Stewart Subdistrict
The Stewart Subdistrict comprises mines that were developed along the Stewart and Barnett Fault Zones (Figure 12). The Stewart Fault Zone is a series of parallel high-angle normal faults that strike N 25° to 30° E. The fault zone is about three-fourths of a mile wide along its northern limits and widens to nearly 1.5 miles to the south, where the eastern segment aligns with a bend in the Ohio River. The northern extent of this fault zone cannot be accurately traced north of the community of Eichorn, but it may merge into the Hobbs Creek Fault Zone to the north. The Stewart Fault is the eastern fault, and most of the mines have been dug along this fault. However, to the south at the Barnett and Parkinson Mines the mineralization seems to be better developed along the western Barnett Fault Zone. As mapped by Baxter et al. (1967), the Stewart Fault Zone is a series of northeast-southwest trending normal faults with about 100 feet of displacement generally downthrown on the west side (Baxter et al. 1967). The projection of the strike of this fault zone many miles to the southwest lines up with the Compton Mine Fault Zone. Dozens of shafts have been sunk along the Stewart Fault Zone. Some of the information concerning individual mines discussed below was derived from Bastin (1931), S. Weller et al. (1920), J.M. Weller et al. (1952), and Ozark-Mahoning files.
Mines in the Stewart Subdistrict
| D.C. Baker Mine |
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The D.C. Baker Mine was located near the small community of Eichorn along a vein that trends N 55° E (Weller et al. 1952). The shaft was 30 to 100 feet deep (Weller et al. 1952). Baxter et al. (1967) plotted the Baker Mine in this area. The Sheldon, Hobbs, and Cowsert Prospects are also in this general area.
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| Baker Mine No. 1 and Eichorn Mine |
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The Eichorn Fluorspar Mining Company worked the property before 1923 (Bastin 1931). The vein lies along a fault that trends N 20°–30° E and dips to the south-east. Most ore fills open voids and fractures, with little evidence of replacement-style ore. Bastin (1931) reported the vein as being 2 feet wide. The older shaft here was sunk to 330 feet, with some drifting into the 100- and 200-foot levels (Bastin 1931). In 1926, the Knight Brothers and E.C. Clark pumped water from the shaft to examine the 100-foot level, but they recorded no production (Bastin 1931). In 1949, the Golconda Mining Company may have operated this mine (Davis 1951).
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| Balfour Prospect |
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The Balfour Prospect was located southwest of Eichorn. Weller et al. (1952) noted traces of fluorspar next to a 15-foot-deep prospect pit. This mine appears to be located along the northward extension of the faults present at the Parkinson Mine. The Barnett Fault in this location has a slight amount of displacement, and the Bethel Sandstone is present on both sides of the fault.
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| Stewart Mine Group (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5) |
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| The namesake for both the Stewart Subgroup and Stewart Fault Zone, these mines first operated in 1917 as open pits, but several shafts were later sunk to follow the 2- to 4-foot-wide vein. The vein strikes N 25° E and dips 80° SE, and it extends 75 to 100 feet below the surface. Some galena and pyrite were reported to be associated with the vein, which was predominantly composed of fluorite and calcite within a fractured limestone host rock (Weller et al. 1952). In 1942 and 1943, this mine was operated by the Fluorspar Products Company and was producing ore (Davis 1945). Weller et al. (1952) reported that the shaft at this mine was between 100 and 300 feet deep and the vein was 3 feet wide, some of which was high-purity ore. Additionally, some gravel spar was produced at this complex. |
| Mackey Mine Group (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4) |
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| These mines were located along the Stewart Fault Zone southwest of the Stewart Group mines. In 1953, the Mackey-Humm Fluorspar Mining Company was operating the Mackey-Humm Mine (Holtzinger and Roberts 1956). In 1956, the Humm Mackey-Hicks Creek Fluorspar Mining Company installed a flotation plant, which was purchased from Inland Steel (McDougal and Roberts 1958a). In 1957, H. Evans Roberts purchased the Mackey-Humm Fluorspar Mining Company and Hicks Creek Mining Company, and the newly formed company, Southern Illinois Mining Company, established an office in Rosiclare, Illinois (McDougal and Roberts 1958b). In 1961, the N.F.Z. Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio, purchased this mine and announced it was reopening the Mackey-Humm Mine (Kuster and Schreck 1962). |
| Humm and Mackey Mine |
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| C.C. Mackey operated the Humm Mine and mill as early as 1940. Beecher Williams sunk a shaft 160 feet deep on the Humm property in 1941 (Davis 1943). This mine was in production in 1949 (Davis 1951). The Humm Mine is sometimes considered part of the Mackey complex, and historical information refers to some mines as Mackey-Humm. Other references call at least one mine in the immediate area the Williams Mine. An isolated Mackey Prospect is located to the south of the Jefferson complex. Weller et al. (1952) indicated that several shafts were present at this location. The shafts were 130 to 180 feet deep and were aligned along a 6-foot-wide vein. |
