Webb City-Carterville-Prosperity Field, Jasper County, Missouri, USAi

Regional Level Types
Webb City-Carterville-Prosperity Field	Mining Field
Jasper County	County
Missouri	State
USA	Country

This important camp of southwestern Missouri came into prominence several years later than did Joplin. Apparently, the first discovery of ore here was about 1873, and in the fall of that year prospecting and mining were in progress. Only shallow work was attempted, however, and the shafts did not exceed 30 or 40 feet in depth, at which point limestone, then considered bed-rock, was encountered, and no attempt was made to penetrate it. Within a few years, however, some of the deeper and large bodies were run upon, and the camp soon attained an important position as a producer. It has maintained this position during recent years, even outstripping the Joplin camp. It, therefore, now ranks first in the district, especially in the production of zinc ore.

The outlines of the camp are approximately defined by the limits of the two towns (Webb City, Carterville). These include an area of about 12 square miles, in which most of the mines of the camp occur, though a few mines in outlying adjacent tracts will be considered under this heading.

A very large number of openings have been made in and about Webb City and Carterville. They are especially concentrated along a little stream called Mineral creek, which flows between the two towns. Immediately south and southeast of Carterville is also an area of dense mining. On Mr. Holibaugh’s blue print property map of the two towns of 1893, there are as many as 700 mines located within their limits, and a number more within a distance of a mile or so. It is manifestly as impossible here as with Joplin, to describe and give records of all of these openings, nor could we even locate them on a small map. An attempt to accurately describe even all the most important would prove futile. It is truly lamentable of how few mines any adequate description or history is preserved. No provisions have been made for maps which would show the extent of the workings, and from which the shape and distribution of the ore bodies over the whole camp might be deduced. Many of these workings are now inaccessible.