MINING company offices at Babbitt, April, 1920

Pioneering with Taconite The BIRTH of a MINNESOTA INDUSTRY

EDWARD W. DAVIS

THE REMINISCENCES here presented metallurgical consultant for the Reserve are drawn from a chapter which Professor Alining Company. The great taconite plant Davis contributed to a mimeographed His­ which that firm is building in the new Silver tory of East Mesabi Magnetic Taconite is­ Bay community is known as the E. W. sued for limited distribution in October, Davis Works. Readers of this magazine will 1948, by Oglebay, Norton and Company of recall, in the Autumn, 1953, issue, a brief Cleveland. In view of the greatly increased article by Mr. Davis on "Taconite: The interest in the subject of this volume, it now Derivation of the Name." seems appropriate to place before a wider audience a condensed version of Mr. Davis' MY CONTACT with the magnetic taconites narrative. Co-operating with him in making of the eastern Mesabi Range began in the the material available for publication in spring of 1913. I had come to the Uni­ Minnesota History were the company's versity of Minnesota to teach mathematics president, Mr. H. S. Taylor, and members in the school of mines in the fall of 1912. of the public relations staff of the Reserve At that time W. R. Appleby was dean of Mining Company at Duluth. the school and John G. Williams, who repre­ Until 1951, Mr. Davis was director of the sented mining interests in the Duluth area Mines Experiment Station of the Univer­ on the board of regents, was serving as sity of Minnesota, and thereafter he held regent-adviser to the school of mines. a professorship in the school of mines and Dean Appleby introduced me to Mr. Wil­ metallurgy. In June of the present year he liams in the spring of 1913. When he learned retired and went to Silver Bay to serve as that I was an electrical engineer, he told

Autumn 1955 269 MAP of the Mesabi Range and the Babbitt area

me about some magnetic iron ore found much as fifty per cent iron. I was sufficiently on lands he owned on the eastern end of interested in the work to look up some in­ the Mesabi. He said the ore could be picked formation on magnetic separation, about up easfly with an ordinary hand magnet, which 1 knew nothing, and I learned that and added that a magnetic compass was so wet concentration of fine magnetic ore was inaccurate that it was useless ffi the district. in use to a limited extent. He thought perhaps 1 could devise an elec­ In some notes made at the time I re­ tromagnet that would separate the magnetic marked that the ore was "very hard and iron oxides from the silica. A short time later extremely dusty, and some wet concentra­ he sent me a few pounds of this ore, known tion method should be used." Later some as taconite, which had been secured, he tests were made using a hand magnet under said, from a place called Sulphur Siding, water, and immediately much better re­ about fourteen mfles east and north of the sults were secured. The first wet test on town of Mesaba in St. Louis County.^ pulverized crude ore assaying 29.11 per Largely, I must admit, because Mr. Wil­ cent iron, laboriously made in water with liams was a member of the board of regents, a hand magnet and many washings, pro­ 1 took the small sample into the laboratory duced a concenti-ate assaying 68.88 per cent of the newly founded Mines Experiment iron and 3 per cent silica. This test was Station and did a little work on it. I broke made in October, 1914. up the sample into small fragments and When the results of the test were re­ found that I could pick up practically every ported to Mr. Williams, he was much inter­ piece with a hand magnet. I tried breaking ested, and thereafter he and George A. St. the pieces even finer and could still pick up nearly all the ore with a magnet. There was, however, a little sand that seemed ' Taconite is the name given to the sedimentary rock formation of the Mesabi Range. In general, its to be nonmagnetic, and as I crushed the iron content is between twenty and thirty-five per sample finer, the nonmagnetic material in­ cent. For an explanation of the word's origin see creased in quantity. I was never able, how­ Mr, Davis' article entitled "Taconite: The Deriva­ tion of the Name" in Minnesota History, 33:282-283 ever, to make a concentrate containing as (Autumn, 1953), Ed.

