In one way or another, all five Western Blongers were mining men.
The Wandering Jew (1872)
The first evidence so far of Sam and Lou's mining ventures comes from the Salt Lake Tribune, October 29, 1872. The correspondent mentions being shown around the mine, near Dry Canyon, Utah, by the mine's superintendent, S.H. Blonger.
The Texas (1875-76)
The next comes from the weekly "Letter from Cornucopia" in the Daily Silver State in 1876:
Within the last few days there has been a very rich development in the Texas mine, situated in the Grand Junction district. This district lies east of Aurora and north of Tuscarora, between the latter and Cornucopia district. The claim is owned by Mr. Madden, Mr. Culver, Sam Blonger, and others. It is exceedingly rich. Pieces of ore from the mine assay way up in the thousands.
The Star (1882)
In 1882, the Albuquerque Morning Journal tells us that Sam negotiated the sale of a local mine, the Star Mine, for $120,000. We know nothing more of this mine, nor Sam's relationship to it.
The Bottom Dollar — Mining in Cerrillos (1880s)
Joe first came to the Cerrillos Hills in 1879, along with a legion of others, over a thousand, claiming small patches of ground and digging for silver. He would stay in the arid hills for eight years, then to Santa Fe and a life less harsh.
During the early years Joe owned several claims, but by the late Eighties he was working for others. In truth, only a few of the thousands of holes dug ever paid off, so the money may have been better as an employee.
Joe turned up in Albuquerque in 1882, surprising his brothers Sam and Lou. It's unclear if he remained with his brothers for any length of time, though there is a gap in his mining activity at this point.
In 1897, Joe was acquitted of a murder charge after shooting his employer, Alexander Allan. While waiting for materials to continue their work developing the Bottom Dollar mine, Joe and fellow employee Silas Smith informed Allan that they were going in to Santa Fe for a breather. Not wanting to be left alone at the mine, Allan pulled a revolver, threatened the men, then threw down the gun and fought with Smith. In the excitement, Joe retrieved the pistol and shot Allan twice, and he died minutes later.
Joe was also known or thought to have prospected in other locations including California and the Black Hills.
Mining in Leadville (1880s and Beyond)
While they may have been up to other things as well, the Blongers were definitely engaged in mining in Leadville during the 1880s. It appears that oldest brother Simon and youngest brother Marvin (separated by 15 years) were doing most of the heavy lifting. Sam and Lou stayed in Leadville for only a short time (long enough for Sam to run for mayor), while Simon and Marvin stuck it out until about 1888. Simon, who appears to have been the only brother to accept regular employment, was superintendent of the Robert E. Lee Mine for a time in the mid-80s.
Mr. Simon Blonger, manager of the Robert E. Lee mine, and a general favorite of those who know him, has been presented with a $575 diamond stud by the men connected with the mine.
We can assume the Blongers were also working their own claims during this period. In fact, a Blonger Mine was listed in the Mining Reporter as late as 1901, though it is uncertain who would have owned the mine at this point. The the Blonger Shaft on the Big Pittsburg claim was often mentioned. Lou's obituary mentions that he and Sam "took a lease on the Little Chief on Freyer [Fryer] hill from the Dillon brothers and made good money." Like the Blonger Bros., we expect to unearth much of value (for instance, the location of the mine) when we are finally able to do some real searching in Leadville.
About 1885 Sam apparently returned to the mountains and spent some time with Simon in Pitkin County (probably at Aspen), where they are listed in the state census. Simon then returned to Leadville for a few more years, while Sam disappeared from the record.
Sam and Lou and the Forest Queen Mine (1892)
Lou's obituaries state that he and his brother Sam located the Forest Queen Mine, near Cripple Creek, and that Lou still held the mine when he went to prison in 1923, subsequently deeding it to his wife Nola. The Armstrong account also mentions Lou's connection to the Forest Queen. It seems likely that Lou owned or controlled the property at the end of his life, but what is the real story?
Gold was discovered on Poverty Gulch near Cripple Creek, Colorado in 1890, but the flood of prospectors began in 1891, after William Stratton identified the ores as gold telluride. Apparently, the Blonger Bros. answered the call to the gold rush, probably from their outpost in Denver. Sam and Lou, along with W. Neil Denison, John E. Phillips, W.H. Gibson, and M. McNallay, filed a claim on April 7, 1892, for a parcel of land 1500 feet by 300 feet (10.11 acres), to be known as the Forest Queen Lode. According to the claim, the discovery was made on March 4, 1892. The official survey performed in September shows the discovery shaft in the exact center of the claim, with two other shafts a few yards to the west. When plotted on a current topographic map, two buildings labeled "Forest Queen Mine" sit along the western edge of the original claim.
Based on this evidence, it appears the Blongers, with help, may indeed have discovered the Forest Queen Mine. But there are complications. The survey document, dated September 30, 1892, while obviously for the same piece of property, refers to it as the "Mining Claim of Oscar W. Jackson." Subsequent references in our incomplete research muddy the waters even further. An article in the 1899 Denver Times refers to "Blonger, Reardon & Pruett, leasing on the Forest Queen mine." A Bureau of Mines inspector reported on May 31, 1917 that 50% of the mine was owned by the Auraria Mining Company, which consisted of J.W. McCulloch, Sam and Lou Blonger, Sussan & H.A. Mills, Ethelbert Ward (President) and Anna M. Jackson (Secretary). The record of ownership is fuzzy on such documents. Sam has been dead for over three years by 1917, and a similar report from March of that year did not list either Blonger among the Auraria group.
