While Glenn Springs Holding is working to clean up the Copper Basin environment, it is also discovering relics of the past. The Ducktown Basin Museum is getting the benefit of that, as contractors have been delivering historic artifacts to be available for interpretation.

Recent additions from the McPherson cleanup, explained by museum curator Ken Rush, include:

Sows - This is material that built up in the bottom of the 19th Century smelter furnaces. The furnaces had to be shut down periodically so the material, more iron than copper, could be broken out. He said the furnaces heated the ore, which was hauled from the nearby mine, until it melted and the copper floated to the top. Rush said it was all brute force that was used. “There were no backhoes or fork lifts, just levers and pulleys.” Each mine had its own set of furnaces to reduce the travel required. The McPherson shaft dates to the 1870s.

A cast iron pipe that was found was probably used to deliver water from the springs behind McPherson to Burra hill, where it was used in the water tank that provided drinking water for the town as well as for operations.

A large gear dating to the 19th Century has not been identified, but Rush said he suspects it was used for a stamp mill, which would have been used to pound ore to break it into smaller pieces for smelting. It could also have been used in the furnaces to help force air in to increase the temperature. The bellows would probably have been powered by a water wheel or steam engine, he said, adding they are looking at 19th Century equipment websites to get more information.

“Turtle shells” - These are pot slag in different sizes. While most molten slag was poured into water and granulated or poured on the ground (the base at Intertrade headquarters), the workers at Isabella let some of it harden in the bottom of the pot, then knocked it out. The resulting slag pieces were apparently used along creek banks for stabilization, similar to today’s rip-rap, or could have been used to direct traffic. Rush said the examples at the museum were found along the creek.