Arthur Wilfley

[South Park]

  I recently found this machinery tag and thought the name, locations, and
nature of the machine too coincidental.  A quick consult with Mr. Google
turned up the link to the long spur off the South Park highline at Kokomo.



A nice synopsis of Wilfley's relevance to mining and the reason for the
South Park spur line:

https://www.miningfoundationsw.org/Arthur_Wilfley

[South Park]

  Youze guys surprise me ... no interest in the Wilfley Mill and spur line ???

  I had no idea this guy was such a big deal in the mining industry !  Grade
school education and a classic 19th century drive to make something of him-
-self, this guy did pretty well for his efforts.  And all the while holding down
his own stretch of track on our beloved South Park line.

[Chris Walker]

Well Sth Park,

I didn't want to curb your enthusiasm for your recent discovery by sayin' Been there.. 

Mining The Summit and the Mining Engineers Handbooks come to mind with similar to your discovery.
And also DSP&P had a mention about him.

And I'll call Snap on your Plate...  Well almost...I'm jealous of the Wilfley version.

[Todd Hackett]

Chris Walker wrote

...Mining The Summit and the Mining Engineers Handbooks come to mind with similar to your discovery.
And also DSP&P had a mention about him....

There's also a biography of his that goes into a lot of detail about him and his inventions. It's "Arthur Redman Wilfley - Miner, Inventor, and Entrepreneur" by Jay E. Niebur and James E. Fell, Jr., published in 1982.

My first exposure to the name was from the Wilfley table I saw at the remains of an old mill in the San Juan mountains near Animas Forks, CO. That was before I knew about his connection to Kokomo.

The DSP&P Historical Society made two trips to Kokomo, and we hiked out the Wilfley Spur to his mill site.



I don't have my photos labeled very well, but I think these are the Wilfley Mill site in June 2009:

[John Greenly]

Yes, S.P.!

I'm much interested in the Wilfley mill and spur, since I'm thinking of someday making a small Kokomo model.   My question is, based on this knowledge of the mill and its technology, what would the rail traffic to it have been?  Certainly coal to fire the boilers,  but what about the inputs to and outputs from the mill?  What rolling stock would have been used?

Glad you have raised this topic!

John

[Jeff Young]

Hi John,

The Wilfley mill was also known as the Kimberly.  There's a pic here: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Kokomo-tp1652p2092.html, but also a bunch in the Kokomo Bogies and the Loop issues.

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Jim Courtney]

Actually, there were two mills at Kokomo associated with Wilfley.

The original mill constructed by Mr. Wilfley burned down and was replaced by the Kimberly mill as Jeff's link demonstrates. Arthur Wilfley became an investor in the Kimberley and it was also known as the Kimberley-Wilfley mill. As Wilfley's name was always associated with the location, evidently the locals always referred to them as "Wilfley's mill(s)".

The forever great Ten Mile Stations . . .  thread has a photo of the original mill and a couple of the later replacement:

http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Ten-Mile-Stations-of-the-D-amp-RG-td6164i80.html

[Jeff Young]

Ahhh… I had forgotten there was a picture of the old one.  Certainly more interesting looking than the new one.

[John Greenly]

Hi Jeff,   yes, the original mill scene is wonderful, a fascinating variety of structures.  I've just ordered the Wilfley biography (and many thanks, Todd, for the reference!),  I'm sure I'll learn all sorts of interesting stuff.   I'm still wondering what the railroad brought in to the mill as raw materials and supplies, and how about the product- did that go out in boxcars?

Cheers,
John

[Jeff Young]

The White Quail adit was at the Wilfley Mill and was used through the 1890's for most of the properties on Elk Mountain.  So you would expect a lot of mine props to be unloaded there.

The Wilfley was also the only concentrator operating in Ten Mile at the time, so ore from other mines was shipped there for concentrating.  I think ore going in and out would have been in boxcars.

And of course there would have been coal.

I imagine amalgamating supplies (assuming they did any there) would have been fairly limited and shipped in boxcars.

Another book you might want to get is Mining the Summit by Stanley Dempsey and James E Fell, Jr.

Cheers,
Jeff.

[South Park]

  Am I reading Arthur's bio correctly ?  .....  in saying his objective was to recover/reprocess
ores from existing mine dumps ?  It says he thought a lot of wealth potential could be recovered
if something like his riffle table could be perfected ?  If this was the case, would there have
been carloads of ore in and out for precessing from area dumps ?

[Jeff Young]

My guess is someone was confused.  His goal was definitely to process "low-grade ores", but that's because that's what was coming out of the mines in Ten Mile at the time.  I don't think that means he was looking to re-process tailings.

But I could be wrong....