Bullion Beck and Champion Kine, Headframe HAER No.

UT-46
Tintic Mining Distriot
Eureka
Juab county
Utah

•••

PHOTOGRAPHS
WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA

Historic Amerioan Engineering Reoord

Rooky Mountain Regional Office
National Park Service
U. S. Department of the Interior
P. o. Box 25287
Denver, Colorado 80225

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UTAH
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HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD 1-

Index to Photographs

Bu1lion Beck and Chempion Wine, Headframe HAER No. UT-46

Tintic Mining District
Eureka
Juab County
Utah

NOTE: Photographs No. UT-46-1 through UT-46-4 were taken by John A. Senulis on
August 11, 1986, and are on 2-1/4 x 2-1/4-inch format film.
Photographs No. UT-46-5 through UT-46-9 are photocopies of 22x36-inch
mylars of architectural features prepared by Allen D. Roberts of
Cooper/Roberts, Architects & Assoc. A.I.A., 202 West 300 North, Salt
Lake City, Utah 84103.

UT-46-1 PROFILE OF HEADFRAME, LOOKING

UT-46-2 VIEW OF HEADFRAME, LOOKING WEST

UT-46-3 VIEW OF HEADFRAME, LOOKING NORTHEAST

UT-46-4 VIEW OF HEADFRAME, LOOKING EAST

UT-46-5 PLAN VIEW, HEADFRAME, c. 1977 APPEARANCE

UT-46-6 SOUTH ELEVATION, HEADFRAME, c. 1977 APPEARANCE

UT-46-7 WEST ELEVATION, HEADFRAME, c. 1977 APPEARANCE
UT-46-8 PLAN VIEW, HEADFRAME, 1986 APPEARANCE

UT-46-9 SOUTH ELEVATION, HEADFRAME, 1986 APPEARANCE

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UT/iH
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HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD (-

Bullion Beck aDd ChaMpion Jljne, Headf'ra-e

HAER No. UT-46

Location: Tintic Mining District

Eureka, Juab County, Utah

SW 1/4, Section 13, Township 10 South, Range 2 West

Quad: Eureka, Utah (U.S.G.S. 7.5')

Dates of Construction: Primary construction of the mine began in 1871. The

main mine construction was in 1890. Mine facilities
and the headframe housing were dismantled in 1925.
Mining ceased in 1960.

Present Owner: Sharon Steel Corporation

Present Use: Not in use; historic landmark only

Significance: Headframe is one of several four post gallows in the

Tintic Mining District which is on the National
Register of Historic Places.

Historian: John Senulis

Senco-Phenix
Salt Lake City, Utah

,-----------------------------,-------- -------'--
• Bullion Beck and Champion Mine,
Headframe
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 2)

PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION

Mineral exploration has always been an important theme in the history of the
United states. The Federal Government, as early as 1785, reserved one-third
of the mineral reSOurces on Federal land. This did not prove workable and was
repealed in the early nineteenth century. The discovery of gold in 1848 at
Sutter's Millon the American River in California was one of the main events
stimulating the development of a mineral industry in the United states.
People flocked to California in hopes of making their fortunes. The surface
gold, obtainable by placer mining, soon ran out, and deep mining, which
required large amounts of capital, soon become dominant. The many prospectors
drawn by the California Strike either became employees of the large mining
companies or spread throughout the West in search of other major claims.
Their efforts in the period from 1850 to 1875 located most of the major
resources and set the stage for the development of the western mineral
industry (Notarianni: 1982).

Utah's role in the mineral industry was slow to develop because of the

•
opposition of Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders who did not want to open
the state to outsiders (Arrington: 1963). Other causes that delayed
development, specifically in the Tintic area, included a hostile Ute Indian
presence under the leadership of Chief Tintic, for whom the area is named
(Harris: 1961).

The true development of the mineral industry in Utah coincides with the
development of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. In 1870, the Union
Pacific Railroad, in need of coal for its operation, opened mines in Green
River and Rock Springs, Wyoming, and in 1874 in Coalville, Utah. The Union
Pacific Railroad, which generally followed the route of modern-day interstates
80 and 84 into Ogden, Utah, had easy access from its mines to the urban market
of the Salt Lake Valley.

Without a competing railroad from other coal sources, this created an

immediate monopoly on the coal supply for Salt Lake City, which persisted for
a decade (Union Pacific Company: 1940).

In an attempt to break the coal monopoly held in Salt Lake City by the Union
Pacific, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad began a line from Denver
to Salt Lake City. Originally scheduled to run through Castle Valley and
Salina Canyon, the company revised the route of the railroad to take advantage
of the coal resources of the Wasatch Plateau (Athearn: 1962).

The Utah Southern Railroad was organized by Mormon interests to connect Salt
Lake City to Arizona. Following a pattern that had already been established,

• the railroad was constructed using Mormon labor. When completed, the stock
was acquired by the Union Pacific (Arrington: 1958). The Union Pacific
•
Bullion Beck and Champion Mine,
Headframe
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 3)

reached the Tintic area in 1882 under the name Salt Lake and West.ern Railway.
Rail service continued to develop, so t.hat by 1892 t.he Tintic area was served
by branches of both t.he Union Pacific and the Denver and Rio Grande Western
railroads (Strack, "Railroads" in Notarianni: 1982).

The Tint.ic Mining District

The Tintic Mining District encompasses an approximately eight square mile area
on the east. and west slopes of the north-south-running East Tintic Mountain
Range. The East Tintic Range is typical of the block-faulted ranges of the
Great Basin. The Tintic District is within close proximity to the Wasatch
Front valleys and major transportation arteries.

During the period of 1890 to 1926, the principal activity of the Tintic area
was gold, silver and lead mining. The area was surveyed by the Utah Historical
Society in the mid 1970s, and the Tintic Mining District was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in March 1979 (Notarianni: 1982).

•
The history of Tintic's prominent period has been divided into four phases
(Notarianni: 1982). The first phase began in 1869 with the development of
the Sunbeam claim. The development of the Dragon, Mammoth, Eureka Hill and
Bullion Beck soon followed. The period was one of growth and development that
witnessed the establishment of the mines and smelters. The small towns of
Diamond, Mammoth, Silver City and Eureka began in close proximity to the
mining centers (Notarianni: 1982). The period ends with the introduction of
the railroad in 1878.

