Marion Co TOC

I found this in the photo folder. I don't who submitted it

From page 465, History of Marion Co: ... the Morning Star and Ben Carney Mines: "These two mines, lying adjacent to each other, are at present owned by the same company. . . They lie on the northeast slope of Rush Creek above the town of Rush in NW 1/4 Section 10, Twp. 17 N, R. 15 W. . . The Morning Star Mine is a huge open cut, 400 feet long, 100 feet wide at the top, and 40 to 50 feet deep. The Ben Carney tunnel extends for about 600 feet toward The Capps workings. . . about 400 feet away.
       The Morning Star Mine was the first zinc property developed west of Sharp and Lawrence Counties. Prospecting began in 1880. The first prospectors were: John Wolfer, Bob Stultzer, and J. H. McCabe. After spending several months developing the ore, whose metallic nature was as yet unknown to them, they had an assay made which reported the ore to be zinc carbonate but which also erroneously reported it to carry $8.00 a ton in silver. Two smelter men were brought in, detailed to build a small rock smelter in which the silver ore could be reduced. . . The expected silver did not collect in the sand molds at the bottom of the furnace. The discouraged miners offered to trade their prospect, with the smelter thrown in, for a box of canned oysters, worth $2.50, but the offer was rejected. The remains of the old smelter still stand in the lane just east of the Morning Star Hotel at Rush.
       The Morning Star has been famous in the past for the large masses of free botryoidal carbonate obtained from it ...