270 MINNESOTA History Clair, with whom he was associated in the EARLY IN 1915, Dean Appleby purchased ownership of the eastern Mesabi property, a Dings belt-type high and low intensity came every week or two to Minneapolis magnetic separator. This machine worked to see how the work was progressing.'' only on dry ore, and only the low intensity The task of developing some type of equip­ magnet was used on magnetic taconite. I ment that would more easily wash the joined the staff of the Mines Experiment silica out of the ore was begun immediately, Station for the summer of 1915 and worked and as a result, the magnetic tube concen­ on the new Dings machine and on wet con­ trator was devised. This consisted of a large centration of the fine ore. A few tons of C-shaped electromagnet, between the poles taconite secured near Sulphur Siding and of which a glass tube about one inch in sent to the experiment station by Mr. Wil­ diameter and two feet long was supported liams were used as a sample for test work at an angle of about forty-five degrees. during 1915. I have the records of the first Water flowed into the top and out the bot­ test made with the Dings machine on ore tom of the tube through control valves. crushed to four mesh and consisting of par­ When the finely pulverized ore was placed ticles about three-sixteenths of an inch in in the tube, it immediately collected be­ diameter. The crude ore assayed 31.22 per tween the poles of the magnet. Moving the cent iron, and the concentrate 33.66 per tube up and down a few inches and rotating cent iron. The tailing assayed 3.88 per cent it at the same time freed the silica, and the iron and represented 8.2 per cent of the water then washed it downward and out of weight of the feed (these are all soluble the tube, leaving the collected ore. This be­ irons). Many tests were made on this ma­ came the standard method of testing all chine by Henry H. Wade and myself dur­ small samples of magnetic ore, and the prin­ ing the summer of 1915 and later, but the ciple is still used with mechanical activating highest grade of concentrate produced as­ equipment in most ore-dressing laboratories. sayed only 49.72 per cent iron. This was It gradually became evident that while on —100 mesh material — a screen with no coarse concentrate (the grains of which 10,000 openings per square inch. are about as large as the head of a pin) could be secured from this taconite, com­ PROFESSOR Davis operating a magnetic tube paratively coarse tailing could be removed, concentrator at the plant near Babbitt, 1955 thus reducing the bulk to be ground to — 150 mesh for final concentration. This size measurement is obtained by using a screen with 150 wires each way, making 22,500 openings per square inch, and the result­ ing product is about as fine as flour. In its new plant at Silver Bay, the Reserve Mining Company will grind the ore to —10 mesh. At this size forty to fifty per cent of the taconite will be discharged as worthless rock containing practically no recoverable magnetic iron. The remaining ore must be crushed stfll finer (to —150 mesh) and concentrated again. • For biographical sketches of Williams and St. Clair, with accounts of their mining connections, see the History of East Mesabi Magnetic Taconite, ch, 1, p, 8-13, "The Minnesota Historical Society has a copy of this mimeographed volume, Ed.

Autumn 1955 The wet concentration results secured West, on the Mesabi in eastern St. Louis with the tube machine were so satisfactory County had been sent to Moose Mountain, that work was started on the development Canada, in 1914 and had been tested in a of a device that would handle larger quan­ magnetic concentration plant there. The tities of ore and that could be considered a sample taken from one of the pits assayed model for a possible commercial machine. only 11.42 per cent and that from the This investigation resulted in the develop­ other assayed 36.02 per cent soluble iron. ment of the magnetic log washer. The first Fine grinding and wet magnetic concen­ machine of this type was built and put into tration were used in the treatment of these operation early in 1915. It was essentially samples. The results of the test showed that a trough five inches wide and twenty-four by crushing to 77 per cent —200 mesh, a inches long, lined with copper. Beneath the final concentrate assaying 59.97 per cent copper sheet was an electromagnet, with iron was made. one pole in the center and one on each The Woodbridge report, dated October, side extending the full length of the trough. 1914, gives details of the tests made at In the trough, two logs with small blades Moose Mountain and goes into the con­ similar to those on standard log washers struction and operating costs of a plant to were mounted so they could rotate. This treat this material. According to Mr. Wood- machine was set on an incline with the bridge's estimates, the briquetted concen­ upper end above the water line, and the trate could be produced for a total cost of water overflowed a weir at the lower end $2.87 per ton, and a plant to produce five of the trough. When fine magnetic ore was hundred tons per day would cost about fed into the machine about sixteen inches $450,000, including power equipment. The from the discharge end, the magnetite col­ whole report is very optimistic. lected on the bottom of the trough and was Mr. Williams and Mr. Woodbridge had moved upward and out of the water by the been involved earlier in financing some cop­ action of the rotating log. The nonmagnetic per properties, and because of this, they material was carried by the flow of water were acquainted with Daniel C. Jackling. to the lower end of the machine and flowed They contacted Mr. Jackling and interested out over the weir. him sufficiently so that he employed Walter The first test on this machine, made on G. Swart to investigate the Williams-St. January 20, 1915, using eastern Mesabi Clair properties and report to him regard­ taconite crushed to —40 mesh, produced ing the possibility of concentrating the ore concentrate assaying 40.83 per cent iron. from them. Mr. Swart, Mr. Woodbridge, and On January 28, working on —150 mesh ore, Horace V. Winchell, famed Minnesota geolo­ we produced concentrate assaying 60,44 gist, arrived at the Mines Experiment Station per cent iron and tailing assaying 4,76 per on the University of Minnesota campus on cent iron. After Mr. Williams saw the ma­ June 16, 1915, and a concentration test was chine in operation on February 8, he sent made for them on the little magnetic log Dwight E. Woodbridge of Duluth to see it washer. I remember the great interest and and to discuss with me the concentration enthusiasm shown by Mr. Swart and Mr. of eastern Mesabi magnetic taconite. Mr. Winchell on this occasion. The concentra­ Woodbridge had been employed by Mr. tion of the magnetic taconite looked very Williams and Mr. St. Clair as engineer and simple to Mr. Swart, who was accustomed consultant in connection with their taconite to the treatment of the much more complex properties. western ore, and Mr. Winchell was fufl of Mr. Woodbridge told me that forty tons information about the enormous extent of of ore taken from two pits or shafts on the magnetic taconite deposits of the east­ Section 19, Township 60 North, Range 12 ern Mesabi. He told us that his father.