The second period, from 1879 to 1898, was one of industrialization and growth.
The railroads brought influxes of capital and the ability to obtain materials
for construction at much less cost. Deep mining activities began in this
period and refined smelting operations increased. The increased activity
stimulated population growth and the development of labor unions (Notarianni:
1982).

The third period, between 1899 and 1912, was a period of substantial growth.
In 1899, Tintic was the leading producer of raw and processed ore in Utah, in
the sum of $5,228,575. The Tintic District produced a total of $35,000,000
between 1870 through 1899 (Lindgren: 1919).

The final period of prominence was from 1913 to 1926. This period was one of
continued cyclical prosperity. Production peaked at $16,200,000 in 1925. The
town of Eureka grew to nearly 4,000 people, with corresponding interests in
other towns (Notarianni: 1982).

• The coming of the depression brought an end to Tintic's prosperity. Periodic

opening and closing of various mines continues today. Remnants of the town
and former days of glory still stand as reminders of prosperity.
• Bullion Beck and Champion Mine,
Headframe
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 4)

Bullion Beck and Champion Mine

John Beck was born in the town of Aichelberg in Wurttemberg, Germany, on March
19, 1843. He joined the Mormon church in 1862, serving as a missionary to
Switzerland and Germany before immigrating to Utah in 1864 (Powell: 1984).
Beck moved from Bichfield to Lehi, Utah, engaging in farming, sheep herding,
woodcutting and charcoal making. He became somewhat prosperous and invested
$6,000 in the Eureka Hill Mine in 1810. Beck's business acumen had not yet
developed, as he lost both his money and claims to the mine through litigation
(Powell 1984). Beck quickly earned the nickname "Crazy Dutchman" when he
staked a claim in the gulch below Eureka Hill (Notarianni: 1982). His belief
that the ores would migrate downward proved to be correct, and the mine began
paying back his meager investment in rapid fashion.

Beck became a prominent entrepreneur in Utah and diversified his capital

between his mining interest and also founded the hot springs resorts of
Saratoga near Lehi and Beck's hot springs just north of Salt Lake City. Beck,
a faithful Mormon with five wives, encouraged immigration of his fellow

•
Germans to Utah. The number of German heads of household in Eureka increased
from two in 1880 to sixty-five in 1990. Beck also established, at his own
expense, the first Latter-Day Saints church buildings in Eureka (Powell:
1984) •

The Bullion Beck and Champion Mining Company developed in an orderly fashion
until 1890 when a major expansion occurred. The Salt Lake Tribune used its
New Year's Day issue to review important developments in Utah during the past
year. The January 1, 1891, issue reviewed the important changes at the mine in
1890. The Tribune reported that:

Over the shaft is the main building of the hoisting works.

This is a substantially framed structure 40 by 119 feet and
high enough to take in the gallows frame, that being one of
the best and strongest in the country and sixty feet in
hight [sic]. There are no better framed timbers or larger
one [sic] than these in Utah.

The central support timbers for the headframe or gallows actually measure 1
foot 4-1/2 inch by 2 feet 1 inch. The four outer posts are roughly 1 foot
5 inches by 1 foot 11 inches and are embedded in concrete pads. The Tribune
goes on to report that at the other end of the building are a "Frazer and
Chalmers pair of engines of 500 horsepower each." The engines were joined on
one shaft and coupled by an elabo~ate series of clutches and brakes that
allowed the engines to operate the cable reels either separately or together.
There are also indices to show the positions of the cages. The cages were

• supported by "wide, flat steel ropes." The cages entered a double compartment
shaft with a "manway" (walkway) from top to bottom.
• Bullion Beck and Champion Mine,
Headframe
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 5)

There were other developments at the Bullion Beck and Champion Mine (commonly
called the Bullion Beck) in 1890 that were similarly impressive. The Tribune
reported the site also contained a 40-by-40-foot boiler house with two
batteries of two boilers each. The furnaces that drove the boilers had two
80-foot stacks. Other structures included a wood shop, blacksmith shop, coal
house and a 500-ton ore bin. Other facilities included a 75-light dynamo and
a 100-horsepower Rand compressor with new drills. The Tribune estimated that
the mine had sent out 25,000 tons of ore in 1890. The capacity of the new
facility would be 100 tons per day (Tribune: 1891). The mine was employing
275 men at this time.

The mine site was also expanded in 1890. The former site was 4,000 by 600
feet. New property, 5,400 by 1,500 feet, was added on the east side. The
Bullion Beck and Champion Mine also acquired the Homansville Spring and a new
water service with two storage tanks and new pipes. The Tribune noted that
the cost of the site modification was $80,000, the additional property another
$50,000, and the water works another $90,000. The Tribune proudly noted that
the Bullion Beck and Champion Mine still paid dividends of $325,000 that year.

• The final major expansion at the Bullion Beck and Champion Mine occurred in
1894, when a new mill was added. The mill covered an area 220 feet by 125
feet, with a tower that rose nearly 105 feet in the air. The water system was
also expanded at this time (Notarianni: 1982). Figure 1 is a photograph of
the completed operation about 1895.

The Bullion Beck and Champion Mine, along with the many other mines in the
Tintic Mining District, went through cyclical prosperity, labor strikes, and
other events common to the day. By 1917, the Bullion Beck and Champion Mine
hAd begun to lease parts of the interior of the mine. Prosperity began to
dwindle soon afterward and the facilities at the Bullion Beck and Champion
Mine, with the sole exception of the headframe, were demolished in 1925
(Notarianni: 1982).

While the days of prosperity would never be repeated, the Bullion Beck and
Champion Mine was brought to life again during World War II. At the beginning
of the war (around 1940), Duke Page and his partner, Brennan Hannifin, first
reopened Eureka Hill Mine, which is slightly north and east of Bullion Beck and
Champion Mine. Tests conducted by Page and Hannifin led them to move their
operation down the hill to Bullion Beck and Champion Mine. The headframe was
reused but not enclosed, although a hoist room was constructed to house the
fifty-horsepower electric motor that powered the hoist (Hannifin: 1986).

