Chapter Twenty-Nine

Mining and Mines

By: Earl Berry

Page 468-471

(Excerpts are taken from news items on file from the BAXTER BULLETIN in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and from the MOUNTAIN ECHO, Yellville.)

Mining

The following are miscellaneous facts and dates about the Rush Mining area as related by Mr. Dirst, taken from the Bicentennial Edition of the MOUNTAIN ECHO, July 1, 1976.

"There were actually two areas that were referred to as Rush. Old Rush was located about 11/2 miles West of the landing. The remains of an old smelter in old Rush is evidence of an attempt to extract silver from the gleaming ore that was discovered here in the 1880's. Disappointingly, all the ore yielded was a blue smoke created by the burning zinc in the ore. Shortly thereafter, a 14,000 pound chunk of zinc was taken by wagon to the river, put on a steamboat to Newport, Arkansas, and shipped by rail from there to the Chicago World's Fair. This exhibit sparked the first real interest in zinc mining in this area. The first mine to operate at old Rush was called the Morning Star, which can be seen, along with the remnants of its mill, just east of the Rush Creek crossing. Other mines in the old Rush area had names such as: the McIntosh, the Capps, and the Mary Hatti Anna.

The town of new Rush was located in the area just southwest of the mouth of Rush Creek. The town, at one time or another, had a population of from four to five thousand. The only evidence now left of its existence is a barely definable old roadbed which was formerly Main Street, three still standing walls of a rock building, formerly a general mercantile called "Mullholans", and the oven from the bakery which has been rolled several feet from its original position by boys looking for fishing worms. Most parts of the town have disappeared completely.

Among those are two hotels, the hardware, the blacksmith shop, a general store, a bakery, a drugstore, and two pool halls which employed seven barbers. It was reported that even with seven barbers working, to obtain a hair cut on Saturday one was issued a number and sometimes had to wait until the small hours of the morning for the barber's services. By this time the barbers had usually partaken of spirits to relieve the drudgery of working 18 hours. One would have to put his well-being in grave jeopardy to get a haircut when the barber was in this condition, and no one even considered a shave!

The old mines which created, and in a sense destroyed the town, are still easy to detect although several have filled or caved in. Among those in the immediate area are the Red Cloud, Yellow Rose, Edith, Lonnie Boy, Silver Hollow, White Eagle, Monte Christo, Leader Hollow, and the Philadelphia. The remnants of the mills which served these mines are also still evident near the Red Cloud, Edith, and White Eagle mines.

The two everlasting springs that provided water for the Rush residents still flow freely. The largest about a half mile west of the landing called "Boiling Spring" which is a very accurate description, and a smaller one named Vickers, or Bluff Spring, emerging from the small bluff just east of Boiling Springs. Bluff Spring was condemned in the days of Rush's existence. Because of the tremendous amount of waste caused by the outdoor toilets of four to five thousand people, typhoid was feared to have entered the spring, but no outbreaks were reported.

Surprisingly enough, as rough as most mining towns are, Rush was relatively orderly. There were two or three killings in its history and a few near-misses. Very few men were killed in the mining operations but here also there were several near-misses. One notable occurrence was in the White Eagle. A zinc vein was found in this mine to extend from three to four hundred feet under the bed of the river. While the miners were working in this tunnel, water rapidly began to fill the diggings. The evacuation of the tunnels was so hurried that all the equipment was left where it lay and the men barely escaped with their lives by hanging onto pipes being pulled from the shafts by the ground crew. This equipment still lies in these old flooded shafts which are located approximately under the present location of the well that serviced Mr. Dint's trailer.

New Rush's most active and productive period was the time between 1914 and 1917. Shortly after the WWI Armistice was signed in 1918, the major zinc markets were cut off. The price of zinc tumbled and people left the area in droves. The desertion of the town was so rapid the druggist was reported to have merely walked off and left his store which elated the local children who made the most of the soft drink fountain while it lasted.

All that remains now of the once relatively large, booming town of Rush, are the rock walls, rutted streets, a few mine shafts, and, of course, memories."

Also from the Bicentennial Edition of the MOUNTAIN ECHO, dated July 1, 1976, the following information was written by Chiquita Babb.

"Besides playing pool and drinking, the miners had square dances, would shoot craps, and had a fight every now and then just to liven things up. One man around whom many of Dirst's stories are based was John Hughes, "a great big man, all bone and muscle." One of his exploits involved an "average-sized man" named Tom Walker, who, Dint explained, "couldn't weigh over 150 pounds." Hughes was standing by the steps leading to Old-town, and Walker was on the second step, when Walker broke a two-by-four over Hughes' head. "It didn't knock John down," Dint related. "He just stood there and batted his eyes a little bit, and pretty soon he just reached out and grabbed Tom, and took him off the steps. John was holding Tom, with his thumbs right on his Adams' apple, and choking him." Dirst continused, "Tom was turning black in the face and bugging out. Old John Farms said 'Put him down, John.' "When John set him down," Dirst laughed, "Tom just went down in a pile."

Hughes was later involved in a fight with a blacksmith at Rush, who Dirst described as "another big man." "John," Dirst related, "started gouging the blacksmith's eyes, but missed and got his finger in his mouth. Immediately, the blacksmith bit it off." When telling of the incident, Hughes would say, "That damn blacksmith is a cannibal; he ate that damn finger." Hughes was later shot and killed, an accident which, in Dirst's words, "discouraged John."

The ore was mined by pick and shovel; several men "pounding steel" with a sledge hammer and a "powder spoon," a steel rod flattened and cupped on one end, used to spoon out the dirty sludge; or, if necessary, with a machine and his helper, a dummy, on a drill. Two types of ore were mined, Dirst explained, the "free ore," which could be shipped without processing; and the "bucking ore," a combination of ore and rock, making processing necessary.

Four men operated the processing plant during its one eight-hour shift. The rock would first be screened on a "grimly," then sent by rough elevator to be classified, and rescreened, if necessary, and then returned to be crushed.

The ore was carried from the mine and processing plant by a boy, paid 75 cents a day, who carried several loads of 75 to 80 pounds each. It was then transported by wagon and team to Buffalo City, to be carried further by railroad.

Because of the high cost involved in locating and extracting the ore, the mining boom faded around 1917. Attempts to revive the area were made in the 1920's, but met with failure due to the lower cost of imported metal."