MINERS WANTED!
Jasper Lead Mines!

The mines of the Granby Mining and Smelting Company, situated at Minersville, nine miles west of Carthage, in Jasper county, afford at the present time, the greatest inducements to all working men, seeking remunerative employment, and healthy homes.

The Granby company confidently assert that no industrious miner, out of employment, or absolutely engaged in mining, will be disappointed either in the profit of working these mines, or in the health, fertility and beauty of their surroundings.

The company will pay one dollar per foot for sinking shafts to the mineral, and where the miner strikes a lead, or opening, he is allowed to return the amount advanced him for sinking from the price of the mineral he may raise, thus securing to himself at once, entire control of the shaft he has sunk, with a mining lot so long as he works the same, subject only to the rules regulating the mines, which pay a fair price for his mineral, and a rent of two dollars per thousand to the company.

This offer, it will be seen, guarantees to each miner a support - whether he discovers mineral or not, and in every case where mineral is found, secures him the actual benefit of the profits of mining. The undersigned believes that no Company in the United States can afford the same inducements or the same guarantees.

These mines are now being accurately surveyed and platted. All persons claiming mining lots are notified to come forward immediately, and point out their lines and receive a lease for same from the company. All land not so claimed, located and leased, will be declared forfeited and leased in suitable mining lots to first applicants to work same.

Good laboring men, of steady habits soon learn to mine,, and will find it profitable as the mineral is readily found in paying quantities.

A large amount of transportation will be required for Sedalia. Farmers and others engaged in wagoning will find it advantageous to haul our lead to that point for the present.

Cash paid for cord wood, stone coal, lime and charcoal. Apply to J. MORRIS YOUNG, Resident Superintendent, Minersville, Jasper Co. Missouri.

Granby Stampede

Even though there were many small or even one-man mining operations in the early years of Newton County, the undisputed center of mining was in and around Granby. Billed as the "Oldest Mining Town in the Southwest", Granby has a proud mining history. According to local historians, Madison Vickery found lead in what is now Granby in 1840, but he did not establish a mine. In 1853, William Foster came to the Granby area and started mining in what turned out to be a very rich deposit.

The discovery of this huge deposit of lead attracted hundreds of miners and, in 1855, what became known as the Granby Stampede brought many hundreds of prospectors to the area. Some ten years later, during the Civil War, the lead mines of Granby were highly prized by both sides in the fight. Gaining control of Granby meant having access to abundant amounts of lead for making bullets.

Waste, tons of which came up out of the lead mines, was called "black jack". This material was dumped into great piles around all the mines. Then, after the Civil War, miners learned that "black jack" was not waste - it was zinc. This created another mining boom, and by 1880 more than 100 million pounds of zinc had been shipped out of Granby by rail.

For the most part, the mines in Granby closed at the end of World War II. Although individual miners worked their small mines, the mining heyday was over by 1946. Only old photographs and memories remain of the wild and wooly mining day in Granby and many of these are displayed in the Granby Miners Museum. Today, visitors are charmed by the colorful names of the mines. These names, no doubt, have a story of their own. Some of the more interesting names for local mines included: Red Rooster, Fortune Teller, Morning Glory, Dutch Girl, Grasshopper and Blue Goose.

On the western side of the county, another mineral was discovered that also proved to be profitable. Locally called "cotton rock", a large deposit of tripoli was discovered in 1871. A mineral used for grinding and polishing, tripoli is vital material in such processes as finishing and buffing new automobiles and in manufacturing household cleaning agents. Tripoli is still mined and processed in Seneca.

In various parts of the county, limestone is mined. One of the largest and most unusual quarries is located near Neosho. This quarry was opened by Russell Hunt, a mining engineer. When Mr. Hunt opened his mining operation, he created huge underground rooms, leaving large pillars of limestone in strategic places as roof supports. Once a large area is mined out, these underground rooms are ideal warehousing space. A cool and constant temperature makes these caverns perfect storage areas for perishable goods and for such things as explosives. This idea of creating underground warehousing, fathered by Russell Hunt, caught on, and now hundreds of limestone and other mines have a second life as underground storage.

Currently, the EPA is involved in cleaning up lead contamination in the area as the level of lead in the blood of current residents is extremely elevated.

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