The new era of Bullion Beck and Champion Mine saw ore mined for a different
purpose. Bullion Beck and Champion ore has a high silica content which is

• valuable as flux in the processing of copper. American Smelting and Refining

Company (ASARCO) in Salt Lake City, and International Refining in Tooele, were
• Bullion Beck and Champion Mine,
Headframe
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 6)

two leading producers of copper during the war, and Page and Hannifin were one
of their major ore suppliers. Utah produced one-third of the copper used by
the United States and its allies in World War II (Arrington: 1966). In
addition to the use of the ore for flux, secondary recovery of gold and silver
produced additional income for both the ore producer and the manufacturer
(Hannifin: 1986).

Prosperity continued through the 40s and into the 50s, stimulated by the Korean
War. The Yankee and Mammoth mines were reopened, and the Chief Consolidated
Mine continued to employ almost 100 people. The Bullion Beck and Champion Mine
was run as a father and son operation in the 50s by Brennan Hannifin, one of
the original partners, and his son, Tim (Hannifin: 1986).

In 1957, Kennecott Copper acquired ABARCO and, shortly thereafter,

International Refining shut down. Kennecott used a new flux process in their
copper manufacture that did not use the Tintic District's ores. The move
proved disastrous for Tintic's economy. The Chief Consolidated Mine closed in
1957. The Bullion Beck and Champion Mine kept running by sending their ore to

• California, but high shipping charges and low ore prices made continued mining
economically unfeasible. The Bullion Beck and Champion Mine was closed in
June or July of 1960 (Hannifin: 1986).

The Tintic Mining District was nominated for and placed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 1976. The idle headframes of the Big Four
mines, as the Eureka Hill, the Bullion Beck and Champion, the Gemini and the
Centennial-Eureka are called, stand out in the landscape of the Tintic
District. They are an important visual contribution to the rich mining
history of the district.

Present-day use of the Bullion Beck and Champion m~n~ng properties now
includes grazing, historic and mining interests. United states Smelting,
Refining and Mining Company (USSRMCO) first acquired an interest in the
Bullion Beck and Champion Mine in 1917. In 1979, Sharon steel acquired the
assets of USSRMCO under the name of U.V. Industries. On February 15, 1983,
Sharon Steel entered into a land-use license for two of the Bullion Beck and
Champion's patented mining claims with the Tintic Historical Society. The
surface of these claims contains the mine's headframe. The society maintains
use of the site for locating a histcrical marker and a small parking area. On
August 1, 1985, Sharon Steel leased all of its mining claims and mill sites in
the Tintic District to Diamond Bullion Corporation for future mining
possibilities (Sadler: 1986).

Also in August of 1985, the state of Utah embarked upon an abandoned mine
reclamation project in the Tintic District. The project was aimed at

• eliminating the worst hazards of open and caving mine shafts which were closest
to the town and roads. Most of the shafts were backfilled as the preferred
• Bullion Beck and Champion Mine,
Headframe
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 7)

method of eliminating the shaft and stabilizing the collars. Several shafts
were scheduled to receive the specially-designed grid due to the lack of fill,
the need to leave the shAft venting, or for historical considerations.

Between 1980 and 1985, the cage-dumping platform on the Bullion Beck and
Champion Mine headframe deteriorated considerably. In designing the shaft
closure for the headframe, the state determined that in order to place the
grid over the shaft, the broken and listing platform would need to be
temporarily moved. The platform was to be placed on the ground next to the
headframe and rehung, if possible, or laid on top of the grid after
installation. In placing the grid, an unfortunate series of events occurred
on March 18, 1986. The skip guides of the headframe were broken and the
platform destroyed. Since this adverse effect on the head frame occurred, the
state, in consultation with Federal agencies, the Certified Local Government
of Eureka and the Tintic Historical Society, has worked cooperatively to
devise a satisfactory mitigation plan for the damage to the headframe. The
mitigation consists of four parts:

•
1. Shaft Collar Stabilization - This work consists of reconstruction of
the shaft collar and rebuilding the wooden shaft lining to a viewable
depth. Although this work cannot guarantee continued stability of
the headframe, it is of importance to the shaft collar stability.

2. Skip Guide Stabilization - Three vertical beams, which were severed in

the accident, were spliced with compatible timber to continue them to
the ground level and were secured to the headframe.

HAER Documentation - This report, along with photographs and drawings,

constitutes the HAER documentation.

4. Public Inter retation of the Headframe Workin s - The Utah State

Historic Preservation Office SHPO believed that the greatest
disadvantage of the headframe damage was the inability of the
observer to understand the purpose, importance and use of the
headframe in the context of the mining operation. To offset the loss
of information, an interpretive plaque was developed, in conjunction
with the Tintic District and SHPO, and installed on the site. A new
monument was constructed to house the new plaque and the Utah historic
marker plaque which existed at the site. An accompanying pamphlet to
the Tintic Tour Guide was developed on the Bullion Beck and Champion
Mine by Dr. Phillip F. Notarianni. The pamphlet drew upon the HAER
documentation and was printed by the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining,
Utah Department of Natural Resources.

•
• Bullion Beck and Champion Mine,
Headframe
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 8)

PART II. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arrington, Leonard J.

1958 Grea t Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter Day

Saints: 1830-1900. Un:iversity of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

1963 "Abundance from the Earth: The Beginning of Commercial Mining in

Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly. Vol. 31, No.3, Salt Lake
City.

Athearn, Robert G.

1962 Rebel of the Rockies: The Denver and Rio Grande Western
Railroad. Yale University Press, New Haven.

Hannifin, Tim

•
1986 Personal Communication, September 1986.

Harris, Beth Kay

1961 The Towns of Tintic, Sage Books, Denver.

Lindgren, Waldemar, and G. F. Louglin

1919 Geology and Ore Deposits in the Tintic Mining District, Utah.
Government Printing Office, Washington.

Notarianni, Phillip F.

