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Tintic Soil Study Results and Conclusions

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Main waste rock dump at the Tintic Standard Mine.

Main waste rock dump at the Tintic Standard Mine.

In this post, we will report results and draw conclusions for our study of soil contamination in the Tintic Mining District. This study was supported by a grant from the American Chemical Society.

Students from Walden School of Liberal Arts brought back 42 samples of soils from the area in and around Eureka, Utah. Our purpose was to test for heavy metal contamination, especially lead. Previous tests done by the Utah Department of Health and the EPA showed lead contamination to be widespread throughout the town, due to the presence of historic concentration plants in the town and the use of mine waste rock as fill in many lots. Since there are mine dumps on the hillsides south of town, rain runoff also brought lead contamination into the residential areas.

Western side of the Swansea Consolidated mine dump near SIlver City.

Western side of the Swansea Consolidated mine dump near SIlver City.

These tests led the EPA to declare the town a Superfund project and spend $26 million to replace soils in some areas of town (but not all). They also placed limestone riprap over the mine dumps to prevent further runoff. The process took ten years and completely changed the look of the town, damaging or destroying several historic landmarks along the way, such as the headframes for the Eureka Hill and Gemini mines. Two landmarks, the Bullion Beck headframe and the Shea building, were restored. The rest have been left in ruins.

Middle section of the Swansea Consolidated mine dump near Silver City.

Middle section of the Swansea Consolidated mine dump near Silver City.

All of the tests we conducted were put into numerical form and entered into a spreadsheet so that we could compare the results. We used an ALTA II reflectance spectrometer to measure reflected light at eleven wavelengths, including four infrared wavelengths. We also tested the pH of the samples using several methods, including universal test strips, a garden soil test kit, and a pH meter. We tested for lead using a sodium rhodizonate solution, which changes from orange-red to pink in the presence of lead in neutral soils and to green or blue in the presence of lead in acidic soils. Please see our previous post for details on these tests. Since the rhodizonate test was qualitative, we assigned numbers depending on the color of the final solution so that some comparison could be made.

For the samples, we selected ten areas inside the town of Eureka, including some where the soil has been replaced and others where the soil is original. We tried to pick areas that were representative of the town as a whole. At each site, we sampled the surface soil and soil about six inches below the surface. We also sampled 12 sites outside of town, including areas away from town as controls and areas on or near exposed mine dumps, such as those from the Tintic Standard, Swansea Consolidated, and Tesora mines. We also took samples from gullies or washes downstream from mining areas and dumps, and from an exposed ore body (which has not been mined or processed) at a road cut along U.S. Highway 6.

Test Results:

Chart 1: Comparing Different pH Tests of Soil Samples. The readings taken with our portable pH meter provide the most consistent results (and can be done easiest in the field).

Chart 1: Comparing Different pH Tests of Soil Samples. The readings taken with our portable pH meter provide the most consistent results (and can be done easiest in the field).

As you can see from Chart 1 shown here, of the different methods we used to determine the soil pH, the pH meter was the most sensitive and consistently accurate. It was also easiest to use. It showed that most of the samples, were slightly acidic (between 6 and 7), but the samples taken from mine dumps and the areas immediately downstream were extremely acidic; in fact, some samples had a pH too low for our meter to read, which had a low limit of 2.5. Although not shown on this chart, the samples taken inside Eureka on our fourth collection trip all showed pHs near neutral (6 – 7).

Our lead test showed no discernable lead inside Eureka, even in soils that had not been replaced by the EPA. This is probably because our test is not sensitive enough for low lead levels. It becomes hard to distinguish the original color of the rhodizonate from the natural color of the soil unless there is enough lead present to create an obvious color change. In Chart 2, low levels of lead correspond very well with neutral pH soils.

Chart 2: Comparing Soil pH with Lead Levels. The lower the pH (more acidic) the soil samples were, the more lead was present with a correlation coefficient of rho = -0.876.

Chart 2: Comparing Soil pH with Lead Levels. The lower the pH (more acidic) the soil samples were, the more lead was present with a correlation coefficient of rho = -0.876.

The most interesting result of our study was to compare pH with lead levels. Chart 2 shows that the highest lead levels were found on or immediately downstream from mine dumps, which correlated very well with low pH levels with a correlation coefficient of rho = -0.876. Mine dump soils had high lead content and were highly acidic. Of course, this doesn’t imply causality: the high acid doesn’t cause lead, and the high lead probably doesn’t cause the acidity, but if one is present, so is the other.

Chart 3: Comparing Soils at Mine Dumps with Healthy Soil Using the ALTA II Reflectance Spectrometer. Healthier soils were darker and richer in humus, whereas mine dump soils were pale and yellowish.

Chart 3: Comparing Soils at Mine Dumps with Healthy Soil Using the ALTA II Reflectance Spectrometer. Healthier
soils were darker and richer in humus, whereas mine dump soils were pale and yellowish.

In Chart 3, the reflectance spectrometer tests were inconclusive as far as detecting a signature for lead. We compared the results shown with samples of pure lead, pure galena (lead sulfide), and silver-lead ore. There were no obvious wavelengths that gave a definitive fingerprint for only lead.

The one useful result of the spectrometer tests was to confirm the overall health of the soil samples; those with lower percent reflectance overall were darker, richer, more healthy soils with more plant life growing. The lighter soils had less plant life and higher overall reflectances. The soils at mine dumps were yellowish to light purplish due to the presence of sulfur compounds, and these also had no plant life, lower pH, and higher lead.

Chart 4: Comparing the Levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium in Soil Samples. The nitrogen and phosphorus tests gave no predictable results, whereas the potassium test showed higher levels of potassium in mine dump soils with high lead content (rho = .687).

Chart 4: Comparing the Levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium in Soil Samples. The nitrogen and phosphorus tests gave no predictable results, whereas the potassium test showed higher levels of potassium in mine dump soils with high lead content (rho = .687).

Chart 4 shows the tests we conducted on soil nutrients. The nitrogen and phosphorus tests were inconclusive, and are probably due to the poor quality of the garden test kit we used. The potash (potassium) test did show higher potassium in the mine dump soils where lead levels were also highest, although the correlation was only moderate (rho = 0.687).

Conclusions:

A visual inspection of the mine dumps outside of Eureka, Utah in the Tintic Mining District shows that the waste rock and soils are highly contaminated. No plants grow on the dumps or in the gullies immediately below them. They are stained a bright yellowish-orange, and soils in the nearby gullies have layers of red, yellow, and even green. Overall, they are lighter and less rich than nearby soils with plant life. Our tests show that these mine dump soils are acidic and have high levels of lead contamination.

Similar mine dumps were located at the west end of town (around the Gemini and Bullion Beck headframes) and south of town (Chief Consolidated and Eagle and Bluebell mines). If the same pattern of contamination occurred there as what we found in the Swansea, Tesora, and Tintic Standard dumps, then it is likely that the soils downstream in the residential areas of town were also contaminated by lead and sulfur compounds. We did not find evidence of this in our tests of original soils inside town, but our test was not sensitive enough to find the lowest levels of lead. Soil pH throughout the town was slightly acidic, which may indicate sulfur or even lead content. We were not able to get the data from the original EPA tests.

Soil discoloration in the wash west of the main Swansea mine dump at Silver City.

Soil discoloration in the wash west of the main Swansea mine dump at Silver City.

