Dewatering & rehabilitating the Oronogo-Webb City mining area

The object of this paper is to describe the dewatering of the Oronogo-Webb City mining area, and the subsequent mining operations which were carried on in the northern section of that area. It deals with the development in that district during the time the writer was familiar with operations there; i.e., from 1935 to 1939, inclusive, and no attempt is made to describe the open pit mining and local milling which have been carried out as a latter part of this same project. Also, no attempt is made to describe the surface drainage work which was planned and carried out by the relief agencies of the federal government. In passing, it is sufficient to say that over $150,000 was expended for this work, which consisted of building dams and constructing ditches to protect the mine workings from the danger of surface water. However, this was the only part for which government funds were used. The dewatering and development work was carried out entirely by a large mining company operating In the Tri-State District, the Eagle-Picher Mining & Smelting Co., which held leases on the land in the dewatered area. These leases were in turn sub-leased to other companies for mining and were worked as separate operations. The Eagle-Picher Mining & Smelting Co. kept the mines dewatered, assembled the ore and transported it to the Central Mill located in northeastern Oklahoma for concentration. The company was, of course, as holders of the first lease, held responsible to the landowners for the proper conduct of mining operations and accounting of royalties --Introduction, pages 1-2