1979 Historic Resources of the Tintic Mining District, National

Register of Historic Places Inventory, Nomination Form, Utah
Historical Society, Salt Lake City.

1982 Faith, Hope and Prosperity: The Tintic Mining District. Tintic
Historical Society, Eureka, Utah.

Powell, Allan Kent

"The German-Speaking Immigrant Experience in Utah," Utah

Historical Quarterly. Vol. 52, No.4, Salt Lake Cit~

Sadler, Timothy M•

• 1986 Personal Communication, October 1986.

• Bullion Beck and Champion Mine,
Headframe
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 9)

DESCRIPTION OF FEATURE

THE BULLION BECK AND CHAMPION MINE HEADFRAME

Tintic Mining District
Eureka, Utah

General Information

I. Sources

The material used in the feature descriptions was taken from the following
data sources:

1. Notes and dimensions taken by Allen D. Roberts during on-site

investigation conducted August 11, 1986.

2. Photographs taken by John A. Senulis during on-site investigation

•
August 11, 1986.

Site descriptions and information prepared by Utah Department of

NAturAl Resources, Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.

4. Sheets of measured architectural features prepared by Allen D. Roberts

during the month of August 1986.

II. Format

The feature has been described using a four step process as follows:

A. Probable use (or name)

B. Construction materials
C. Dimensions
D. Additional information

Feature Description

I. Feature

A. Bullion Beck and Champion Mine headframe (gallows). Support for

lowering mine cars into the mine shaft.
B. Timber framed with metal bolts, concrete support pads.
C. The headframe, 67 feet long by 32 feet wide by 56 feet high

•
(estimate).
D. Headframe was constructed in 1890. Surrounding frame structure
demolished in 1925.
 Bullion Beck and Champ10n M1ne, Heaarran
HAER No. UT-46
(Page 10)

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 DOWN THB SHAPT ••• OR UP!
SILVBR AND HBRITAGB IN THB TINTIC MINING DISTRICT

The old West of prospectors, hard rock districts and towns that go
boom and bust is in the midst of another wave of change. The surge in
precious metals prices at the end of the 1970s inflationary cycle saw new
demand and new technologies appear as the old districts poised in a present
extracting a price from the past. Generally higher metals prices have
joined heap leaching and ion exchange extraction processes to cause old
mines and waste dumps to suddenly assume "ore" status in the current
economics. As seismic crews, core drillers and bulldozers lace the old
claims in search of new data, the historic fabric of interrelated elements
comprising a landscape is undergoing change.
But change is ongoing at some rate in every landscape and in the
fabulous but little known Tintic Mining District more destructive forces
than the new crop of miners have been at work. The Multiple Resource
National Register Historic District created in 1978 listed some 24 individual
sites of major significance. By 1987 of 13 listed sites that had major
structures 6 had disappeared. Dozens more that contributed to the sense of
place and past also disappeared. Many of those were more significant than
sites that were listed. A number of questions are raised by this ongoing
process and in the time available we will address some of them. First, why
have major historic sites been recognized and then destroyed and what
difference if any does their passing make?
To get a feel for the visual changes and the flavor of place involved,
we may divide the landscape into Eureka proper, other townsites, and mine
surface plants or workings. Main Street Eureka in 1986 had a neglected
but beautiful example of a commercial Victorian false front on the north
side across from the BPOE bUilding. Since most of the rows of business
buildings on that side had been razed in the previous 10 years, it was
especially striking in its isolation. It had the classic 19th-century recessed
entry with display windows and tiled floor and a corrugated roof rusted to
a mellow contrast with the backdrop earthtone hills. It was replaced with
a 1940s caboose in fresh painted Union Pacifi,c yellow and red. Next door
went a slant-wall metal prefab for the fire department. Buildings leave a
message. Post railroad era permanence was expressed in fancy brickwork
and Victorian decoration. It is difficult to retain a sense of community or
pride when structures have an air of impermanence that indicates the type
of boom or bust we currently are in.
Over the mountain in Mammoth, a miners cottage stared vacant-eyed
across a valley once filled with the modest frame dwellings of the working
man. An artist's centerpiece in autumn, by 1985 it was gone joining most
of its kin. The miner's "dry" building at the Tintic Standard had served
for years as storage for core samples after the miner's changing room need
had passed. It burned to the ground in 1986, the nefarious deed of an
arsonist. The Chief No.2 headframe over its early concrete-lined shaft was
unique in its width and number of structural members. It was bulldozed in
the early 1980s and replaced with a steel headframe. The Yankee
headframe, perched on a northeast flank of Godiva Mountain, was bulldozed
by ARCO in 1979. While no reason was given, it was apparently easier to
screen the collar for safety that way.
Fundamental philosophical questions arise in view of these changes.
Many factors operate in the destruction of historic mining sites. Hard
economic times as well as good ones, taxes, liability costs, apathy and
insensitivity are among them. In 1987 Eureka suddenly found itself a
"gateway" to the Great Basin National Park. National Parks are notorious
for attracting tourists with dollars many of whom stop and leave some of
those in historic mining districts enroute or nearby. Virginia City, Nevada
and Montana, Georgetown, Colorado and Columbia, California come to mind.
Ironically in the very same year three of Eureka's major businesses closed
and its most prominent if not most significant symbol of mining, the Bullion
Beck headframe, was being stabilized by a state agency under pressure to
reverse some of its more insensitive and illegal activites.

