XLI.
LEAD MINES OF IOWA.
BLUFFS AT DUBUQUE, IOWA.—THE LEAD MINES.—HOW LEAD IS FOUND THERE.—INDIAN DISCOVERIES.—HOW THE SECRET BECAME KNOWN.—STORY OF THE SIX INDIANS.—FOLLOWING THEIR TRACKS.—AN INDIAN TRAITOR.—AN EXPLORER’S ADVENTURE.—THE INDIAN GUIDE AND THE GREAT SPIRIT.—MURDER OF TWO EXPLORERS.—USES OF ABANDONED SHAFTS AND CAVES.—AN EDITOR’S DISCOVERY.—AN UNDERGROUND BANQUET.—UPS AND DOWNS OF A LEAD MINER.—DEATH OR A FORTUNE.—A DANGEROUS BLOW.—A MINUTE OF GREAT PERIL.
On the Upper Mississippi, in the vicinity of Dubuque, Iowa, there are many lead mines, and in the vicinity of these mines the bluffs contain numerous caverns, rarely of great extent. Sometimes these caverns are in the form of a succession of chambers extending and opening into one another; and in these chambers rich deposits of ore are found. Several years ago the author visited Dubuque and the region around it, and was kindly escorted by one of the citizens, Mr. Henry W. Pettit, in an examination of the natural and artificial curiosities of the place. We had a wearying tramp, and returned to the hotel covered with dust, accumulated in our inspection of shafts, tunnels, caves, and other underground works of nature or art. I was under the impression that if we had been reduced in a furnace, a fair amount of lead could have been obtained by the reducer; and lest some enterprising resident should make an effort in that direction, we washed off the accumulation as speedily as possible.
AN INDIAN SECRET.
The lead mines of Dubuque were discovered and opened soon after the settlement of the place by Julien Dubuque, after whom the city was named. The Indians were aware of the existence of the rich mineral, and the first information about it was obtained from one of the red-skinned gentlemenwho had partaken rather freely of the white man’s fire-water. They used to bring lead to sell to the whites; they revealed some of the localities whence they obtained it, and then their white neighbors went to work to dig for themselves. But there was one deposit, supposed to be the richest of all, that the Indians would never reveal, if the story was told to me correctly. There were half a dozen Indians who used to appear and disappear mysteriously; whenever they wanted money or goods, they would go away a few days, and return with all the lead they could carry. All efforts to induce them to tell where they obtained it were of no avail. The experiment was tried repeatedly of getting them drunk, but the more they got drunk, the more uncommunicative they became. They were promised that if they would show the rich deposit, they should never again be required to draw a sober breath as long as they lived; but even this glittering bait did not allure. Wealth, fame, and perpetual intoxication could have been theirs, but they preferred to bask in the sunshine of the smiles of the Great Spirit, who would be unpardoningly angry if they told their secret to the white man.
A watch was set upon their movements; but an Indian is proverbially a troublesome customer to the detective who tries to follow him, and the spies on the track of these aborigines invariably came to grief. Finally, one of the pale-faces pressed his arguments so far as to induce an Indian to agree to turn traitor to his brethren, and reveal the locality of the lead mine. Comfortably soaked with whiskey, the twain started, with provisions for several days’ journey. The Indian led the way to a secluded spot among the hills, miles away from any human habitation. All around in this little valley there were the remains of fires where the Indians had melted out the lead from the ore; it was so rich that a common wood fire in the open air was quite sufficient for its reduction.
But suddenly the Indian stopped, and looked anxiously into the sky. After gazing there a full minute, he turned to his companion, and refused to show him further.
“Go on, go on!” said the impatient explorer.
“No; not go on,” replied the Indian. “Great Spirit angry; I see him looking now.”
A FRIGHTENED ABORIGINAL.
The explorer looked, but could see no spirit beyond that which he carried in his bottle. He offered some of it to the Indian, in the hope of overcoming his terror.
But it was “no go” with the red man. He took the proffered drink, and then looked again into the sky. Evidently he saw, or fancied he saw, the Great Spirit frowning upon him, for he turned on his heel, and ran faster than he had ever been known to run before.
The explorer was left alone, and concluded to investigate on his own account. There were the remains of the fires where the lead had been melted, and the number of them showed that a goodly amount of smelting had been done there. The mine must be near, and of course it ought to be easily found. He looked for a path which might lead to it, and here he found that the Indians’ cunning had baffled him. In no direction was there any track, and it was evident that the Indians had made it a rule never to follow the same course twice when entering or leaving the valley. They had brought the ore from somewhere, but there was no way of knowing whether that place was feet, yards, or miles away.
