THE FRIDAY-LOWDEN MINE

Above: the Friday-Lowden mine as it appeared in 1900 with an unidentified man standing inside the wooden portico of the adit of the main haulage tunnel. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

In 1894, while prospecting in the boundaries of the Backbone mining district of Shasta County, Walter Friday, a native of Switzerland, and a resident of Flat Creek, located the lucrative quartz vein of the Friday lode mine. After that, Friday drove an adit into the hillside. Then, he began operating this mine as a hard rock mine. Later, an abundance of copper was discovered solidifying its place on the Shasta County copper belt. Between December 31, 1897 to January 1, 1899, records for this mining property indicate that Friday extended the tunnels inside the adit he was working. 

Over $600 of labor and improvements were made to this mining property at that time. Eventually, Friday brought on John R. Lowdon, a native of Pennsylvania, and a Redding resident, who once held public office as a Shasta County Recorder to become a partner and owner of this mine. The name of the mine eventually evolved into the Friday-Lowden mine, and it's name is also recorded as the Friday-Louden mine. However, Lowdon is the correct spelling of John's surname.

Then, Friday & Lowdon brought on Lowdon’s brother-in-law, local lumberman Thomas H. Benton, a resident of Shingletown, as a co-owner of this lucrative mining property. Up to 1906, $25,000 worth of labor and improvements were done by these men, and several lucrative ore bodies were exposed by them on this mining site. Then, on July 1, 1906, the Mammoth Copper Company, of Kennett, bonded the Friday-Lowden mine for eighteen months for the sum of $200,000. The ore from this mine was smelted at the Mammoth Copper Company's smelter in Kennett.

The Mammoth Copper Company took control of this mineral land and placed a small mining crew at work that month to do exploratory, development, and surface work. Diamond drilling and taking core samples were a major part of the exploration on this mining site at that time. This mining property consisted of the following mining claims: the Badger, the Canyon, the Cleveland, the Comstock, the Last Chance, the Friday-Lowden, the McKinley Quartz mine, the Primrose, the Quartz Hill, the Scott Lode, the South Front, the Stanto Lode, the Washo, the White Lodge, and the Wild Bear Lode, which were on the north side of Squaw Creek. Through-out it's existence the Friday-Lowden mine has been plagued by critical closures of mining operations due to smelter closures and low grade ore assessments.

This video was filmed on location by Jeremy Tuggle on April 21, 2021.

Overtime the Mammoth Copper Company continued leasing the mine from its owner's. Eventually, the Mammoth Copper Company purchased the mine from it’s owners. On December 15, 1915, the Sacramento Union newspaper, of Sacramento, heralded the following article regarding the Friday-Lowden mine:

"Mammoth Company Will Bore Tunnel

Work Will Cost About $100,000 And Take Eighteen Months To Complete

(Special To The Union.)

Kennett (Shasta Co.) Dec., 17. - The Mammoth Copper Company has started a crew of thirty-five men under the superintendency of John Mackey, to run a 5,000 foot tunnel in the Friday-Lowden copper mine. This tunnel will start 400 feet below the old workings and will run through immense bodies of copper  ore, which will eventually connect with workings of the Mammoth mine by upraises and a few crosscuts. It is estimated that this project will cost $100,000 and take a year and a half to complete." (SIC)

Over the next eighteen months the Mammoth Copper Company hustled to get the above work completed. In July of 1917, a lucrative copper strike was made inside the Friday-Lowden mine while the Mammoth Copper Company's mining activities pressed-on until the following month when an alarming strike occurred at Kennett on the smelter site of the Mammoth Copper Company over a dollar raise of employee wages which the mining company was not willing to increase. Miners began protesting and riots occurred consisting of several fist fights. This made people feel unsafe and some went home to get their guns for their personal protection. Eventually, a Sheriff's posse was called in from Redding to control the crowd at Kennett and they stayed through most of the strike.

This strike caused the Friday-Lowden mine to be closed again as the miners from this mine went to Kennett to protest with their colleagues. Many mines were closed down in the area because of this strike. Then, on August 30th, in the chambers of Judge, Harry Donnelly, Justice of the Peace, at Kennett, the Mammoth Copper Company met with the representatives of their strikers and refused to raise the wages from $4 to $5. 

By September 4, 1917 the strikers increased to twelve hundred miners. On that day, the representatives of these strikers met with the officials of the local mining companies in the chambers of Judge, Donnelly. During this meeting the Mammoth Copper Company offered arbitration for the strikers, but they still held out for $5 a day. As the day progressed it was clear that the strike would continue. However, a deadline of September 13th, was demanded by the Mammoth Copper Company for their miners to resume work, or else, they would be terminated. Nine days later on September 13, 1917, the twelve hundred miners returned to mining the copper belt by a threat of being terminated without a raise of their salary. The Mammoth Copper Company won that battle, and mining continued on most of their mining properties.

Yet, it slowed down the progress of work at the Friday-Lowden mine and after that brief periods of mining occurred here. Of it’s original owners, it was Thomas H. Benton who died first on January 19, 1919, followed by John R. Lowdon on August 22, 1923, and finally, Walter Friday on January 25, 1926. 

Years later in 1974 the Friday-Lowden mine was owned and by the U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company, of Salt Lake City, Utah. Gold was found in the oxide ore, and additional ore bodies of copper, chalcopyrite and barite gangue were discovered according to reports. 

A selfie. Jeremy in front of the pad-locked adit of the historic Friday-Lowden mine. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on April 21, 2021.

Resources:

1888 California, U.S., Voter Registers for Walter Friday

1900 U.S. Census

Affidavit Of Labor Performed and Improvements Made - Proofs Of Labor Book 1, pages 34-35, recorded January 19, 1899.