This information raises more questions than it answers. Was Anna M. Jackson the wife of Oscar? If so, perhaps Oscar was added to the claim after the initial filing, and was a partner all along. And who was the mysterious "Reardon" of Blonger, Reardon & Pruett, and was he (or she) any relation to Iola Readon, Lou's mistress (see below). One thing is known for certain: Ethelbert Ward, Auraria's president, was the younger brother of Thomas Ward, Jr., Blonger's attorney. Ethelbert was also an attorney.
The Forest Queen was a very productive mine. Though it sat idle for some time during World War II, in 1928 it was listed as one of the top producers in the Cripple Creek district ($250,000 that year). Assuming Lou and Sam were associated with it from the beginning, they would have gotten rich from their discovery, and never needed to be involved in crime after 1892.
Cripple Creek Morning Times, December 21, 1899
FORREST QUEEN ASSAYS
Blonger, Reardon and Pruett, leasing on the Forest Queen claim, yesterday obtained an assay of 25 per cent lead, $4 in silver and $28 in gold. The assay was from the vein recently encountered at a depth of 106 feet, where the vein is two feet in width.
The Forest Queen site may soon be gone, if this is not already the case, with the resumption of mining in the area, using modern techniques that will obliterate the site.
The Blongers had at least one other mining claim in the area. Sam and Lou, along with Neil Denuison and Oscar Jackson, registered the New Port lode. A plot of the coordinates shows that it was a few hundred feet north and east of the Forest Queen claim, near the center of Section 17. A map of mining properties published in 1938 shows the Forest Queen still intact but the area of the New Port has been subsumed by a large, irregular claim owned by the Cripple Creek Trading and Milling Co., which has many such areas on the map.
In 1895, The Blongers partnered with Forest Queen associates Neil Dennison and O.W. Jackson on the New Port lode, and Sam was elected to the board of the Cripple Creek Free Gold Mining & Milling Co., with a claim east of the Forest Queen.
The Tungsten Mine at Nederland (1910s)
The last mine in the Blonger stable was mentioned in Lou's obituaries:
During the late world war period Lou
Blonger visited Nederland, Colo., and developed a tungsten mine which proved a
profitable proposition. He built a hotel in Nederland, but when the boom died
out he gave the hotel to one Bill Everett, telling him he could have it if he
wrecked it. The hotel cost Blonger about $10,000.
At the moment, nothing more is known about this mine.
Marvin's Mine in Montana
Very little is known about Marvin Blonger so far, except the information
provided by census records. However, his positive indentification in
Philipsburg, Montana, in 1900, 1910 and 1920, led to an interesting clue.
An online source listed the Auraria Mining Company making a warrant claim on
several properties in Granite County, Montana, on Nov. 19, 1904. Auraria
was the name of Sam and Lou's company that owned the Forest Queen Mine near
Cripple Creek, so there seemed to be a possible connection. A calculation
of the coordinates — sections 14, 22, and 23 of Township 6N, Range 13W — place
this claim along the North Fork of Flint Creek, not far from Phillipsburg, and
near a present-day mine called the Red Lion. This mine was first operated
in the 1880's and is unlikely to be the Blonger claim. The multiple claims
listed include both placer and lode sites over a total of 135 acres.
To date, nothing more is known about the claim.
Simon's Alaskan Coal Claim (1902?)
A citation in the United States Congressional Serial Set links Simon to the so-called Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy of 1910. A group of western businessmen, including Simon, apparently, filed claims on an immense Alaskan coal field as individuals, with the intention of selling out to Standard Oil and others, who would consolidate the claims, an illegal move at the time.
In a search for one S.R. Blonger, located by George Simmonds, agent, it was learned that he, Blonger had moved to Denver, Colorado, but his street address could not be found.
A Mrs. Dickson, with whom Blonger formerly roomed here in Seattle, Wash., a negress, stated that she had heard Blonger talk of his coal claim. That he belonged to some sort of club and that the members of the club all had coal claims and handled them on shares. These claims are in Alaska. That Blonger went downtown three or four times to sign some papers in connection with his coal claim.
The attorney representing part of that group, Richard Ballinger, was vested in the scheme as well. When Ballinger, who had been mayor of Seattle, found himself appointed by Theodore Roosevelt to the General Land Office in Washington, he immediately began lobbying for looser restrictions on corporate rights to Alaskan land, and quashed an investigation into the coal claim deal.
Later, when appointed Secretary of the Interior by Taft, Ballinger again assisted western business interests in acquiring land that had been set aside by Roosevelt. Head of the Forestry Service Gifford Pinchot, a holdover from Roosevelt's administration and a stalwart conservationist, had worked to set those lands aside, and when Ballinger revoked that status, Pinchot retaliated by publicly charging Ballinger with unethical behavior in his handling of the coal claim case.
Ballinger was cleared by the Taft administration, and Pinchot was fired, but Ballinger continued to live in the shadow of the allegations.
According to Taft's attorney general, George Wickersham, the effects of the affair were tumultuous:
The 1910 Ballinger-Pinchot affair, which involved the illegal distribution of thirty-three federal government Alaskan coal land claims to the Guggenheim interests, culminated in a Congressional investigation and brought Alaska directly into the national headlines. Wickersham, surveying the fallout of the affair, determined that it destroyed the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and President Taft; split the Republican party into two great factions; defeated President Taft for re-election in 1912; elected Woodrow Wilson President of the United States; and changed the course of history of our country.
A chastened President Taft, in a special message to Congress on February 2, 1912, urged the enactment of legislation which would help Alaska develop its resources along the lines that Wickersham had urged.
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