Roscoe Channing (1868-1961)

President, Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting Company

 2015 Inductee from Mining's Past

Roscoe Channing, class of 1890 of The College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton), was a member of the first All American football team.

He began his career on the Iron and Mesabi Ranges in Minnesota, and by 1897, was the youngest mine manager on the Masabi Range. When the Spanish American War broke out in 1898, he resigned and joined Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders.

After the war, he worked for Pickens, Mather & Co., then was hired to become the manager of Utah Consolidated’s Highland Boy mine at Bingham Canyon. He guided the mine into its most profitable years.

After the war, Channing was hired as manager of Utah Consolidated's Highland Boy mine in Utah and let the operation in its most profitable years. In 1907, he was hired by industrialist Henry Frick as General Manager of the Cerro de Pasco mine in Peru,restoring the enterprise to profitability within 3 years. He returned to the U.S. in 1910, not wishing to raise his family in Peru.

He rejoined Utah Consolidated as president, but resigned when the US entered World War I, attaining the rank of major. Upon his discharge in 1918, he rejoined Utah Consolidated. The company went out of business in 1923 owing to legal decisions that awarded the extension of their ore body to others.

He then took charge of businessman Harry Payne Whitney’s mining properties, disposing of many of them. In the process, he met Harry's son Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting Co. From mid-1924, Channing became involved with a large base and precious metals property at Flin Flon, Manitoba. He directed the metallurgical research that made this great ore deposit commercially viable. With the financial backing of the Whitneys and Channing’s experience, the Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting Co. became a resounding success. Channing served as its president until his retirement in 1957. He then moved to Tucson where he resided until his death in 1961.