Northport Smelter 1897-1910

Northport Smelter 1897 - 1910

In 1897 the LeRoi Mining and Smelting Company's smelter is under construction in Northport on 32 acres of land donated by D. C. Corbin.

1899 Sulfurous smoke fills the air as ore is prepared for the furnaces

In this photo, taken about 1900, the roasting kilns with their smokestack is seen lower left.
The roast piles in the lower part of the picture are described in a Spokesman-Review April 16, 1900 newspaper article:

"The smelter smoke again hangs over Northport. The open roast heaps have been lighted and the familiar disinfectant and antitoxic sulphur fumes again fill the air. Under the method employed at the Northport smelter when the ore first comes to the smelter it is crushed somewhat finer than lump coal. Then great heaps of thousands of tons of it are piled on a layer of rotten wood and bark about two feet thick. the fuel is then saturated with coal oil and lighted. The wood burns away in a few hours, but the sulfur in the ore has been ignited and burns for weeks without further attention.
It is estimated that several tons of commercial sulphur are freed here each month this way. The smoke is not agreeable and is injurious to some people. It has merits, however, as Northport has been almost entirely free from contagious diseases since the smelter was put in operation. Vegetation can not stand the fumes and grass, flowers and trees shrivel up and die wherever the smoke reaches them."

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View from the west side of the Columbia River where the US Geological Survey team was camped in August of 1901 showing
the smelter and Town of Northport

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By 1901 the smelter has expanded. Due to a strike, the company reorganizes as the
Northport Smelting and Refining Co. chartered in Idaho.
The company provides housing for its workers, seen in the foreground, on smelter grounds, locking out the strikers.
Note the black slag effluent building up along the shore.
The two water tanks on the hillside on the left supply the smelter and the town of Northport with water from Deep Creek.

A small portion of a detailed fire survey map of the smelter
The full map can be accessed here:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4284nm.g4284nm_g092621901/?sp=5