The quicksilver rush

In April 1930, an 18-year-old farm boy named Crown Cox was hunting near the Little Missouri River in western Pike County when he noticed a rock with a dark red coloration. About a month later, D.F. Short, a section foreman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was blasting rock near the Antoine River in Pike County when he picked up a similar specimen.

“The rocks were unusual, so both men kept them,” Terry Reynolds writes for the Clark County Historical Association. “Neither Cox nor Short, however, could identify the rocks. Unknowingly, they had found cinnabar — the primary ore from which mercury, called quicksilver in mining circles, is extracted.”

The association recently released “Cinnabar Mining in Southwest Arkansas,” which contains Reynolds’ story about what became known as Arkansas’ Tri-County Mining District. The district covered parts of Pike, Howard and Clark counties from 1930-45.

“Cinnabar hadn’t previously been known to exist in Arkansas, and it was the first major mercury discovery in the nation in decades,” says Wendy Richter, the association’s executive secretary. “At the time, the United States didn’t produce as much mercury as it consumed and had to import a third to half of its needs, giving the find an even greater significance.

“In the early 20th century, people used mercury for many purposes. A number of pharmaceuticals contained it. Among the well-known items was the once-popular Mercurochrome, designed to kill bacteria on the skin. Mercury was also used in fungicides and insecticides. Thermometers and barometers utilized it. In industry, mercury was a component of fluorescent and vapor lamps and served as a catalyst in production of critical chemicals such as chlorine and caustic soda. Militaries around the world considered it a necessary strategic material.”

The southwest Arkansas discovery came soon after the onset of the Great Depression. It created such a stir that Time magazine even wrote about it.

“Locals as well as speculators and prospectors hoped to find work and even dreamed of becoming wealthy by seizing opportunities offered by mining the ore,” Richter says. “As events unfolded and men poured into the area, a 1932 Time story called it a quicksilver rush.

“From 1931-35, more than 20 companies incorporated to mine quicksilver in the area, in addition to individuals and other entities. In 1931, the economic downturn of the Great Depression and the dwindling supply of timber resulted in closure of a timber mill at the Clark County town of Graysonia.”

The Graysonia mill, which was surrounded by a company town, had once been among the largest timber mills in the South. It’s now a ghost town. In 1931, Arkansas Quicksilver Co. of Prescott brought its smelting operation to Graysonia. The first shipment of mercury left Graysonia in April 1932.

The only living Arkansas quicksilver miner from that era is thought to be 97-year-old Jack Daniels of Alpine in Clark County. Daniels lived with his grandparents until he was 14. Tired of farm life, he then moved into Amity to live with his sister. He worked at a sawmill until age 16 and then landed a job at a mine shoveling rocks. The cinnabar rocks were moved from the mine to a furnace. Daniels says he remembers making $2.82 a day.

Asked if there were safety protocols in place, Daniels says: “We didn’t even have a first aid kit. Back in the 1940s, coming out of the Depression, nobody worried about anything but making a living and buying a car.”

The mercury-bearing district was six miles wide and 30 miles long. Most of the cinnabar mines were in Pike County. Within the three-county area, there were at least 67 mines and prospects along with hundreds of smaller exploration test pits and trenches.

“Only 10 mines accounted for most of the production,” Michael Howard writes for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “The production of mercury was important during World War II. Mercury fulminate is essential for bullet primers, and the world’s primary producing area in Spain was under the control of dictator Francisco Franco. Other compounds of mercury found use in tracer bullets and chemical warfare. Domestic production from 1941-44 aided the war effort in the United States.

“Cinnabar was roasted in the presence of oxygen to break the mineral down into free mercury vapor and sulfur dioxide. These gases were then cooled, and the mercury condensed as a liquid, being recovered in retort facilities. Refining from 1931-44 yielded about 11,400 such flasks. Since 1946, the only reported production was 27 flasks from a retort one mile south of Kirby. These additional flasks were recovered in 1965 from low-grade ores that were previously mined.”

Because mercury was later recognized to be toxic, the market for products containing mercury has declined for decades.

“Surface rocks in the mercury-bearing district of southwest Arkansas are sandstone, shale and siltstone of the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian systems,” Howard writes. “These Paleozoic rocks were highly deformed by both folding and faulting. … In the southern portions of the district, these rocks are now covered by Cretaceous clay, sand, gravel and limestone beds.

“The mercury deposits are discontinuous and irregular in both vertical and horizontal outline. In general, small pockets of rich ore were more common in the western part of the district, whereas large bodies of disseminated ore were noted in the eastern part.”

Senior Editor Rex Nelson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.