Mining Industry
Although Brigham Young called individuals to set up mining operations or participate in mining precious ores, the general attitude of the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was to focus on farming and to avoid the evils that often accompanied mining settlements. That being said, members of the Church of Jesus Christ who participated in the Mormon Battalion, were also involved as skilled laborers at the time of gold discovery at Sutter's Mill.[1] About one hundred former battalion members hired on to earn money for the trip to join their families in Utah and further east. Young sent several men on a one-year “Gold Mission,” the proceeds of which were intended to benefit the Church.[2] President Young “recognized the need for gold to facilitate trade and the purchase of goods not produced in the Rocky Mountains.” As much as one hundred thousand dollars in gold came into the Salt Lake Valley from 1848 to 1851, “providing gold backing for the Mormon money-system and the ‘foreign exchange’ needed for economic expansion.”[3] Certainly the miner’s understanding of the techniques of extracting precious metals were used later in the Church’s Iron Mission and Lead Mining Mission.
Minersville, a town in southeastern Beaver County, Utah, was settled in 1859 at the direction of Brigham Young so that a lead mine could be operated on the site where Jesse N. Smith and three others including Isaac Grundy[4] had found lead in 1858. The first specimens they sent to Brigham Young contained lead, silver, zinc, and copper. Lead could be used for bullets, paint, printing, and leaded glass.[5]
The miners laid out a townsite, built a lead smelter, and began supplying lead to the territory. However, they encountered opposition from the local farmers who were concerned that the mining operations would injure farming operations.
Later, the mines in the area would become the first silver mining operations within the current boundaries of the state of Utah and some of the earliest in the West. The first Mormon miners attempted to develop silver finds in the early 1860s, before significant numbers of non-Mormon, or Gentile, prospectors entered the territory.
Lead ore was also discovered by an American Indian on April 19, 1856, in the vicinity of the Old Las Vegas Mission and led to Nathaniel V. Jones[6] being sent to set up a lead mining mission approximately 35 miles southwest of the fort. President Young felt that the lead mining was important to make bullets for hunting and protection from a possible invasion. Unfortunately, the ore was of poor quality and the venture proved unprofitable.
Due to conflicts of authority that arose between the two missions, other problems with the natives, and discouragement among the brethren, President Young made the decision to close the two missions. In his words he described that “this station becomes an expense to the kingdom, and as at present seems, not to add any honey to the hive.”[7]
The development of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 elevated Utah’s mining efforts from small-scale activity to larger commercial enterprises. Mining of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc continued into the 1900s in Utah, although it was not directed by leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ.
