THE IRON MOUNTAIN MINE: A SITE OVERVIEW.

Above: The Iron Mountain Mine; A Site Overview.

In 1865 Charles Camden located the first iron ore body upon Iron Mountain which gave its name to the mountain, a 3,600 ft. high mountain, situated in the West Shasta mining district of Shasta County, California. Over the years the property grew to contain the Brick Flat mine, the Complex mine, the Hornet mine, the Little Nelly mine, the Lost Confidence mine, the Mattie mine, the Minnesota mine, the No. 8 mine, the Old mine, and the Richmond mine. It became a celebrated lucrative producer within this county. Camden then went into partnership with Colonel William Magee, and they eventually brought on James M. Sallee as an owner with them after Sallee located an impressive ore body of silver upon the mountain. The nearby communities of Iron Mountain, Keswick, Matheson, South Park, and Taylor came into fruition due to the mine itself. The first year of production for this mine was in 1879 and the last year of production was in 1963. On September 8, 1983, the Iron Mountain mine became an EPA superfund site and is presently ranked as the third largest polluter in California. In 2010, the Iron Mountain Mine was labeled as a "Toxic Hellhole" by the San Francisco Gate media outlet. For more information, please see the attached YouTube video: "The Iron Mountain Mine; A Site Overview."

Resources: 

A Road to Shasta Would Pay - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, September 11, 1869

Iron, Mountain - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, October 21, 1871

Iron Mountain - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, April 2, 1881

Lost Confidence Mine - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, May 14, 1881

Iron Mountain - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, May 21, 1881

Iron Mountain - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, June 25, 1881

Iron Mountain - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, September 24, 1881

Rich Mineral Strike - The Record-Union newspaper of Sacramento, August 29, 1881

The Republican Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 8, 1885

Eleven Bars of Bullion - The Republican Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 17, 1887

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, December 7, 1895

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, December 14, 1895

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, January 11, 1896

Will Succeed Hill - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, May 1, 1897

Mines and Miners - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, May 4, 1897

South Park - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, July 22, 1897

Mail Route to Fielding - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, November 19, 1897

Aubury, Lewis E. The copper resources of California: California Mining Bureau Bulletin 23: 65. 1902

William McKendrick - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, December 25, 1903

William McKendrick - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, December 29, 1903

Mines and Mineral Resources of Shasta County, Siskiyou County, and Trinity County, by G. Chester Brown, ©1915 published by California State Printing Office.

Aerial Tramway to Be Built by Copper Company - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, April 30, 1921

Shipping 500 Tons of Ore Everyday - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, January 11, 1922

To Move Keswick P.O. To Matheson - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, July 7, 1922

Charles F. Reed to be Postmaster - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, October 20, 1922

Post Office at Keswick to Go - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, January 14, 1923

25 Prospectors Find Good Leads Around Matheson - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, January 24, 1923

Iron Mountain Mine No. 8 Is Closed Down - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, July 18, 1930

Mines and Mineral Resources of Shasta County, California – County Report 6 – by Philip A. Lydon and J.C. O’ Brien ©1974 by California Division of Mines and Geology

(4) Iron Mountain Mine - Jobs and Clean-up from Recovery Act Funds - YouTube

(4) Inside Iron Mountain Mine - YouTube

Inside A Toxic Hellhole, Iron Mountain Mine written by Peter Fimrite - The S.F. Gate newspaper of San Francisco, August 29, 2010

THE HISTORIC FOUNDATION OF THE MAMMOTH AERIAL TRAMWAY

The Mammoth aerial tramway is shown above conveying ore in large buckets and transporting timber as well. This picture is from the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper edition of December 11, 1906.

The Mammoth aerial tramway was sometimes referred to as an “aerial ropeway” which was built in 1905 for the United States Refining and Mining Company, the parent company of the Mammoth Copper Company of Kennett, by the Riblet Tramway Company of Spokane, Washington, for about $50,000. That year, the Mammoth Copper Company began large scale mining operations at the Mammoth mine when their brand-new smelter was blown-in during October of 1905, which was located on Little Backbone Creek and in the boundaries of the Backbone mining district. This aerial tramway system began operations in the fall of 1906.

In an excerpt of an article the following was published by the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper claiming that it was "...used for the transportation of copper ore from the mine for treatment in the smelter. It is however, used for a double purpose and freight and lumber is shipped by this means to the mine. The tramway is operated by gravity, the weight of the heavy copper ore causing the endless rope to travel around the large shelve wheels and furnish power enough to carry thousands of pounds of freight up the heavy incline. The ore is loaded into the buckets by automatic feeders and dumped direct into the large bins on the furnace floor at smelter. " (SIC)

The Mammoth aerial tramway was two miles long. Some reports say it was longer, but that was false information. The Mammoth mine and smelter closed in 1919, and the smelter reopened for a short time in 1924. The Mammoth mine last operated in 1937. Today, only one concrete slab of foundation from this historic aerial tramway remains viewable off of Westside Road Number 2 behind Shasta Dam.

The Mammoth aerial tramway of the Mammoth Copper Company, circa 1919. Conveying ore 3,000 feet below the Mammoth mine to the Mammoth smelter. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

Filmed on location April 21, 2021.

RESOURCES:


Tram Now Handles Fifty Tons An Hour - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, February 22, 1906

Cable Two Miles Long Used To Transport Copper Ore - The Sacramento Daily Union of Sacramento, June 16, 1906

Mammoth Smelter At Kennett Running To Its Fullest Capacity - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, December 11, 1906

Store Ore In Shasta - The Sacramento Daily Union of Sacramento, September 13, 1910

The Covered Wagon 1977, published annually by Shasta Historical Society

Kennett by Jane Schuldberg, published by Stansbury Publishing of Chico, California; 1st edition (April 1, 2005) 224 pages ISBN-10 : 0970892292