Hecla Mining District in the Pioneer Mountains of Montana

MONTANA LEGENDS

Hecla Mining District in the Pioneer Mountains

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In the 1870s, four mining camps got their starts in the Hecla Mining District on the side of Lion Mountain. Also referred to as the Glendale and/or Bryant Mining District, which was strung out along ten miles of gulches, the four towns included Trapper City, Lion City, Glendale, and Hecla. One of the last districts to be established in the Pioneer Mountains, it was also one of the richest, producing silver, lead, copper and zinc ore valued at nearly $20 million over the years.

The first claim in the area was made in 1872 by two men named William "Billy" Spurr and James Bryant and called the Forest Queen. However, Spurr recorded the claim in his own name, but never worked it. The following year, James Bryant returned to the area with several other men and began looking in the area for other potential claims.

During this excursion, a silver outcropping was found that was called the Trapper Lode. After staking their claim in Bannack, Montana, the men began to work the mine taking the both silver and lead out by pack train and wagons to be loaded at the railroad at Corinne, Utah and sent to Denver for smelting.

Hecla Mines atop Lion Mountain.

Word quickly spread and before long the area was filled with a number of prospectors from Bannack. More lodes were soon discovered and the Cleve and Avon Mines soon were being worked. The first mining camp to be established was Trapper City, which established a post office in 1873. Soon, the camp also boasted a hotel, several saloons, a brothel, general store, butcher shop, livery stable, and numerous cabins lined up and down Trapper Creek. The settlement reached a population of nearly 200, but was short lived, as mining began to move up onto Lion Mountain.

In 1875, a 40-ton smelter was built farther down Trapper Creek by two men by the names of Noah Armstrong and Charles Dahler. The camp of mill workers that grew up around it was named Glendale and a post office was opened the same year. Numerous employees and their families soon made their home in Glendale, the tamest and most civilized of the four mining camps in the district. The new town also sported "The Montana Brewery”, owned by John Mannheim, who had formerly operated the brewery at Bannack. A general merchandise store was owned by Noah Armstrong.

Two years after building the smelter, Noah Armstrong, along with investors from the east, would form the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company, buying out the original claimants of the Trapper Lode and began to aggressively developing the organization. The mining company was after a painting that had been hanging in the company's payroll office which depicted Mt. Hecla, a volcano found on the Icelandic Continent. Soon, the new mining organization began buying up most of the workings on Lion Mountain, including the Cleopatra, Trapper, Franklin, Cleve-Avon, Mark Anthony, Ariadne, True Fissure, and Atlantus lodes. By 1878, Glendale had grown to almost 1000 residents.

Also growing was the new camp of Lion City, at the base of Lion Mountain and by 1878, almost everyone had abandoned Trapper City and moved to Lion City or Glendale. Trapper City’s businesses also moved, and Lion City soon boasted three saloons, two brothels, two hotels, several businesses, a school, mining buildings, numerous cabins, and about 600 people.

In the meantime, the Glendale smelter was busy producing about one million ounces of silver and thousands of tons of lead and copper annually until it burned down in July, 1879. That same year, Noah Armstrong was replaced by Elias C. Atkins, as the Hecla Consolidated Mining Company’s General Manager. However, the company was not faring as well as its investors would like, and he too, was replaced in April, 1881 by Henry Knippenberg. The new general manager quickly set about reorganizing the company, splitting it into three divisions and appointing a superintendent for each. By the end of the year, the company was profitable once again. In the meantime, the Glendale Smelter was rebuilt, enlarged, and placed back into operation.

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