At one time, especially in the early 1900's, Crittenden County had numerous fluor spar, zinc and lead mines. They were especially many located all along one of the faults that went through southern Crittenden County. One of them of the Riley Mine. Here is an interested article that appeared in The Crittenden Press, June 29, 1905 (used with permission)
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Located three miles west
of Frances on Claylick Creek was the Riley Mine. From the archives of
The Crittenden Press let's read about the new Riley mine just being
finished in 1905. June 29, 1905 -The Great Riley Mine.
A scene of activity and
life, with a shaft 174 feet deep and fine mineral being taken out,
lead 98 per cent pure.
Very few people of
Marion are aware that one of the best-concentrated zinc plants in
this country is in two hours ride by buggy of this city. Scarcely a
dozen miles to the southwest of Marion on the borders of this county,
with only a creek intervening between it and our rich sister county
of Livingston lies the Marion Zinc Company's Riley mine.
The concentrating plant
is on an eminence several hundred feet above the territory
surrounding it and here the shaft, 174 feet deep has been sunk, and
around about it has been erected a plant the equal of any in America.
No money has been spared
in the selection of the equipment. In the boiler and engine room,
which covers an area of 50 feet long, 40 feet wide, 2 great steam
boilers of 200 horse power capacity have been placed and their stacks
reach high in the air and can be seen for miles around. They are of
the best make obtainable, one being built by the John H. Bass Foundry
Co., of Ft. Wayne, the other big boiler and the 80 h.p. engine were
built by the Brownell Co., Dayton, Ohio. It seems to have been the
aim of the management to get the best of everything.
One hoisting engine is
the elevator of the Freeman pattern; another in the foundry is of the
Fairbanks Morse type. The three crushers and boilers were built at
Cartersville, Mo.
The shaft is a double
compartment 174 feet deep, 8x12 feet, one of which is used for the
ladder, pump and steam pipe for running mining drills, two of which
are in the shaft and are of the Sullivan type, the best known for
deep mining. The hoisting plant is 75 feet above ground.
The heavy timbers used
in holding the elevator and in lining the shaft look as if they were
put there to last a generation, all the work shows plainly it was put
there for permanency; nothing cheap or secondary has been used in the
construction.
The plant also has a
workshop 25 feet square equipped with all kind of machinery necessary
for repairing and putting in mining machinery.
One feature of the plant
is the reservoirs, two of which are located at the mill on the hill,
and one in the creek with a depth of 9 feet, which the two steam
pumps throw the water to the reservoirs on the hill.
At present hundred of
tons of ore rough, are on the dumps and many tons of crushed ore and
concentrates.
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