At this point we pause to tell the sordid tale (nearly as fascinating as

John Beck's discovery and development of the mine itself) of the Bullion
Beck headframe's recent near demise at the hands of the Abandoned Mine
Reclamation Program of Utah's Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. Situated
alongside US 6 just west of Eureka is a massive 65 foot Montana-type two
post "gallows" frame which hoisted men and equipment in and out of the
mine shaft. One of the largest and most substantial examples of such
structures in the West, it annually becomes more rare as the ravages of
time and man eliminate them. Many mining historic districts have only a
stray small example in poor condition remaining. One of several of an
excellent cross section of types in the Tintic, the Bullion Beck is fast
becoming a symbol of mining history of significance far beyond Utah.
The DOGM's AMRP expanded out from such busy recreational sites as
the Cottonwood Canyons to begin removing the "hazards" of abandoned
mines from Eureka in 1985. By April 1986 they had performed the requisite
paper work and had a contractor preparing the collar of the shaft for a
steel safety grate. In direct opposition to contractual guidelines and
federal law, the skip guides were smashed down unceremoniously with a
backhoe. Weather worn, they were viewed as "unsafe." (letter, Tintic
Historical Society Chairman of the Board to AMRP, April 3, 1986) The
splintered pieces were reportedly doused with gasoline and set afire. This
just months after the Wilberg Mine fire! .In spite of numerous tanks of
water dumped by the local fire department, the cribbing around the collar
smoldered and burned for weeks. Does this sound like the type of people
you want responsible for removing hazards from your National Register
Historic Site? In terms of Western mining history the destruction was
comparable to swinging the wrecking ball at the angel Moroni atop the Salt
Lake temple.
AMRP people continued to asSure the Tintic Historical Society and
numerous concerned citizens that there was "no effect" on the historical
significance of the site. When they finally viewed the damage the tune was
changed, but mitigating of the "effect" required continued pressure from
other government agencies and individuals. By summer 1987 the job was
finally complete and done nearly as well as it should have been in the first
place. But the tragedy was both more symbolic and more deep seated.
 The real tragedy is that AMRP people have a mind set inherently
insensitive to history. They possess the "beaver mentality" which views
every problem as an engineering opportunity. Rather than approaching, for
example, the problem of safely closing an open mine shaft with a view to
minimum materials and visual intrusion they choose the opposite. Their
projects in Eureka first put down a massive aluminum painted steel mesh
three or four times the size reason might suggest. After negative comment,
they repainted them brown and covered most of them with earth. Robert
Redford has commented on the "Neanderthal mentality" displayed by highway
engineers in Provo Canyon. "You don't have to destroy something to
improve it," he said. (Deseret News, Oct. 6, 1987, p. A7) Mining and
highway engineers are perhaps relatecJ.
What AMRPdoes speaks much more lOUdlythan what it says. Despite
the sensitivity to history they proclaim, their actions in Iron County are
exemplary. There "the bulldozers, backhoes and scrapers are sealing mine
portals, hauling off. mine tailings, and removing any traces of past
mining••••" That the "Leyson mine, first opened in 1854, has been identified
as the oldest coal mine in the state" ("Machines removing signs of Cedar
Canyon mining," Deseret News, Oct. 19, 1986) and was a significant
contributor to pioneer iron smelting efforts was apparently inSUfficient
justification to DOGM to save a few vestiges for the appreciation and
edification of future generations. Oh, but they were going to put up a
plaque, as if history were a zoo, and the whole thing only cost $182,750!
This is not to argue that there are no legitimate hazards around abandoned
mines. Rather that this is another out of proportion bureaucratic program
doing more damage than good crusading under questionable mandate to save
a tiny minority of the population from its own stupidity.
It is the razor edge of irony. One state agency tries to preserve a
little of Utah's mining past for the future while another works diligently to
obliterate it. One has a minimal budget, one has millions and the ear of
the media. Which do you think will prevail? Only if the truth becomes
known to a larger public can David entertain a modest chance of slaying
Goliath.

