Built circa 1894, this building served as the town post office until 1922, when a new post office building was constructed. In 1926 a merchandising company known as “Everybody’s” occupied the building. It is a good example of the commercial architecture in Eureka and is one of at least three commercial buildings in town that are of similar size, constructed of stone, and have brick facades.
This building was constructed in 1909 to serve as the new home of McCornick and Company Bankers and has continued to the present to serve as a bank. McCornick and Company first came to Eureka in 1898, when they moved their bank, fixtures and all, from the mining town of Mercur, apparently with the interest of replacing the George Arthur Rice Bank, which had folded in 1897. Around 1917, Eureka Banking Company took over the building, which gave way to the Commercial Service Company in the 1960s. The current (1985) occupant of the building is First Security Bank.
St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, built 1885, remains as one of the oldest Catholic Churches in Utah. Constructed under the direction of Reverend Denis Keily, the building represents both the importance of Irish settlement in Tintic as well as the early Catholic missionary efforts of Bishop Lawrence Scanlan. The church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 14, 1979 as part of the Eureka Historic District.
The Juab County Courthouse, built in 1891 for $5,000 served as the City Hall until 1899 when Eureka City Hall was built. This courthouse served as a jail for the county and much of the time for the city. It still functions as a County Courthouse and City Jail. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 14, 1979, as part of the Eureka Historic District.
The Tintic Standard Reduction Mill presently stands in partial ruin. Drawings prepared by the HAER survey show front and side elevations, as well as a general plan of the mill’s remains. Enough exists to identify the structure as a mill, and to visualize the procedures involved in the milling process. It remains at the original location, Warm Springs, Utah, some two miles east of the town of Goshen in Utah County. The mill was erected on a hillside for gravity purposes.
Originally the mill contained water tanks, ore bins, crushing rolls, Holt-Dern roasters, iron boxes, leaching tanks, and to the side, drain boxes for lead precipitate. While the actual machinery is gone, the shell of the structure remains.
The Tintic Standard Reduction Mill (Harold Mill) was constructed during the 1919-1921 period by the Tintic Standard Mining Company, under Emil John Raddatz, prominent Utah mining entrepreneur. It served as the mill for the Tintic Standard, which became one of the nation’s leading silver producers, operating from 1916 to approximately 1945.
The significance of the mill, in addition to its place as a part of Tintic Standard’s operation, is attributable to its importance in the themes of engineering and industry. W. C. Madge designed and constructed the mill after having consulted with Theodore P. Holt and George H. Bern, Utah developers of the Holt-Dern Roaster. It was built at a cost of $580,000. The Tintic Standard Reduction Mill was the only use of the “antiquated” Augustin process in the United States during the early years of the 1920s. The plant was an acid brine chloritizing and leaching mill. Ore was first roasted with salt, then leached in a strong brine solution and finally precipitated with copper. Recovery rates were fairly high, as in 1924, when the mill recovered 88% of the silver, 60% copper. 32% lead and 7% of the gold held in the ore.
As related to industry, the mill was an important part of Tintic Standard’s operation. In addition, the construction of the plant also reflected the battle, then waging, over railroad transportation rates, which mine owners believed were too high. By milling the ore themselves, owners could save the shipping costs. By 1925, the mine could no longer supply ore of the grade for which the mill was designed. Also, by then, shipping rates declined, therefore, in the fall of that year, the plant shut down.
A town grew up near the mill, named “Harold” after Raddatz’s son. Only the site remains, nevertheless, the town site and especially the mill, aids both in the documentation of mining history and also in the affect this operation had upon nearby small fanning communities such as Goshen, causing them to experience “Boom periods” in their development,
Many people driving from Goshen towards Genola and Santaquin see the Mill up on the mountain and wonder what it is, it is quite curious looking.
Big Canyon takes you from the West end of Goshen Valley (west of Elberta) up to Eureka, there are many mines in the hills and a lot of fun area to explore. A favorite place to stop with the kids is the old railroad bridge on the abandoned railroad line that goes through there, you can’t miss it just off to the left as the Canyon starts if you’re going up it (west).
It is just off highway 6 to the east and is nothing more than ruins and foundations now, a fun ghost town to explore.
Jesse Knight, known as the “Mormon Wizard” for his ability to find ore easily, decided to build a smelter in Silver City because it had the flattest ground in all of the Tintic Mining District.(*)
To the east Dragon Canyon rises and is off limits due to an active mine up there.
In 1907 Jesse Knight, already a successful mine owner in the Tintic area, revitalized Silver City by establishing the Utah Ore Sampling Company and the Tintic smelter here. He nearly transformed Silver City into a company town, but for the fact that he didn’t own the land. Knight built a power plant, some 100 new homes, and yet another railroad, called the Eureka Hill Railroad. By 1908 Silver City’s population surged to its peak of 1500, most of them Knight employees. That year the town held a special celebration called “Smelter Day” in conjunction with Utah’s annual Pioneer Day holiday.(*)
BULLION BECK AND CHAMPION MINING COMPANY HEADFRAME This massive sixty-five Montana type Headframe is the only remnant of the Bullion Beck & Champion Mining Company. Discovered in 1871 by John Beck, the Bullion Beck became one of Eureka‘s big four mines. The others, all visible from the Beck, were the Gemini, the Eureka Hill, and the Centennial Eureka or Blue Rock. Constructed in about 1890 these gallows were housed under a frame structure that measured 40 x 119 feet and approximately 70 feet in height. The Bullion Beck & Champion Company Headframe forms part of the Eureka Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 14, 1979.