| Jefferson Mines (No. 1 and No. 2) |
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| The Crystal Fluorspar Company owned the Jefferson No. 1 and No. 2 Mines. The company sank a shaft at this location in 1946 (Davis and Greenspoon 1948). In addition, in 1946, the shaft was deepened from 208 feet to 260 feet (Davis 1949). Later, the No. 2 shaft was sunk south of the No. 1. Weller et al. (1952) indicated the vein was aligned N 30° E, dipping 80° SE, and was only about 3 feet wide. Fluorspar of high purity was common, and sphalerite and galena were also present in this mine. Ozark-Mahoning mine maps indicate that the No. 2 shaft had working levels at 200, 260, 320, and 380 feet (Figure 13). The No. 2 shaft was approximately 450 feet deep. In 1948, development in this mine consisted of 538 feet of drifting, 147 feet of raising, and 38 feet of crosscuts (Davis 1950). A 100-foot winze from the 260-foot level began in 1949 (Davis 1951). The Crystal Fluorspar Company owned the mine until 1951, when it was sold to the Minerva Oil Company as part of a package (Holtzinger and Arundale 1955). The Minerva Oil Company reopened this mine in 1959–1960 (McDougal and Roman 1961). The company closed the mine in 1971 in compliance with regulations of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, Health and Safety–Illinois Division (Wood 1973). Ozark-Mahoning files indicate that more than 150,000 tons of concentrate was shipped from the Jefferson Mines. |
| Fairbairn Mine |
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The Minerva Oil Company sought financial assistance to explore for additional reserves along the Fairbairn Vein in 1952. Drawings and mine maps concerning this mine were abundant in the Ozark-Mahoning files. The mine was located west of the Jefferson complex to which it was connected. This resulted in the mine sometimes being referred to as the Fairbairn-Jefferson. The Fairbairn Vein was located west of and parallel to the Jefferson Vein and was interconnected by a west-trending entry at the 380-foot level. The Fairbairn Shaft was sunk between the Jefferson and Fairbairn Veins, and working levels were at 380, 400, and 450 feet. The three working levels were connected near the shaft by three raises (Figure 13). Ozark-Mahoning files indicate this mine was active in 1966 and core drilling was being conducted in 1969 through 1970, but it is unclear when the mine closed. It most likely ceased operations at the same time as the Jefferson Mine around 1971.
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| Holloman Prospect |
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Baxter et al. (1967) spelled this site as Holliman, whereas Weller et al. (1952) spelled the prospect as Holloman. The prospect was aligned along a vein that trends N 25° E and dips 85° NW (Weller et al. 1952). The pit was dug to 85 feet. The prospect appears to be located along and an extension of the Barnett Fault.
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| Parkinson Mine |
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This mine is located east of Big Grand Pierre Creek just south of Illinois Route 146 (Baxter et al. 1967). The site has a concrete pad, and pieces of ore can be found nearby. The mine is located along the Barnett Fault, which lies between the Hobbs Creek and Stewart Faults. The mine was worked in 1850 to a depth of 50 feet (Reinertsen et al. 1994). In the late 1800s, the Grand Pierre Mining and Manufacturing Company deepened the shaft to 300 feet to mine galena (Reinertsen et al. 1994). From 1957 to 1965, Ozark-Mahoning mined 89,898 tons of ore from this facility (Reinertsen et al. 1994). The mine closed in 1965, but the shaft was utilized as a ventilation shaft and secondary escapeway for the Barnett Mine, which was located about 4,000 feet to the southwest (Reinertsen et al. 1994).
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| Barnett Mine |
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| Ozark-Mahoning operated the Barnett Mine as early as 1966. The Barnett Shaft connected to the sixth working level of the older Parkinson Mine. Two air shafts, now plugged, were identified during field mapping in the Shetlerville Quadrangle (Denny and Counts 2009). The Barnett Mine had a main (production) shaft about 800 feet deep and three air shafts. Workings were on two parallel northeast-striking veins about 1,800 feet apart. The two mineralized faults dipped away from each other, outlining a horst. The throw on both faults was normal, with an approximately 100- to 120-foot offset and some oblique-slip components, as shown by slickensides and mullion. Ore was concentrated at the levels of the Renault Limestone and Rosiclare (Aux Vases) Sandstone. In 1979, Ozark-Mahoning drove a drift 1,800 feet to the west to intersect a western vein system named the West Vein (Kostick and DeFilippo 1980). Ross Lillie stated that the ore from both veins was hoisted to the surface from the main shaft but that several additional shafts were drilled for ventilation or emergency escape purposes. Information in the USGS Mineral Resources Online Spatial Data System (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/) indicates this complex was active until at least 1984 (data extracted March 12, 2018).