Both pH and potassium content appear to be well correlated with lead content, with pH having a particularly high negative correlation (-0.876). Perhaps pH can be used as a marker, since it is easily measured. Where lead is suspected, a pH reading showing high acidity would indicate a strong possibility of lead. It would be interesting to see if the two measurements decouple as one travels further downstream from the mine dumps along washes and gullies. Do the lead and the acid travel the same distances?

Soil layers showing different types of contamination, in the middle wash downstream from the Swansea mine dump.

Soil layers showing different types of contamination, in the middle wash downstream from the Swansea mine dump.

Much remains to be tested. We have some additional grant funds that we will use to send four samples to an outside lab for detailed element analysis. I also hope to take all our samples to a local university and use an X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer or Raman Spectrometer to get an accurate and precise readout of the lead levels and other heavy metal content. We need to determine the amount of sulfur compounds in the soils, and how that correlates with pH. We also need to pass our samples through a soil sieve and measure the relative sizes of particles and the amount of humus in each. We should test the mine dump soils to see if plants will grow in them compared to the other samples. Finally, we need to return to the site and collect more samples of other mine dumps, as well as the soils around and downstream from the dumps we’ve already tested. We need to determine how far the lead contamination and acidity travel down the washes and gullies and the extent to which the slope of the land affects this.

As with any field research study, it’s hard to keep all the variables constant. We’ve been careful and consistent with our tests, recording each location and using controlled testing conditions in the lab. But there are factors we can’t control. It could be that the low plant life on the dumps is simply because this is a desert, and plant life takes time to get established after soils are disturbed. The dumps were all dug up and the best materials were transferred to a leaching pile nearby in the 1980s. 30 years is not enough time for climax vegetation of sagebrush and juniper trees, but is enough time for grasses and low brush to grow. In general, soils in the area are poor in nutrients except where higher levels of water (such as in washes or gullies) allow more plants to grow and decay into better humus.

Staining on the asphalt where water draining off of the Swansea mine dump runs over the road near Silver City.

Staining on the asphalt where water draining off of the Swansea mine dump runs over the road near Silver City.

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Testing Tintic Soil Samples

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Some of the soil samples from the Tintic Mining District

Some of the soil samples from the Tintic Mining District

Although it’s been over six months since we conducted these experiments, I want to report on what we did before moving on to other topics so that these blog posts will be in the right order. So much has happened doing chemistry that I’ve fallen behind on reporting and writing about chemistry and the elements.

Chemistry students test chemicals with the ALTA II reflectance spectrometer

Chemistry students test chemicals with the ALTA II reflectance spectrometer

During our Intersession class in March, we visited the Tintic Mining District three times in addition to our visit the previous fall. This made four collection trips altogether, and we got 42 samples from over 20 locations. Some of these were from areas inside the town of Eureka, some were outside in areas with heavy mining, such as on or around mine dumps, and some were control samples where no mining has occurred. Our goal was to test these samples for lead and other metal contaminants as well as pH.

Sean, Jem, Indi, and Jeffrey add water to soil samples

Sean, Jem, Indi, and Jeffrey add water to soil samples

We did this in several ways. First, we took a field pH meter with us to test the soils as we collected the samples. Since most were gathered in March, the ground was damp and the pH meter worked well. The areas around mine dumps showed extremely low pHs (the meter pegged at about 2.5, so the samples were lower still). They also showed the most discoloration, ranging from yellow to purplish colors. These sites also had little or no vegetation.

Chemicals and minerals tested by the chemistry students using an ALTA II reflectance spectrometer

Chemicals and minerals tested by the chemistry students using an ALTA II reflectance spectrometer

Measuring pH using universal test strips

Measuring pH using universal test strips

Even though the field pH meter worked well, we weren’t sure if it was consistent or reliable given that the soil samples had different amounts of moisture. When we took the samples back to our chemistry lab, we took them out of the Ziploc bags they were in and placed them onto paper plates to dry for several days. Students measured 10.0 g of each and added 25 mL of distilled water, stirring the samples to mix the soil with the water as much as possible. Then we tested each with the pH meter, universal pH test strips, and more specific test strips. We also used a garden soil nutrient test kit that included a pH test where a pill was emptied into the wet sample and color read off of a chart. The various results were set up on the whiteboard as a table, then my student Jem set up a spreadsheet to record and chart all the samples to compare which pH test method was most sensitive and accurate.

Testing for lead with sodium rhodinzonate. The blue color of the second to last sample indicates both lead and acid.

Testing for lead with sodium rhodinzonate. The blue color of the second to last sample indicates both lead and acid.

Another test was to see how much lead was in the samples. Our technique was to use a kit for testing lead in soils using a solution of sodium rhodizonate, which turns from reddish orange to pink in a control solution of lead nitrate. Our samples brought back from our first and second collect trips were tested by filtering out the sediment from the soil mixed with water, then taking the filtrate and adding the rhodizonate solution. Most of the solutions stayed orange, but one turned purplish blue, not pink. It was the sample taken from the Tesora mine dump. This was puzzling until one of my students, Sean, looked up the rhodizonate test and found that it does turn purple-blue if the sample is acidic. When testing its pH, we found it was highly acidic with a pH of 3.0.

Results of rhodizonate test, with colors ranging from orange (no lead) through yellow (moderate lead) to green and blue (high lead). The test was qualitative, not quantitative.

Results of rhodizonate test, with colors ranging from orange (no lead) through yellow (moderate lead) to green and blue (high lead). The test was qualitative, not quantitative.

We began to see there was a correlation between low pH and lead content. As we repeated the test with other samples, we refined our techniques and came up with a color gauge that provided a rough quantitative scale for the amount of lead present. Most samples, including all from inside town, had a pH of 6.5-7.0 and the rhodizonate stayed orange. Where the pH was a little lower (6.0-6.5 and 5.0-6.0), such as in areas downstream for mine dumps, the rhodizonate turned orange-yellow or yellow. A pH of 4.0 – 5.0 showed a rhodizonate test of light green. A pH lower than 4 showed a test of blue. The correlations between the amount of lead and the acidity of the soil were very strong. We set up a scale of orange equals no to very little lead, yellow a small amount of lead, green a larger amount, and blue the largest amount with numbers 0 to 4. Unfortunately, the rhodizonate test is not specific enough to show actual quantities of lead, and we have no way of knowing if a number 4 (blue) test has twice as much lead as a number 2 (yellow) test. That will have to wait for x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy or some other technique.

Control tests using the sodium rhodizonate solution (on the right). The second to the right shows pink color when the test solution is added to a neutral solution of lead nitrate. It turns purple (second from left) in an acidic solution that contains lead. It produces a white precipitate in a solution basic solution of lead. In the soil samples, lead in acidic soil produced a blue color. When a base was added, a black precipitate formed. All samples with lead present were also highly acidic.

Control tests for lead using the sodium rhodizonate solution (on the right). The second to the right shows pink color when the test solution is added to a neutral solution of lead nitrate. It turns purple (second from left) in an acidic solution that contains lead. It produces a white precipitate in a basic solution of lead. In the soil samples, lead in acidic soil produced a blue color. When a base was added, a black precipitate formed. All samples with lead present were also highly acidic.

We also tested for soil nutrients, including phosphate, nitrate, and potassium. The only correlation was that the soils with higher levels of lead had higher potassium levels overall, but the correlation wasn’t completely certain.