272 MINNESOTA History Newton H. Winchell, went up on the east- Fred A. Jordan, who had been operating em Mesabi in 1875, pumped out the test the Moose Mountain, Canada, ffon-ore con­ pit originally made by Peter Mitchell in centration plant, and who had earlier made 1870, and put it down six feet farther.-"* He some tests for us. When 1 first saw him, I found solid magnetic taconite all the way, thought Mr. Jordan was the homeliest man but no high-grade ore. I had ever seen, but after I knew him bet­ I remember what a great impression Mr. ter, I never thought of this. We became Swart and Mr. Winchell made upon me. great friends and I admired him very much These two and Dean Appleby made a grand because he was so capable, industrious, and trio. They were about the same age, the persistent. He was primarily a construction same size (slightly bulging), and all three man and, secondarily, an operator. He had were fine gentlemen in every sense of the been an instructor at the Michigan College word. They loved to eat and drink (in mod­ of Mining and Technology at Houghton eration) and tell stories of past experiences. and loved the university atmosphere. He I think the most entertaining evening I liked to experiment and was always pleased ever spent was with the three of them one to try something new. night in 1915 at Schick's Cafe in Minne­ When Mr. Jordan arrived at the Mines apolis. Mr. Winchell told stories of his Experiment Station in January, 1916, Mr. father's early experiences on the Mesabi Swart had already laid out a plan for the while he was state geologist, and of his as­ proposed expansion of the station's experi­ sociation with such pioneers as Stuntz, mental work. As early as August, 1915, we Mitchell, Longyear, and the Merritts. Mr. had put into operation a magnetic log Swart recalled early days at Cripple Creek washer twelve inches wide and five feet and Salt Lake; and Dean Appleby de­ long. Other equipment which Mr. Swart scribed his first visit to the Mesabi and provided included a three-foot by eight- the frontier town of Hibbing. inch Hardinge ball mill and a five-spigot Richards-Janney classifier. Mr. Jordan went MR. SWART and the others went from the to work setting up this new equipment to Mines Experiment Station to the range to make a flow sheet in which the ball mill look over Mr. Williams' property, and discharged directly into the magnetic log eventually Mr. Swart gave Mr. Jackling a washer. In the first test, the ore was ground glowing report of the whole project. As a to about thirty-five mesh and the concen­ result of this investigation, Mr. Jackling, trate produced from it assayed 37.55 per with Charles Hayden and others, formed cent iron. what was known as the Mesabi Syndicate. For a while after Mr. Jordan came to Mr. Swart was placed in charge of opera­ the station, I had little contact with him tions and was instructed to make a com­ because I was teaching, but he and Mr. plete investigation of the property, build Wade worked together constantly. Among a pilot plant, and determine the technical other things, by using screens with open­ and economic possibilities of concentrating ings of different sizes, they divided a sam­ eastern Mesabi magnetic taconite. ple of crushed taconite into some twenty As his first assistant Mr. Swart employed sized portions. They then spent weeks sep­ arating each of these into various magnetic ^ This pit is still visible on property now being fractions, mostly by hand on the dry Dings mined by the Reserve Mining Company. A large separator. We still have a case of exhibi­ slab of taconite removed from it will be fashioned into a monument for erection in the new town of tion samples showing these products. Babbitt, located near by, Mitchell's exploring ac­ More equipment was added under Mr. tivities are described below on p, 275, A sketch of Jordan's direction, and eventually a closed- his career appears in Skillings' Mining Review for September 1, 1923, Ed. circuit flow sheet, using a Dorr classifier, was

Autumn 1955 273 ORE loading equipment at Sulphur Siding, 1916

put into operation. After this was installed, was the first taconite mine in the state, was it was possible to produce concentrate ap­ dff-ected by a man named Wallas. It was proaching sixty per cent iron, but the feed small, producing only about a hundred tons rate had to be very low because, for one a day. A face, six feet to eight feet high, thing, flint pebbles were used in the ball was developed and the ore was blasted pill- down, using small holes made with aff In March, 1916, Ted B. Counselman, drills. Later a chum drill was used. The formerly an efficiency engineer at Morenci, broken ore was loaded by hand onto small Arizona, was employed by Mr. Swart and tramcars, which were pulled out of the pit, took over the test work. Mr. Jordan then up a trestle, and dumped into steel gondola went to Duluth to design and construct a railroad cars. pflot plant for the Mesabi Syndicate that During the period from 1916 through was to have a capacity of about fifty tons 1918, much work was done at the mine. per day. A location at Thirty-ninth Avenue When I first saw the property in 1916, it West and the bay front in Duluth was se­ was practically impossible to travel about lected for the plant. The site had been the it except on the old Mesaba-Syndicate Trail, property of an old lumber company and on the old logging raflroad grades, or on contained a good-sized brick building, the lines that had been cut by the sur­ which was enlarged by adding a wooden veyors. Several years earlier a fire had structure to form the pilot plant. I joined swept across the country, killing all the the staff of the Mesabi Syndicate on June timber. Logging had started before the fire 15, 1916, when the school year ended, and and, consequently, all the timber had either the following month the plant was ready been burned or removed. The smaller trees for operation. Practically all experimental blew down, and when I first saw the area work on magnetic taconite at the Mines it was covered almost waist deep with a Experiment Station stopped temporarily at tangled mass of small tree trunks. Surveying that time because most of the equipment was most difficult in summer; in fact, it had been shipped to Duluth. was found easier to do it in winter when snowshoes could be used. Tony Benson, THE ORE for the Duluth plant was mined later St. Louis County mine inspector, had from a location on the deposit known as charge of surveying. Aneroid barometers the Sulphur Mine. This operation, which were used in making most of the contours.

