NATIONAL HISTORIC MINING INITIATIVE- 1989
Eric DeLony
Chief & Principal Architect
Historic American Engineering Record
National Park Service, Washington D.C.
The call for a National Historic Mining Initiative registers the concern of historians, archeologists and
preservationists for historic mining resources. The Death Valley Historic Mining Workshop revealed that
while archeological remains are extensive, little is left of the extant, surface structures of Western mining
operations–the head-frames, mills, cyanide plants and smelters that processed the ore extracted from
the ground. Historic mining structures are threatened with government-wide reclamation programs that
close abandoned mine openings and remove potential liabilities like the old mill buildings and headframes.
New mining activities are another threat to historic mining sites. With the price of gold as high
as $570 an ounce, and a leap in technology that makes it profitable to rework the tailings of the last gold
rush, dozens of mining companies have descended on the gold fields of the West in the 20th century
equivalent of the California Gold Rush.
The legacy of frontier-era legislation aimed at encouraging the settlement of the West, the General
Mining Law, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, has played a vital role in the development of
minerals essential to a modern industrial nation. Under the U8-year old law that governs the mining
of hard rock minerals–gold, silver, copper and many other ores–anyone who finds a valuable deposit
on federal lands is generally allowed to take it.
This legacy of “free access” is under increased scrutiny on Capitol Hill, where reformers and their
congressional allies have revived a decades-old struggle with the mining industry to scrap the law.
Conceived in an era of pick-and-shovel prospecting, the mining law now governs massive industrial
enterprises capable of remaking thousands of acres.
The Maritime Initiative might be the model for an Historic Mining Initiative. To focus the public’s
attention and target resources on America’s deteriorating maritime heritage, Congress launched the
Maritime Initiative in cooperation with the National Park Service, National Trust for Historic Preservation
and the maritime community in 1985. A similar initiative is needed to save historically significant mining
structures which are threatened with extinction over the next few years if something is not done.
Several participants at the workshop pointed out that the mining industry itself is proud of its tradition
and would cooperate and support efforts to save historic mining sites. It was suggested that the next
workshop, possibly called “Contemporary Mining in Historic Areas,” be cosponsored by the mining
industry or at least should incur its substantial involvement. Though invited, only one industry
representative was present at Death Valley.
Documentation was another subject discussed extensively at the workshop as it is the basis for sound
decision-making on what merits preservation. If a site cannot be saved, documentation insures that a
permanent record is available.
A pilot HAER historic mine recording project that demonstrates the process of documenting a mine site
was recommended at the workshop. Several National Park Service sites were selected for recording-Skidoo
Mine and the Keane-Wonder in Death Valley, Lost Horse Mill and the Wall Street Mill in Joshua
Tree National Monument, and the Mariscal Quick Silver Mine in Big Bend National Park in Texas.
None of these projects have been accomplished. On the private side, efforts will continue to develop cosponsors
to support HAER documentation of non-Park Service sites such as the National Historic
Landmark Anselmo Copper Mine in Butte, Montana, and portions of the Homestake mine and smelter
in Lead, South Dakota. Discussions were initiated with California State Park personnel to record state
owned historic mining resources in the Mother Lode region such as Bodie or the Empire Mines.
A mine, mill and smelter context needs to be addressed by most of the western mining states followed
by thematic studies that evaluate the extant sites. Other than South Dakota, few of the western states
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have completed baseline surveys of these sites. The State Historical Preservation Center and South
Dakota State Historical Society sponsored a workshop on historic mining resources in April 1987,
following its intensive survey of selected mining sites in the Black Hills gold fields.
These are the highlights of the Death Valley Workshop. The Workshop demonstrated the broad range
of expertise, the depth to which people are investigating mining resources, and the level of commitment
people showed for preserving, understanding, interpreting, and managing historic mining sites. Most of
the nearly one hundred participants of the Workshop left Death Valley with a better understanding of
the issues confronting hard-rock mining sites in the West. These proceedings reveal the issues and the
tools available to address them. Hopefully, this publication will stimulate debate on the need for a
Historic Mining Initiative and the strategies to save the physical remains of one of the most dramatic
themes in American history–hard-rock mining in the West.
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