Sean tests for nitrogen in the samples

Sean tests for nitrogen in the samples

I had seen an interesting device demonstrated at a workshop for the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars where we used reflectance spectroscopy to analyze rock samples representing Martian rock analogs. The ALTA II device uses 11 LED lights on the bottom to shine off of a rock or mineral sample, then a detector shows the relative reflectance of each wavelength, ranging from blue through red to four frequencies of infrared LEDs. Using a white paper and a black paper as controls, the percent of reflected light can be determined and charted. Before Intersession began, I had the chemistry students use the ALTA on a series of chemicals. Some were white but of different substances, some were pure elements, such as copper, tin, lead, iron, and sulfur. Others were alloys such as bronze or compounds such as copper sulfate or minerals such as iron pyrite. I wanted to see if the alloys were an average between the pure elements that made them up, and to see if the infrared reflectance was different even though the visible colors of substances were white.

Reflectance spectrometer readings for various chemicals and minerals. There are 11 wavelengths read for each sample, which are compared to the values for white and black to get a percent reflectance.

Reflectance spectrometer readings for various chemicals and minerals. There are 11 wavelengths read for each sample, which are compared to the values for white and black to get a percent reflectance.

We also used the ALTA on each of the soil samples, and the results were fairly predictable in that the richer, loamier soils had lower reflectance at all frequencies (they are darker). The more mineralized and contaminated soils were lighter (more yellowish overall) and high reflectance. Yet the yellow soil didn’t necessarily have higher yellow reflectance – it might have higher green and red, which were combining to make yellow. This spectrometer isn’t specific enough to really give detailed reflection spectrums, which would show spikes at specific frequencies for lead or other elements.

Recording data for the reflectance spectrometer on the Tintic soil samples.

Recording data for the reflectance spectrometer on the Tintic soil samples.

Doing 11 wavelengths of light for 42 samples created a huge data table. We also had all the nutrient, pH, and lead data. Jem set it all up in a massive spreadsheet. Our ten-day class finished before we had the chance to analyze the samples from our final collection trip, so another student, Jeffrey, continued to work on the samples on his own time. By the end of the school year the results were all finalized. I’ll talk about those results in my next post.

Jem enters all the data into a spreadsheet.

Jem enters all the data into a spreadsheet.

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Tintic Soil Study: Sample Collection Trip 4

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Old car behind the Tintic Mining Museum in Eureka, Utah.

Old car behind the Tintic Mining Museum in Eureka, Utah.

During our Intersession period between third and fourth terms, I taught a class that would help complete our study of lead contamination in the Tintic Mining District around Eureka, Utah for our American Chemical Society Hach grant. We had already visited the area three times to collect samples in the various mine dumps around the area, but we needed one more trip to collect samples from inside the town of Eureka itself. We traveled down for this last trip on Thursday, March 14, 2013. I had three students with me from Walden School: Jeffrey, Indie, and Aaron.

Aaron, Jeffrey, and Indie collecting samples of a hydrothermal vein at a road cut on Highway 6.

Aaron, Jeffrey, and Indie collecting samples of a hydrothermal vein at a road cut on Highway 6.

We had scoped out the town and decided to collect at ten locations in the town and at least one location further southwest outside the entire district as controls. The town was cleaned up by the EPA as a superfund project, and $26 million was spent to dig up contaminated topsoil in sensitive areas, such as playgrounds, the baseball field, and lawns at the high school. Other areas have been covered with limestone fragments, or rip-rap, dug up at a quarry about five miles outside town and supposedly beyond the contaminated zone. Still other areas in town have had plastic netting laid over the ground, supposedly to prevent erosion from washing contamination back into the town. And there are many areas that have not been touched, with climax vegetation (mostly sagebrush and some juniper trees) that would take decades to grow. These untouched areas are even found upslope from sensitive areas, such as the high school. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to it. The EPA claims that the problem has been solved, but my goal with this study is to provide independent evidence. Are areas inside the town still contaminated?

Headframes at the Eagle and Bluebell Mines

Headframes at the Eagle and Bluebell Mines

We had hoped that students at Tintic High School would identify and collect samples inside town, but the teacher that was going to collaborate with us bowed out because it was getting too close to the end of the year and he needed the time to prepare his students for state mandated tests. So instead, my students and I had traveled around town on our previous trips looking for candidate locations that will give us a good cross section and not cause problems with identifiable private property

Collecting samples near the High School

Collecting samples near the High School

I also wanted to get soils from a typical mineralized area that had not been mined or processed. There are a series of road cuts leading into town from the east where U.S. Highway 6 goes around several sharp turns. One of these curves cuts through a section of reddish-yellow rock and soil, the marker of a hydrothermal vein. We stopped and collected two samples, one from yellowish soil and one purplish-white. Then we drove on in to town to start collecting samples there.

We began by driving up to a dirt parking lot near the high school baseball diamond. There is an ATV track there where contamination is likely to have been stirred up by the four-wheelers and washed down a small gully through climax sagebrush and junipers. We collected inside the track, in the gully itself, and at the base of the junipers in what was undisturbed original soil.

A pump used to drain water from the mines. Power for the pump came from the Nunn brothers' hydroelectric station in Provo Canyon.

A pump used to drain water from the mines. Power for the pump came from the Nunn brothers’ hydroelectric station in Provo Canyon.

We then proceeded around town, taking samples on the surface and about six inches below at several locations, including a few empty lots, spots next to road right of ways and the city park, downslope from the Eagle and Bluebell mine dumps, and around an old house foundation that was long since abandoned and crumbling into ruin. Altogether we collected at ten sites, or twenty samples, in town. We then drove out of town to the west and collected samples from the bottom of a wash about half way down to the old CCC camp. This would be a control.

Map of Eureka, Utah

Map of Eureka, Utah

Although we needed to collect quite a few samples in a short period of time, we also took some time to explore more of the town. Around the museum, I explained to the students how the equipment worked, such as the pneumatic hammers, skip cages, water buckets, and muckers. They looked around the old jail and discovered some papers in a room underneath, including a booklet summarizing clean-up efforts after the flooding in 1983. We also found an old, yellowed map of Eureka itself. I carefully took photos of these documents and put them back where we found them. It was a sunny, warm day and we didn’t need coats even though there was still snow on the ground in places. We drove up to get some pictures of the Eagle and Bluebell mine sites. I got out of the car and walked along a hill that is covered in rip-rap to take photos of some old mine equipment and got myself stuck in a snowbank for a minute.

Mining gear at the Chief Consolidated Mining Company headquarters.

Mining gear at the Chief Consolidated Mining Company headquarters.

All told, we have about 42 samples from over 20 locations all over the district. We had identified these areas using Google Earth last fall. In addition to our sample collecting, we shot video and took photos as we traveled around town, with the intent to put all of this into a video on the history and current challenges of the town. Now for the analyses!

Plastic netting used by the EPA to slow down erosion on slopes, allowing native plants to grow.

Plastic netting used by the EPA to slow down erosion on slopes, allowing native plants to grow.

Ruined foundation of a house in Eureka. We sampled near here, since yard fill was often collected from the mine dumps.

Ruined foundation of a house in Eureka. We sampled near here, since yard fill was often collected from the mine dumps.

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Tintic Soil Study: Sample Trip 3

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Mine dump at the Tintic Standard Mine near Eureka, Utah

Mine dump at the Tintic Standard Mine near Eureka, Utah

On Tuesday, March 12, 2013 I took three students down to Eureka, Utah to collect our third set of soil samples for our Amercian Chemical Society grant project. Jeffrey, Sean, and Indie helped to collect samples and measure the soil pHs, as well as explore the history of the Tintic Mining District.