274 MINNESOTA HistOTtf The Sulphur camp, as I first saw it, con­ He also went to the Tower area, but liked sisted of four old log buildings which were the ore he saw on the east Mesabi better used as the office, the engineering shack, and put down several pits there. At Sulphur the bunkhouse, and the cookhouse. They Creek he put down a test pit which is sup­ were all in bad repaff and were put into posed to have been the first on the Mesabi usable condition during the winter and Range. Although he found only low-grade spring of 1916. A few himdred feet south ore, he nevertheless acquired certain prop­ of this group of buildings was an old log erty in the neighborhood for the Ontona­ structure known as the barn, which was gon Pool. Later, in 1876, he sold this land used as a storeroom and compressor house to Mr. St. Clair, Mr. Wflliams, and Samuel for the near-by mine. Between the camp Mitchell. Some prospecting and driUing was and the barn ran a branch of the old done in the area — by Oglebay, Norton and Mesaba-Syndicate Trail, long since aban­ Company, among others — but only low- doned. This road ran the full length of the grade ore was encountered. The property iron formation from Mesaba to the Dunka had been practically abandoned for many River; it was plainly discernible although years prior to the formation of the Mesabi somewhat grown over with brush. It crossed Syndicate. a small creek flowing between the camp In the summer of 1917 another fire passed and the barn just below the barn at a point through the country and burned all the where the water flowed over the taconite brush and down timber. This made ex­ to form a shallow ford. The bottom of the ploration and surveying very much easier, creek was yellow-brown in color from li- for after the fire it was possible to walk monitic deposits; hence the names Sulphur about almost any place on the property. By Creek, Sulphur Siding, and Sulphur Mine. burning away the overburden of moss and Just a few feet off the road and perhaps peat, the fire exposed great areas of tac­ twenty feet from the ford was the test pit onite, and it thus was a godsend to the ex­ made by Peter Mitchell in 1870. He went ploring and surveying crews. on foot from Beaver Bay in search of iron During the summers from 1916 through for a group known as the Ontonagon Pool. 1918, a number of diamond drills were LOG bunkhouse and engineering shack at Sidphur Siding, 1919

Autumn 1955 275 operating in the area, and Professors Frank spur of the Duluth and Iron Range Rail­ F. Grout and T. M. Broderick of the Min­ road that ran through to the Dunka River. nesota Geological Survey spent much time When the loaded cars reached the Duluth there. They described the work done then plant, the ore was dumped from a low in a Bulletin published in 1919.* trestle. It was picked up by hand and Away back there in the woods, seventeen loaded into one-ton tramcars which were miles from Mesaba, the nearest town — then hoisted and the ore dumped into a which could boast only a railroad station jaw crusher ten by twenty inches in size. The and a store or two — a lot of things hap­ crushed product went through a set of rolls pened. During 1917 and 1918, there were operating in closed circuit with a one-inch from fifteen to twenty men in the crew at screen, and the resulting material then the mine. They were a sturdy, irritable, passed through a second set of rolls work­ moody lot after living up there alone and ing in closed circuit with one-fourth inch isolated from the rest of the world, except screens of the Colorado impact type. for one train a week and a single wire The bits of ore that were less than one- telephone line that was usually out of com­ fourth inch in size went next to the storage mission. I remember our great excitement bin. From there they finally were sent to one day when Mr. Swart and two of the a wet grinding plant consisting of an eight- local crew came into camp in a Franklin foot by twenty-two-inch Hardinge conical that Mr. Swart supposedly had driven on ball mill which at first operated in closed the Syndicate Trail all the way from Me­ circuit with an Akins classifier. This was saba. I think it was the only car that ever later replaced with an Esperanza drag and negotiated that road. A few days later, then by a Dorr bowl-type classifier. I think when the train came in, the Franklin was this was one of the first bowl-type classifiers loaded on a flatcar for the return trip. As put into operation. The classifier overflow near as I could find out, the two men car­ went to two magnetic log washers measur­ ried the car with Mr. Swart in it most of ing two by fourteen feet each, and the the way up to camp. ' See Frank F. Grout and T, M, Broderick, The ORE PRODUCED at the Sulphur Mine Magnetite Deposits of the Eastern Mesabi Range (Minnesota Geological Survey, Bulletins, no. 17 — was hauled to Mesaba over an old logging Minneapolis, 1919). Ed.

