Mining in Dubuque

Last updated June 10, 2024

Dubuque, Iowa had had a history involving the mining of the area's lead-zinc deposits along with other metals like iron. Both natives and Europeans were using the metals in the region. The first European in the area, Julien Dubuque, received a lease from the natives to mine. Eventually, the mines were shut down though.^[1]

Native American usage

Even though the natives did not smelt metals, they still found uses for them. Using iron, they could make black paint by grinding the iron up into a powder and mixing it with water.^[1]

Native Americans did not tell Europeans about the locations of their mines. Julien Dubuque would eventually be the exception.^[1]

Lead ore was traded by the Meskwaki to the English and French. Shot would be made from that lead by the Europeans, who would then trade it to the natives.^[1]

European usage

Lead deposits on the continent had been mined for a long time before Dubuque's mines. Before 1650, French colonizers practiced basic lead mining and smelting. Europe found out about the lead by 1682 due to the writings of Nicolas Perrot.^[2] Perrot first mined for lead in the area in 1690.^[3]

In 1788, Julien Dubuque obtained a lease of land from the Sauk and Meskwaki for mining purposes from the Little Maquoketa River to the Tete Des Morts Creek.^[4] The grant was confirmed by the Spanish Louisianan governor in 1796. Until Dubuque died in 1810, he ran the Mines of Spain from a town near the mouth of Catfish Creek. Just before he died though, he lost financial control of the mines. Lead mining collapsed and legal issues ensued after his death.^[2] The US Army then took over the mines.^[1] Legal issues related to ownership were not fixed until the U.S. Supreme Court declared that any ownership claims stemming from Julien Dubuque was invalid.^[2]

A lead rush of people from the East Coast and Europe ensued as people learned about the veins in 1820s. By 1829, over 4,000 mining permits were issued. The US army did require that 10% of all lead would be given to them.^[1]

In the 1830s, miners from Galena, Illinois learned about the mines. They obtained permission from the natives to start mining. One of the first of these mines was Langworthy crevice. However, in order to keep a treaty with the natives, the federal government ordered that the miners leave. To enforce the order, they sent troops from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. After the Black Hawk War, the area around Dubuque was able to be settled. Large amounts of prospecting ensued.^[4]

Between 1845 and 1847, Dubuque's lead district reached its peak in production at 54,000,000 pounds (24,000,000 kg) per year, more than any other lead district in the world.^[5]

Closing

Dubuque's mines were shut down in 1910.^[2] The failure was due to an exhaustion of all the surface deposits and eventually, miners hit the water table. Costs outweighed the profits ending the mines.^[1] However, a small attempt at reviving the mines was made in the early 1950s. The last mine in the entire Upper Mississippi Valley in Shullsburg, Wisconsin was closed in 1979.^[2]

Related Research Articles

Galena is the largest city in and the county seat of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, United States. It had a population of 3,308 at the 2020 census. A 581-acre (235 ha) section of the city is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Galena Historic District. The city is named for the mineral galena, which was in the ore that formed the basis for the region's early lead mining economy.

Mineral Point is a city in Iowa County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,581 at the 2020 census. The city is located within the Town of Mineral Point. Mineral Point is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver.

Julien Dubuque was a Canadian of Norman origin from the area of Champlain, Quebec who arrived near what now is known as Dubuque, Iowa, which was named after him. He was one of the first European men to settle in the area. He initially received permission from the Meskwaki people to mine the lead in 1788, which was confirmed by the Spanish, who gave him a land grant in 1796.

The city of Dubuque, Iowa stretches back over 200 years, when Julien Dubuque first settled in the area in the late 18th century. Within the modern era, the city has focused on subjects such as flooding, racial issues, and redevelopment.

Boliden AB is a Swedish multinational metals, mining, and smelting company headquartered in Stockholm. The company produces zinc, copper, lead, nickel, silver, and gold, with operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Ireland.

The Southeast Missouri Lead District, commonly called the Lead Belt, is a lead mining district in the southeastern part of Missouri. Counties in the Lead Belt include Saint Francois, Crawford, Dent, Iron, Madison, Reynolds, and Washington. This mining district is the most important and critical lead producer in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idarado Mine</span> Mining operation in Colorado, U.S.

The Idarado Mine was a mining operation in the San Juan Mountains of Ouray County, Colorado near the now-ghost town of Guston, producing primarily lead, zinc and silver along with small amounts of gold and copper. The mine is within the Sneffels-Red Mountain-Telluride mining district. The remains of the operation are visible from the Million Dollar Highway, north of Red Mountain Pass, between Ouray and Silverton, Colorado. The tunnels of the Idarado extend some 5 miles (8 km) west under 13,000 foot mountains to the Pandora Mill near Telluride, a trip of more than 60 miles (100 km) by highway.

The Silver Valley is a region in the northwest United States, in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains in northern Idaho. It is noted for its mining heritage, dating back to the 1880s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mining in Roman Britain</span>

Mining was one of the most prosperous activities in Roman Britain. Britain was rich in resources such as copper, gold, iron, lead, salt, silver, and tin, materials in high demand in the Roman Empire. Sufficient supply of metals was needed to fulfil the demand for coinage and luxury artefacts by the elite. The Romans started panning and puddling for gold. The abundance of mineral resources in the British Isles was probably one of the reasons for the Roman conquest of Britain. They were able to use advanced technology to find, develop and extract valuable minerals on a scale unequaled until the Middle Ages.

