Lexington Mine
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The following text is from the Montana DEQ Mine Narrative; please edit and expand it. DEQ site
The Lexington mine covers a large area near the top of Butte hill on both sides of Main Street between Centerville and Walkerville. The major features remaining at the Lexington include the steel headframe over the shaft, the hoist house, and a steel idler tower. South of the hoist house, a large concrete foundation is connected to the timber crib wall's north end. Other elements of the mineyard include mine car tracks, several concrete floors and foundations west of the headframe, chutes, stairways, and tailings piles.
The Lexington mine was one of the silver mines which established Butte as a rich silver producer in the late 1870s through the 1880s. The Lexington and Alice mines, both located in Walkerville at the top of Butte hill, attracted some of the earliest outside investors to Butte and pioneered large-scale industrial mining in the district.
Andrew J. Davis, an early Butte capitalist, did the first major development at the Lexington. Although two men, Heffner and McCann, established the first claim on the Lexington lode in 1865, little development followed. Davis reportedly acquired the group of Lexington claims in exchange for a horse in the early 1870s. In 1876 he assumed full control of the Hendrix mill on East Broadway near Arizona Street, and rebuilt it to work ore from the Lexington. Crushing began in February 1877. After Davis cut wages for unskilled miners at the Lexington in June 1878, the workers began the first labour strike in Butte. The miners won a restoration of full pay and formed the Butte Workingmen's Union, the predecessor of several powerful labour organizations. Davis sold the mine after four years of operation at a large profit (MacKnight 1892; Malone 1981; Raymer 1930).
The Societe Anonyme des Mines de Lexington, a French group of investors, purchased the Lexington Mine in August of 1881. Davis received one million dollars in cash and two million dollars in preferred stock. The new owners spent more money to further develop their property. By 1884, a new 60-stamp mill about 500 feet southwest of the mine was crushing the ore. At the mine a large wood building enclosed the boilers, hoist engine, and shaft opening. Several tramways radiated out from this structure. Other buildings included separate machine and forge shops, and across the street, the company's office. This brick structure also had dwelling space in it. In 1889, the Lexington's 1,400-foot shaft was the deepest in Montana; the mine included tunnels up to one mile long. However, signs of trouble were apparent. Although silver mining suffered a catastrophic drop in demand in 1893, some decline had occurred by the end of the 1880s. Employment at the Lexington fell from 225 workers in 1888 to 140 in 1890 and only 38 in 1891 (Raymer 1930; Sanborn 1888 - 1891; Inspector of Mines 1890 -1891b.)
In October 1893 the United States government repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which ended the use of silver in the country's monetary policy. The Lexington Company paid its last dividends in July. At the mine, the lower levels (down to 1,500 feet) were abandoned, the pumps removed, and the water was allowed to rise to 800 feet below the surface. The stamp mill closed in 1893 and never operated again. In 1897, only fourteen miners and an engineer at the surface worked the mine, excavating only above the 500-foot level. After the turn of the century, Louis Girard mined small quantities of silver from the upper levels. Major activity resumed in 1905 when F. Augustus Heinze leased the Lexington from its French owners (Malone 1981; Raymer 1930; Inspector of Mines 1898; Stevens 1905).
F. Augustus Heinze, one of the Butte "Copper Kings," operated the Lexington Mine for less than a decade. In April of 1905, he organized the La France Copper Company to lease the Lexington from its owner, Georges de la Bouglise, the original vice president of the Societe Anonyme des Mines de Lexington. Within a year, retimbering and pumping to remove water from the middle and lower portions of the mine began. By April of 1906, the Lexington was producing 300 tons of ore per day, including silver, gold, lead, zinc and copper. Processing of the ore occurred at the nearby Basin Reduction Works that Heinze had leased. Heinze had a new plant built near the mine in 1907 which used a dusty dry magnetic separation process. The city of Walkerville sued to close the mill. A court agreed and the mill never operated again. Mining continued in an irregular manner. Maximum daily ore production in 1907 averaged only half that of the year before. The mine was sold for back taxes in 1908, but was recovered by Heinze soon after. New equipment filled the mineyard and the stamp mill built in the 1880s was demolished. Despite improvements and innovation, the La France Copper Company failed and in 1913, it sold the Lexington Mine to the Atlantic Mines Company (part of the Amalgamated/Anaconda corporate system) for $1,003,000 (Stevens 1905; 1906; 1908; 1911; Weed 1914; Leeson 1885).
Under the control of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, the Lexington mine became a major zinc producer. Although found among the mine's ores before, zinc had not been a primary product. The Atlantic Mines Company dissolved in May 1916 and ACM assumed full control of the Lexington six months later. At this time the mineyard consisted of a wooden headframe, separate buildings for the boilers, hoisting engine, repair shops, and other functions; most were of wood frame with wood or iron siding (Sanborn 1916).
ACM eventually replaced the wooden headframe with one of steel and built a new hoist house, with metal frame and siding. The boom period of World War I kept the mines of Butte, including the Lexington, busy. As soon as the war ended, however, metal demand and prices dropped and mining in Butte began a decline which lasted into the 1980s. The Lexington Mine was one of those effected soon after the war. It was idle through most of the 1920s and 1930s. The Second World War brought a renewal of activity which led to resumed mining at the Lexington and other idled mines. At the Lexington, operations continued into the 1950s, closing permanently in the middle of that decade (Weed 1918; Sanborn 1916; 1916-1954; Anaconda 1920-1942; Butte Historical Society 1985).