^ WALTER Swart, s second from the left, c arid his Franklin c at the end of the trail

•w**m^ir *-5?:*-id» *?i«-**«a«.j«;ari concentrate from them was pumped into a single elevator — and it didn't, except in wooden storage bins which were expanded the sintering plant. as they filled up. The tailings from the plant The original dry cobbers were Ball-Nor­ flowed by gravity into a swamp at the edge ton machines. For the coarser sizes, these of Duluth Harbor. were not strong enough, and we had to As it eventually worked out, the opera­ rebuild and eventually completely redesign tion of the pilot plant was largely under them. Mr. Swart brought from New Jersey my direction. The operations at the mine the plan for cobbing out waste rock up to were under Mr. Jordan's direction, and Mr. two inches in size. Later, I went to Mine- Counselman worked as Mr. Swart's assistant vflle. New York, to see a dry cobbing plant in the Duluth office. in operation, but I couldn't see much of We were instructed to work out a flow anything because of the dust.° sheet for a commercial plant to produce The production of waste rock to be concentrate assaying sixty per cent iron. used in making concrete was a basic con­ During the wartime summer of 1918, how­ sideration in all programs for a larger plant ever, we were asked to produce as much at Sulphur. Very elaborate tests were made low-phosphorus concentrate as possible and to determine the amount of rock of varying ship it to the Midvale Steel and Ordnance sizes that could be produced at various iron Company at Nicetown, Pennsylvania, for assays. Complete cobbing characteristic use in making steel for the noses of armor- curves were worked out and, eventually, piercing projectiles. From one location. Cliff formulas were developed that could be used Quarry on the formation east of Sulphur, to calculate the amount of rock that should concentrate could be made containing less be cobbed out to produce maximum overall than one one-hundredth of one per cent profit. All this was done on the assumption phosphorus. In all, approximately two thou­ that the rock could be sold at prices varying sand tons of sinter were shipped. The sin­ from twenty-five to fifty cents per ton. The tering plant was a homemade affair and sintered concentrate was to be sold as "Old its operation was very difficult. It was a Range Bessemer," and with the premium cross between the Greenawalt and the was priced at about five dollars per ton at Dwight and Lloyd systems; that is, three- the mines. foot-square pans were equipped with We had a lot of trouble with the grind­ wheels and were then moved around an oval ing circuit in the Duluth mill. The ore was track. slime-free, heavy, and settled rapidly, and In the Duluth mill we learned a lot of the Akins classifier broke down so often that things about the concentration of magnetic we finally had to take it out. We got enor­ taconite. We found out for certain that the mous circulating loads with the Akins, but rock was hard. We broke everything about the overflow was so erratic that we never the jaw crusher except the flywheel. The knew what to expect. rolls wore badly; the shells became so All during the Duluth operation, we were grooved that the corrugations touched, and striving to make a density classification. It the circulating loads over the screens were was not until the last few months that we excessive. The circuits were closed with gave this up. In the meantime, J. V. N. dry-bucket elevators and these were very Dorr, Robert McAffee, J. R. Ramsay, and troublesome. Later, when the Babbitt plant A. L. Blomfield all came out to help operate was built, we vowed that it would not have the new bowl classifier, which was sup­ posed to be the final answer to our classi­ 'This was a dry plant. It was in charge of Jo­ fier problems. It was, however, far from seph Linney, father of Robert Linney, who now satisfactory, and finally Mr. Blomfield, who is manager of operations for the Reserve Mining Company's plant at Silver Bay. designed and built the first machine at the

Autumn 1955 277 Golden Cycle plant in Colorado, went home over the hill, it started to snow. The farther in disgust. Although we used demagnetizer we went, the worse it snowed. We even­ coils, 1 feel now that we were not getting tually got stuck and had a hard time push­ proper demagnetization. We finally cut out ing and pulling the car in order to turn it the whole central portion of the bowl and around so that it was headed back toward used just a straight Dorr classifier with an Duluth. We finally returned to Duluth wet enlarged overflow. When we finafly learned and about frozen. Apparently the poor to overflow at a density of about seven per Swede never did know what it was all cent solids, the outfit worked pretty well — about, because he would never get into the at least it worked continuously. car again. He always rode the streetcars, As I think of the Duluth mill, it seems for he knew where they were going. that most of the time we were either work­ For test purposes, we had a three- by ing with, or arguing about, the classifiers. three-foot Oliver drum filter. It was sup­ When the classifier did not operate prop­ posed to take the log concentrate at about erly, it was hard to do much experimenting ten per cent solids and make a dry filter on any of the other equipment. The e.xperts cake without overflowing. It did none of kept telling us that the classifier should these things. When we finally put the log operate at twenty to twenty-five per cent concentrate into a thickener, and fed the solids, and they produced data to prove it. filter at fifty per cent solids, it did much But we could not hold it there for long, and better. when we used more water, the magnetic It seems strange now, as I look back at logs were flooded. The logs did not work the Duluth mill, that although we had all very well anyway; theff capacity was low. the necessary equipment in our hands, we Then, for some reason, we thought we never got it working together in the right should make a log tailing containing one flow sheet. Three preconceived ideas, all per cent or less of ffon in the form of mag­ false, caused much of the confusion. First, netite, while at the same time we made a we believed that the classifier overflow ten per cent magnetic iron tailing in the should consist of twenty to twenty-five per dry plant. It was a long time before we cent solids; second, we thought the wet learned the desirability of thickening the plant tailings should contain under one per classifier overflow. Until this was done, we cent of magnetic iron; and third, we be­ could not operate both the grinding circuit lieved there was a market for the rock and the magnetic circuit efficiently. cobbed out in the dry plant.® If I had been I remember a man by the name of Dutton smart enough, I could have easily corrected who had the agency in this country for the two of these erroneous procedures myself, Grondal magnetic separators. He offered to but the third was a management error. put one in our plant alongside the magnetic We did, however, learn a few things. We logs. This was done and he got a man from foimd out how to magnetize and demagnet­ Sweden to come over and help us run it. ize the ore, but we never put this informa­ The visitor could not speak English, so we tion to proper use and, therefore, never got had a hard time discussing anything with the proper value from it. We learned that him. the size distribution of balls in the mill was One afternoon Mr. Swart drove out to critical, but discarded any idea of ball ra­ the plant and suggested that we take our tioning because we thought small balls were Swedish expert up on the range and show far too expensive. We never considered any- him the mine. We tried to explain to him where we were going and he seemed to un­ " Today we use seven per cent solids and four derstand, so we all got into the car and per cent magnetic iron, and we have learned that the rock cobbed out cannot be sold because it is started. It was in the fall, and after we got too heavy.