In 1982, John Nelson went underground in the Barnett Mine. Both veins were served by a single hoisting shaft and connected underground via a drift cutting through barren rock. At the working level, the upper Ste. Genevieve Limestone and Aux Vases Sandstone were in the footwall and Paoli Limestone was in the hanging wall on both faults. Operations on both the West and Barnett Veins took place by shrinkage stoping. After ore was drilled and blasted with ammonium nitrate, it was pulled into cars by cable “slushers” or scrapers, which are buckets or scoops pulled along the floor scooping up ore. These cars ran on rails in the Barnett Vein and on rubber tires in the West Vein, hauled by diesel power in both cases. As Nelson observed during the visit, the Barnett Vein was 7 to 8 feet wide and composed of coarsely crystalline calcite containing blocks of country rock and pockets of fluorite, galena, and sphalerite. The West Vein had a similar width and composition but also contained considerable barite. Prominent slickensides and mullion along the West Vein fault plunged 21°–52 ° NE, indicating a component of right-lateral motion.
The total tonnage produced at the Barnett complex is difficult to determine, but estimated production for the Barnett, including the West Vein, would be about 550,000 tons. In addition, Ozark-Mahoning ore reserve calculations from 1981 indicate that an estimated “proven” reserve of more than 600,000 tons composed of 40% barite and 20% CaF2 was present in the West Vein on just the Churchill and Gates tracts. By 1988, the Churchill tract, with 518,000 tons, and the Gates tract, with 111,000 tons, had not been mined. Notes in the Ozark-Mahoning files indicate that the Gates and Churchill tracts were considered sub-economic at the time because of the low CaF2 grade and the low price of barite.
Although underground fluorite mines were relatively safe, with few documented fatalities compared with coal mining, deaths occurred in 1971 at the Barnett Mine because of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas. In small concentrations, this gas, which miners call “stink damp,” carries the familiar odor of rotten eggs (as observed by Nelson in 1982). In high concentrations, it becomes sweeter smelling, but in higher concentrations, the gas quickly numbs the olfactory receptors and becomes odorless to humans—and deadly. The April 1971 fatalities were the result of a watercourse being encountered during mining operations, which temporally flooded the 800-foot south working area in the Barnett Mine. The area was temporarily evacuated to allow the water to be pumped away from the working face. The next day when workers examined the area, H2S gas had become concentrated enough to cause workers to experience eye and lung irritation. A ventilation fan for the mine stopped working, and before the fan was repaired, a worker went to retrieve equipment. When this first worker did not return, another worker went to find the first miner. Several attempts to save the fallen miners resulted in the deaths of seven miners (Denny and Counts 2009).
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| Stockton Mine |
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This mine lies along a fault that trends N 25° E and was operated by Barnett, Karber, and Adams (Weller et al. 1952). Weller et al. (1952) reported that in 1942, water was pumped down into this shaft to 140 feet and no ore was seen at the bottom of the shaft.
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| Mackey Prospect |
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| Baxter et al. (1967) identified this prospect along the projection of a northeast-trending fault. No other information is available concerning this prospect. |
| Sam Parkinson Prospect |
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| Baxter et al. (1967) identified this prospect. No other information is available. |
| S. Rotes Prospect, aka Black Jack Prospect |
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| Denny and Counts (2009) located this prospect near the base of a gulley (sec. 27, T 12 S, R 7 E). The prospect pit was sunk to about 20 feet deep (Weller et al. 1952). |
| Reed Shaft |
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| The Reed Shaft was located in sec. 27, T 12 S, R 7 E. No further information is available about this shaft. |
| Rotes Prospect |
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The Rotes Prospect (sec. 27, T 12 S, R 7 E) was located on the east bank of Big Grand Pierre Creek. A limited amount of fluorspar was produced at this site, which was operated by Skinner and Randall (Weller et al. 1952). A vein 1.5 feet wide trending N 25° E was mined in a shaft 40 feet deep (Weller et al. 1952). Barite was very abundant at this prospect (Weller et al. 1952).
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