He spent a couple of days in a careful examination of the vicinity, but found nothing, and returned home very little wiser than he went out. He had a suspicion that he was watched from the time the Indian left him until he gave up the search, but could not say positively that such was the case. A few days after his return, the Indian made his appearance with a fresh lot of lead, for which he refused all compensation, though he did not decline to get drunk at the expense of his acquaintance. He would not talk freely, but solemnly declined to go on another expedition, and, furthermore, cautioned the white man not to undertake it.
The latter would not be advised; and, two or three weeks later, he set out with a friend, with the intention of spending a week or two in exploring the region around the Indian smelting-place.
They were absent one, two, three weeks, and finally their friends became alarmed for their safety, and started out to look for them. Their search was unrewarded, as no trace of the missing men could be found anywhere. No Indians were seen. The half-dozen came and went as usual, but to all questions they returned the most unsatisfactory and non-committal answers.
MURDER OF THE EXPLORERS.
One day a hunter found the remains of the two men. Wild beasts had devoured the bodies, but their weapons and scraps of clothing remained, and sufficed for their identification. In each skull there was a deep indentation, caused, undoubtedly, by a tomahawk in the hands of an Indian. But further than this the circumstances of their deaths were never known. After the discovery of the bodies, the Indians did not visit the settlement as often as before, and it was universally supposed that they committed the murder, or, at all events, knew to whom it should have been attributed.
Years afterwards a rich vein of lead ore was found two or three miles from the valley to which the Indian led the first explorer. There was a small cave, so carefully concealed by brushwood that it was only revealed by accident. There were indications that it had been visited by Indians, and that quantities of the ore had been carried away. All around the sides and roof of the cavern there were blocks of rich ore, and the discoverers made a comfortable fortune out of the deposit. It was supposed to be the cave whence the Indians obtained their supply, but whether so or not was never positively known.
In the bluff at Dubuque, lead mining was carried on in two ways—first, by entering the caverns and veins from the foot of the bluff; and, secondly, by sinking shafts from the surface. The shafts were not very deep, so that no elaborate machinery was required for hoisting purposes, a common windlass or a whim, worked by horse power, being all that was required. Where the mining was pushed from the foot of the bluff, levels were driven in until a cavern or seam was reached, and very often the seams in the bluff were taken as the starting-point.The lead was not found in continuous veins, like coal and iron, but in separate masses, that had little connection with each other, though frequently the chambers or caves communicated. Consequently a mine might be soon exhausted, and then the shaft or level would be abandoned, as it was no longer lucrative. The hills back of Dubuque, at the time of my visit, were full of abandoned shafts, and it was dangerous to walk there at night, as many of the shafts were entirely unprotected by fences or railings. Several accidents have occurred by persons falling into these shafts; and I was told that on one occasion two lovers, who were taking an afternoon promenade there, walked into a shaft, and were killed by the fall.
While the business of Dubuque was in the height of its prosperity, about 1857, some enterprising men constructed a shot tower on the low ground near the Mississippi River. It is well known that shot for ordinary hunting purposes is made by pouring melted lead through a sieve, where it can have a fall of a hundred feet or more. In falling it assumes a spherical shape, and at the same time is cooled and hardened. To save it from injury it is received in a tank of water. Afterwards it is polished and brightened by being rolled in plumbago and certain other substances, and is then ready for the bags in which it is offered for sale in the sporting stores.
AN EDITOR’S DISCOVERY.
Now, the shot tower costs considerable money, and in order to be profitable, the work of making shot must pay the interest of the cost of the tower, besides the wages of everybody concerned. The editor of a newspaper at Dubuque was one day rambling among the abandoned shafts back of the town, and endeavoring to hit upon some plan for making them once more useful.
Suddenly an idea occurred to him, and he hastened to lay it before a friend who was interested in the shot tower.
A SURPRISING DISCOVERY.
“Here is my idea,” said the editor. “The melted lead must fall from a certain height, and you have spent fifteen thousand dollars to build a tower to give that height to the dropping lead. Now, it makes no difference where the fall is; and why could you not get it in one of these abandoned shafts,which would cost nothing? And besides, you save the expense of hoisting the lead to the top of the tower. I can start a shot company that will undersell you in spite of all you could do.”
The tower man stood a full minute in a brown study. When he had collected his thoughts, he said,—
“I think you are right, and wonder nobody ever thought of it before. But don’t say a word about it for the present. The St. Louis Shot Company is now negotiating for our tower; it wants to have a monopoly of all the shot business on the river, and we shall sell out. When we have sold out, and have the money in our hands, you can start your theory, and anybody that wants to try it can do so. If you say anything now, you may spoil the whole arrangement.”
The editor promised to wait, and kept his promise. The Dubuque tower was bought by the St. Louis Company, which congratulated itself on having a monopoly of the shot business at Dubuque. But very soon the editor advanced his theory; somebody put it in practice, and found it was entirely correct. Abandoned shafts were occupied by shot-makers, and found to answer the purpose exactly, and the business of the tower came to an end. “Why did not somebody think of this before?” is a question that is often asked whenever a new and simple invention is brought to the attention of the public.
