Wilbur H. Smith papers

Collection

Identifier: MS 0563

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Wilbur H. Smith papers (1853-1988) contain mining and geology documents collected by Wilbur H. Smith (1913-1988), a former division geologist for Kennecott Copper Corporation. The collection is divided into four sections and contains essays, publications, maps, correspondence, notes, books, newspaper and magazine articles, geology charts, reports, and pamphlets. The collection contains information on smelting, railroads, and the United States Geological Survey; Bingham, Utah, and the nearby Kennecott Copper mine; prominent miners in Utah; and national and international mining organizations and areas. The collection also contains some of Smith's personal correspondence, information on his employment in Oaxaca, Mexico, and documents resulting from his education at the University of Utah.

The first section, Personal Papers, contains information on Smith's employment in Mexico, his retirement, and home purchase; a typescript of the diary of his father, and correspondence. Also included are memorial addresses for William Russell Anderson, a geologist for Kennecott Copper Corporation; Smith's caricature and appointment books; and University of Utah documents. The correspondence in box 1, dating 1955-1988, includes information on the history of the U.S. mining industry, papers and articles written on Bingham mining activities in Utah, and Smith's collection of publications on mining history, such as Copperfield by Arilla B. Jackson. Correspondence relating to Smith's death is located in box 1, folder 4. Miscellaneous personal documents include expenses, medical prescriptions, and customs information relating to Smith's job in Oaxaca, Mexico; retirement certificates; and titles and deeds from his home purchase in the 1960s. These are located in box 2 and date from 1909-1996. A typescript of his father's diary, 1909-1911; memorial addresses for his Kennecott co-worker, William Anderson, and a caricature of Smith are also located in box 2. Smith's appointment books, dating 1967-1969, are in box 3. His files containing reports, essays, and notes from his University of Utah classes are located in boxes 4-5 and date from 1932-1940.

The second section, Mining and Geology Files, dates from 1871-1985 and is divided into four groups. These groups focus on Bingham Canyon mining in Utah, international mining, Kennecott Copper Corporation, railroads, smelting, and the United States Geological Survey. They are located in boxes 6-23 and consist of reports, essays, notes, magazine and newspaper articles, correspondence, booklets, and diagrams. Also included are biographies on miners such as Charlie Ney Kenco and United States Geological Survey maps.

The third section of the collection, Mining and Geology Maps, consists mainly of maps but also includes oversize materials. The majority of the maps date from 1853-1982 and show the topography, geology, and development of mines and mining areas in Utah. Also included are United States and international mining area maps with similar cartographic features. The maps show national and international areas containing coal reserves and mineral deposits, as well as United States railroad routes. The Utah, United States, and international maps are located in boxes 24-25. Included in the oversize materials is a national historical atlas, 1966-1968, with information on United States culture, exploration, territories, and elections from the late eighteenth century to 1968; and a set of 1971 colored prints of Indians first published by Thomas L. McKenney between 1836 and 1844. Indian warriors and leaders such as Sequoyah and Black Hawk are represented. The oversize items are located in box 26.

The fourth section, Articles and Miscellaneous Materials, contains newspaper and magazine articles, 1875-1987, with information on ghost towns, nuclear holocaust, pioneers, mines in Utah, geologic rock structures, and transportation. The articles, located in boxes 27-29, are arranged in the subject and date classifications established by Smith. Editions of The Salt Lake Tribune (1936-1941, 1971-1979), The Ogden Standard Examiner (1969), and The Deseret News (1975) are located in box 28. These are special scenic, centennial, United States Bicentennial, and anniversary issues documenting various events in Utah's history. The miscellaneous materials include monographs on Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico; essays and stock certificates; geologic charts, tables, and scales; and magazine articles on early civilization. These materials are located in box 30 and date from 1887-1982.

Dates

1853-1988

Creator

Smith, Wilbur H. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Biographical Sketch

Wilbur Harry Smith (1913-1988) was a division geologist for the Kennecott Copper Corporation from 1959 to 1978. He began his career as a geologist in his teenage years working for the International Smelting and Refining Plant in Tooele, Utah. This experience led to his job as sampler at Lark Mine for the U. S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, circa 1944, and then to mine exploration work at El Tisur Mines in Oaxaca, Mexico. Most of his years as geologist, however, were spent at Kennecott studying the Oquirrh Mountains west of Salt Lake City, plotting underground and surface geologic maps, and visiting and photographing old smelters.

Wilbur H. Smith was born to Howard Milburn and Jessie Ethel Smith on April 29, 1913, in Tooele, Utah. His father was chief clerk at Anaconda's International Smelter at Tooele. This instilled in Smith a lifelong interest in mines, smelters, railroads, history, and photography. His love of photography would one day lead him to photograph the north end of the Oquirrh Mountains from the open cockpit of an airplane during the 1930s, and to document the demolition of Bingham during the 1960s. These materials were later compiled into a scrapbook entitled "The Death and Burial of Bingham." He took photographs of the machine house in the old Tooele smelter "from every conceivable angle," and also documented, through photography, the geology of several mines and mining districts, such as Bingham and Tooele, Utah.

During the 1930s Smith worked at the International Smelting and Refining Plant in Tooele. One colleague mentions that "there were days of standing on a wooden platform in special big wooden shoes, sprayed by a water hose, re-bricking the floor inside a still-hot sulfurous reverberatory furnace, and of shoveling the black chalcocite dust that was rich Mountain City smelting ore." Smith also attended the University of Utah during the 1930s, putting himself through school with money earned in the mill at Anaconda's Walker Mine in California. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in geology on June 4, 1935. He studied petrology for another two years but did not have enough money to complete a graduate degree.

During World War II Smith found employment as sampler in the High Ore mine at Butte, Montana. After the war he worked as a geologist for thirteen years in the U.S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Company's mines at Lark, Utah. His employment at Lark was interrupted in 1957 with a proposal from the Republic Steel Corporation to do exploration work at El Tisur Mines in Oaxaca, Mexico. He worked a year or so in Mexico and then returned to his native Tooele. His love for Tooele's mining activities, railroad, and smelter are manifest through the countless photographs he took, and in the papers and books he collected on these subjects.

In 1959 Smith was hired as junior geologist for Kennecott Copper Corporation's Bingham geology department. His geological knowledge of the Bingham district was "invaluable," enabling him to map the underground structures of the Kennecott mine as well as write a history of the district (which was never completed). Many of his articles on the Bingham district, such as "More Jobs For Geology Spur Better Mapping Methods at Bingham Canyon," were published in magazines and guidebooks and are present in the collection. Between 1961 and 1969 Smith was promoted to geologist, then senior geologist, and finally division geologist. During this time he was involved in organizations such as the Utah Geological Society, the Geological Society of America, the Society of Economic Geologists, and the Society of Professional Geologists. He was also a member of the Tooele Museum Board and was involved in a local discussion group of geology professionals and university professors.

Smith retired from Kennecott in 1978 after nineteen years of service. Even after his retirement, however, Smith continued to research the structural geological history of the Oquirrh mountain range and take photographs of smelters and mining areas as a hobby. This was cut short with the advancement of diabetes which confined him to his Holladay apartment, and later to the Tooele County Hospital, where he died in 1988.