Mine dump with contaminated soils at the Tintic Standard Mine

Mine dump with contaminated soils at the Tintic Standard Mine

This time our first stop was at the old Tintic Standard Mine workings above Burgen and Dividend in the East Tintic District. Of all the ore bodies in the area, these on the east side of the Tintic Mountains were the last discovered and the Tintic Standard Mine was in full production by the 1920s. A reduction mill was built across Goshen Valley at the warm springs near Genola. Workers lived in a company town below the mine called Dividend. The mine produced well into the early 1940s, when it was partly shut down for the war effort, then re-opened. Work continued sporadically into the early 1970s.

I

Collar and shaft at the Tintic Standard Mine. Even with a chain link fence around the hole, the loose soil at the collar could cave in and makes this shaft a dangerous place if you get too close.

There are still quite a few artifacts and ruins at the site, and care must be taken as there is a large vertical shaft with loose dirt around the collar, so you should stay well back from it. There is a large glory hole on the back hill and two water tanks further up, with the remains of a wooden ditch that brought water down to the company buildings and change room. The main portal to the mine went back from the change room, where there is still an old stove to keep the miners warm. That portal has been sealed off.

Stove in the change room at the main portal of the Tintic Standard Mine. This portal was active off and on into the 1970s.

Stove in the change room at the main portal of the Tintic Standard Mine. This portal was active off and on into the 1970s.

After exploring around, we collected some samples from the mine dump at the bottom of the hill where melting snow had created a clayey puddle. We also collected several samples along a trench that had been cut into the waste rock dump, where the soil was discolored with purplish or yellow deposits. The pH indicator needle pegged several times, showing an acidic pH of less than 3.5. It will be interesting to see what kind of lead content these samples have.

Jeffrey and Indie taking samples at the Tintic Standard Mine

Jeffrey and Indie taking samples at the Tintic Standard Mine

We then drove into Eureka and scouted around town for some additional sample sites to collect on our final trip on Thursday, as well as to look around the mining museum, old City Hall building with its jail in back, and the cemetery. I showed the students how miners worked the air-driven hammers and how water was sprayed into the holes through the center of the drill steel. We looked at the skips or man cages, the water removal buckets, and the mucker machine out front. We walked around Main Street, which was very quiet for a Tuesday afternoon. Only a few cars were driving through.

David Black by City Hall on Main Street in Eureka, Utah.

David Black by City Hall on Main Street in Eureka, Utah.

Water chute, tanks, and old foundation at the Tintic Standard Mine

Water chute, tanks, and old foundation at the Tintic Standard Mine

We drove out through the west end of town on Highway 6 and took a detour through the cemetery, recording with the Flip cameras as we went.  We explored around the town of Mammoth and collected samples in a wash at the mouth of Mammoth Canyon. We then went on around to the Swansea mine dumps at Silver City to continue collecting samples.

Ruins of the old power plant in Eureka. Heavy machinery moving through town has contributed to the deterioration of historic buildings like this one.

Ruins of the old power plant in Eureka. Heavy machinery moving through town has contributed to the deterioration of historic buildings like this one.

Since last week, the snow has mostly melted and the ground dried out to where we could walk on it in most places without leaving muddy footprints. We sampled in several washes running off the main dump and in soils between the washes where some scrub brush survives. The main wash feeding off of the dump had several layers of brightly colored soils, ranging from reds to yellows to even a shade of green.

Mammoth Mine, headframe, and glory hole. This was the deepest mine in the district, with the richest concentration of silver and gold ore.

Mammoth Mine, headframe, and glory hole. This was the deepest mine in the district, with the richest concentration of silver and gold ore.

I can see we need to do more studying here, to see how much lead and acidic runoff continue down these washes into the valley beyond. The runoff water has left a red stain on the asphalt of the road over a hundred yards from the main dump. The soil on and near the dump itself and in the bottom of the washes is devoid of life. Even though the last time this mine waste was dug up was the 1980s, when the leach pile nearby was created, no plant life has yet to colonize the contaminated soils in about 30 years.

Sean and Indie at the Silver City mine dump.

Sean and Indie at the Silver City mine dump.

David Black taking pH readings in the middle wash draining the mine dump at Silver City.

David Black taking pH readings in the middle wash draining the mine dump at Silver City.

All told we had an enjoyable and low-key trip, and even though it was overcast the day was fairly warm. We had now collected all the samples we needed outside the remediated zone.

Contaminated soils in the wash draining the Silver City mine dump.

Contaminated soils in the wash draining the Silver City mine dump.

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The Tintic Soil Study, Part 1: Fall, 2012

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 11, 2013| 2 Comments »

Welcome to Eureka sign on U.S. 6

Welcome to Eureka sign on U.S. 6

It’s time to take a break from recounting my tour through Colorado’s mining towns last summer and catch you up on what we’ve been doing this year at Walden School of Liberal Arts.

Maples in the fall near Eureka, Utah - with junipers and rabbit brush.

Maples in the fall near Eureka, Utah – with junipers and rabbit brush.

As mentioned earlier, we received a grant from the American Chemical Society to study lead contamination in the soils in Eureka, Utah and the surrounding area. The grant provided funds for travel, equipment, chemicals, and supplies. It took until early October to receive the money, so our first trip down had to wait until mid-October. It meant we wouldn’t have much daylight, but we’d have to do our best.

Canyon of Fire: Maples in the East Tintic Mountains

Canyon of Fire: Maples in the East Tintic Mountains

I’ve been gradually documenting the history of the area, collecting historical photos, taking photos around the town myself, etc. Back in 2009, I took a group of students with me to interview June McNulty, President of the Tintic Historical Society. He showed us through the museum and we videotaped the tour. Now, with this grant, we can tell the story of recent events in Eureka, especially the history of the EPA superfund project over the last ten years that cleaned up or covered up contaminated soils in the town.

TIntic HIgh School from the Godiva Mine site

TIntic HIgh School from the Godiva Mine site

My science research class researched the history of the area during first term while we were waiting for the grant funds. They identified 20 collection sites outside town using GoogleEarth. Some of these are old mine waste dumps, some are around smelter or concentration plants or leeching piles. Others are control sites outside the district. We were going to collaborate with students at Tintic High School, who were to collect from sites in town. Unfortunately, our collaboration fell through, so my students eventually collected from sites inside the town as well.

Valley of maple trees from a mine dump in the East Tintic Mountains

Valley of maple trees from a mine dump in the East Tintic Mountains

In preparation for our sample collection trips, I traveled down to the area to get some photos of fall foliage on Saturday, Sept. 22. I got there just at the right time, when the maples in the canyons were at their brightest. I photographed some areas along Highway 6 leading into town and filmed the maples in the canyons along the road leading over the top to Dividend. I then took videos around town by attaching a Flip camera to my left rearview mirror with a small claw-style tripod. I drove up to the Godiva mine site and took photos down toward the high school, then drove further up the canyon past the Knightsville site and hiked around some mine dumps further up. I had seen that there was a valley nestled inside the East Tintic Mountains from GoogleEarth and my 3D models of the area. There was a road leading along the edge of the hills, and I walked around as far as the site of the Iron Blossom #2 mine. The headframe there has recently collapsed. It was a nice trip and the photos turned out well. I also saw and photographed several deer.

