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![Souvenir Mining Spoon Minnie Healy Mine, Butte, MT.jpg - SOUVENIR MINING SPOON, MINNIE HEALY MINE, BUTTE, MT Sterling silver spoon, 5 1/2 in. long, die-struck mining scene in bowl, bowl marked MINNIE HEALEY MINE BUTTE, MONTANA; handle is a MONTANA state souvenir blank, back of handle marked Sterling with Shepard (S) makers mark, weight 22 gms. (note: literature refers to this mine as Minnie Healy) [The Minnie Healy mine was one of the high grade copper mines of Butte. It mined the Minnie Healy, Tramway, and other veins. However its claim to fame has to do with providing the trigger that started the Copper Wars, called by some the Battle of Butte that took place from 1898 to 1906 between the Anaconda Copper Company and companies owned by Fredrick Augustus Heinze. Heinze was born in 1869. His father was a prosperous German immigrant and his mother a Connecticut Yankee. An able student, Heinze graduated from the Columbia School of Mines when he was only twenty and decided to try his luck in Butte. By 1898, a round of mine acquisitions led to extensive consolidation of ownership with the Amalgamated Copper Company (later changing its name to the Anaconda Company) becoming the dominant player in Butte. At the same time Heinze created several companies to buy up a portfolio of many of the scattered small mines, smelters and claims in the district that had yet to be absorbed by Anaconda. This group was then consolidated in 1901 into the United Copper Co. One of these small mines was the Minnie Healy, which had been unproductive until Heinze found the richest vein of copper in Butte a month after he bought it. However the main attraction of the Minnie Healy for Heinze was its proximity to the great mines owned by Anaconda, the so-called copper trust. Enter the apex rule of the General Mining Act of 1872. The rule said that the owner of the apex of a vein of ore, where it reached or came closest to the surface, could follow that vein downward even if it ran under someone else’s property. Heinze used this rule with the Minnie Healy to mine the veins that ran under or across Anaconda’s property. Anaconda sued Heinze and the case was settled in Heinze’s favor in late October 1902, with Judge William Clancy essentially declaring Anaconda’s operations illegal. Anaconda’s response was to shut down all its businesses in Montana, especially the Butte mines. At least 15,000 workers were out of work, with winter coming on creating an ugly mood amongst the miners and the companies. Through the period of 1898 to 1906 there were literally hundreds of individual battles between the two companies, and they were conducted not just in the courts but as physical confrontations between miners at the rock faces underground. Finally in 1906, Heinze and Anaconda made a deal. Anaconda paid Heinze $10.5 million for his mining properties in Butte and Heinze dropped over one hundred active lawsuits against them. Eventually the Minnie Healy mine was swallowed up into the Berkeley pit.]](Souvenir Mining Spoon Minnie Healy Mine, Butte, MT.jpg) |
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| Souvenir Mining Spoon Minnie Healy Mine, Butte, MT | SOUVENIR MINING SPOON, MINNIE HEALY MINE, BUTTE, MT Sterling silver spoon, 5 1/2 in. long, die-struck mining scene in bowl, bowl marked MINNIE HEALEY MINE BUTTE, MONTANA; handle is a MONTANA state souvenir blank, back of handle marked Sterling with Shepard (S) makers mark, weight 22 gms. (note: literature refers to this mine as Minnie Healy) [The Minnie Healy mine was one of the high grade copper mines of Butte. It mined the Minnie Healy, Tramway, and other veins. However its claim to fame has to do with providing the trigger that started the Copper Wars, called by some the Battle of Butte that took place from 1898 to 1906 between the Anaconda Copper Company and companies owned by Fredrick Augustus Heinze. Heinze was born in 1869. His father was a prosperous German immigrant and his mother a Connecticut Yankee. An able student, Heinze graduated from the Columbia School of Mines when he was only twenty and decided to try his luck in Butte. By 1898, a round of mine acquisitions led to extensive consolidation of ownership with the Amalgamated Copper Company (later changing its name to the Anaconda Company) becoming the dominant player in Butte. At the same time Heinze created several companies to buy up a portfolio of many of the scattered small mines, smelters and claims in the district that had yet to be absorbed by Anaconda. This group was then consolidated in 1901 into the United Copper Co. One of these small mines was the Minnie Healy, which had been unproductive until Heinze found the richest vein of copper in Butte a month after he bought it. However the main attraction of the Minnie Healy for Heinze was its proximity to the great mines owned by Anaconda, the so-called copper trust. Enter the apex rule of the General Mining Act of 1872. The rule said that the owner of the apex of a vein of ore, where it reached or came closest to the surface, could follow that vein downward even if it ran under someone else’s property. Heinze used this rule with the Minnie Healy to mine the veins that ran under or across Anaconda’s property. Anaconda sued Heinze and the case was settled in Heinze’s favor in late October 1902, with Judge William Clancy essentially declaring Anaconda’s operations illegal. Anaconda’s response was to shut down all its businesses in Montana, especially the Butte mines. At least 15,000 workers were out of work, with winter coming on creating an ugly mood amongst the miners and the companies. Through the period of 1898 to 1906 there were literally hundreds of individual battles between the two companies, and they were conducted not just in the courts but as physical confrontations between miners at the rock faces underground. Finally in 1906, Heinze and Anaconda made a deal. Anaconda paid Heinze $10.5 million for his mining properties in Butte and Heinze dropped over one hundred active lawsuits against them. Eventually the Minnie Healy mine was swallowed up into the Berkeley pit.] |  Original Image |
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