Industry and Environment in the Appalachian Copper Basin, 1890–1930

Abstract

Industry and Environment in the Appalachian Copper Basin, 1890—1930 M . - L . QUINN Every settled landscape has its own history of the way in which its occupants have interacted with their natural surroundings. In many locations this interaction has resulted in enhancement, while at others it has brought about deterioration.1 Thus, all these physical settings have undergone varying degrees of usually permanent change, and some form of technology often has played a role. Especially interesting in this regard is the history of the Copper Basin, located in the southern Appalachian Mountains and long important for its copper mining and smelting. Around the turn of the century, this activity had such a large-scale, injurious, and enduring impact on this isolated locale’s environment that the area became a landmark of sorts. Travelers went out of their way to see it. For decades and until as recently as the early 1980s, it continued to be one of the most unusual and most maligned industrial landscapes in the United States.2 From the perspective of relationships between people and nature in general and between industry and environment in particular, the Copper Basin provides a case study with an importance that is certainly national and perhaps even international. Despite this fact and with the exception of my own recent work, nowhere in the journal literature can one find articles providing more Dr. Quinn was adjunct professor of geography and water resources at Nebraska Wesleyan University at the time this article was written. Long interested in the Copper Basin, she has published five articles on the area. She wishes to thank Ray Bentall and Vernon L. Souders for commenting on an early draft and the Technology and Culture referees for constructive criticism. A grant from Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C., provided support for a portion of the work on this study. This article is dedicated to Julia M. Quinn. 'What constitutes enhancement and deterioration is relative, depending on point of view, timing, and other factors. Taking this into account, 1 have used the two terms here in a broad, general sense. "After decades of often unsuccessful but persistent efforts to revegetate the area, reclamation work now has converted most of what was an uncommon and historically significant industrial landscape into a forest of pines.© 1993 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/93/3403-0001$01.00 575 576 M.-L. Quinn than a brief overview of what took place in the area.3 Moreover, a number of these summary pieces tend to be either subjective, factually jumbled, or both. My purpose here, therefore, is to present a muchneeded detailed account of the interplay between industry and environ­ ment in the Copper Basin. The time period I have chosen is 1890—1930, years during which some significant technological changes took place, along with serious environmental injury. Contemporary descriptions of the landscape are included, and they leave no question that severe degradation occurred. Hence, indignant condemnation of the industrial and social systems that seemed responsible for such a setting might appear appropriate. I have opted, instead, to try to understand what happened and to place the degradation in its proper context. Not to condemn does not necessarily mean to condone; between the two is a middle road little traveled in writings of this kind. By taking that road, I wish to suggest it can be a useful approach to examining the interplay between industry and environment. To pursue such a course one needs to learn about the degradation, but, in addition, one must also study in sufficient depth the technol­ ogy involved. While a discussion of technological aspects has been largely absent from previous retrospective commentary on the Cop­ per Basin, it is an integral part of my narrative. The focus will be on heap roasting, pyritic smelting, and the manufacture of sulfuric acid —those processes and developments particularly pertinent to the article’s overall theme. Has the inattention to technology affected the historiography of the relationship between industry and environment in the Copper Basin? I believe that, yes, it has. Is the inattention to technology related to a mindset unwilling to say anything positive about...