Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1966 A Historical Study of Silver Reef: Southern Utah Mining Town Alfred Bleak Stucki Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the History Commons, and the Mormon Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Stucki, Alfred Bleak, "A Historical Study of Silver Reef: Southern Utah Mining Town" (1966). Theses and Dissertations. 5151. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5151 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. A historical STSTUDYY OF SILVER FMFREEF southasouthxbouthernSOUTHERN UTAH MINING TOWN 170 i A thesis presented to the faculty of the department of history brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of arts by alfred bleak stucki august 1966 lililllii acknowledgments the author wishes to express his sincere appreciation to those people who have assisted inthein the preparation of thisthesisthisthib thesis professors eugene EX campbell and bussell ER rich have been helpful in offering encouragement and criticism and in various otherwaysgivingother vaysways giving assistance the author Is also indebted to professor george M addy and his wife caroline for their valuable assistance in reading the drafts and in giving suggestions the writer Is indebtedted to the late mrs marietta mariger for the loloanioan10 of pictures and other material from her private collection to one other person who assisted in the preparation of this work the author Is especially grateful my wife ruthrulhbuth has criticized the pages as they have been written typed the several drafts and in other ways contributed to the completion of this thesis TTABLEABLE OF CONTENTS page acknowledgments iiiilllillii LIST OF illustrations vlvi introduction 1 chapter I1 THE background OF SILVERSILVEBBEEF 0 0 0 0 Is 0 a 3 locality and description 3 climate 5 historical background 5 background of mining 7 IIJI11 THE harrisburg MINING DISTRICT 11 union mining district 13 harrisburg mining district 14 the coming of william tecumseh barbee 18 22 the mines 0 0 0 the coming of the mills 25 additional mills 0 10 6 0 0 ad4d 29 REEF Q a 0 0 5131 liililIII111 SILVER REW 0 0 0 0 0 0 the pioche stampede 31 development of silver reefbeef 39 400 silver reefbeef miner 0 0 0 e 422 the great fire 0 f 0 e 0 0 china town 0 0 0 0 0 433 the catholic church 46 protestant religionsBellglonsions 50 mormon church activitiesactivitavit ileesys7sa 2 public school 53 0 social life11fe 0 55 antisocialanti social problems 58 stories and legends 0 & a 65 MORMONMOBMOH 1NS IV GENTILE relationsRELATICBEIATIONS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 69 mormon soca 0 0 0 0 mormongentilegentile socialsoc1 al lationsrelationseelationsEe 0 0 0 0 77 dis mormongentilemormon e 0 0 0 gentile political arobleprobleproblemnis 0 77 V ECONOMIC ASPECTS 01OF THE MINES 0 0 0 4 0 9 & e 86 the genesis of silver sandstonsandstone 0 0 87 economic problems Is 0 88 the fault theory 0 0 G 0 0 0 89 labor and wages 93 the strike 949 production 99 1 woolley lund and judd 1010292 attempts to revive silver reefbeef 103 economic effects on southern utah loh104104 conclusions 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 a 0 0 0 6 0 0 6 0 0 0 a 0 107 bibliography 0 if 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 110 APPENDIX A history of the companies 16 0 0 117 A B 10 10 Is APPENDIX political ralliesralraiBalliesiles6 0 0 0 0 0 0 a 4 0 0 0 123 APPENDIX C silver reefbeef business poem 126 APPENDIX D pictures of silver reefbeef 130 APPENDIX E maps and charts & 0 0 133 vlvi LIST OF illustratiobsillustrations FIGIMFIGUBB PACMPAGEE 1 buckeye reefeeefbeef shown as faulted off from the white reefbeef 90 2 silver beef miners engraving presentingrepresentingBe gibson clark 92 3 value of sliversilverproduced at silver beef by year 99 4 silver reefbeerbeefreer 130 5 center street business district 130 6 west street silver beef 131 7 wells fargo building silver reefbeef 131 8 barbee and walker mill 132 9 stormont mill on the virgin riverbiver 0 0 0 132 10 silver reefbeerbeefreer plat 0 0 4 0 4 9 13134 11 location of mines of sliversilverbeef 0 13613 map 12 of washington county 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 137 introduction while a number of short articles and histories of silver beef have been written they tend either to be anecdotal in character or to emphasize the merely sensational aspects of the mining camp these writings have failed to investigate some of the most basic sources of information concerning this highly interestinginterestingminingmining epic in southern utah therefore there remains a real need for a thoroughly researched and documenteddocumdockum ntedanted