Southern Pope County

The following mines and prospects were isolated from the larger subdistricts discussed above and are grouped by general areas. Most produced only small amounts of ore, although a number of these outlying ore deposits were rich in barite.

The Grand Pierre Lead and Zinc Smelting Company maintained an office in Golconda around 1902 and may have operated some of the mines in southern Pope County (Questions and answers 1902). The company is reported to have worked the area in the southern part of the Stewart District and the Parkinson Mine

Mines in the Southern Pope County

Lake Glendale Prospect

The Lake Glendale Prospect is located south of Lake Glendale and about 1.2 miles north of Dixon Springs in sec. 9, T 13 S, R 5 E, Pope County (Figure 29). Several prospect pits appear to follow a vein that strikes N 40°–45° E. Traces of fluorite and barite have been reported, but no production seems to have taken place (Weller et al. 1952; Bradbury 1959). The Lake Glendale Prospect is situated along segments of the Lusk Creek Fault Zone. Core drilling and outcrop mapping disclosed Levias, Ste. Genevieve, and St. Louis Limestones occupying a fault slice juxtaposed with Pennsylvanian rocks on the southeast and middle Chesterian formations on the northwest. Numerous shallow prospect pits that had opened before 1944 showed small amounts of barite and fluorite in oolitic limestone adjacent to the northwest-bounding fault (Tippie 1944a; Devera 1991). Tippie (1944a) concluded that mineralization was sparse and largely confined to near-surface weathering of veins. The structural setting is thus similar to mines and prospects along the Lusk Creek Fault Zone farther northeast in Pope County.

Little Jean Mine

The Little Jean Mine is located just south of Golconda at the base of the east-facing bluff along the Ohio River. This is one of the few mines in Illinois that principally produced barite, albeit in small quantities. Between 1918 and 1922, James Wardrop mined barite and small amounts of fluorite from a vein 1.5 feet wide oriented N 70° W (Weller et al. 1952). Bradbury (1959) reported that the mine had two shafts about 150 feet apart and 60 to 80 feet deep, from which drifts followed barite veins for short distances. The Little Jean Mine lies on or near a fault that strikes nearly east–west and is part of a larger fracture zone oriented about N 70° E that has been mapped on both sides of the Ohio River. The Bethel Sandstone has been mapped at the surface, and the Paoli Limestone lies at a shallow depth at the Little Jean site (Amos 1966). More Information: 10083069

Compton (Bay City) and Mary Mines

The Compton Mine, or Bay City Mine, is located on a small hill at the edge of the Ohio River floodplain near the mouth of Bay Creek (SW¼, sec. 26, T 13 S, R 5 E). Weller et al. (1952) detailed that the mine was owned by the Illinois Fluorspar and Lead Company and that shafts were sunk from 60 to 300 feet deep along a vein striking N 45° E and dipping 60° SE. Tom Compton sank the “Tom Shaft” shortly after 1900 and mined a little fluorspar and galena at a depth of 60 to 70 feet (Tippie 1944b). In 1904, an individual named Kerr from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, deepened the shaft to 110 feet and sank a new, deeper shaft, named the Kerr Shaft, on the hill 90 feet west of the Tom Shaft. Mr. Kerr ran drifts northeast on the 196-foot level and encountered 8 feet of spar along a fault, which was stoped 40 feet long × 25 feet high (Tippie 1944b). He operated the mine and mill intermittently until about 1930. In 1938, the old shaft was retimbered and the drifts were reopened (Davis 1938). The Illinois Fluorspar and Lead Company sank a new 125-foot shaft, called the John Shaft, at the foot of the hill 60 feet southeast of the Tom Shaft (Tippie 1944b). In 1939, the company drove a crosscut on the 63-foot level to the Tom Shaft, drove another drift on the 110-foot level, and drove another crosscut 25 feet to the fault. Very little ore was encountered in drifts on the 77- and 125-foot levels of the John Shaft, but a small amount was recovered in sandstone on the 40-foot level (Tippie 1944b). Tippie (1944b) reported that 200 tons of bedded ore was recovered on the 63-foot level. The last known operator was S.N. Edelman, who worked the mine briefly in 1944 (Tippie 1944b). Ozark-Mahoning files contain a map of the area by F.E. Tippie, constructed in 1956, that indicated three shafts in a general west-to-east orientation: the Kerr Shaft, the Tom Shaft, and the John Shaft (Figure 30). These mines are depicted collectively as the Compton Mine on the accompanying map. The Compton Mine lies along the north-west margin of a fault zone that strikes N 60° E and displaces middle and lower Chesterian rocks at the surface (Nelson and Denny 2008). Sandstone (probably Tar Springs or Palestine) was in the hanging wall (downthrown), whereas Paoli Limestone was in the footwall. The mineralized high-angle normal fault bounds the northwest side of a graben that is 500 to 1,000 feet wide. The Compton Mining & Milling Company began erecting a mill of the Joplin type at their Mary Mine to separate fluorspar, lead, and quartzite (Fohs 1907). The Mary Mine was located southwest of Golconda, but the precise location has not been verified. Information in a mining journal detailed that drifts in the Mary Mine encountered an overthrust fault pitching 35° that had 3 to 8 feet of fluorspar, galena, and quartz, which was stoped while driving to intersect the master fault (Ingalls 1907). More Information: 10106433

