Custer County
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The next time you have occasion to drive up the "mine" hill road, take note of
what's left of the old and weathered, oil derrick like, wooden towers located
near the sides of the road. Though most of the 36 towers have been dismantled or
fallen down leaving only remnants of what was erected back in 1917 during a
furious decade of mining activity, those towers were an essential part of an
aerial tramway that was put into service in the summer of 1918. It increased the
speed and reduce the cost of getting ore from the mines to the smelter at the
bottom of the "hill". From about 1906 to 1918 the "Shay" railroad took care of
moving the ore down the mountain, but it was relatively slow and there were many
months of each winter that the "Shay" was unable to do its job because of snow
drifted tracks that caused significant delays in getting the ore to market. The
ore hauling aerial tramway was the answer.
it basically consisted of a
continuous 1-1/4" diameter cable, in a loop more than 3 miles in length,
supported by and affixed to each side of the support towers. The ore buckets
dangled on their rollers from this fixed cable, pulled or restrained by a 3/4"
traveling cable. A device at the tunnel loading stations and at the smelter
automatically disconnected the bucket from the traveling cable or unloading. The
tram operated on gravity power; the weight of loaded ore buckets going down
pulled the empty, or often loaded, ore buckets back up the mountain. Ore buckets
going up were usually filled with coal or other supplies neded at the mine poser
plant. An ore bucket could carry up to 1500 ils. and the system could move as
much as 1000 tons of ore per day. (An actual ore bucket on a section of cable is
on display at the Lost River Museum In Mackay.)
The tramway proved itself
worth every penny of the $125,000 it cost to erect it, and provided the year
round, speedy and economical system to get the ore to smelter that had always
been needed. The aerial tramway operated for many years, following the ups and
downs of mining activity all but ceased. It is believed that the tramway was
sold for scrap along with remnants of the smelter about 1950.
More details about the tramway can be obtained from copies of the old Mackay Miner newspaper. 1917-May 23, June 27 and July 18; 1918-April 10, June 19, and July 17.
Contributed by Earl A. Lockie, President of the South Custer County Historical Society
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This page was last updated 12/07/2023