278 MINNESOTA History thing but casl-iron balls. I remember mak­ ing some tests that showed surprisingly good results with a synthetic charge using balls no larger than two inches in size. Al­ though balls of this size are now being used, the tests were only of academic interest at the time. We developed the wet-drum cob­ ber, but never though of a rubber cover. Therefore, we were so concerned about wear that we never used the cobber prop­ erly. We knew that the slime and the con­ centrate plugged up the filter cloth, but we never thought of removing the slime by classification. We investigated sintering very carefully and learned that we needed nine per cent moisture and seven per cent coal in the sintering mixture. We did not, however, recognize the importance of maintaining ARGO Township and the Babbitt Area these proportions accurately and consistent­ ly. The value of coarse sinter returns was plant sites, taking into consideration water not recognized, but we did learn that the supply, tailing disposal, and mining loca­ sinter should be cooled slowly and not tions. The selection of a mining location quenched. was comparatively simple. The quality of The cost of the Duluth plant and its three the taconite, the depth of stripping, and the years of operation from July, 1916, to Jan­ accessibility to the railroad all pointed fa­ uary, 1919, amounted to about five hundred vorably toward an area just east of the old thousand dollars. Perhaps this was a high Mitchell pit. price to pay for the information we gath­ The selection of a millsite was not so ered, but at least the money was not afl lost. easy. Some half-dozen locations were stud­ ied and some were surveyed. In those ALTHOUGH 1 left the Mesabi Syndicate in days, we thought we had to have a good December, 1918, to return to the Mines hillside location, and this was not easy to Experiment Station, 1 still acted as a con­ find near the mine. The Dunka River was sultant for the syndicate and spent much accepted as the source of water, and a site time at Duluth and Sulphur. During 1919 for a dam was selected near a possible mill- things were pretty dead, but in 1920 the site several miles east of Sulphur on the decision was made to build a plant near the old logging spur. mine. The old Mesabi Syndicate, which had Mr. Jackling came up in his private car, been organized to provide money for the named the "Cypress,'' and after looking over experimental plant at Duluth, was dis­ some of the proposed plant locations, im­ solved and the contributors were given pre­ mediately selected a new site on the north ferred stock in the Mesabi Iron Company. side of the formation, where the present This was later recalled and common stock mill buildings stand. Water was to be se­ was issued in its place. cured primarily from Birch Lake, about two The first step toward building the new miles away. A dam across Sulphur Creek plant was the organization of a drafting and a pumping station at Iron Lake were crew, which was installed at Sulphur in a to form auxiliary water supplies. A townsite new building erected near the old office. was selected and the construction of a new Quite a study had been made of available office building was started in the early

