8/18/2019 Tri State Mining District: A Brief History

1/2

'

A

Brief

History of Granby and

Early

Mining Days

Presented y

R

J.

Savage

R.J. Savage was born and raised in Granby. He graduated from Granby High School in

1953 and

the

University of Missouri in 1957. Following his graduation he went into the U.S

Marine Corps, and served until August 1967. After serving in the Marine Corps he went to

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary

and

subsequently served as pastor at a church

in Pearl City, m. R.J. returned to Granby in 1984 and went into real estate for a few

years. He decided to return to college to pursue a degree in education. He ended up

teaching at College Heights Christian School in Joplin until be retired in June, 2003.

Currently R.J., and his wife Elaine, work at

the

Miners Museum in Granby.

Outline

of

Presentation

I.

The Country of the Six

Bulls

II.

Early Settlement

Ill. The Name-Granby

IV. Early Day Mining

V.

Granby

Mining & Smelting Co.

VI. Zinc Finds

It's

Place

Vll.

Colonel John Kingston

8/18/2019 Tri State Mining District: A Brief History

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BOODLE L NE

The

following

material is excerpted from an

article

that appeared in

the

March-April 2003 edition of Rocks

Minerals

.

The

article was A nostalgic

look

at rock shops,

tourist

traps, and exploited geological curiosities

along the roadside 

by

Arthur E

Smith

. It is

reprinted

with the permission

of

the author and the Helen Dwight

Reid Educational Foundation. Published by

Heldref

Publications, 1319 8th St, Washington, DC 20036-1802.

To many collectors , even today, the name Boodle Lane is synonymous with Tri-State

district

minerals.

(The Tri

-

State

district includes Baxter

Springs and Galena, Kansas

;

Joplin

,

Missouri

; and

Picher

,

Oklahoma

.)

In the

1930s

and into the

1950s stopping

at

Lane's

shop in

Galena

, Kansas, was

an absolute

must for

collectors visiting the area. Here, good specimens

of

sphalerite, galena , pink dolomite, chalcopyrite,

marcasite, and calcite

as

well as such uncommon minerals

as

wurtzite, enargite, hemimorphite

(there

usually

called calamine) could be purchased at a cheap price. Sphalerite

was

called

jack--ruby jack

for

the red,

blackjack for the black

.

Evidently

,

there

was a

rapid

turnover

of material

, for

most of

the smaller

specimens on

the outdoor

tables did

not

seem to

show effects

of

exposure

to

the

weather.

In the

late

1950s I

bought

a 2.4 x

1

0-mm

specimen

with

ruby jack crystals to about 3

mm

for $1.25

from Lane

.

It is

still catalogued

in

my

collection as specimen no. 125 and

worth

many times

that

amount.

If

you

picked

out a lot of specimens and didn't want

to

overload your car

(easy to

do with galena

specimens)

,

Lane would

pack

them in

a

barrel and ship

them to you. Also,

it was possible to

order a

selection

of specimens

, sight

unseen

, to

be shipped

in a

barrel. These were called Boodle barrels

,  and I

never heard

of anyone

not

being pleased with

them .

There

were

other dealers in the Tri-State district

whose names

have

been

long

forgotten

, but

Boodle

Lane

remains

a

legend.

Although he

wasn

't a miner,

Lane

appreciated the

mines

and minerals that

provided

his

livelihood

. In the 1930s he put out a series of photographic postcards, two of

which

are shown here (figs. 5

and 6); the others show mines and miners on

the

surface and underground .The postcard showing his case at

the

Smithsonian Institution has actual small mineral fragments

glued

in

circular

patterns on

each comer

of

the

card

. It's impossible

to

say how many Tri-State minerals

in

collections today

were

originally sold

by Lane

, but

certainly

a lot of them

were

.

-

Post card courtesy Bruce Stinemetz