Those who read discover that history has a way of repeating itself.
Perhaps the best reason then for preserving some history is the time
honored dictum that a knowlege of the past can save at least some of us
from repeating some of the mistakes of the past. The preservation of
buildings, townscapes and landscapes is an evolving idea that has been
around in some form for centuries. Value in the practice is attributed to
such diverse notions as aesthetics, enlightenment and, especially in these
"cost-benefIt-ratio" times, economics. It has been well proven that in many
cases the past yields monetary as well as more intangible profits.
Sometimes only curiosity or chance operate to save places that become
appreciated in a later time.
Destruction of historic places also has many motives. Buildings as
well as books have been burned because some group or individual has
negative feelings about what a place symbolizes. Frequently the past stands
in the way of someone's view of "progress." A societal anomie and
preoccupation with materialism seem to be near the root of "tear it out"
tendencies. The physical past cannot become symbolic in the minds of its
viewers until there develops a chain of awareness, knowledge and ultimately
appreciation. The perception of what is "positive" or "negative" and to
what degree is very dependent on the viewer's frame of reference or
previous experience. Political, tax and insurance ramifications often
operate. Apathy and benign neglect are a two edged sword both preserving
and destroying.
Reasons vary then for the preservation and destruction of historic
places. The question remains, "So what?" What difference does it make
whether historic places are preserved or destroyed? The difference is far
reaching and frequently subtle. Numerous studies from urban planners and
geographers show that shape, detail, flow, sense of past and attractiveness
to pedestrians and human interaction all affect the social, psychological and
ultimately the physical well being of both people and places. Since people
tend to operate as left or right brain entities and the former dominate our
structured society of political, economic and social systems, it appears to be
an uphill battle to elevate the organization of habitat and environs to a
humane level.
Butte, Montana underwent an extensive Historic American Engineering
Record (HA ER) survey following local concerns that the adjacent open-pit
copper mine was about to swallow the town. Janet Cornish, Urban
Revitalization Agency director, said, "All of a sudden, people started getting
excited. Before, downtown had seemed an old, cumbersome area with
sentimental value and little else. Now the community saw its economic
potential, and they saw that people from outside the community were
recognizing it." (Tom Huth, "Mining in the West: Will Our Heritage Survive,"
Historic Preservation, May-June 1981 p. 15; also see USDI NPS, Butte,
Montana A Project Report, April 1981) In a materialistic world, the
survivors in the preservation game soon discovered that an economic appeal
based on well substantiated facts was their best approach. The modus
operandi became simply "show 'em how it makes 'em money!"
Of the many reasons for preserving mining history in Eureka and the
Tintic, the best may be economic and historical. Economic because if the
town's depressed economy is ever to achieve a degree of revival and
stability, the traveler's interest in mining history and not the boom and
bust mining economy itself will provide it. The district by accident of
unpopularity and neglect maintained a range of mining, commercial and
residential structures unexcelled in Utah and most of the West. The raw
material was and may still be there, but lacking is a view of Tintic's place
in the scope of Western mining history, a vision of the district's potential
and a commitment to plan, execute and "do it right." The historical
rationale is based on the townscape and the array of headframes and
surface plants that survive here compared to other districts that now "sell
history" with much less of the authentic to show.
Even building on your best bet, the material culture landscape of
mining past, does not go unopposed. Philosophies of preservation vary as
much as human beings. Some prefer to see the district remain a quiet rural
retreat and personal playground. Some still carry that old West frontier
notion transposed, "the only good planner is a dead planner." Personal
rights remain viscerally more important than public ones especially when it
comes to property. Opposition also comes as an outgrowth of the
automobile and mass communications. The locals can drive out and tune in
to get what they want out of town, and the out-of-towners can commute to
work the mines during the next mineral boom. These songs are replayed
across rural America.
 The preservation ethic did not win the West, Manifest Destiny did.
There remains a refreshing lack of realization that the frontier era is over.
That can be a very appealing force to urbanites, tourists and other
outsiders. It also points to the paradoxes pervading the story of
preservation in Western mining districts. One federal and state tier of
bureaucracy labors to interpret and save our past so that we can
understand and appreciate it. Another layer of federal and state agencies
operating from the other side of the brain accidentally and on purpose
destroy the same past under a relatively legitimate mandate to protect the
public from hazards. One mining company bulldozes headframes and
business blocks in a twinge of liability consciousness and tax reduction.
Another opens a historic tunnel to tours and yet another shares its
extensive historic research with interested historical societies. Some people
bought locally, even if it cost a few dollars more, and others awaited the
trek to the valley to shop. Now there is little option. Some are sensitive
to commercial facades and paint schemes while others "don't give a damn."
Individualism, at least, is alive and well in the Tintic!
Paradox also appears in other districts. Robert Hope, Australian
president of Denver-based Houston International Minerals Corporation,
acknowledges both past mistakes and the inevitability of conflict at their
Virgina City, Nevada operation. "We should have let the community know
what we were doing; now we're being more up front, and I think we're
being accepted as responsible corporate citizens." After a $78,000
contribution to a historic district survey he said, "We were paying for
information--we wanted to see what is really there. To some extent,
people perceive value where we don't. Obviously we can't preserve every
building." (Huth, 1981)
Perhaps more pressing than the direct mining impacts on past mining
landscapes (to a degree natural and evolutionary) are the indirect or
secondary effects of the recent mining and energy booms. A new mine or
leach field or seismic survey is much less destructive than the associated
influx of people with a vandal mentality and no roots in or appreciation of
the local community and its history. Denice Wheeler, secretary of the
Uinta County Historical Society in oil boom Evanston, Wyoming, summed up
the flip side of the newcomer-oldtimer influence this way. "The new people
in town have become extremely interested in our history. People who've
lived here all their lives become sort of immune to their heritage ••••" (Huth,
1981)