Doe a Deer: A mule deer doe in the East Tintic Mountains

Doe a Deer: A mule deer doe in the East Tintic Mountains

Ruins of the Irom Blossom #2 Headframe

Ruins of the Irom Blossom #2 Headframe

I took four students to the area on Oct. 19 and we collected samples and explored the area, including the road over Silver Pass. We first collected from some old evaporation ponds near Elberta where hot water pumped out from the Burgin mines was allowed to cool and settle before discharging it into Utah Lake. During the early 1980s, as I drove home from college to my hometown of Deseret, I would pass through this area and see the water steaming as it passed down the gulley to the ponds. This was the last time they had attempted to open the mines at Burgin. We sampled from two locations inside the old ponds, which can be reached by a short walk from Highway 6.

Collecting samples at the settling ponds near Elberta

Collecting samples at the settling ponds near Elberta

We then collected from the bottom of the wash at the mouth of the canyon leading up to Burgin. The soil here looked healthy and contained a combination of sand and humus. We then stopped at the old Burgin concentrator and took some pictures. I talked with the men at the main office of the Chief Consolidated Mine operations there about getting some samples from the tailings piles (they corrected me when I mentioned “tailings piles” around the headframes themselves and said those rocks were more properly called mine dumps or waste rock; tailings are the actual ore that has been processed).

Silver ore concentration plant at the Burgin mine

Silver ore concentration plant at the Burgin mine

We took photos around the Trixie headframe, then drove on up the canyon over the top of Silver Pass, which I had not done before. This was the opening of the deer hunt, so I didn’t want to venture too far from the road without orange clothing.

Headframe at the Trixie Mine above Burgin.

Headframe at the Trixie Mine above Burgin.

We also collected at a mine dump next to the road in Ruby Hollow, which I later identified as the Tesora Mine. The soil there had a bright yellow color and contained obvious sulfides. Part of the shaft is still there without much protection around it.

Collecting samples at the Tesora Mine dump in Ruby Gulch

Collecting samples at the Tesora Mine dump in Ruby Gulch

I also showed the students Silver City, the leeching pile from the 1980s when much of the waste rock and tailings were heaped up and cyanide solution was sprayed onto it, chelating the silver and gold out of the rocks. We stopped at the Bullion Beck headframe for photos and walked around the Tintic Mining Museum. It was late afternoon by then and time to get the students back.

Waste rock pile at the Swansea Consolidated Mine near Silver City

Waste rock pile at the Swansea Consolidated Mine near Silver City

Altogether we collected six samples from three sites and the students had a chance to get to know the area. I knew that we would have to be more productive on our next trips. Back at school, we did some simple pH tests and found the first two sites (Elberta Ponds and Burgin Wash) were near neutral pH, but the Tesora Mine samples were quite acidic, at a pH of about 3.5. Other tests would have to wait until we ordered the testing supplies.

Historic churches in Eureka, Utah.

Historic churches in Eureka, Utah.

Belt-driven drill press at the Tintic Mining Museum

Belt-driven drill press at the Tintic Mining Museum

Downtown Eureka, Utah: 2012Belt-driven drill press at the Tintic Mining Museum

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Winning the Grant Game

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 25, 2012| 1 Comment »

About a year ago I wrote a post about the grant game. Since returning from the NSTA conference in Indianapolis I have been writing as many grants as I can, both medium and large. Altogether, I have written seven different grant or program opportunity applications since September 2011. I have been quite successful this year, winning three of the seven.

The first success was to be selected, along with Carolyn Bushman of Wendover Jr./Sr. High School, as an Airborne Astronomy Ambassador for NASA’s SOFIA project. Much of the details are on my other blogsite, www.spacedoutclass.wordpress.com, since it is about astronomy instead of the chemical elements. I found this out in January, and was even interviewed by the local Fox news station (but the story never aired). From February through May I prepared for this opportunity by taking an online astronomy course through Montana State University. We will be flying aboard SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) sometime this school year. We are still waiting to hear which group of astronomers we will be teamed with and when we’ll spend a week at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center preparing for our night flights.

what if prize winner

Website describing my lesson plan for the What If Prize competition

The second success I had was the What If Prize competition. It involved writing and submitting a lesson plan related to astronomy that also involved engineering, math, and technology. I figured my chances were small, given it was an international competition, but it gave me an excuse to update my lesson plan on using trigonometric parallax to measure the distance to nearby stars. I was very busy all last fall editing a video for the Utah School Boards Association and finally got the video done and sent to the DVD duplicators three days before the What If deadline. I had two days to re-write the lesson plan, create new graphics, etc. and submit the whole thing right at the deadline (Dec. 31 at 12:00 midnight). I heard people shouting “Happy New Year!” as I hit the submit button. Then four months passed with no word and I had almost forgotten about the whole thing. I had finished the new version of the lesson plan, which was my real goal. But then, in April, I received an e-mail that I won first place! Here’s the website:  What if Prize announcement.

The award includes a $2000 stipend toward professional development costs. They gave a list of possibilities to apply to, and one certainly caught my eye: a week-long workshop on astrobiology in Hawaii.! But the deadline for that had already passed (Drats). I decided to create my own professional development opportunity and do something to advance the Elements Unearthed project and this blog. I have been neglecting it lately as my teaching career has moved more towards astronomy and astrobiology, but now I have the funds to come back to the story of the elements.

This is what I have decided to do: take about $1750 of the award and use it to travel through Colorado, visiting mining towns and taking as many mine tours and visiting as many museums as possible over a two-week period, documenting the whole thing on video. I have wanted to do this for several years, and did accomplish part of it two years ago when we visited Cripple Creek Mining District in 2010. The remaining $250 will be used to learn how to program apps for the iPad and how to write iTexts.

One of the sponsors of the What If competition is MIT BLOSSOMS, a program to create a series of STEM lesson plans on video that can be distributed freely online and in physical form to worldwide audiences, especially to schools in other countries that may not have Internet connections. I’ve spoken with Dr. Dick Larson at MIT about my parallax lesson plan, have written up an outline and complete script, and began filming it in June (the outside shots). I’ll continue to film it this August and September as my astronomy class begins. It was interesting figuring out how to use Walden School’s building as part the setting for the video, but the final results should be fun.

ACS Hach website

Website for the ACS Hach grant award. This year’s winners have not yet been posted.

My third success I found out in late June. I had applied to the American Chemical Society for the ACS Hach grant for $1500. We have been selected! (The website URL is ridiculously long. You can Google “ACS Hach grant.”  They should announce this year’s winners soon). It will allow me to move forward finally on the project to document the Tintic Mining District and to test the effectiveness of the EPA Superfund clean-up there. We will collaborate with Greg Thornock of Tintic High School, and our students will work together to do two things: to collect and analyze soil samples inside and outside the remediated zone to see if contamination still remains; and to interview local residents, collect photos and stories, and use it all to complete the video my students at MATC began in 2009. My ultimate goal is to edit and produce an hour video in three segments, on the early years (1869 to 1893), the middle years (to 1955), and the later years. Hopefully it will be good enough to air on KUED, Salt Lake City’s PBS station.

These last two successes will provide a great deal of material for this blog and for my chemistry class. Over the next several months, I should be adding at least three posts per week, as well as guest posts from my students. This has already been an incredible year, but my astronomy and chemistry students will have a rich selection of projects to work on and a chance to do some real science. I’ll report our efforts here.

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Plans for 2012

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2012| 1 Comment »

Nuremburg Chronicles Empedocles

Anaxagoras and Empedocles, from the Nuremburg Chronicles

In my last post, I showed the statistics of what this blog has accomplished so far. I feel very good about where we’ve been, but now it’s time to describe where I plan on going this coming year.

