The "Elephant" in the Valley

The Geological attributes of the lower Flint Creek Valley between Maxville and Hall are very obvious to even the untrained eye when you are driving on Highway One. In the April 9, 2020 Philipsburg Mail Jeff Conn described some of the shaping of the outcrops thusly: “Red Hill is the oldest rock in the valley and is unique because it actually has older rock sitting on top of younger rock that slid in from the Bitterroot. This happened because of the shifting of the continental plates 100 million years ago due to volcanic activity. At that time, Montana was made up mostly of sedimentary rock formed from shallow inland seas with prolific marine life. Due to the plates activity, the sedimentary rock in the Bitterroot then traveled 45 miles all the way to Deer Lodge. As it went westward it crumpled up rocks and slid over the top of others. In the case of Red Hill, the younger rock slid underneath the much older 1.4 billion year old Precambrian rock"

 Many papers have been published dealing with the geology and minerals in this area and a large deposit of papers are available at the University of Montana for anyone interested in pursuing this topic. One of the topics include the distribution of phosphate. J.T. Pardee in 1913 described the deposits of “the southwestern three-fourths of the Philipsburg field, including the Philipsburg and Maxville localities, lies within the Philipsburg Quadrangle, the exceedingly intricate geology of which was worked out in detail in 1906-1908 by F.C. Calkins. In the Philipsburg Quadrangle, therefore the probable distribution of the phosphate deposit as shown by outcrops of its inclosing rocks is already known…In the course of the present investigation the phosphate bed was uncovered at Philipsburg by trenching and was sampled near Maxville in a tunnel already made by private enterprise…Workable deposits of high grade rock phosphate (containing 60 percent or more of tricalcium phosphate) occur in both the Garrison and Philipsburg fields." 

Extensive beds of phosphate at Maxville were owned by the Montana Phosphate Company according to the February 4, 1916 Mail and Mr. John D. Fields was in Salt Lake City working on investments in the interest of the company. The belief was that in the not too distant future phosphate would be the ideal fertilizer for the world. In an experiment at the ranches of H.M. Morkassel in Warren, Minnesota they sowed 100 acres of wheat. They harvested 42 ½ bushels an acre from 70 acres and 17 ½ bushels an acre from the remaining 30 acres. The soil was the same in each section except that 14 tons of phosphate had been applied to the 70 acre section. The article stated that it was believed the phosphate applications would only have to occur once every four years.

Prosperity for Maxville was the headline in the Mail, February 6, 1920, “With the purpose of developing the large phosphate beds at Maxville, 12 miles north of Philipsburg, a fertilizer plant is to be erected at Maxville early in the spring by Fred Irwin and F.J. Russell of Spokane it was announced today, at a cost of $250,000 to $300,000 according to a story in the Wednesday issue of the Anaconda Standard. They declared they were assured of contracts for the delivery of 80,000 tons of fertilizer annually to the Japanese government and are negotiating with a large plantation in Hawaii. The contemplated plant, it is stated, will employ 300 men and will have a daily capacity of 500 tons of fertilizer. In all probability a railroad spur will be built from Maxville to the site of the plant on Boulder Creek to handle the product.” 

Seems it was not to be. Apparently the market and investment was not available until the 1940’s when the International Mineral and Chemical Corporation began exploring the Permian Phosphoria formation several miles up the Douglas Creek drainage area south of Hall. Because the phosphate was a lower grade than being mined at Garrison, upgrading by floatation was needed. They established a mill by the highway near Douglas Creek. 

Then in the 1960’s Cominco operated the mine with the mill part way between the mine and the highway. A railroad spur named the “Elephant” was established over the ridge with the railroad bed angling up the hill still visible behind the Open Cross Ranch buildings on the east side of the Highway. The Spur’s name "Elephant"was derived from Cominco’s fertilizer brand name. Dave Harris worked there and told Ted Antonioli they believed 40 years of reserves were there. Unfortunately. the company owned an open pit in Vernal, Utah that operated at a much lower cost so they closed, transferring the mill equipment to their properties in Greenland.