Landscape and townscape change in the Tintic Mining District may be

conveniently divided into three major time periods; pre-1869, and before and
after 1929. The era of Native American and Spanish Influence probably had
little impact on the look of the place. Chief Tintic's guerrila war forays
from the springs at Homansville and vicinity put a little fear in a few
valley settlers and a label on the district, but their nomadic lifestyle left
little mark on the land. The Indians in fact were in close harmony with
the natural scheme of things. The Spanish are reputed in some accounts to
have left arrastra paths from mining efforts in the region, but this remains
one of those obscure stories of an obscure place and time that has not
been well researched. The Spanish were noted for primarily working
surface outcrops and natural openings.
 The second phase of landscape change in the Tintic came with
discovery of the Sunbeam in 1869 and the beginning of the "Big Four"
mines in Eureka Gulch the following year. The 1870s Discovery and
Development era saw high grade ore so rich it was plucked from surface
exposures, loaded in wagons for haulage to the railroad in Salt Lake and
shipped to San Francisco and around the Horn to Wales for smelting.
Consolidation and Expansion occurred in the 1880s and 1890s when mills and
smelters struggled with the district's complex ores and railroads finally
connected the place to big city capital and technology. The boom and bust
cycles had already begun. A 1900 description from the !!!!. Lake Mining
Review (April 30, p. 5) serves to indicate the flavor of the district when
Eureka had a popUlation of 3500 and Mammoth 1200. Eureka "•••boasts of
nearly every metropolitan advantage and is a little city instead of an
isolated mining camp •••• Mammoth also has kept pace with the times, and,
while not as large as Eureka, enjoys about the same facilities." Three
decades of New Technology from 1900 to 1930 saw the automobile and
electric power arrive and a continuation of cyclical economics.
The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of October
24, 1929 marks a major downhill turn in the ongoing cycles of boom and
bust in Tintic towns and mines. Production slowed in the '30s to pick up
with World War II demand in the '40s. By the late 1940s many houses were
moved from Tintic towns to valley towns like Springville, Spanish Fork and
Nephi. Some were burned and others were torn down, but the late '40s and
'50s saw significant portions of the built environment disappear. The 1950s
and '60s era of Diminishing Production saw the rails pulled up and a
gradual exodus continue, leaving a ghostly shell of the district's former
self. The 1970s and '80s witnessed the paradox of Preservation and Apathy
as the nation's bicentennial generated a superb local historical society and
finally the closure of the last operating mines in the district. The post-
Depression period was one of disappearing and shrinking towns and a
contracting Eureka commercial district. The town that had expanded up
Eureka Gulch, and extended from nearly the Evans to Knightsville, began a
process of shrinking at the margins and thinning from within. A
counterpoint of new home building by natives and lovers of the place and
via the idiosyncrasies of politics also began to fill a few gaps.
Not surprisingly, the mining towns of the American West bear striking
similarities. The men were highly mobile in their thirst for that "big
strike," and architecture, mining methods, and social institutions flowed
freely from place to place. Common themes and occurances include fires,
floods, celebrations, the arrival of "city slickers," ladies of the evening,
shootings, hangings, fast faro games at numerous saloons, and fortunes won
and lost. The shift whistles resounded across the landscape, the pump and
hoist engines hummed, and mighty teams of mules and horses freighted in
life's necessities until the railroad and later trucks appeared. Hard men at
hard work in the mines, mills and smelters dominated the scene off Main
Street. Much appeared the same from Tintic to Tombstone. Structures
moved quickly from canvas tents and log cabins through simple wood frame
dwellings and false front businesses to more elaborate structures of wood,
brick and stone in the style of the time. As mines played out and people
departed, the towns became ghosts of their former glory or disappeared
altogether. The pattern was repeated full cycle throughout the West's more
prosperous mining districts.
 Tintic has long been one of the West's most overlooked districts. In
spite of phenomoneal production records and a history and folklore
unexcelled by the more notorious districts, the Tintic has wallowed in the
backwater eddys of obscurity. One reason is simply that it sits 75 miles
southwest of Salt Lake City in a Utah long dominated by a view of history
distinctly Mormon. The railroad and mining impacts continue to be
perceived at best out of context with the Mormon story. Tintic was well
known to the mobile miners who criss-crossed the West, but to the general
population it was as unknown at the turn-of-the-century as it remains
today. If Utah is a perception depression in the West, Tintic is surely one
in Utah. Part of the reason for that lies in the Wasatch Front's peculiar
"Westside-Eastside" mentality. Places west of the River Jordan have never
been perceived as "desirable" in the eastside mind, no matter what their
economic, historical or aesthetic amenities. Perhaps that concept stems
from sources of life-giving water, primarily a product of the Wasatch and
Uinta Mountains.
The old shorter range corporate mentality of squeezing the bottom line
from afar is well represented by at least one Tintic mining company. The
example of Jerome, Arizona where "historic properties are being held in
limbo by inactive mining interests" (Huth, 1981) comes to mind. There is
also evidence for a corporate view that includes history and its material
expressions in a longer view. Centurion and Western have valued historic
photographs that include mine dumps. They help evaluate old mines for
potential reprocessing and help reconstruct past mining activity and even
sections of mines underground. The company has uncovered records around
the country, some painting an unpretty picture of the lot of labor and
company policy. Maimings were frequent in the "good old days" and a
death or two in the drifts was insufficient event to be noted in the local
newspapers. It took a disaster like the September 1914 Oklahoma stope
cave-in that trapped 12 miners and killed 11 to unavoidably appear in print.
Life was hard way back when wages were $3.00 or $4.00 a day.
Sunshine's recent replacement of Kennecott was quietly heralded with
the local comment, "finally got somebody in there knows how to mine
underground." Indeed, they discovered lost ore bodies and held great
promise until $5.00 silver and state bureaucracy encouraged closure. The
company contributed a mine tour, over-counter silver sales, dollars and
enthusiasm to the Tintic Historical Society and town efforts to begin a
viable tourism campaign. Busted again by golly, but the minerals are there
waiting to become ore again and usher in another boom era.
The Tintic Mining District is a complex district. The ores baffled
early smelter designers who found few mines produced a similar product.
The same problem still puzzles the mining engineers. The geology is cut by
numerous faults and intrusions and still intrigues serious students of the
earth. The Salt Lake Tribune noted Tintic's mineral potential Jan. 1, 1892.
"Its growth has ii'O"i"'been commensurate with its merits. It took years to
find out that the rich surface deposits were not all that was good in the
lodes. When these surface deposits were worked down to the pyrites, or
'white iron,' further sinking was stopped, and it has been the work of the
past year or two to demonstrate that there is mineral in paying quantities
and qualities below this iron stratum, and many old claims will soon become
shippers." Ninety-five years later thorough and perhaps first region-wide
evaluations of the district's mineral potential are finally underway.
 What would the old-timers have done with seismic data, core drills and
satellite imagery? Part of the change we view in mining and the boom
towns of mining is related to other external changes. Supply and demand
from far distant places, fear of war and depression and alternative materials
all affect the silver market. Perception can even prove more important
than reality. One reality that affected activity in the 1980s was noted by
Rosenthal and Young. "Since the base price for silver is double or triple
what it was back in the 1970s, and prices for lead, zinc, and copper have
been level since the mid-1970s, the importance of silver in metal-mining
operations has multiplied." (D. Rosenthal and E. Young, The New Case for
Silver, 1985, p. 17) This factor led to reprocessing of tailings or dumps
and increased capital flow toward primary silver mines.
Recent indications are positive for life in the old district's mines. A
Seattle stockbroker and analyst specializing in North American gold and
silver companies recently toured the district and noted that Centurion and
Western now control an area almost as large as the famed Carlin District in
Nevada. "Before [the Centennial-Eureka] was closed the mine produced 1.5
million tons of ore with an average grade of 0.3 ounces of gold and 14.0
ounces of silver per ton. At today's prices this represents $288 million of
gold and $180 million of silver. Since the mine was closed in 1927, there
has been absolutely no modern exploration or drilling done ••••" (Jeff Conley,
"Centurion Mines A Sleeping Giant Reawakens," Bull and Bear, Oct. 1987, p.
ll) ----
A few predictions for the not so famous Tintic are perhaps in order.
It seems likely that the past will continue to repeat itself in slightly
altered forms. Mining will continue its cycles of boom and bust and those
apocryphyl tales of a kings ransom in once "worthless" Tintic Standard
mining stock traded for a night on the town may well repeat themselves.
Those with the earliest information and the resolve to evaluate and act on
it will again someday amass small fortunes from the Tintic. The mineral
base would seem to be there awaiting the alignment of outside factors
again. Another boom in mining will likely change the face of the main
district. Men can move mountains a good deal more quickly these days.
Historian Phillip Notarianni concluded a lecture on the district's past
in these words. "The idea of a 'thread of optimism' through the fabric of
Tintic's history exists. This is tied closely to the cyclical pattern of
economy, or 'peak and trough' type of activity. Tintic is indeed still alive,
and historic preservation may well help it to remain alive." (Notarianni,
unpublished paper, no date) Tintic is indeed no "ghost," though a shadow
of its former self. But in spite of a class local historical society (recipient
of the coveted Corey Award for the finest local historical society on the
continent in 1985) many landmark structures have disappeared. Even more
tragically, many more non-landmark structures equally critical to the mining
landscape compage--its assemblage of elements creating a sense of place--
have disappeared. When it comes to historic landscape and townscape, it
takes a well fired minority and broadening local base to first appreciate
what it has and then to challenge adverse and insensitive changes spawned
by big corporations, big government, big dollars and small minds.
The question arises, "at what point is it too late?" At what point
have too many sites been lost to retain a flavor that tells enough of a
story of the place to attract enough visitor dollars to begin to preserve it?
It is a complex question. In any case, if answers emerge, they will find
Tintic's and the rest of the West's material mining heritage held hostage in
large degree to appetites and forces well beyond Eureka Gulch.
 BULLION BECK HEADFRAME FIRE DAMAGE MITIGATION

