Michael Hodder and Q. David Bowers
West to the Mines
Liberty had started out to be a teacher; then studied law with the intention of practicing in Cleveland; and later ventured into real estate development. He was flexible in his goals. In 1873 he once again changed his focus, with a foresight that was uncanny in its accuracy.
The first steel poured from the revolutionary Bessemer process furnaces was produced in the Newburgh Mill of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company on September 6, 1868. The new furnaces were capable of producing high-quality steel ingots at a much lower cost, and they promised almost unlimited output capacity. The first pouring was significant enough to have been noticed in the Cleveland press, and it is almost certain that Liberty recognized the importance of the new technology. Liberty is known to have felt that America was on the threshold of an age of steel: the Civil War's demand for more and more steel, for its guns and ironclads, may have impressed this lesson on Liberty's mind.
It appears that he had an amateur's interest in mineralogy at this time, and while he may not have collected specimens, he studied the subject and learned enough to recognize ores and to impress others with his skill. Accordingly, when a consortium of Clevelanders offered Liberty part ownership and the job of manager of its Pittsburgh and Lake Angeline iron are mines, located in the Lake Superior region, he accepted. From 1873 through the following year he managed the company's mines, learning valuable lessons about the practical aspects of mining on a large scale that would later serve him well. In 1874 he resigned his position and sold his interest in the company, for an estimated four times his cost.
On February 28, 1873 Bret Harte, the famous storyteller of the California gold rush, came to Cleveland on a lecture tour. He delivered a talk titled "The Argonauts of "49" at Case Hall. It is not certain that Liberty attended the lecture, although his interest in things cultural and his involvement in Cleveland's social circle suggest that he did. The lecture was covered by the local press, and notice of it, at least, could not have escaped Liberty's attention. Harte's lecture, later to become the kernel for his book by the same name (published in 1875), fired local imaginations with stories of the miners. He described life in the gold fields, painted word pictures of typical frontier towns, and concluded with his famous story of the card game between himself, Bill Nye, and Ah Sin, which had been delineated in The Heathen Chinee. Harte left his audience, and readers of reviews of the lecture, with strong, humorous impressions of the hard, but potentially very rewarding, life in the mining camps of the western states. Even if he were not in attendance, Liberty's decision to take himself and his family out to Utah to try his luck in the silver fields of Bingham Canyon was in the spirit of Harte's lecture. Liberty Holden believed that, unlike the since-depleted California gold fields, Utah had much remaining potential, if not in gold, in silver.
There may have been other, hidden motives for ordering Connor's regiment into Utah, for the 1,000 or so men in his command were all volunteers and most of them were experienced miners who had joined specifically to look for gold while on duty. Promises of such opportunities may have been made by recruiters, and rumors of unexploited deposits of silver and gold in Bingham Canyon made raising the regiment an easy job. Stationing Connor's men at Camp Douglas not only insured Utah's loyalty, but also opened the surrounding areas for exploration. For his part, Connor encouraged his men to look for silver and gold deposits by allowing them very liberal furloughs. The first discoveries were not long in coming. In September 1863 galena ore was discovered.
News of the find was reported to Connor, who led a party into the canyon which confirmed it. The first mining claim staked in Utah was laid on September 17, 1863, and it was named the West Jordan. The following year Connor and his men incorporated the claim as the Jordan Silver Mining Company.
News of the find reached Salt Lake City soon after Connor heard of it, and it only confirmed Brigham Young's worst fears. Not only had a foreign army invaded his saints' peaceful valley, but it was an army of miners, and now they had found what Young knew would lead more outsiders into Utah. Accordingly, the campaign of non-involvement and discouragement begun around 1850 was stepped up in 1864.
By the end of 1865, with the Civil War all but won and the regiment's future in doubt, together with the lack of cooperation by the Mormons, conditions in Camp Douglas had deteriorated and capital for further exploitation of the West Jordan Mine was unavailable.
Accordingly, the miner-soldiers held a camp meeting to discuss what they should do with their claims. The meeting was democratic, and anyone interested had a chance to speak his mind. After everyone had been heard the men voted to hold over their claims until the railroad arrived. No claim jumping was allowed, and all claims were held inviolate without the need to improve them in any way. These "soldier claims;' some of which were very large and were held over for long periods of time, later resulted in lengthy litigation. Further development of Utah's mineral wealth did not come until 1870.
The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah in May 1869, thus linking the West Coast with the East. On January 10, 1870 the Utah Central Railroad completed its line from Ogden to Salt Lake City, connecting the mineral rich Wasatch and Bingham areas to the rest of the country. Access by railroad meant that not only could miners from east and west reach the fields of Utah, but, more important, that" heavy equipment could be carried close to the fields and smelted ores could be shipped out to refineries. In 1870 mining began in earnest. When the first train traveled the Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd Railroad Company line into the canyon, in October 1873, the future development of the West Jordan Mine was assured.
In 1874 a consortium of wealthy Clevelanders purchased ownership of the Nez Perces Chief and NoYou-Don't mines in Bingham Canyon and looked about for an expert manager. Liberty Holden immediately came to mind. His experience running the Pittsburgh and Lake Angeline iron ore mines had made his reputation as a mine manager, and his own financial success in real estate and the profits he had made from selling his interests in the Lake Angeline property testified to his financial skills. On his part, Liberty was primed to accept the offer. He had studied mine engineering, metallurgy, and geology during the years he ran the Lake Angeline mine and was considered to be an expert in these fields. His academic bent, from his early childhood, impelled him to make a serious study of what he did not know. He realized that with the railroads reaching right into Bingham Canyon and railheads conveniently sited to receive ore and bring in machinery and supplies, Bingham Canyon was poised for rapid development. The opportunity must have seemed ripe. He had been a pioneer in his own way twice before, first when he left Maine for Michigan, then when he left Michigan for Cleveland. In each case he had made a success of the venture because he arrived on the scene with the right academic and business skills to profit from changing times. Liberty accepted the offer, closed his farmstead, and together with his family set out for Salt Lake City.