Part 2 of a 2 part series
BY KAREN CROWSON
In 1890, the Minnie Moore mill was erected and three years later a nationwide depression hit, sending silver to just .59 cents an ounce. The mill closed when the mine closed.
In 1900, several investors organized the Minnie Moore Mining Company and purchased the Minnie Moore mine for $30,000. Two of the investors were C.R. Carpenter and I.E. Rockwell. Rockwell resided in Chicago, as a businessman with a background in science and engineering, and arrived in Broadford in 1901. He reopened the mine after he discovered the continuation of the vein on the other side of the fault and began working as the company’s general manager, working onsite at the mine. Rockwell was to become known as the “Rock” to locals.
As water was pumped out from the mine, further exploration took place, and in June 1902 ore was struck in a raise from the crosscut on the old 900-foot level and this lead to exploration of the lower mine.
By 1904, the Minnie Moore had become the biggest producer in the Wood River Valley, recovering 5 million pounds of lead and 450,000 ounces of silver. In July, C.M. Schwab purchased 60 percent of the stock in the Minnie Moore Mining Company for $800,000. Schwab operated the Minnie Moore on the company account until August 1905, and in March 1906, two men were killed in the single-terry raise. Total production for the Minnie Moore mine from 1902 to 1906 was $8,447,600.
Rockwell began building his home in Broadford in 1907 while his wife Mary Luella Searing stayed at their home in Chicago.
In 1908, under the direction of the Idaho Consolidated Mines Company, a new mill was erected at the Minnie Moore mine, with new water pumps, a new 750-horsepower hydroelectric power plant, and new ore concentration equipment. Over the next three months, 140,000 tons of old mill tailings were reprocessed as water was still being pumped out from the Minnie Moore and relief shafts.
By the following year, both sections of the mill were in operation, while lead, zinc and lead-silver concentrates were being produced from the old tailings. Only 10 men were employed at the Minnie Moore mine in 1913 and when the Minnie Moore shaft caved in, the mine was abandoned. The mill was once again remodeled by the Metal Millings Company to process the tailings from the Queen of the Hills mine.
Rockwell, still part owner of the Minnie Moore, remarried in 1914 to Lallah Rookh White after a divorce from his first wife, Searing. White assisted in Rockwell’s campaigns to raise money for the mine as well as managing the office and working as a stenographer.
One account, from an unidentified newspaper, reports, “Nestled among the giant cottonwood trees along the banks of the Big Wood River, its setting is like a gem. Over this attractive home, Mrs. Rockwell presides with a charm that makes visitors feel at home. Intimate friends of the Rockwells, often disguised as plain fishermen, hunters out for deer, elk, bear, goats, or jaguar in the nearby encircling Sawtooths; politicians and near-politicians out ‘fixin’ things’; governors, judges of the Supreme Court, educators, ripened statesmen, even Senator Borah—all frequently find refuge from the storm.”
During World War I, Rockwell served as chairman of the Blaine County Council of Defense, and in 1914 and 1916 served in the State Senate and was also a delegate to the Republican National Convention and went on to serve as president of the Blaine County Good Roads Association.
On February 25, 1917, Broadford resident Israel Peterlin was killed in an avalanche with 15 other men at the North Star mine on the East Fork of Wood River.
In 1920, Rockwell was appointed to the State Board of Education and also served as president of the Idaho Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
In April of 1923, the Federal Mining and Smelting Company leased the Minnie Moore mine and employed 24 men while building a new mine camp, carpenter shop, head frame, hoist house, change room, and a blacksmith shop.
From July 1 through August 1 of 1924, a crew of 12 men set the state record for the length of tunnel driven in a month—386.5 feet of solid granodionite was driven through in a drift off the 800-foot level of the Allen shaft with a grade of 6 inches to 100 feet on a raise 5 feet wide by 7 feet high. Harold Boericke took over the mine’s lease before the end of the year and continued development work, and in 1925 the Minnie Moore was employing 40 men, but by December 31 Boericke forfeited his lease and operations were suspended.
In 1926, a Minnie Moore syndicate began development work on the Minnie Moore and employed 40 men, but by 1927 the mine was abandoned once more, with the buildings dismantled and equipment removed from the property.
With the arrival of 1928, Rockwell once more returned to the Senate for another term. In 1932, the Federal Mining and Smelting Company began sinking the Rockwell shaft but was unsuccessful in locating the Minnie Moore vein, and in 1935 the mine was leased to the Minnie Moore Mine Development Company, but they, too, were unable to find the lost vein and money to operate ran dry and so the mine was surrendered.
