Editing Bonne Terre, Missouri (section)

===Lead mining era, 1860s-1963===
The community was originally part of the [[Louisiana Territory]] and settled by Frenchmen in 1720 after they discovered lead ore.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G-AlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA385 | title=History of Southeast Missouri: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principal Interests, Volume 1 | publisher=Lewis Publishing Company | year=1912 | pages=385| isbn=9780722207536 }}</ref> Two Frenchmen, La Motte and [[Philip Francois Renault]], had left France in 1719 with 200 miners in search of minerals as part of the [[Company of the West]].<ref name="bonneterrenet">{{Cite web |date=2010-09-27 |title=City of Bonne Terre History |url=http://www.bonneterre.net/history.htm |access-date=2022-02-02 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100927174703/http://www.bonneterre.net/history.htm |archive-date=27 September 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Surface miners referred to it as ''La Bonne Terre'' around 1825, meaning "the good soil" because of the lead. In 1828, St. Anne, the first Catholic chapel in St Francois County, was built here.<ref name="earngey">{{Cite book |last=Earngey, Bill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xcxWsmxRzVEC&pg=PA20 |title=Missouri Roadsides: The Traveler's Companion |publisher=University of Missouri Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780826210210 |pages=20}}</ref>

In 1864, [[Bonne Terre Mine]] was established by [[St. Joe Minerals|St. Joseph lead mining company]] which was incorporated in NYC the same year. In 1865, a new superintendent, J. C. Winslow, brought a number of [[Cornish people|Cornish]] miners.<ref name="bonneterrenet" /> 
Underground mining began in 1869. After a post office was established in 1868, the corporate name of the town, "St. Joe´s mines" changed to Bonne Terre.<ref name="earngey"/>

Major lead mining operations from the 1870s also included the [[Desloge Lead Company]], and Doe Run. The Desloge mines were started by [[Firmin V. Desloge]], and above-ground works were bounded approximately by present-day Division Street on the west, Benham Street on the south, Route 67 on the east, and the township line to the north.<ref name="youtube">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt0C0dLSzBw | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310130154/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt0C0dLSzBw| archive-date=2016-03-10 | url-status=dead|title=Full length presentation by Christopher Desloge to the City of Bonne Terre, Oct 3, 2014 |publisher=youtube.com|access-date=2015-08-02}}</ref><ref name="youtube2">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWUyQERXEj0 | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/ZWUyQERXEj0| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|title=Christopher Desloge Family and Lead Mining History 9-30-14 – YouTube – radio interview KFMO Radio, with permission.  |publisher=youtube.com|access-date=2015-08-02}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 1880, Bone Terre was [[plat]]ted as a town.<ref name="earngey"/> The miners were local small farmers, timber cutters and rock quarrymen supplementing their income, and later Hungarian and other Slavic and southern European immigrants.<ref name="bonneterrenet" /> 
In 1890, the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Railroad hauled ore to [[Herculaneum, Missouri|Herculaneum]] smelters. The [[Bonne Terre Depot]] from 1909 still exists.<ref name="bonneterrenet" /> 
At the beginning of the 20th century, St. Joe Lead was the only one of initially dozens of mining companies left, as it had bought up the remaining companies. In 1962, the mine closed. Lead mine tailings were used as paving gravel for decades.<ref name="bonneterrenet" />

In 1977, heavy rains caused about 50,000 cubic yards of tailings to slough into the [[Big River (Missouri)|Big River]].<ref name="epa2">{{Cite web |date=n.d. |title=BIG RIVER MINE TAILINGS/ST. JOE MINERALS CORP. Site Profile |url=https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0701639#Done |access-date=2022-02-02 |website=cumulis.epa.gov |language=en}}</ref>