Black Mine
The Black Mine is located in sec. 26, T 14 S, R 6 E near Bay City. It sits on a low hill rising about 25 feet above the Ohio River bottom land and is cut off from the main bluff (Bain 1905). This mine was not field verified but may be located along faults that project north-easterly with the Wallace Branch and Interstate Fault Zones.

References

Amos, D.H., 1966, Geologic map of the Golconda Quadrangle, Kentucky–Illinois, and the part of the Brownfield quadrangle in Kentucky: U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-546, 1 sheet, 1:24,000.

Bain, H.F., 1905, The fluorspar deposits of southern Illinois: U.S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 255, 75 p.

Bradbury, J.C., 1959, Barite in the southern Illinois fluorspar district: Illinois State Geological Survey, Circular 265, 14 p.

Davis, H.W., 1938, Fluorspar and cryolite, in H.H. Hughes, ed., Minerals year-book 1938 [year 1937]: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Economics and Statistics Branch, p. 1195–1210.

Devera, J.A., 1991, Geologic map of the Glendale Quadrangle, Johnson and Pope Counties, Illinois: Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois Geologic Quadrangle Map IGQ-9, 1:24,000.

Fohs, F.J., 1907, Fluorspar deposits of Kentucky, with notes on the production, mining and technology of the mineral in the United States: Kentucky Geological Survey, Bulletin 9, 296 p.

Ingalls, W.R., ed., 1907, The mineral industry: Its statistics, technology and trade during 1906, Volume 15: New York, Hill Publishing, p. 329.

Nelson, W.J., and F.B. Denny, 2008, Bedrock geology of Brownfield Quadrangle, Massac and Pope Counties, Illinois: Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois Geologic Quadrangle Map IGQ Brownfield-BG, 2 sheets, 1:24,000; pamphlet, 3 p.

Questions and answers, 1902, Engineering and Mining Journal, v. 74 (Oct. 25), p. 553.

Tippie, F.E., 1944a, Illinois fluorspar investigations III: Outlying properties, K. Lake Glendale Prospect: Illinois State Geological Survey, unpublished manuscript, filed under J.M. Weller, ms. 12-K, 3 p.

Tippie, F.E., 1944b, The Compton Mine: Illinois State Geological Survey, unpublished manuscript, filed under J.M. Weller, ms. 12-L, 8 p.

Weller, J.M., R.M. Grogan, and F.E. Tippie, 1952, Geology of the fluorspar deposits of Illinois: Illinois State Geological Survey, Bulletin 76, 147 p.