In 1936, Rockwell was the keynote speaker at the State Republican Convention and from 1937 until 1940 served as president of the Idaho Mining Association. In 1940, Rockwell’s wife passed away and Rockwell busied himself to combat his grief, playing chess via correspondence with the King of Saudi Arabia and became secretary of the Borah Memorial Statue Commission of Idaho. As secretary, Rockwell assisted in the placing of a statue of Senator Borah in the U.S. Capital.
The following year the Minnie Moore was allowed to flood, while old tailings were still being shipped from the site, and in 1943 Rockwell and the Minnie Moore Mining Company sold the Minnie Moore mine to Robert T. Walker, of Leadville, Colorado. A year after selling the mine, Rockwell became a benefactor of Boise Junior College and donated over a thousand books from his personal library to the school in memory of his late wife.
Rockwell maintained correspondence with Walker throughout the years, retelling the history of the mine as well as providing advice on locating the lost ore within the Minnie Moore.
In 1945, Rockwell wrote Walker, “I would almost give my hopes to eternal life to know that you had brought the Minnie back.”
In 1952, 42 railroad cars and a truckload of ore were shipped from the Minnie Moore and in February, Walker wrote his last letter to Rockwell, writing, “Bud and I have every confidence that we know very closely the position of the faulted continuation of the Minnie Moore ore body.”
On September 22, at the age of 89, Rockwell passed away at his home. The following year, the old tunnels at the Minnie Moore had caved, but the process of rehabilitation had begun once more. A truckload of ore and 48 railroad cars shipped that year.
Sharon Blondin, a Bellevue High School graduate of 1959, recalls her father, Albert Pascoe, working at the Minnie Moore mine, saying, “He worked there from the time I was a young girl—late ’40s and all the way through the ’50s. He also worked at other mines in the area. He had a mine claim just south of the Minnie Moore. I was only in it once … scared me half to death.”
Blondin continued, “I still remember the dread we all felt when the whistle went off at the mine and we never knew if it would be one of our loved ones.”
In 1959, operations at the Minnie Moore ceased when a ‘breccia blowout’ occurred in the Rockwell shaft. At the time of the closing, Blondin says her father had to go as far away as Wyoming to get a job.
“A hard time in the valley,” Blondin said. “Growing up, Broadford was my favorite place to ride horses, bikes, and go swimming. It was a child’s paradise. I still visit my swimming hole and walk the beautiful path someone created from south Bellevue to the headgates.”
By 1960, Samson Oil and Mineral Company began prospecting at the mine and in 1964 the Federal Resources Corporation completed the construction of a 250-tons-per-day flotation mill. Tailings from the site were reprocessed over the next two years.
In 1974, Carl Johnston, Sr., began quarrying at the Minnie Moore and in 1978 he purchased the Minnie Moore mine for $250,000.
In 1980, a company based in Hailey began reprocessing material from the tailings pile and by 1983 a contractor who was breaking up rock for riprap to line the river banks discovered high-grade silver ore, and the following year Exxon Minerals Company stepped in and reopened the Minnie Moore for further exploration.
By 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency conducted a Preliminary Assessment of the Minnie Moore site and concluded further action be recommended under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
A Site Inspection report prepared by Herrera Environmental Consultants was released on February 18, 2004, stating, “Results of the SI indicate that the Minnie Moore site is a source of hazardous inorganic substance contamination. The SI documented that contaminants have been released to groundwater beneath the site and to Broadford slough through runoff from the site. This contamination could potentially impact nearby sport fisheries, wetlands, and other sensitive environments in Broadford slough and the Big Wood River. In addition, onsite and nearby residents may be exposed to harmful levels of inorganic contaminants through direct contact, inhalation of airborne-contaminated particles, or ingestion of contaminated groundwater.”
The following year, the EPA began cleaning up a tailings pile located on Johnston’s 283-acre property. The EPA reported 18,000 parts per million of lead at the former mill site as well as lead and arsenic in the tailings pile. Johnston had dirt brought in from Woodside at the construction site of the new elementary school to cover the tailings pile. Once the EPA determined the dirt to be clean and appropriate for covering the tailings, the tailings pile was covered and shaped into a mound. This allowed drainage as well as allowing the natural water to evaporate.
Today, all that remains of what once was Broadford are the old mill foundations, the winch house, and scattered sheds across the mill site and mines.
