Gold Mines in Missouri

A gentleman from Madison County, informs the St. Louis Democrat, that what promises to be the richest gold mine ever heard of, has just been discovered, and is creating quite an excitement.

It is situated thirty miles from Pilot Knob, running due north and south, and being in extent eight feet wide by two hundred yards long, according to traces of the surface.

Many experiments have  been made and gold extracted in proportion of one-third of one per cent.—about $1200 to the ton.

It is exceedingly difficult of extraction, requiring; expensive chemical processes, and the expense of working the mines will be very large.

Forty acres of ground, including this supposed gold mine, were purchased recently by two persons, for the sum of eighty dollars.

Philadelphia Inquirer - April 2, 1861

Large Deposits of Tin

Large deposits of tin ore have been discovered in Missouri.

They are very rich and are in Madison County.

Lowell Daily Citizen and News - August 8, 1867

Nickel and Cobalt for Ships

Every battle ship made in the United States must draw upon Missouri for part of its material.  Down in Madison County is the famous mine La Motte, which furnished nickel and cobalt necessary in the construction of the modern ironclad vessel.

There are not other nickel and cobalt bearing mines in this country in operation.  It would be indeed  the irony of fate if the property which was once owned and operated by Spain should now supply the material most necessary in the structure of the warships built to fight her.

Mine La Motte is said to be the oldest mine in the United States.  For over a century it has been turning out about the same amount of mineral.

When it was first opened what is now the state of Missouri was then a Spanish possession.

 It is rich in the quality of nickel required in the manufacture of armor plating.  Manufacturers find it necessary in the composition of the Harveyized steel used on the ships, and to long as that quality of armor plate is used so long will the state continue to be represented in the manufacture of our navy.

New Haven Register - April 20, 1898 

Wonderful Lead Mines  

Madison County

Missourians will be interested in the letter which appears in today’s issue describing the wonderful lead mines in Madison County.  One of these mines was opened nearly 200 years ago and still bears the names of its discoverer.

For more than 60 years one of these historic mines has produced 500 tons of lead ore annually and today 250 men are employed in working it.  Quarries of sandstone, limestone and granite are numerous in Madison County.  Lead and copper can be found in many places.  Silver mines have been worked to a limited extent.  The forests abound in fine timber.

Yet, with all these other advantages agriculture is the leading industry.

Madison is indeed a remarkable county and the capitalists will not much longer overlook it.  The letter which the Republic publishes today is a condensation of many features, each of which could be elaborated into a longer article than is published. 

Southeast Missouri is as inviting a land for the home seeker as can be found on the globe.  Madison is one of its most attractive counties.

St. Louis Republic – February 12, 1896\

Hon. L. F. Linn - Mine La Motte   

We are indebted to the Hon. L. F. Linn, for an interesting pamphlet in relation to the well known La Motte Mines of Madison County, and State of Missouri.

It has long been to us a subject of astonishment that the mineral region has not attracted more attention; but we believe that the time is not far off when its immense value will be appreciated and understood.

Iron, lead, and even copper, are found in immense quantities in the southern part of this State, and large supplies of these metals are yet to be exported from Missouri to the different sections of the Union.

Thousands of individuals are yet to be enriched from these treasures; and we know of no fairer field for enterprise, and of nothing which would give to the capitalist a richer return for all investments.

The La Motte Mines are distance about four miles from the St. François River, upon a small stream emptying into the same, and are about thirty miles from Ste. Genevieve.

Mr. Joseph D. Villars, former agent for the proprietors, certifies that the average amount of lead smelted or manufactured, may be estimated at one million thirty five thousand eight hundred and twenty pounds of lead annually, giving to the proprietors a profit to the amount of one hundred and three thousand five hundred and eighty two pounds of lead annually.

The number of hands engaged in the manufacture of said lead, in all its various branches, from the digging to the smelting, was one hundred and fifty.  

Mr. Villars says that his opinion, in  relation to the above facts, were predicated upon daily experience, and from information as agent of the late proprietors, the duties and responsibilities of which office required him to ascertain the amount of lead annually manufactured, and the number of operatives engaged.

Mr. Featherstoghaugh, in his geological report upon Missouri says,

"In various quarries at Mine La Motte, especially those which go by the name of Mine La Prairie, where more than half an acre of ground has been uncovered to the depth of twenty feet, the sulphured of lead is not only seen roaming horizontally in hard complete veins in the caleareosilisious rock, but it sometimes is determine for a great extent in specks, through the rocks, affording to the eyes sufficient proof that the steay and metallic matter was deposited at the same time; for it either of them were abstracted, no principle of adhesion would be left for the remaining material; occasionally the rock changes its character, becoming either calearious or silieious altogether, and, indeed, the structure differs so much as to be semenmes hard, sometimes soft, sometimes granular; sometimes emaepnet.  Sometimes a bed of sand some 3 feet thick will lie upon a seam of bright mineral, 6 inches or a foot  thick, though more generally it is much thinner and ---- that plate.  I have however, seen it in veins of 2 feet thick.  The deepest digging or quarring I observed at this place, did not exceed 25 feet.  They had not yet been a regularly system of sinking shafts and cutting out dimites; but no ---- this will soon be done as both the public and private lands around the while region of Mine La Motte are, in my estimation, underlaid by rich veins of Galena, that descends very deep towards the central parts of the earth.  The supplified indicate that of this mine unerring."

Daily Commercial Bulletin - September 6, 1838

Home