Autumn 1955 279 sprffig of 1920.^ To begin work the car­ hundred men, a store operated by a man penters walked across the ice of a swamp from Moose Mountain named C. B. Mar­ and lake that had formed behind a small shall, a hospital with Dr. Paul D. McCarty stripping dam across Sulphur Creek. The in charge, a dormitory for about twenty-five new town was to be called Argo, suggesting men, and a sort of community hall, which the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, was used as a church on Sundays and for but postal authorities found another town dancing and moving pictures during the of that name in the state.^ The name was week. then changed to Babbitt, for Judge Kumal I remember when the community hall R. Babbitt of New York City, who had been was given its grand opening one Saturday an associate of Mr. Jackling and Mr. Hay­ night. The boys had organized an orchestra den and who had recently died.' I well and the ladies had prepared a lunch. Mrs. remember Mr. Jackling's visits and how Swart, who was a stanch Baptist, told aU much impressed I was at first by his im­ the women in camp that she did not want portance. He always had a secretary at his dancing since church services were to be heels and a messenger to bring telegrams held in the hall for the first time on the to him wherever he was. He criticized vio­ following day. But she forgot to tell my lently nearly everything he saw and was wffe, who was a visitor, and she forgot to even critical of people, including Mr. Swart tell Mr. Swart. When the music started, Mr. and Fred Jordan. Mr. Counselman and I Swart began dancing with Mrs. Davis and, didn't count. of course, the whole crowd took it up. After The drafting crew, increased in size, was a while, Mr. Swart looked up and said, moved to Babbitt in 1920. George Des Bri- "Where's Mrs. Swart?" Someone said she say was in charge, but Ben Mitchell was had gone home quite a while before. Mr. sent from Salt Lake City, Utah, as a con­ Swart grabbed his hat and left, but the sultant by Mr. Jackling. As soon as the of­ dancing went right on. fice was completed, bunkhouses were built Ted Counselman was in charge of the for the crew. A large star-shaped eating metallurgical operation in the plant, and house that could accommodate several hun­ shortly after the work started, he became dred men also was erected. The railroad the proud father of twins — the first white was extended across the formation to Bab­ children born in the town of Babbitt. It bitt, and actual construction on the new was a great occasion. The Counselman mill started in the summer of 1920. It was mansion became something of a show place. completed and the first sinter produced in July, 1922. ' This was the beginning of the old town of Bab­ Fred Jordan not only supervised the con­ bitt on the south slope of the Granite Ridge. A struction program, but was also in charge valley to the north of the ridge is the site of the of the operation of the whole project after new town of the same name. Between them, on the north slope of the ridge, is the Reserve Mining it was completed. Bill Mudge was mine Company's plant, on the same site as the original superintendent. He had about ten electri­ plant. Ed. cally operated churn drills and one two- ° The earher village of Argo is in Winona Coun­ yard steam shovel. The ore was hauled to ty. The name has been used in St. Louis County to designate a lake south of the original townsite the mill in side-dump cars, using steam of Babbitt, the township in which old Babbitt is locomotives. The stripping from the mine located, and a village on the Duluth and Iron was used to build a dam across Sulphur Range Railroad. Ed. ° Judge Babbitt, who died on February 15, 1920, Creek to impound water for the mill. was general counsel for and a director of several At that time, the town consisted of about mining companies. Before removing to New York fifteen houses, all on the old Babbitt site. in 1908, he practiced law in Colorado at Aspen, Cripple Creek, and Colorado Springs. Who Was Included were a bunkhouse for several Who in America, 40 (Chicago, 1942). Ed.

280 MINNESOTA HistOTy BUILDING operations e. at Babbitt in February, 1920

for the Counselmans not only had twins but through to Babbitt, Oscar decided to take a washing machine. a trip. With some money obtained by sell­ We had lots of excitement in Babbitt. ing his rifle, be was going to Faribault to There was the night when a couple of visit his daughter, whom be had not seen strangers stopped at the bunkhouse and for seventeen years. He had not been far­ started a card game. They were not doing ther from the Dunka than Mesaba in that so well and toward morning they held up whole time. I rode with him on the bus as the place. An old Swedish carpenter quietly far as Duluth and left him at the station got his rifle, and when the strangers left, there with a ticket to Faribault clutched he followed them outside. They began firmly in his band. About a week later, I shooting at him with revolvers, but be learned that Oscar was back in Babbitt, calmly spotted one of them behind a log, mad as he could be. It seems that he bad shot right through the log, and killed the spent all bis money to go and see his daugh­ man. That was the first death in Babbitt. ter, and when be got to Faribault he found The other would-be robber then gave up. that she had been dead for eight years. During the construction period, Mr. During the construction period, it was Swart's only daughter, Molly, was married very hard to keep men in camp. The turn­ on the coldest day I remember up there. over was terrific — about twenty-five per The temperature was twenty-five below cent each week. When the weekly train zero, and a strong wind was blowing. It came in on Saturday, a hundred men would was one of the few days that winter when get on and another hundred new men re­ the steel construction gang did not work. cruited in Duluth would get off. Mr. Jack­ The wedding was the first, and perhaps the ling was very abusive about this. I heard only one, ever to take place in the old town him say, "Give them strawberries and cream of Babbitt. if they want it." It was bad. The work was But the prize story was one about Oscar behind schedule and was still slowing down Anderson. I was in on only a part of it, when suddenly everything became calm but that part is good enough because it and peaceful and the turnover dropped to shows the kind of people who spend their comparatively nothing. We all kept our lives in these remote spots. Oscar was an mouths shut and our fingers crossed, but old trapper who had lived near the Dunka Mrs. Swart somehow discovered the reason River for many years. One day after a road and immediately notified the authorities in from the Embarrass-Ely highway was put Ely. They went over to the mouth of the

