Mining Phosphate

Today we have two completely independent photos that appear to show the same thing, mining phosphate to be processed into fertilizer. The first image is a thin snap-shot, without any indication as to where it was taken. It shows a crew of laborers digging and loading their shovel-fulls into small rail cars. At first, I thought that it might be peat that they were digging, but then after acquiring the second photograph, I realized that it instead might be phosphate.

Shortly after acquiring the above photograph, I found the stereoview to the right, titled Mining Phosphate near Columbia, Tenn. This card is one of a series published in 1927 that dealt with mining and industrial development of Tennessee and the South in general. Most of the text on the back of the card is a general discussion of the importance of fertilizer to agriculture, but the last paragraph describes the process:

Phosphates are formed about decayed organic bodies in layers of rocks. In Tennessee the phosphate deposit is in limestone. Beds of this mineral are found in many places in the South, especially in Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. Here you see how phosphate is dug out and loaded on cars. these cars are run to a nearby factory, where the mined material is manufactured into fertilizer.

Mining Ghost Town

Sometimes when you're researching unmarked vintage photographs, they can play tricks on you. This 1920s or -30s print of a mining ghost town was printed from a backwards negative, so the view is flipped horizontally, but I didn't know that when I started searching. The version at the right how the print appears. Below is how the view actually would appear to someone standing in this spot. After searching the internet for similar views in order to identify the town,

The photo flipped back to how the view actually looks

I came up empty, so did what I should have done in the first place: contact the good folks over at the Western Mining History website (and you can also follow their posts on Facebook!). It wasn't long before I heard back from them that this was Nevadaville, Colorado (also known sometimes as Nevada City), and they have a page of current photos of the town (they also host this photo from 1900 from aproximately the same vantage point). The giveaway that the photo had been flipped was the position of the building with the three arches next to the larger brick building. Another early photo can be found here, and a stereoview can be found here.

Nevadaville is the eastern-most of three mining towns in Colorado's Gregory Gulch (the other two are Central City and Blackhawk), and the towns sprang up after prospector John Gregory discovered gold in the area in 1859. At its peak in 1880, the town had just over a thousand residents, but today boasts a whole six!

The large brick building is the Nevadaville Masonic Temple, and is still in use by the Freemasons. After their original meeting hall burned with most of the rest of the town in 1861, they added a second story to this building. As that fire burned through the town, the residents dynamited a number of buildings to successfully stop the progress. The building with the three arches was once a saloon built by Joseph and John Kraemer. The building at the far right in the above photo has since been restored and serves as a general store. The house behind the Masonic Temple still stands today, and in 2012 was for sale for a whopping $47,000.