Given that I am not teaching chemistry this school year, my work on the Elements Unearthed project has slowed down a bit as my attention has been diverted elsewhere by the astrobiology projects (the podcasts and CLOE animations) and other projects that I’ll describe next week. I anticipate teaching chemistry again next year, and I am in the process of writing up a series of grant proposals (all of which have to be done by Feb. 1) that, if successful, will provide funds for purchasing some iPad tablets and probeware that will allow us to do some environmental field research.

fluorite and emerald

Fluorite and emerald crystals in the collection of Keith Proctor

In the meantime, I have a large backlog of videos that I have taped of various mine tours and interviews I’ve done across the country. I need to edit these into final videos and report on them in detail on this site. In order to keep myself on track, I’ve created a schedule for when I’d like to do each video and the topics I’ll cover here as I work on them.

This January, 2012, I am going to start at the beginning and look at ancient chemistry and our knowledge of the elements in prehistoric and early historic times. Then in February, I will start to work on my Greek Matter Theories videos. I have previously created all the script and narration and have even set up the video files and begun the graphics and animations. It’s high time I finished these. I’ll start with an overview of the Greek Ideal in philosophy and science, then talk about Thales and the Miletian School, then Parmenides and Zeno and the Eleatics. In March, I will talk about Heraclitus and Empedocles and the atomic theory and Plato. In April, I’ll move on to Aristotle, Epicurus, and the debate on elements versus atoms, ending in the theology of St. Thomas Aquinus and how atomic theory came down through the Middle Ages.

In May and June I’ll discuss the practical side of chemistry, with a look at ancient crafts, including metalworking, glass making, and other medieval technologies, including a detailed look at Agricola’s De Re Metallica (which I have many photos of).

Dalton molecules

Diagrams of molecules by John Dalton

By July I should have the funding I need in place to start the field research. My plan is to partner with another school, perhaps Tintic High School or Wendover High School, to travel out to nearby mining sites and use the probeware and iPads to collect and record data on soil and water environmental conditions, such as the pH of soil and runoff water near old mine dumps. I’m especially interested in seeing if the EPA efforts to mitigate contaminated soil in and around Eureka, Utah have been successful. I’ve talked about those efforts in previous posts (especially here: https://elementsunearthed.com/2010/06/09/the-legacy-of-the-tintic-mining-district/ ), so I won’t talk about them again now. We would use GPS coordinates and GoogleEarth to set up a grid of sample sites both in and out of the recovered area. We would sample the surface and two feet below ground. It would require several trips and coordination with local students to gather the data, but it is a project that would fit very nicely with the research I’ve already done. If I can get enough money together, I would like to rent a portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer which can read element abundances nondestructively on the site.

In preparation for all this, I need to make one more trip to the Tintic district in June to photograph and videotape the mines in the southwest area, which were the first mines discovered, including the Sunbeam and Diamond mines. One of my great grandfathers, Sidney Tanner Fullmer, died as a result of injuries suffered in an accident while working in the Diamond mine, leaving my grandmother an orphan to be raised by her aunt and uncle. So this history has a particular interest to me.

One thing I plan on doing, if we can work out a partnership, is to set up an evening in Eureka at Tintic High School where townspeople can come in with photographs and tell their stories of mining and life in Eureka before and after the EPA efforts. We’ll scan the photos and videotape the recollections, then combine all that with the video I’ve already done of the Tintic Mining Museum and local area. Ultimately, my students will help me script and edit a three-part video on the Tintic District, perhaps even done well enough that we could market it to KUED, the PBS station in Salt Lake City.

Tintic load site

Ore loading platform in the Tintic Mining District

The months July, August, and September will be dedicated to this effort and will result in the best documentation created so far on video of the history and present of the Tintic Mining District.

October will be dedicated to Zosimos of Panopolis and such Arabic alchemists as Jabir ibn Hayyan. November will begin a discussion of European alchemists, from Roger Bacon and Ramon Llull through the Middle Ages. I’ll draw on the many photos I’ve taken on alchemical texts at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The history of alchemy will continue through December, 2012 and on into January, 2013. In February and March, 2013, we’ll discuss the emergence of modern chemistry through Boyle, Priestley, and Lavoisier through Dalton, Avogadro, Berzelius, and others.

In April through June of 2013 we will switch gears and talk about nucleogenesis and the origin of the elements, then the physicists and chemists that have helped us understand the structure of the atom and quantum mechanics. From there, I will probably begin to talk about individual elements and how they are mined and refined, with examples of the mining districts where they come from, such as the history of the Viburnum Trend in Missouri and the lead mines there, or the gold mines of Cripple Creek, Colorado. I really do have enough materials now to keep this blog going for at least two years. And I’ll be gathering more all the time. I will also dedicate occasional posts to my efforts as a chemistry teacher and to science education in general, including my experiences at conferences, etc.

Van Helmont

Portrait of Joannes Baptista van Helmont

Well, it is an ambitious schedule. I hope to do at least one post per week, probably on weekends. I hope to complete at least one video segment every two months or so. Next week, I’ll start us off with an overview of the history of chemistry.

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The Geology of the Tintic Mining District

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 13, 2010| 14 Comments »

For the last week, I’ve been busy preparing for my classes at Walden School, including inventorying the science lab room (which is also my classroom) and planning out my course schedules. I’ll be teaching two sections of Chemistry, one of Astronomy, one of Computer Technology (a basic computer literacy course required in Utah), a section of Media Design, and a section of Video Production. This is, for me, a perfect schedule. In the meantime I’ve also been preparing a series of maps and 3D images of the Tintic Mining District, focusing on the ore deposits and the various mines located there. I’ve also prepared the script for this section of the video, which I have pasted below:

Mines in the East Tintic Mts

MInes and Roads in the East Tintic Mtns.

Tintic Geology

To understand how the ore bodies in the Tintic District were deposited, we have to start about 800 million years ago in the Precambrian Period when the western portion of the North American craton rifted away from the rest of the continent along a line where the Wasatch Front now lies – this Wasatch Line has been an important hinge line in Utah’s geology ever since. For the next 600 million years, a sequence of ocean sediments including dolomite, limestone, shale, and sandstone were deposited off the coast in the geosyncline that would become western Utah. Beginning 150 million years ago, Nevada and then western Utah were uplifted as the Farallon tectonic plate was pushed under North America. Like a throw rug being wrinkled up as it’s pushed over a hardwood floor, western Utah was folded by thrust faults into a large mountain range during the Sevier orogeny about 70 million years ago. This thrusting continued across eastern Utah and into Colorado and Wyoming during the Laramide orogeny, building up the Uintah and Rocky Mountains.

East Tintic Mines

Mines in the eastern portion of the Tintic Mining District

Then, about 50 million years ago, the Farallon plate began to collapse from underneath the continent. As it peeled away, a wave of volcanism moved from east to west across Colorado and Utah. Intrusive laccoliths rose to the surface, bulging up the LaSal and Henry Mountains in eastern Utah and forming explosive calderas in several places in western Utah. About 35 million years ago, a series of calderas formed in the area that would become the Tintic Mountains. A large andesitic volcano rose up from eruptions of ash and tuft.

Tintic Standard ore samples

Ore samples from the Tintic Standard Mine, eastern district.

About 31.5 million years ago, the volcano collapsed as the intrusive magma began to cool. Mineral rich fluids were injected into the surrounding limestone, quartzite, and dolomite as replacement beds. The hot magma caused the carbonate rocks to decompose; for example, limestone turns into lime or calcium oxide and carbon dioxide gas when heated. This left large cavities that then filled up with the mineral-laden magmas. These deposits are called stopes, such as the famous Oklahoma stope of the Chief Consolidated mine. The carbon dioxide released from the decomposing limestone and dolomite in turn dissolved into the hot magma, making it a kind of lava champagne, and reacting with it to form various exotic minerals, some of which are found nowhere else.