Mount Isa Mines Limited ("MIM") operates the Mount Isa copper, lead, zinc and silver mines near Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia as part of the Glencore group of companies. For a brief period in 1980, MIM was Australia's largest company. It has pioneered several significant mining industry innovations, including the Isa Process copper refining technology, the Isasmelt smelting technology, and the IsaMill fine grinding technology, and it also commercialized the Jameson Cell column flotation technology.

Silver mining in Colorado has taken place since the 1860s. In the past, Colorado called itself the Silver State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broken Hill ore deposit</span>

The Broken Hill Ore Deposit is located underneath Broken Hill in western New South Wales, Australia, and is the namesake for the town. It is arguably the world's richest and largest zinc-lead ore deposit.

The Leadville mining district, located in the Colorado Mineral Belt, was the most productive silver-mining district in the state of Colorado and hosts one of the largest lead-zinc-silver deposits in the world. Oro City, an early Colorado gold placer mining town located about a mile east of Leadville in California Gulch, was the location to one of the richest placer gold strikes in Colorado, with estimated gold production of 120,000–150,000 ozt, worth $2.5 to $3 million at the then-price of $20.67 per troy ounce.

The Mines of Spain State Recreation Area and E. B. Lyons Nature Center is a state park in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States. It is near Dubuque, the eleventh-largest city in the state. The park features picnic areas, 15 miles (24 km) of walking/hiking trails, 4 miles (6.4 km) of ski trails, and the Betty Hauptli Bird and Butterfly Garden. It also includes archaeological sites of national importance as an early lead mining and smelting venture led by French explorer Julien Dubuque, as well as Dubuque's gravesite. These sites were collectively designated a National Historic Landmark District as Julien Dubuque's Mines.

Sala Silver Mine is a mine in Sala Municipality, in Västmanland County in Sweden. The mine was in continuous production from the 15th century until 1908. Additional mining occurred in 1950–1951 and also in 1945–1962 in the neighbouring Bronäs Mine.

Mining in Bolivia has been a dominant feature of the Bolivian economy as well as Bolivian politics since 1557. Colonial era silver mining in Bolivia, particularly in Potosí, played a critical role in the Spanish Empire and the global economy. Tin mining supplanted silver by the twentieth century and the central element of Bolivian mining, and wealthy tin barons played an important role in national politics until they were marginalized by the industry's nationalization into the Bolivian Mining Corporation that followed the 1952 revolution. Bolivian miners played a critical part to the country's organized labor movement from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Plants for the production of lead are generally referred to as lead smelters. Primary lead production begins with sintering. Concentrated lead ore is fed into a sintering machine with iron, silica, limestone fluxes, coke, soda ash, pyrite, zinc, caustics or pollution control particulates. Smelting uses suitable reducing substances that will combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal. Reduction is the final, high-temperature step in smelting. It is here that the oxide becomes the elemental metal. A reducing environment pulls the final oxygen atoms from the raw metal.

Mining in North Korea is important to the country's economy. North Korea is naturally abundant in metals such as magnesite, zinc, tungsten, and iron; with magnesite resources of 6 billion tonnes, particularly in the North and South Hamgyong Province and Chagang Province. However, often these cannot be mined due to the acute shortage of electricity in the country, as well as the lack of proper tools to mine these materials and an antiquated industrial base. Coal, iron ore, limestone, and magnesite deposits are larger than other mineral commodities. Mining joint ventures with other countries include China, Canada, Egypt, and South Korea.

The Tete Des Morts Creek is a stream that flows for 16 miles (26 km) between Dubuque County and Jackson County in Iowa. The only town in the drainage basin is St. Donatus.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Lead Mining". Iowa PBS . Retrieved June 18, 2023.
1 2 3 4 5 Ludvigson, Greg A.; Dockal, James A. (1984). "Lead and Zinc Mining in the Dubuque Area" (PDF). Iowa DNR . Retrieved June 14, 2023.
↑ "Galena-Dubuque Mining District | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved June 17, 2023.
1 2 Leonard, A. G. (1896). Lead and Zinc Deposits of Iowa. Jefferson City. p. 7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ "Julien Dubuque's Mine--- American Latino Heritage: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary". National Park Service . Retrieved June 14, 2023.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[:2-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Lead Mining". Iowa PBS . Retrieved June 18, 2023.

[:0-2] 1 2 3 4 5 Ludvigson, Greg A.; Dockal, James A. (1984). "Lead and Zinc Mining in the Dubuque Area" (PDF). Iowa DNR . Retrieved June 14, 2023.

[3] "Galena-Dubuque Mining District | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved June 17, 2023.

[:1-4] 1 2 Leonard, A. G. (1896). Lead and Zinc Deposits of Iowa. Jefferson City. p. 7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[5] "Julien Dubuque's Mine--- American Latino Heritage: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary". National Park Service . Retrieved June 14, 2023.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]