When the mines were operated at the base of the cliff by means of levels, and the chambers were stripped of their lead ore, the owners found themselves in possession of magnificent cellars, that could be used for storage purposes. As time rolled on, and Dubuque grew into importance, many Germans went there to live. The German is fond of beer, and wherever you find Germans in goodly numbers, there you will find the care-dispelling lager and the appetizing pretzel. Breweries rose and flourished at Dubuque, and the fame of the beer that flowed from them extended even to the mouth of the Mississippi. The abandoned caves of the lead workers were well suited to the wants of the brewers, as they made excellent cellars for storing the beer between the time of its manufactureand of its sale. They were of an even temperature throughout the year, and the temperature was exactly suited to the Teutonic beverage.
BANQUET IN A BEER CELLAR.
On several occasions the brewers gave entertainments in their cellars, and set the tables for their guests between the rows of beer casks. The guests were converted into casks of beer by the time the entertainments ended, and occasionally they needed assistance to find their way out to the open air. There is a novelty about an underground banquet, especially when you find your legs giving way beneath your weight, and you are led to believe that the earth above will come down at an inopportune moment, and crush you as flat as a sheet of paper, without giving you time to send word to your friends.
In our rambles about the bluffs, Mr. Pettit told me of an adventurous inhabitant of Dubuque who used to alternate regularly between wealth and poverty every few months. He was a lead miner, who spent most of his time in discovering fresh deposits of the valuable ore. When he found a deposit, he was rich, and lived at a rapid rate until the money obtained from it was gone. Then, without a dollar to call his own, and frequently burdened with debts he could not pay, he would shoulder his pick and start on a tour among the hills, where he hoped to find the material with which his fortune could be restored. Sometimes he would hunt for weeks without finding anything; and just as he had determined to abandon the search, and hire out as a laborer, he would find what he wanted. One of his adventures was narrated to me in his own words, which I will give as nearly as I can remember them.
“Once I was dead broke,” said he, “and owed a good deal of money. My creditors were pressing, but they knew I hadn’t the first cent to pay with, and so they didn’t press very hard. I hunted around a long time, but not a bit of ore could I find, and I seriously thought of going to the river and making cat-fish bait of myself, so as to get out of my misery.
AN EXCITING MOMENT.
“One day I got in among the chambers in the bluffs, and in one of them I found a small hole, which I thought might possiblylead to something rich. I enlarged it, and got through into a new chamber where there were blocks of lead; and then I knew there was more of it close by. These chambers often lie one above another, and there was evidently one just above where I stood. A blow or two of my pick in the ceiling above would open it, and when it was opened, there was a fortune ready for me.
“Well, no, it wasn’t a sure fortune. This business has its drawbacks, and sometimes there is a serious drawback in a place like that. Most of these chambers are dry, but now and then they are full of water, and sometimes you will find a dry chamber under one that is full. There I stood, wondering what to do. I was never more puzzled in my life.
“The hole where I entered was small and long. It was a hard place to get through, and it took time. The place was low; in fact, I couldn’t stand erect without butting my head. If I tapped the ceiling, and the chamber above was full of water, I should be drowned like a rat in a cage. One blow would loosen the whole bottom, and the water would come down like Niagara.
“If I went out and tried to enlarge the entrance before tapping the ceiling, some other fellow might get in there and take possession. If he opened the chamber before I did, he would be the owner, and I could not lay any claim on account of discovery.
“I thought it all over. I thought of my poverty and the fortune that lay before me. I thought of the chance of death if the cave was full of water. I threw down my pick, and almost determined to go away, and not take the risk. Then I looked at my ragged clothes, and remembered that they were all I had, and that I hadn’t money enough to buy a breakfast. Then I stooped and grasped the pick, and took a firm hold of the handle.
“‘Here goes,’ I said, ‘for one thing or the other.’ I set my teeth, swung the pick, and tapped the ceiling above me.
A FORTUNE AT ONE BLOW.
“The water came down; I dropped to the floor, and felt that I was lost. I must have fainted, for the next thing I remember,my candle, which was only half burned when I struck the blow, was nearly consumed, and I was lying there soaked in a small pool that surrounded me.
“I rose, rubbed my eyes, and looked around, and then I saw how it was. There had been a few buckets of water in the chamber above, where there might have been hogsheads. I was alive and safe, and the chamber was opened.
“I lighted another candle, and went to work enlarging the hole I had made. In a little while I was able to climb through it; and there, all around me, lay blocks of rich ore; and I felt that I was no longer the poor vagabond I had been a few hours before. But I don’t think I would go through that excitement again for all the lead mines that ever were known.”