The "Other" Roaster

While it has been a few years since mining was a part of the Cuba City landscape, you may still recall "the Roaster," or perhaps you've driven by Roaster Road at the southern edge of town. Both refer to the National Roaster that, from its construction southeast of Cuba City in 1912, processed enormous amounts of zinc ore for decades. But, did you know that there was a second roaster in Cuba City during the booming 1910s?

The "other" Cuba City roaster, circa 1917. Image courtesy of Rachel Butts and Lillian Kirk. This image was also published in Cuba City's centennial history, and the workers identified as John Kemps, Charles Cook, Art Rudkin, Edward Jacobi, Bernard "Ben" Heitkamp, Albert O'Brien, and ? Sirtle.

Built in 1910 by the Campbell Magnetic Separating Company of Boston, the other, less well-known zinc roaster and separating plant was located along the railroad, at the southern edge of present-day Splinter Park, near where the truck and tractor pulls are held annually. 

This detail from the 1918 Standard Atlas of Grant County shows the Campbell plant on the southeastern edge of Cuba City. (Atlas digitized by the Wisconsin Historical Society).

This aerial photograph, taken on October 30, 1937, shows that a structure still existed on the site of the Campbell separating plant in the 1930s. Visible just north of the former plant is the City Athletic Field, which would later be named Splinter Park. (Made available by the Wisconsin Historic Aerial Image Finder).

Roughly the same area today. The Campbell roaster would have been at the southern end of Splinter Park, near the intersection of McKinley and Clinton Streets. (Image accessed on Google Earth, September 24, 2022.)

The Campbell Magnetic Separating Company built the zinc roaster and separating plant in Cuba City using its own patented technologies. All of the machinery in the plant was driven by electric motors and the electricity supplied by the Interstate Light & Power Company of Galena. [1]

This advertisement for the Campbell Magnetic Separating Co. equipment was published in the Engineering and Mining Journal buying section, Vol. 99, No. 26, Page 60 (June 26, 1915).

Both Cuba City and Linden, Wisconsin, had Campbell separators operating in their busy mining districts. While the diagram below is specifically for the Linden plant, there were likely similarities with the Cuba City roaster.

Raw ore was dried, crushed, and roasted in a kiln for three to five minutes, which made the iron sulphide in the ore magnetic. The Campbell process was admired for its "light roast" and consistent temperature provided by an oil flame, which resulted in higher quality end products with less waste. The roasted product was cooled and agitated while exposed to magnets that extracted the iron from the zinc. [2]

The above diagram and image were published in the Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 99, No. 23, Page 980 (June 5, 1915).

Image published in Metallurgical and Chemical Engineering, Vol. 13, No. 9, Page 573 (September 1, 1915).

The Campbell Magnetic Separating plant passed from the hands of its original owners to the Wisconsin Zinc Company in 1914 and then the Linden Zinc Company in 1916. As the Wall Street Journal investment opportunity below indicates, the Cuba City-area mineral industry had clearly come a long way from the small, locally owned enterprises that once dotted the mining landscape.

Investment opportunity for the Linden Zinc Company, which owned Cuba City's Campbell separating plant, published in the Wall Street Journal (October 9, 1916).

What did Cuba City residents think of the nearby roaster? As the photograph of roaster employees proves, the plant produced jobs for the area. Unfortunately, it also had less desirable by-products. 

When writing about the Campbell plant in Cuba City's centennial history, Edward O'Neill described how the sulphur dioxide emitted into the air from the roasting process, when combined with moisture, formed sulphuric acid, which was detrimental to the surrounding land. The property just north of the separating plant "was for years as devoid of vegetation as a billiard table." When the City of Cuba City purchased that lot in the early 1930s for use as a park and athletic field, much work went into restoring the soil through "tiling, liming and planting." That athletic field is known today as Splinter Park.

The fumes from the plant were also not particularly welcome by Cuba City residents, as they resulted in "a rich, oniony taste in the mouth," especially when a strong south wind was blowing. In addition, the roaster's byproducts were damaging to window and door screens, unless they happened to be made of copper. [3] A 1913 issue of the Benton Advocate mentioned that even Cuba City officials were not keen on the plant continuing to operate at its current location, possibly for the reasons stated above. [4] 

Over the years, the roaster did continue to operate at that location, but not without apparently making some changes. The Telegraph Herald reported in 1917 that the plant was "in public favor since it embodies features that eliminate obnoxious gases and the consequent injury to sensitive nerves and nearby vegetation." [5]

Despite improvements made to the Campbell roaster, in 1921, the plant's fortunes changed when Cuba City resident Sarah "Sadie" Dent filed a suit against its owner, the Linden Zinc Company, and won her case. The purpose of the lawsuit has yet to be uncovered, but if you refer back to the plat map above, you will see that Ms. Dent owned the property immediately north of the roaster, which was likely a factor in the case.

The Linden Zinc Company must have had insufficient funds to pay the court-ordered restitution of over $1,000, and the Cuba City roaster was auctioned off at a sheriff's sale on March 18, 1922. Sadie Dent herself was the highest cash bidder at $1,100. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that Dent subsequently turned the roaster over to "junk dealers," and the Cuba City News-Herald named those individuals as Alex Richardson and Sam Sher. Sher was indeed a self-proclaimed "junkman" and ran regular ads in the local newspaper offering money for all kinds of refuse and unused goods. [6]

It is unclear what ultimately befell the Campbell roaster. In later years, a Mobil Oil Company bulk plant operated at that location, and today, crowds turn out in the summer to attend Cuba City's annual truck and tractor pulls, likely unaware that they are standing on part of Cuba City's mining history.

Notes

[1] "Construction News," Electrical World 56, no. 1 (July 7, 1910): 71-72.

[2] L. E. Ives, "Electromagnetic Zinc-Ore Treatment by the Campbell Process," Engineering and Mining Journal 99, no. 23 (June 5, 1915): 979-980; "Magnetic Separation of Zinc-Iron Sulphide Ores," Metallurgical and Chemical Engineering 13, no. 9 (September 1, 1915): 573.

[3] Edward J. O'Neill. Cuba City Centennial: 100 years, 1875-1975. (Cuba City, Wis. : Cuba City Centennial Committee, 1975).

[4] J. H. Lewis, "Mining Notes," The Benton Advocate, June 13, 1913, 1.

[5] "Ore Producers Up Against It," Dubuque Telegraph Herald, June 28, 1917, 12.

[6] J. H. Lewis, "Plant Sold for Junk," Wisconsin State Journal, April 2, 1922, 32 ; "Linden Zinc is Sold Under Sheriff's Sale," The News-Herald, March 22, 1922, 1.