There’s gold in them there hills!
Well, okay, actually it’s lead and it is in Southern Missouri! When you head South on Hwy 8 out of St. James, Mo. you will eventually end up in the town of Park Hills. We were passing through Park Hills on our way to Bollinger Mill when we learned that we were just a mile or so from Missouri Mines State Historic Site. We had heard of it but didn’t realize we were so close to it until I looked at the map to see how far it was to Bollinger Mill.
Detour!
Although we hadn’t planned to go there that day we soon found our way there and boy are we glad. It was a great learning experience. If you ask most people where the largest mine is, largest meaning monetary amount mined, they will most likely name some place like North Dakota, Colorado or The Klondike. Their answer would be wrong. For example, the Klondike yielded approximately $3.4 billion in product but Missouri’s lead belt yielded over $22billion.
The Mine
The mine was originally built in 1906 by the Federal Lead Company. In 1923 the Federal Lead Company was bought out by one of its competitors, St. Joseph Lead Company. St. Joseph Lead Company improved on what was already there and the mine was a thriving company until 1972 when the mine was retired. The mine employed 4005 people at its peak. Wow!
History preserved!
The property that made up the St. Joseph Lead Company was donated to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in 1975. The old powerhouse for the mine was transformed into a museum and it houses machinery and tools that were used in the mine. I don’t remember the gentleman’s name that guided us on our tour of the museum but he is one of the most educated tour guides I have ever met. (I do have to add that Missouri State parks and Historic sites usually have very knowledgeable staff.) This man was very interesting to talk to and he had met people who used to work in the mine and told us about some of the stories that they had shared with him. You could tell that this site was near and dear to his heart.
Our tour guide explained to us how the galena was mined and separated from the dolsamite and then smelted into lead. He did this in a way that was easy to understand through his own words and through the use of a movie. I tried to find the video on YouTube to share it with you but I couldn’t locate it. I did however; share a similar but longer video on my face book page.
You aren’t allowed in the old mine buildings but some of them are kind of open in the front so that you can see in them. There are old rail cars in one of the buildings. The buildings themselves are really quite interesting. I took a picture of one of the old outdoor light fixtures that I thought was very pretty. I’m so glad this place will be preserved so that everyone can enjoy it and learn about the mining that took place there.
Coming up next:
A portion of the land donated to the Department of Natural Resources was made into what is now St. Joe State Park. Check back on my blog soon to hear about what we found there.
Please feel free to leave comments letting me know if you have been to the Missouri Mines State Historical Site and if you enjoyed the trip. I will post more pictures on my Facebook page!