More Tintic ore samples

More ore samples from the Tintic District

The primary ore-bearing minerals in the Tintic District are enargite, tetrahedrite, galena, sphalerite, pyrite, marcasite, and native gold, silver, and copper. But many more minerals are present, including unusual minerals that blend copper, silver, tellurium, arsenic, sulfur, carbonates, hydrodixes, etc. At the Centennial Eureka mine, over 85 different minerals have been identified, ranging from common pyrite, malachite, and azurite to minerals found only here. It is the type locality (where the mineral was first identified) for leisingite, frankhawthorneite, jensenite, juabite, utahite, and eurekadumpite. Other rare minerals include xocomecatlite, carmenite, adamite, duftite, and mcalpineite.

These mineral deposits occurred around the edges of the caldera and formed the five large ore zones of the main Tintic District. The Gemini Ore Zone runs to the west of Eureka south to the north edge of Mammoth Gulch. The Gemini, the Bullion Beck and Champion, the Eureka Hill, and the Centennial Eureka mines (known collectively as the Big Four) are located on this zone.

The Chief-Mammoth Ore Zone begins under the center of Eureka and extends due south across the mountain to the east end of Mammoth Gulch. The Chief Consolidated mine is located on the richest ore body, which is right under the center of Eureka city; up the hill is the Eagle and Blue Bell mine, named for the beautiful deposits of azurite found inside. Further south over the top of Eureka Peak lie the Grand Central, Mammoth, Apex, and Gold Chain mines that are also part of this deposit.

Ore zones in the Tintic District

Ore Zones and Major Mines of the Tintic Mining District

The Plutus Zone branches off of the Chief-Mammoth Zone high up in the Tintic Mountains. The Godiva Zone starts just east of Eureka and runs southeast in a curve where it joins the Iron Blossom Zone, which continues in a curve south and then southwest. Some mines in these zones include the Godiva, May Day, Humbug, Beck Tunnel, Sioux, and Iron Blossom mines.

In the eastern section of the Tintic District, several zones of minerals were deposited and were among the last to be discovered because they are overlain by 400 feet of igneous rock. These bodies include the Burgin ore body, the Tintic Standard, and the North Lily bodies. Other bodies are located at the Apex and Trixie mines.

In the southern section of the Tintic District, the large replacement bodies give way to smaller fissure veins that are only two feet wide on average but can be up to 4000 feet long. Here, the mineral-bearing magma was injected into cracks and fault lines already existing in the host rocks. The Dragon mine is the only true open pit mine in the area; it sits on top of a network of fissure veins at the south end of the Iron Blossom Zone. Other mines in the area include the Swansea and Sunbeam mines at Silver City, the Tesora and Treasure Hill mines at Ruby Gulch, and the Showers mine at Diamond Gulch.

More ore samples from the Tintic Standard Mine

More ore samples from the Tintic Standard Mine

The final chapter in the area’s geomorphology began about 17 million years ago when normal faulting created the Basin and Range province, lifting up blocks to form the mountain ranges of Utah and Nevada, including the East Tintic Mountains. Other blocks sank to form the valleys, such as the Tintic Valley. Erosion has exposed the ore bodies in many places, including the outcropping that George Rust stumbled over in 1869. It was to become the Sunbeam Mine.

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The Legacy of the Tintic Mining District

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 9, 2010| 3 Comments »

Replacing topsoil Eureka Utah

Replacing topsoil in Eureka, Utah

On my visit to the area around Eureka, Utah last Friday, June 4, I not only wanted to visit Mammoth and Silver City, but to also document the efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the town. I had traveled through Eureka a few days before on Memorial Day and noticed that the lawn and soil around the LDS chapel in Eureka was being dug up to a depth of about 18 inches. On Friday, crews were in the process of bringing in new soil in dump trucks and spreading it over a layer of black plastic where the lawns used to be. Normally I wouldn’t have noticed it much – just chalked it up to them putting in a new sprinkler system or something similar. But I knew differently. This was the latest site in an ongoing process to replace the topsoil throughout the entire town, which is a huge undertaking. All the old mine sites throughout the district have left a legacy of environmental contamination and pose a danger to careless explorers who try to enter mine shafts or tunnels or ruins.

Ore dump at Dividend

Ore dump at Dividend, Utah

When silver ore was discovered in the East Tintic Mountains by George Rush in 1869, it ignited a stampede of mining claims that spread throughout these mountains. New deposits were soon located and claimed, and the ore was assayed to be rich in silver, gold, lead, zinc, copper, and other minerals, usually in the form of metal sulfides. The most level sites near the mines quickly grew into the towns of Eureka, Mammoth, Silver City, Diamond, Knightsville, Dividend, etc. These towns were usually as close to the mines as possible so the miners didn’t have far to walk, so that miner’s houses and the mine buildings, hoists, smelters, railroad depots, and city businesses all competed for space in the narrow canyons. Tailings dumps of discarded minerals and slag from the smelters covered the hillsides around and above the town. Dust from these piles was blown by the frequent winds (this is western Utah, after all) and blanketed the whole town. Nobody thought much of it at the time. It was all just part of life in a mining town. But the entire topsoil was contaminated with lead and other metals down to about two feet under the surface.

Limestone rip-rap in Eureka

Limestone rip-rap covering a slope in Eureka, Utah

Downtown Eureka with limestone rocks

Clean-up operations near downtown Eureka, Utah

Today, the EPA has identified the area around Eureka as a SuperFund site, spending millions of federal dollars to clean up the contamination.  One by one, the yards of the residents and businesses are being dug up and the soil replaced, brought in from a staging area east of town. To prevent the tailings piles from blowing more toxic dust around the town, broken limestone rocks called rip-rap are being hauled in from a nearby quarry and are carefully placed to cover over the tailings piles to prevent further erosion by wind and water.

Mine dump in Tintic Mts.

Mine dump in East Tintic Mtns.

The work is progressing throughout Eureka, but the entire mining district has the same problem. Recent exploratory work has dug up the tailings piles in Silver City again, leaving the yellowish sulfides once again exposed to erosion. Many of the mine sites in the hills are owned by small-time private owners who keep the mines open on an occasional basis. They don’t have the resources to prevent the erosion of their tailings piles, and much of the East Tintic Mountains is contaminated just as Eureka itself is.

Old mine shaft

Abandoned mine shaft at Dividend, Utah

Another problem in the area is the many abandoned mine tunnels and shafts. Mines today are required to provide reclamation funds before the mine can even open, but it wasn’t an issue in the 1800s and early 1900s when most of these mines were active. The owners took the ore from the hills, then left all the scars, holes, pits, slag, tailings, and buildings behind when the ore ran out and their companies closed. Now these ruins are a hazard to casual explorers; every year or two someone dies falling down an abandoned mine shaft in Utah. The state has begun a program to close off these mines; to place grates or metal doors in the tunnels and shafts or to blast the entrances closed. Over 8000 mine sites have been closed off throughout the state through this program, but many, many more remain to be done.