THE BULLION BECK & CHAMPION MINING COMPANY HEADFRAME
Perched over deep mining shafts, headframes or gallows frames illustrate the development of mining from small individually owned prospects to the large- scale operation of mining corporations. Technological innovations were required to accomplish this change. The Bullion Beck headframe, constructed in 1890, served to transport men, mules, supplies, and ore in and out of the underground workings. “The Salt Lake Tribune”, January 1, 1891, described the newly constructed plant:
Over the shaft is a main building of hoisting works. This is a substantially-framed structure, 40 x 119 feet, and high enough to take in the gallows frame, that being one of the best and strongest in the country and 60 feet in height. There are no better frame timbers or larger ones than these in Utah.
Headframes were of various types- the 4- or 6-post type and the A-type or modifications of it. The Bullion Beck gallows is A-type, also called two-post headframe or Montana type. Mining engineers’ handbook contains stress sheets and diagrams that illustrate how all bracing was placed at angles and in positions designed to hold the weight and stress needed to do the job. Sizes of frames depended on load weight, shaft size and depth, special equipment requirements, and weather conditions if exposed.
The Headframe allowed mining from depths of 300 to over 3,000 feet below the surface. On top of this frame sits sheaves, large wheels over which ran the hoisting rope. The rope, first a braided belt then a wire cable, ran from the hoisting engines some distance from the headframe. Bullion Beck had two Frazer and Chalmers 500 horse-power engines. The ropes from the sheaves were attached to cages that traveled in and out of the vertical shaft. These could have single cages or double-decked and had sections of track attached for rolling in ore cars. In inclined shafts (shafts descending at an angle) all self-dumping ore cars with wheels called skips were used. Thus, the vertical beams running in the center of the frame are often labeled skip guides. Those of the Bullion Beck were partially reconstructed in 1987.
Hoisting was the process of getting men, equipment, and ore in and out of the mine. The headframe served as part of the hoisting plant or works. Basically, the process involved a three-man team – hoist operator, top lander and cage tender. The hoist operator ran the hoisting engine according to a set system of bell signals. Removing loaded ore cars and sending down the empty ones fell to the top lander, while the cage tender delivered the loads to the different levels of the mine and loaded cars of ore or overburden to be sent to the surface. The floor at the top of the shaft contained iron plates and tracks for the cars so that they could be sent to the ore bins or to the waste dumps. Bullion Beck Mine contained a double compartment shaft with a man-way from top to bottom. The timber-lined shaft collar is now covered.
The surface plant of the Bullion Beck Mine was originally enclosed in a wooden building. In 1925 all of the plant was demolished except the headframe, which sat idle during the depression of the 1930s. It reopened due to World War II demand and operated into the early 1960s. Mining historians view the headframe as “the most prominent feature in almost any representation of the ordinary mine of the frontier period.” These wooden gallows are very rare. Those standing symbolize the important of the western mining landscape.
Daughters of Utah Pioneers Marker #512 (other markers listed here)
The discovery of the Sunbeam Lode and the subsequent organization of the Tintic Mining District on Decomber 13, 1869, was the beginning of a mining district which ultimately became world-famous. The name is in honor of the Ute Indian Chief Tintic who roamed this area with his braves. This district survives as the best physical reminder of Utah’s mining heritage. Towns include Eureka, Silver City, Diamond, Knightsville, and Homansville. Gold, silver, lead, and copper were the primary minerals of the region.
There were four railroad companies serving the mining district: Salt Lake and Western Railway, the Tintic Range Railway, the New East Tintic Railway, and the narrow gauge Eureka Hill Railway.
Eureka came to be known as one of the quietest boom camps in the west. There were stores, theaters, hotels, schools, newspapers, churches, an Andrew Carnegie library, and one of the first Golden Rule ( J.C. Penney ) stores.
There was a diverse ethnic mix in the district. The camps consisted of people representing many nationalities and religions, the famous and notorious, miners, prospectors, business proprietors, doctors, teachers, cowboys, railroad men, and beloved women. These women rocked the cradle, nursed the sick, and waited at the mouth of the mines to know who was being brought up from the bowels of the earth below. The women dressed the dead and knelt in prayer. To all who believed tomorrow would bring a better life, we pay honor. Today we stand together and remember the great heroes of yesterday who settled this district with a dream of a better tomorrow.
St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, built 1885, remains as one of the oldest Catholic Churches in Utah. Constructed under the direction of Reverend Denis Keily, the building represents both the importance of Irish settlement in Tintic as well as the early Catholic missionary efforts of Bishop Lawrence Scanlan. The church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 14, 1979 as part of the Eureka Historic District.
