230,000 to the Hecla Development Syndicate which continued development work and processed the ore, slag and mill tailings from previous mining operations.

 

            The district was then open to leasers in 1926 under the supervision of G. B. Conway. The following year the properties were acquired by the United States Smelting, Refining, and Exploration Company who did development work on the Cleve-Avon. Later, in 1928, Conway acquired ownership of the properties and sold them on option to the Foundation Company of Utah. The company spent $80,000 on development and exploration work but did not quite break even after shipping $78,376 worth of ore and slag.

 

In 1930, the claims and mines reverted to Conway who again turned the district into a leasers' camp. During the later 1930s, the district produced small amounts of ore, which yielded $175,452 in metals. L. D. Foreman of Dillon acquired the option for the properties following Conway's death in 1945. Some years later, Leonard Lively of Melrose picked up the option and in 1965 held title to most of the old Hecla Company assets.