Knight Smelter at Silver City

Ruins of the Knight Smelter at Silver City, Utah

Smelting or concentrating the ore brought its own environmental problems. Jesse Knight, the silver magnate that started Knightsville just southeast of Eureka, also built a smelter at Silver City in the early 1900s that operated for about eight years. The foundations of this smelter still remain, as do residual chemicals used to concentrate the ore, including mercury. When I visited the site on Friday, I found a man and his two young girls exploring the site. I suggested that he wash off his girls’ hands and shoes carefully once they were done because the whole site is contaminated with mercury (June McNulty, who runs the Tintic Mining Museum in Eureka, told me that he used to play with pools of liquid mercury metal that would seep into pockets around the smelter).

Knight Smelter

Remains of the Knight Smelter at Silver City, Utah

Right to the south of the old smelter lies a large heap of grayish tailings, now slowing growing a crown of weeds and grass. All the tailings left from the Knight mill were scooped up in the 1980s and placed on a pad with drainage pipes running through the pile, then a solution of cyanide was pumped and sprayed over the pile, leaching its way down through the tailings and chelating with the remaining gold and silver. The ore from these mines has been worked and reworked to get every last fraction of value out of it. But now the pile has been left just like all the other piles around, but with the addition of cyanide. I don’t know if steps have been taken to reclaim the pile, but I wouldn’t want to walk around on it.

Leaching pile at Silver City

Cyanide leaching pile at Silver City, Utah

The efforts to clean up these environmental messes is necessary, but it does come at a cost beyond just money. To clean up the town and make it safe to live in, its essential history and character has been changed.  The heavy equipment moving in limestone and soil has shaken apart a number of fragile historical structures, including buildings, homes, and headframes. Where there were colorful tailings piles slowly returning to nature, there are now carefully constructed fresh piles of gray limestone rocks, an ideal hideout and breeding ground for rattlesnakes (no joke here – I ran over one in my minivan as I was driving up the road to Mammoth). Eureka doesn’t look the same as it did ten years ago.

One can argue that Eureka must be dynamic and capable of changing. It’s not a museum but a living town, and change is part of life. But the historian in me hates to see history destroyed in the process. That is one of the main reasons I’ve started the Elements Unearthed Project and have traveled to Eureka several times in the last few years with my cameras and equipment; as the EPA clean up progresses, the town is changing and I want to preserve what can be preserved of the history before it’s gone forever.

Tailings piles at Silver City

Erosion of tailings piles at Silver City, Utah

The beryllium video second half is progressing well. I’ve decided to do the three episodes on the TIntic Mining Districts next instead of blown glass because It’s fresh on my mind and I now have all the footage and photos I’ll need. My goal is to get the beryllium video done and uploaded by the end of this week, then the Tintic videos by mid-July. Then I’ll start hitting the streets looking for financial sponsorship to continue this project.

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Exploring Dividend and Mammoth

Posted in Weekly Post, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2010| 3 Comments »

Loading chute at Dividend Utah

Ruins at Dividend, Utah

The last few weeks I’ve had to neglect the Elements Unearthed project in order to finish a client video that had a tight deadline. It was uploaded to YouTube Thursday night, so I now have a little bit of a breather before the next project and am back at work on Part 2 of the beryllium video. Winter has finally decided to let go (after one last gasp – we had a snowstorm here just two weeks ago), and already the early summer heat is drying out the cheat grass and turning it a brownish-purple color on the lower south-facing slopes. I decided now was the time to do some exploring and photography while the grass is still green in the mountains.

Belt wheels and Mt. Nebo

Belt Wheels and Mt. Nebo

Over the last two years I’ve visited the Tintic Mining District several times with students and my own children and have collected a considerable amount of photos and video clips, including a tour of the Tintic Mining Museum and an interview with June McNulty, who runs the museum with his wife. But there were several places in the district that I hadn’t visited, including Mammoth and Silver City. So yesterday (Friday, June 4) I packed up the cameras and headed for the hills.

Glory hole at Dividend

Glory hole at Dividend, Utah

Change room stove at Dividend

Change room and stove at Dividend, Utah

I stopped first in the hills above Burgin, the site of the town of Dividend, so called because the mine paid out fairly decent dividends to the miners compared with other mines in the district. I decided to climb up the hill further than before, toward the two large rusty tanks that can be seen from the road. I was surprised to find much more there than I had known about before, including the ruins of miner’s houses (some semi-wild purple irises and lilacs were still alive and blooming). A processing plant once existed here, and the ground is covered with yellowish-stained rocks and pieces of slag and everything smells of sulfides. One ruin 2/3 up the hill still has an old rusted stove for keeping the miners warm in what was probably the change room – the mine portal itself is just above the room, and there are even a few remains of timecards used to clock in and out of the mine. The few I looked at were dated from 1971, which was about the time that the mine at Dividend finally closed down. Mining continued, periodically, further down the slope at Burgin. Almost forty years of weather has taken its toll; all the roofs and any other wooden structures have long since rotted away, leaving old, dry fragments of boards with rusted nails sticking out littering the ground. Most of the equipment is gone, taken by looters and souvenir hunters, but enough of the foundations and structures remain that one can imagine what Dividend looked like in its heyday.

Wild irises at Dividend

Wild irises at Dividend, Utah

The road past Dividend is off the main path of Highway 6. It’s a good road, well maintained and asphalted but not much visited. I only saw two other cars and a motorcycle during the four hours I spent exploring along the road. The East Tintic Mountains between Dividend and Eureka are dotted with old mining ruins and tailings piles, with dirt roads leading off frequently up every side canyon and ridgeline. Most of the area is posted No Trespassing, so I limited myself to taking photos from the main road. It is still late spring up there; the maple trees in the canyons have only just gotten their leaves, and wildflowers including mountain lupine and Indian paintbrush cover the hillsides.

Indian paintbrush

Indian paintbrush near Eureka, Utah

Blue Lupine

Blue Lupine near Eureka, Utah

I traveled through Eureka and saw the continuing cleanup efforts there (more on this in my next post) and drove on to the town of Mammoth. Located in a side box canyon just to the south of Eureka, this was one of the richest areas of the Tintic Mining District. The mines are located ringing the valley – many long since abandoned but several showing recent work. With prices for gold and silver high right now, much exploration is underway to re-work the old claims and tailings piles and to do new exploratory drilling. Again, most of the area is posted and is private property; I limited myself to the main streets of Mammoth to photograph the old buildings and mine dumps.

Mine at Mammoth Utah

Mine at Mammoth, Utah

At one time, when the processing plant was in full operation in the early 1900s, Mammoth boasted a population of about 2000. The people lived in the upper eastern portion of the canyon (Upper Mammoth) while the mill was at the mouth of the canyon lower down the slope (called Robinson after the mill’s foreman and later Lower Mammoth). Once the town was incorporated, public works such as churches and even a hospital (rare for a mining town) were built in the middle, or Midtown. In the early 1930s, my father used to visit his first cousin Ralph Larsen, whose family lived in Mammoth. During the winter the road leading up to town would be covered in packed snow, and the two of them would ride their sleds from Upper Mammoth all the way down to Highway 6, almost two miles, without ever stopping. Then they’d have to wait for someone to give them a lift back to the top.

Miner's shack in Mammoth Utah

Miner's Shack in Mammoth, Utah

Even though the mines had all closed by the 1950s, Mammoth somehow escaped the fate of most boom-and-bust mining towns; it never completely died. A few people hung on. Over the last ten years, since I last drove up here, it even appears to have grown in population. More houses have been fixed up and are occupied than before, and it is becoming an artistic community of sorts. Renewed interest in mining has also given the town a boost.

Lizard

Lizard in the ruins at Dividend, Utah

After Mammoth, I visited the old Jesse Knight smelter at Silver City and drove up the canyon there, but I’ll leave that for next time.

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