The Friday-Lowdon Mines Bonded To The Mammoth Company - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, July 9, 1905

Group Of Copper Mines Bonded For Over $200,000 - The San Francisco Call newspaper of San Francisco, July 10, 1906

Copper, Silver and Gold - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, July 11, 1906

Mammoth Runs Great Tunnel - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, April 3, 1916

Mammoth Running Tunnel Of 4,000 Feet - The Sacramento Union newspaper of Sacramento, May 1, 1916

An Official Plat of the Map of the Mammoth Copper Mining Company claims known as the Badger, Cleveland, Comstock, Lowden, Primrose, Quartz Hill, South Front, Washo and Wild Bear Lodes, Surveyed November 17, 1916 - June 14, 1917 by Charles T. Dozier, Mineral Survey No.5298

Mammoth Makes Big Copper Strike - The Sacramento Union newspaper of Sacramento, July 23, 1917

Four Mines Tied Up By Strikes Of Miners; Mass Meeting Tonight - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 27, 1917

1,200 Copper Miners Strike; Industry Completely Tied Up - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 28, 1917

Copper Mines In Shasta Are Closed By Strikes - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, August 29, 1917

Strike Situation Is Unchanged No Prspect of Settlement Now - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 29, 1917

Mammoth Denies Men Dollar Raise; Strikers Meeting - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 30, 1917

Strike Is Deadlock; Both Sides Stand Firm - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 31, 1917

Mine Operators Ask Arbitration  - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 2, 1917

Arbitration Turned Down By Strikers - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 4, 1917

Strikers Repudiate Representatives; Refuse To Work - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 13, 1917

Thos. H. Benton’s Busy Life Ended - The Seerchlight newspaper of Redding, January 21, 1919

John Lowden Old Timer Is Called Beyond - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, August 22, 1923

John R. Lowden Dies In Berkeley- The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, August 23, 1923

Searching Party From Kennett Find Their Man Dead; Hold An Inquest And Bury Him On Spot - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, January 26, 1926

The Benton, Wengler and Buick Sawmill near Big Bend.

A concrete foundation of a building that remains on the Benton, Wengler and Buick sawmill property. These photographs were taken by Jeremy Tuggle on March 19, 2017.

In 1896, Herbert Bass owned a sawmill on Roaring Creek at the junction of Big Bend Road and Cove Road, near Big Bend. It was a water-powered mill. Bass decided to dig a ditch from Roaring Creek to convey water into the sawmill. At a later date, John Buick and Matt Wengler became interested in the property and they purchased shares from Bass. They became his new partners with the intention of relocating milling operations from Marble Creek to the Bass Mill. Together they enlarged the sawmill and erected a larger building 150 feet x 100 feet wide. 

After buying shares of the property from Bass, it became known as the Bass, Wengler and Buick Sawmill. Its owner's employed their own lumberman who conducted their tree falling operations in the nearby Flat Woods. The records show that there was a pond on the property as well. John Buick was a life-long teamster and a resident of Silver Lake, Oregon. His partner Matt Wengler was an immigrant from Germany, and at a later date he became a resident of Inwood. Wengler had an interest in the lumber industry.

After the lumber was hewed at the sawmill, a big machine called a Skidder was used to skid the lumber to the nearest river. The nearest river was the Pit. After the logs were placed into the river the drivers would drift the lumber down the river where the lumber merged with the Sacramento River. The drivers were sometimes were referred to as "river rats". The lumber drives final stop on the river was at the Benton Mill at Turtle Bay in Redding owned by Thomas Hart Benton. This method of transporting lumber was used until 1908 at the Bass, Wengler and Buick Sawmill.

After 1908, the hewed lumber was transported from this sawmill by large trucks. Then in 1910, Herbert Bass, John Buick and Matt Wengler sold their sawmill to Thomas Hart Benton who became the sole owner of this mill. 

Thomas Hart Benton was a native of California, who was born in 1862 to John Hansel Benton and Aurelia (Miller) Benton. He was a long time resident of Manton. He was sometimes referred to as T.H. Benton. On March 16, 1887, he married Katherine Lennon at Shasta. During this union they had five children born to them. 

One of their sons is Lieutenant John Benton who the Redding Airport is named after. Benton owned and operated other saw mills in Shasta County. Thomas Hart Benton died in 1919. Additional sawmills were established in Shasta County by Benton. 

Today, all that remains of this sawmill is an old logging road leading into the property, the concrete foundations of former buildings, and some smaller concrete slabs. They are covered by fallen pine needles from the numerous pine trees on the property. The Benton, Wengler and Buick Sawmill produced heavy lumber from 1896 to 1916.

Above: an additional concrete slab covered in pine needles. These photographs were taken by Jeremy Tuggle on March 19, 2017.

Above: another concrete slab emerging from the pine trees covered in pine needles. These photographs were taken by Jeremy Tuggle on March 19, 2017.

Above: an old logging road is still visible leading into the historic Benton, Wengler and Buick sawmill. These photographs were taken by Jeremy Tuggle on March 19, 2017.

RESOURCES:

Place Names of Shasta County by Gertrude Steger, published by La Siesta Press ©1966

CHIPS & SAWDUST - ©1978 by Beulah Johnson, published by Shasta Historical Society.

The 1990 Covered Wagon - ©1990 published Shasta Historical Society, "HESTAN WRIGHT REMINISCES" Collected by Joe Mazzini, pages 36-73. 

Thomas Hart Benton marriage in the Family Data Collection (Ancestry)

Find A Grave.com: Thomas Hart Benton