This is a past event.

Dr. Fredric L. Quivik, will present, Visions of Mill Tailings in the Development of the Vernacular Built Environment of Wallace, Idaho.

Abstract:

Mill tailings are the byproduct of the process of concentrating ore and, as such, are today often considered hazardous materials, in need of remediation at Superfund sites and other locations where environmental cleanup is taking place.  Tailings did not hold such a place in Americans’ understandings of their material surroundings a century ago, especially in the mining communities that produced tailings.  To be sure, people recognized tailings as a nuisance.  Tailings constituted a large volume of material that constantly had to be disposed of in order to allow on-going throughput of ores in the concentrating process.  Observant people also recognized that tailings were harmful to fish, and downstream farmers believed that tailings damaged soils and crops on riparian lands, but most people did not perceive tailings to be a direct, personal threat to their well being.  Indeed, residents of Wallace, Idaho, even while fighting flooding of their town caused by tailings, found practical uses of tailings in the construction of their built environment, including the surfacing of streets and as aggregate in the manufacture of concrete block for several prominent buildings.  This presentation explores the competing meanings of tailings a century ago.