by Pam North
Until 1900, it was still referred to contemptuously as "that damned black iron." It littered the mountain slopes in plain sight near Nederland, its true value unrecognized, kicked carelessly aside by miners lured more by gold and silver. This semiprecious metal was tungsten, and it was plentiful in a small area about nine miles long and four miles wide, at the western edge of which was situated the town of Nederland. Two unusual characteristics were evident in this specific locale: gold and silver were oddly lacking, and the tungsten ore was free of the troublesome materials commonly accompanying tungsten ores elsewhere in the world.
It was Samuel P. Conger, the discoverer of the Caribou silver mine some
twenty years previously, who learned of the value of the tungsten ore.
He secured a lease on a tract of land on the Boulder County Ranch,
and opened up the Conger lead; it proved to be the greatest tungsten
mine ever discovered, producing well above the $1,000,000 mark.
Steel manufacturers had found, in years just prior to this, that the addition of a certain percentage of tungsten alloyed with steel resulted in a metal that could retain its temper under a high degree of heat, and this metal was ideally suited to the making of high-speed tool steel. Before 1900, tungsten was so limited in supply and production that it could only be used very judiciously by the steel maufacturers. Nederland tungsten, along with Australian tungsten that also soon entered the market, ensured a new abundance of this rare metal. This availability brought dynamic changes to American industry. Automobile piston rings, cylinders, valves and other moving parts subject to intense heat were far more durable if manufactured from tungsten steel. Tungsten lent tensile strength and corrosion resistance. The various forms and alloys of tungsten were employed to color glass, glaze porcelain, make filaments for electric lamps and wire for dental work, and make x-rays visible, but the most extensive use of the metal was for tool manufacturing.
The first decade of the twentieth century culminated in a year of record production for Nederland's tungsten industry, but the next four years brought keen foreign competition from Burma, Australia and New Zealand, ending Nederland's monopoly and lowering prices. Great Britain placed an embargo on the shipment of tungsten ore from its empire in 1914, just at the outbreak of World War I, with the effect that American tungsten was again in great demand, and at dramatically higher prices. Tungsten was hailed as the "key mineral" in the production of war materials. Nederland was again a boom town in the war years from 1914 to 1917, with a population of 3000 in the town, and another 2,000 in the surrounding area. Hotels and rooming houses were filled to overflowing, with beds rented on eight-hour shifts, and customers allowed only twenty minutes to eat their meals. Mining facilities were operated at full capacity, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The peak production year of 1916 saw $4,000,000 in tungsten production.
By 1917, the boom was collapsing, and although the mining activity continued,
it was at a much slower pace.
Further decline in the industry followed in 1919, when tungsten was
imported from China to the United States as ballast on freighters.
Mining business finally stopped altogether in 1921, with the huge Primos
Company selling out and dismantling. The Wolf Tongue Company somehow
managed to get back in business in 1922, steadily operating for many more
years. World War II and the Korean War created more demands for tungsten,
and the Conger Mine also reopened in 1938, operating for over six years.
Tungsten is still produced in Nederland, but at a much lower level than
that of preceding years.
Resource: Nederland, A Trip to Cloudland, by Isabel M. Becker.
Photo to accompany article at:
http://www.tungsten.com/mtstung.html
Caption: Tungsten, a valuable semiprecious metal, replaced gold
and silver in miners' quests, and put Nederland on the map.