history of silver reefbeef a need that this thesis tries to meet comments about silver beef are scantly recorded in mormon pioneer diaries journals and records james G bleak mormon historian for the southern utah colonies makes only passing mention of the considerable gentile population in this isolated area the close contacts between the two peoples were real enough and could not be avoided thus they should not be igaignoredored however bleak probably considered silver beef not only outside his assignment but also outside his interests the silver reefbeef boom was only a passing episode which lay priprimarilyilyllyoutside the pioneers goals and dreamdreams nevertheless valuable information has been gleaned from mormon sources although even modern mormon writers have ignored or minimized the mormongentilemormon gentile conflicts of silver beef perhaps to avoid embarrassment on either side EeBe searchbearchresearch has revealrevealedrevealednoednono personal records of the miners deposited in libraries and archives in utah but further investigation if possible amongst privatelyprivatelyownedowned papers may uncover such records however it is likely that they are sparse 2 although the writer has been able to find few personal records relating to sliversilverbeef a wealth oformationformation informationormationmatlonhas been found in new- spapers and mining journals the silver beef echo and the silver reefbeefreey miner newspapers printed in the town have been most valuable sources because in that era of personal noholdsbarredno holds barred journalism they show much flavor and feeling that Is absent in modern periodicals the plochepiocherecordbecord of nevada filled in many items that trantranspiredired before the silver reefbeef papers were established A few residents of silver reefbeef and leeds have written articles of considerable value to this writer as were also the interviews with a number of persons who lived at silver reefbeef the harrisburg mining district records have disclosed pertinent information concerning the origin of the mines with the above brief introduction to the problem then this thesis attempts to present a social political and economic history of the boom years of silver reefbeefbeeyreey with special attention to the situation of a nonnonmormonmormon community surrounded by a mormon pioneer population CHAPMCHAFTEB I1 THE background OF SILVER BEEFIME during the brief period between 1876 and 1890 silver reefbeef was considered one of the most lively mining camps in utah the story of 1500 hardy miners and camp followers locating in an isolated mormon area is noteworthy in the annalsenneisannaennes of southern utah history locality and description silver beef is situated in washington county southwestern utah about two miles north of the little farming community of leeds and eighteen miles northeast of ststo georgegeorgeo it can be reached by leaving interstate highway 15 just north of leeds only two habitable buildings stand today in this ghost town the ricebice building and the stately old wells fargo building many rock foundations of the business district of the once bustling mining camp have survived although time has almost obliterated the streetsstrestreetsoetso the town whose streets were paved by nature was built on a bouldercoveredboulder covered ridge it is located at an elevation approximapproximatelytely 40004j000wooo feet just north of the ghost town is the beautiful blue pine valley mountain rising some 1032410 324324.324 feet above sea level capped by more than 3000 feet of benlbenisemibemi crystaline material trachyte porphyry which once was molten lava 1 about four miles south of silver beef is the arthur PF bruhn your guide to southern utahs land of color salt lake city wheelright lithographing company 1952 p 343 see map of washington county utah appendix E 0 4 virgin riverbiver running in a southwestern direction the silversilverbearingbearing sandstones of the area in a geological sense are among the most interesting mineral deposits ever discovered they contain the only known occurrence of mericalcommerlcalcommericalcom bodies of silver ore in sandstone in the united states 112 they also contain deposits of coppercoppery vanadium uranium and very small traces of gold bruhabrubabrubnbrxfltobruan states thatthattthats the silversilverbearingbearing sandstone of silver beef was exposed at the surface by the action of compressional forces which operated from the east and west in such a manner that the earths crust was bent upward in a magnificent fold or anticline 3 erosion has worn away the dome of this anticline leaving prominent hogbacks on either side this is known as the virgin