J. Chris Rohrer, Reclamation Specialist

Utah Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program
Salt Lake City, Utah

The Utah Abandoned Mine Reclamation (AMR) Program is the agency responsible for reclaiming
abandoned mines in Utah under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA, P.L.
95-87). It is almost axiomatic that abandoned mines date from the historic era, and many abandoned
mines were significant in the development of the state. SMCRA's goals of eliminating safety hazards and
environmental problems sometimes are at odds with the preservation goals of the Historic Preservation
Act. The Bullion Beck headframe fire incident shows that the needs of both acts can be met. The
Bullion Beck headframe is a National Register site that was inadvertently damaged during a reclamation
project. This report will show how a severe, but unanticipated, adverse effect was mitigated.

The Bullion Beck headframe is located in Eureka, Utah, about fifty miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
Eureka is one of several hardrock mining boom towns that sprang up in the Tintic Mountains in the late
1800s. It still survives today with a population of 700.

The Bullion Beck and Champion Mining Company was started by John Beck, a German immigrant who
started mining in Utah in 1870. After several failures he struck valuable ore and became very wealthy.
The mine went through a major capital development phase in 1890, when a structure housing the shaft,
headframe, hoist, boilers, and shops was built. The mine declined during World War I, and in 1925 the
exterior structure was torn down for salvage, leaving the exposed headframe. The mine was revived in
1940 under new ownership, using the original headframe and a new hoist. It continued to operate until
1960.

The Bullion Beck headframe is an A-type (also known as a 2-post or Montana) headframe constructed
in 1890 of massive wooden timbers. It is 67 feet by 32 feet by 56 feet high. It stands over a shaft 1200-
1500 feet deep. The shaft has two four-foot square compartments for skips and a smaller manway.
Three vertical timbers extend from the top of the headframe down into the shaft to quide the skips as
they travel. Significant to the story, but not apparent to observers or from photographs, is the below-
ground structure. The primary support for the headframe is not concrete footers, but wooden beams and
cribbing buried in the fill around the shaft. The headframe was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1976, along with the three other headframes remaining in Eureka. The Utah State
Historical Society erected a commemorative marker on the site and put chain link fencing around the
shaft.

The condition of the headframe steadily deteriorated after its abandonment. Two platforms, one where
ore was dumped from the skips and one by the sheave wheels, fell and hung swinging in the breeze. The
unconsolidated material around the shaft collar sloughed outside the wooden sheathing supporting the
sides of the shaft. The sloughing extended past the fencing placed by the historical society, so that it was
possible to stand outside the fence and fall into the shaft.

These conditions led the AMR program to include the Bullion Beck headframe in a 1985 project to
address hazards at 24 shafts and two adits in the town of Eureka. Most of the mine openings were
backfilled; four shafts, including the Bullion Beck, were to be closed with a steel grate. The grate is
made of 1/4-inch steel rod woven like a chain link fence held by I-beam supports and soil anchors. The
plan was to work around the skip guides and to move the wood in the shaft only to the extent necessary
to install the grate. After getting the necessary approvals and putting precautionary language in the
construction specifications, the project was bid and work began in the fall of 1985.

The project proceeded well until late March 19~6, when the contractor moved onto the Bullion Beck site.
Working ahead of schedule and without AMR program supervision (both in breach of the contract), the
contractor broke the skip guides and other wooden structural members with a backhoe. These fell into
the shaft and lodged on square sets in the shaft. Unable to remove them, he burned them. The wooden
collar and the buried wooden supporting members were damaged and the parts that had fallen into the

85
shaft were destroyed. Fortunately, the aboveground structure was not damaged by the fire. However,
the upper parts of the skip guides were left dangling with ragged ends.
In response to the incident, the AMR program met and worked with the State Historic Preservation
Office, the Tintic Historic Society (representing the Certified Local Government), the U.S. Office of
Surface Mining, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to see what could be done to mitigate
the damage. An engineering study determined that the loss of the collar could lead to continued
sloughing of the shaft and ultimately the structural failure of the headframe. With this in mind a four-
part mitigation plan was developed:

* Collar stabilization to prevent further sloughing

* Stabilization of the broken skip guides to prevent them from falling
* HAER documentation of the headframe
* Public interpretation to put the headframe into the context of the overall mine operation and the
Bullion Beck mine into the context of mining in Utah.

The public interpretation would take the form of a monument with an interpretive plaque at the
headframe and an interpretive pamphlet for distribution at the Tintic Museum in Eure~a.

Bullion Beck headframe, Eureka, Utah. (Built 1890, photo taken in 1977). Photo courtesy of J. Chris
Rohrer.

86
The HAER documentation and collar stabilization were completed in the fall of 1986. To stabilize the
collar, the shaft was cleared and a reinforced concrete slab floor was cast twenty feet down the shaft.
Reinforced concrete walls were then cast to support the sides of the shaft. The excavation outside the
walls was then backfilled. Timber sets and lagging were placed over the concrete walls to recreate the
original shaft appearance. A steel safety grid over the opening prevents anyone from falling in but
permits viewing down the shaft. In the summer of 1987 the broken skip guides were spliced with
matching timbers and extended to ground level. A stone monument with interpretive plaque was built
at the same time. The interpretive pamphlet has been written and will soon be printed.

87