Remnant of an Era

Remnant of an Era. . , As early as 1880, when gold, silver, copper, and iron mines began producing ore in Chaffee County, a local smelter was needed. Several small concentrating plants and smelters were built close to ore sources, but most were inadequate. , The arrival of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad created Salida, which quickly became a mercantile center and an obvious location for a large, efficient smelter. But it wasn't until after the 1893 Silver Panic that smelter discussions became serious. , In 1901 officials of the New Monarch Mining Company of Leadville announced that they wanted a smelter, and Salida businessmen mobilized to get the project successfully underway. , Construction of the plant began February 24, 1902, and moved quickly through the efforts of 300 laborers. By August the first stack, 150 feet tall, was almost complete. A few months later a shorter 85-foot stack was built, and on October 25, 1902 the first furnace was put into use at the Ohio-Colorado Smelting and Refining Company. , Danger in the Air , There was a problem, however. The smelter belched toxic fumes at an alarming rate. Trees died on slopes downwind of the smelter stacks. Farmers and ranchers found their crops less hearty and their animals sickly and dying. , Local complaints were, for years, quietly paid off by the company. Eventually the problem became so widespread that another solution had to be found. In 1916 the company announced plans to build the 365-foot stack to provide better draft and to process an increasing supply of ore. Privately, however, the company admitted its purpose was to raise noxious fumes higher into the air so they would disperse before causing damage to people, livestock and crops. , Financial Disaster , In the year following construction of the tall stack, the smelter barely survived financially. Growing company debt and a damaging fire forced lease of the facility to a string of other smelting companies. None of these leases made a dent in the more than $1 million owed to Denver National Bank, and in 1920 the plant was forced to close. It was sold as junk at auction and subsequently stripped of machinery, other salvage and brick. , Saving the Smokestack , The tall stack remained. There were unsuccessful attempts to tear it down in the decades that followed and in the 1970s local residents agitated to save the impressive landmark. , An engineer's study concluded the stack would stand another hundred years, and the Save the Smokestack campaign sued Chaffee County in an effort to stop a demolition order. After assurances that the property would be transferred to a responsible party, ownership of the smokestack passed to the Salida Museum Association and the order was thrown out. , Further citizen action culminated Jan. 11, 1976 when the smokestack was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. , What is a smelter? , Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to separate a metal from its native ore. Iron is extracted from iron ore to produce steel, just as copper and other base metals are extracted from their ores. , Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent, commonly a fuel that is a source of carbon such as coke or charcoal, to change the oxidation state of the metal ore. The carbon or carbon monoxide derived from the process removes oxygen from the ore to leave the metal. Because most ores are impure, it is often necessary to use flux, such as limestone, to remove the accompanying rock as slag. , [photo captions] , . Two men pose next to the furnaces of the Ohio-Colorado Smelting and Refining Company. Circa 1902-1920. , . Interior of the Ohio-Colorado Smelting and Refining Company, between 1902 and 1920. Workers sit beside a sampler-crusher, driven by a Corliss side crank engine. , . Spectators pose beneath wooden arch bows. 24-feet high and 24-feet wide, which guided brick layers during construction of the flue, or draft chamber that connected the furnaces to the bottom of the 1902 smokestack. The flue was 823-feet long. , . The view from the top of the 365-foot stack.