Mineral Point
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About this ebook
Herbert Beall
Authors Herbert and Barbara Apelian Beall are residents of Mineral Point, active in the Mineral Point Historical Society, and have completed several projects and publications in the fields of historic research and preservation-including architectural driving and walking tours. Both are currently professors and writers, combining these experiences with their knowledge and dedication to historic preservation, in order to create a pictorial history of the town that identifies itself as the place where Wisconsin began.
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Mineral Point - Herbert Beall
surface.
One
INDUSTRY IN MINERAL POINT
LEAD AND ZINC MINING AND THE RAILROADS
Lead ore, which was also called mineral, was such an important commodity that it even gave its name to the town—Mineral Point. It was important enough for people to fight for, to die for, and to travel across an ocean to an unfamiliar land.
Primarily mined for use as lead shot, the ore drew Native Americans, prospectors from the still-young country of the United States, and eventually the Cornish from Cornwall, England. However, it was no longer in such great demand after the Civil War.
Beginning in the 1850s, zinc provided another source for prosperity that soon supplanted the lead mining. Piles of waste material from the earlier lead mining contained a high concentration of zinc, which became important as a coating for galvanizing iron to prevent corrosion and a basic component of paint. Mining was a major impetus for the establishment of two railroad lines, and Mineral Point also became a shipping and supply center for the region. Zinc mining boomed during World War I, collapsing shortly after the declaration of peace in 1917, greatly impacting the viability of the railroads as well.
Fortunately, the later zinc refinery and smelting plant are well documented in photographs. Ironically, there is little physical evidence left of the once vast complex of buildings in the southeastern section of the town and only the beginnings of documentation of later waves of immigrants.
This is an advertisement from the 1859 Directory of the City of Mineral Point for the making of lead shot, which represented the primary use of lead through the end of the Civil War.
The superstructures above two Mineral Point mine shafts are pictured here. Each of these houses the machinery for raising and lowering men and machinery and hauling the ore out of the mine. The smokestack of a smelter is visible in the background, and the cross-like beams on the hill carry a warning sign of DANGER. Zinc mining in the region continued until about 1929, and was at its peak during World War I from 1914–17.
An early smelter or furnace is pictured at right. Lead can be freed from its ore simply by heating. The zinc ore is roasted with carbon to form the zinc metal. The first zinc smelter was established in Mineral Point in 1859, and they dotted the countryside. In later years, these furnaces were replaced by an enormous zinc plant, which we will see later.
Known as Spensley’s furnace, it was likely one of the earliest and longest operated private furnaces. The original furnace was built by Charles Franklin Legate in 1837, and taken over by James Spensley who came to Mineral Point in 1856 from Yorkshire. In 1914, Ruben Ellsworth, whose profession was listed as a smelter, owned the building. The foundations remain on County Road QQ near some of the extant buildings of the Spensley estate. Note the use of local stone in the two towers and the use of the drywalling technique—laying the stone without