Autumn 1955 281 Dunka, chased two Finlanders and their the quarry, the rock broke into large pieces flock of girls away, destroyed the liquor and much mudcapping was requffed. In and gambling equipment, and burned the the crushing plant, the gyratory crushers cabins there. After that, the turnover went gave constant trouble, principally because back to normal. I'll bet you can still follow the shafts broke. In the roll plant, the dust the trail the men made to the Dunka. It was terrific, and constant attention was was four feet wide and packed hard as a needed to keep the roll shells from corru­ pavement. gating. In the fine-grinding plant, the pipe launders got out of line and the couplings IN THE early spring of 1921, when the broke. In the concentration plant, the wet Babbitt plant was about half finished, I re­ cobbers frequently became grounded, and ceived from Clement K. Quinn and Com­ pieces of wood and other foreign materials pany, sales agents for the Mesabi sinter, an bent the copper spirals in the magnetic log ore sales book showing the grade of ore washer. Filter cloths had to be changed al­ the Mesabi Iron Company would have most continually because they clogged up avaflable. I was much surprised to find that with slime, and the plan of mixing the sin­ Mesabi sinter was being advertised for sale tering fuel in the filter was found to be at an analysis of sixty-four per cent iron and very questionable. The inclined Dwight and nine per cent silica. We had never made Lloyd sintering machine broke down almost any concentrate of that grade, let alone daily, and the dust loss through the fan sinter, and the plant under construction was was excessive. not designed to produce sinter averaging The plant was built with the idea that better than sixty-one per cent iron and four­ the coarse rock consisting of particles up teen per cent silica. to two inches in size, cobbed out in the I immediately went to Babbitt and ques­ roll plant, would be sold for making con­ tioned Mr. Swart. He informed me that an crete at an average price of twenty-five investigation of the market for iron ore cents a ton at the mine. It was soon learned showed that it would be necessary to get that the rock was so heavy — about one and the silica down to nine per cent in the one-half times the weight of gravel —that sinter. I told him I knew of no way to do no one wanted to use it. Consequently, this this, but he said that they would have to source of revenue vanished. The plan had reduce capacities, grind finer, and make been to cob out a third of the rock at a this grade. magnetic iron assay of ten per cent. This The Babbitt plant was designed to pro­ cobbing continued all during the operation duce about five hundred tons of sinter a of the plant, but since the rock could not be day. I have definite records of the first few sold it represented a net loss of iron units months' operation, because the university and money. and I were sharing a royalty of one cent I have always felt that the failure of the per ton for the magnetic separators. The Babbitt plant to continue in operation figures are as follows: September, 1922 — should be blamed, in the last analysis, on 5,807 tons; October - 4,369 tons; Novem­ bad judgment. Certainly there were mistakes ber— 499 tons; December — 6,755 tons. I in the flow sheet, in the plant design, in the have no record of the analysis, but would equipment, and in the operating methods, expect it to be between sixty and sixty-one but these could have been ironed out and per cent iron. The struggle to make a high­ many of them are to be expected in any er grade product than the plant was de­ new plant. The one really bad mistake, signed to produce was largely responsible however, was our failure to realize that our for the low production rate. final concentrate would have to contain not Of course, other difficulties occurred. In more than nine per cent silica. Mr. Swart

282 MINNESOTA HistOTy was new in the iron ore business — as new livered supplies were not even taken into as I was —but be was in constant touch the warehouse from the loading platform, with the Duluth crowd and various con­ Mr, Swart was a grand person, but he suming organizations. Fred Jordan had ac­ was a born optimist. He mortgaged every­ tually been making and selling Moose thing he had — even bis life insurance — to Mountain briquets. Nevertheless, the nine buy Mesabi Iron Company stock at eight per cent silica requffement was not recog­ dollars a share, (This stock is now selling nized until the plant was half completed. for more than forty dollars a share,) Mr, The plant did produce sixty per cent sinter Hayden turned over a thousand shares each with fifteen per cent silica quite easily. The to Mr. Jordan, Mr, Counselman, and myself. secondary crushing equipment could have We thought it was a gift for meritorious been redesigned or changed. Coarse cob­ service or something similar, until we began bing could have been eliminated, and the to receive bills when the plant closed down, sintering machine could have been rebuilt. Fred never did pay. He was working for With these changes and more operating ex­ the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company perience, I believe sixty per cent iron sinter at the time he died. He was exactly Mr. could have been made for three dollars Swart's age, but seemed much younger. per ton. So ends the first chapter ffi the history If Mr. Hayden, who was a director in of taconite development. Now — thirty-five many large companies, had had greater years later —the second chapter is being faith, I am sure that he could have disposed written at Babbitt and Silver Bay. of the sinter for enough to cover expenses. The plant could then have remained in op­ THE PICTURES appearing with this article are eration long enough to develop a new flow from the collection of the Mines Experiment Sta­ sheet to produce sixty-four per cent iron, Mr, tion at the University of Minnesota. That on page Hayden, however, took the position that he 271 is used with the permission of the Reserve Mining Company. The station received those on had done all he could properly do in pro­ pages 274 and 275 from T. R. Counselman, that viding the money. It was now up to the on page 276 from Mrs, Walter Swart, and that on management to begin paying dividends. page 283 from Clyde M. Pearce, All were made available through the courtesy of Mr, Henry H, There was only one answer to that, and the Wade and Miss Mildred Aim, The maps were plant was shut down so fast that newly de­ prepared by Chet Kozlak of the society's staff.

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