Editing Basin, Montana (section)

=== Boom and bust ===
[[Image:Basinsmelter.jpg|thumb|left| Ruins of the Glass brothers' smelter in Basin (2007)]]Two mines, the Katy and the Hope, owned serially by several different companies between the mid-1890s and the mid-1920s, contributed to Basin's prosperity. In 1894, the Basin and Bay State Mining Company, organized by two brothers named Glass, began expanded operations at these mines. However, flooding and fires caused both mines to close by 1896; the Glass brothers lost control of the property, and the mines went idle.<ref name=wolle>{{cite book  | last = Wolle | first = Muriel Sibell | title =Montana Pay Dirt: A Guide to the Mining Camps of the Treasure State  | publisher = Sage Books/Swallow Press | year =1983 | location = Athens, Ohio | pages = 153–156 | isbn = 0-8040-0722-5 | edition = first paperback }}</ref> Despite the ups and downs of the local mines and despite several disastrous fires in town, Basin prospered.<ref name=DEQ/> In 1905, the Basin Reduction Company led by [[F. Augustus Heinze]], who owned mines in Butte, took over the properties left by the Glass brothers and improved them. By then, Basin had a population of 1,500, four rooming houses, a drug store, three hotels, a bath house, three grocery stores, a bank, a newspaper, and 12 saloons.<ref name="wolle"/>

An unpublished manuscript on file with the Montana State Historical Society describes life in Basin between 1906 and 1910 in great detail. Two railroads, the [[Northern Pacific Railway|Northern Pacific]] on the north side of the Boulder River, and the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern]] on the south side, served the city; both had depots and warehouses in Basin and carried passengers as well as freight. The Glass brothers' smelter had been set up on the north side to process concentrated ore delivered by rail from out of town or from the mills on the south side. Infrastructure included a weight scale for ore cars and an overhead tram to carry ore across the river from the reduction mill to the smelter. Although the smelter was a "massive unit" equipped with furnaces, conveyors, and machinery ready for operation, it "never turned a wheel".<ref name=beck>Beck, Albert W. (1968). "Map and Legend of Basin, Montana, 1906–1910". Unpublished manuscript on file in the archives of the Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana. Call # SC 1267.</ref>

While the smelter sat idle, mining activity continued on the south side of the river in the Hope-Katy mine complex, at the Hope Mill, which crushed and separated ore, and at the Basin Reduction Works. [[Flume]]s carried water from upstream on Cataract Creek and Basin Creek to a storage reservoir in town and supplied water to the mills as well as the town's fire hydrants. A separate flume carried water to the mills from upstream on the Boulder River. At the Basin Reduction Works, [[Corliss Steam Engine|Corliss steam engines]], driven by the coal-fired boilers, provided power to run the [[mine hoist]]s and the mill machinery, and an electric generator powered by a [[water wheel]] made electricity for factory lights and the [[Arc lamp|arc lights]] at Basin's street intersections. Surplus [[tailings]] were discharged into the river and into a dam built for the purpose downstream of Basin.<ref name=beck/>

In addition to homes, Basin structures between 1906 and 1910 included a dance pavilion, a grandstand, a baseball diamond, and a playground near the confluence of Basin Creek with the river. A footbridge connected the playground with a picnic area on the south side of the river. Meeting places included churches, a union hall, and a two-story building shared by the [[Fraternal Order of Eagles]], the [[Independent Order of Odd Fellows]], the [[Freemasonry|Masons]], and [[Order of the Eastern Star|Eastern Star]]. Among the town's businesses were a hardware store, a bakery, livery stables, several "units of harlotry", a blacksmith shop, a brewery specializing in Basin Beer, a sawmill, and a dairy barn from which "milk was delivered in five-pound buckets", sometimes with covers.<ref name=beck/>

In 1909, after Heinze abandoned his properties in Basin, the Butte and Superior Mining Company used buildings and machinery at the site of the Basin Reduction Works to treat zinc ore by a new process called [[froth flotation]]. Sued for patent infringement, the company shut down its Basin plant in 1912.<ref name="wolle"/> Max Atwater, a mining engineer who had worked for Butte and Superior, obtained a license for the process and ran a smaller zinc-extraction plant in Basin from 1914 through 1918. His wife, [[Mary Meigs Atwater]], described Basin as "a mining camp, subject to recurring periods of boom and bust... A tiny telephone office and a drugstore died with the end of our era of boom... Just above the town were the [[Gallows Frame|headframe]] of our mine, and the old mill, and the never-quite-finished skeleton of a projected smelter."<ref>{{cite book | last = Reiter | first = Mary Jo | title = Weaving a Life: The Story of Mary Meigs Atwater | publisher = Interweave Press | year = 1992 | location = Loveland, Colorado | page = [https://archive.org/details/weavinglifestory00atwa/page/131 131] | isbn = 0-934026-77-7 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/weavinglifestory00atwa/page/131 }}</ref>

[[Image:Mine entrance.jpg|thumb|right| Former entrance to the Hope-Katy mine complex (2007)]]The most extensive and successful mining of the Hope-Katy vein began in 1919, when the Jib Consolidated Mining Company began work on the property. When this company acquired the mines, they comprised {{convert|3500|ft|m|0}} of workings. Over the next five years, Jib expanded these to more than {{convert|15000|ft|m|0}}, and in 1924 the company became the largest gold producer in Montana. In that year, the combined Jib mines produced about {{convert|33000|oz|g}} of gold, {{convert|182000|oz|g}} of silver, {{convert|282000|lb|kg}} of copper, and {{convert|199000|lb|kg}} of lead.<ref name=roby>{{cite book  | last = Roby | first = R.N. | title =Bulletin 16: Mines and Mineral Deposits (Except Fuels), Jefferson County, Montana | publisher = Montana School of Mines | year =1960 | location = Butte, Montana | pages = 29, 31–32, 100   }}</ref> In 1925, however, the Jib properties passed from the mining company to trustees for creditors, and production declined.<ref name=roby/> This was the last of Basin's mining booms. Since then, small-scale mining, reworking of old mine dumps, and placer mining has continued in the region.<ref name="DEQ"/>