Alexander Agassiz (1835 – 1910)

Engineer and Mining Executive

2026 Inductee from Mining's Past

Agassiz was born in Neuchátel, Switzerland, and immigrated to the United States in 1849, joining his father Louis Agassiz. Thereupon, his father enrolled him in the Cambridge High School, before entering Harvard at the age of 15. He graduated from Harvard University in 1855, subsequently studying engineering and chemistry, and taking the degree of Bachelor of Science at the Harvard Lawrence Scientific School in 1857. In 1859, Agassiz became an assistant in the United States Coast Survey, onboard the Fauntleroy. In 1860, he became an agent for the Museum of Comparative Zoology and married Anna Russell. In 1866, E. J. Hulbert persuaded Agassiz's brother-in-law, Quincy Adams Shaw, and friends to invest in a rich copper lode discovered on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, called the Calumet Mine. In 1866, Agassiz visited the outcrop and noted that the Calumet Conglomerate was a porphyry deposit almost fourteen feet wide, dipping to the northwest at a 35-degree angle. The rich nature of the deposit convinced Shaw to purchase the land to the south, forming the Hecla Mining Company. Agassiz was then made treasurer of both companies. Convinced the deposit could be developed at a profit, Agassiz was made superintendent of both mines and arrived on site in March 1867.

One of the first projects Agassiz undertook was to change the openings of both mines so "the rock could be extracted with legitimate mining methods." With further investment from John Simpkins, improvements were made to the mills and almost 5 miles of railroad. In July, Agassiz's family joined him. By September 1868, Hecla was producing 185 tons of ingot, the Calumet 140, and both mills stamping 4000 tons of rock per month. Agassiz was able to place George Hardie in charge and returned to Cambridge in October. Agassiz continued to visit the mines every spring and fall.

In December 1869, Hecla paid its first dividend, and Calumet did so in August 1870. In May 1871, the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company was formed after consolidating with the Portland and Scott Mining Companies. Agassiz assumed the presidency until his death.

In 1883, Agassiz advanced mining operations by installing the Superior, a giant engine capable of lifting 24 tons of rock from a depth of 1,200 meters (3,900 feet). He also built a railroad and dredged a channel to navigable waters and installed state-of-the-art hoisting engines. From his copper fortune, he donated about US$500,000 to Harvard for the Museum of Comparative Zoology and other purposes.

Clara Kinney (1867 – 1940)

Mine Owner & Investor

2026 Inductee from Mining's Past

Clara Kinney (nee Maichon) was born in Austria in 1849 and immigrated to the United States in 1873. In 1880, following the death of her first husband, she was living alone in Globe managing a boarding house which she had built. In May of 1881, Clara married Alfred Kinney who is well known for his public service roles as a Mayor of Globe. In 1889, Clara invested in mining, purchasing the Bryan group of mines located near Kelvin in Pinal County. Under her management and ownership, significant workings were developed with ore shipped to the Humboldt smelter near Prescott. After the sale of the Bryan mine, Clara patented 25 mining claims in the Sleeping Beauty Mountains near Globe between 1907 and 1919. After two decades of ownership, she sold her rights to 25 mining claims to the Porphyry Reserve Copper Company in 1930 for $250,000. At the time it was one of the mining transactions in Gila County. Kinney was the most prolific and successful woman mine owner in the Globe-Miami District in her time. Her business acumen allowed her to be one of the wealthiest women in Arizona.

Daniel M. Barringer (1860 – 1929)

Geologist and Entrepreneur

2026 Inductee from Mining's Past

Barringer, a Geologist, graduated from Princeton University in 1879 at the age of 19, and in 1882 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. He later studied geology and mineralogy at Harvard University and at the University of Virginia, respectively. In 1892, Barringer and others purchased a gold mine near Cochise, Arizona. Barringer later discovered the Commonwealth Silver Mine in Pearce, Arizona. These mining ventures made him wealthy, but his interest in geology never slowed. In 1902 Barringer learned of the existence of a large (1.5 km in diameter) crater, located 35 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona. Upon hearing of the existence of the crater and the meteoritic iron that surrounded the crater, Barringer became convinced that the crater was the result of a meteor impact. With both scientific and business goals in mind, Barringer created the "Standard Iron Company" to mine the crater for the iron that he assumed must be buried below its surface. The Standard Iron Company conducted drilling operations, drilling seven shafts on the crater floor between 1903 and 1908. In 1906, Barringer and his partner Benjamin C. Tilghman presented their first papers to the U.S. Geological Survey outlining the evidence in support of the impact theory. The papers were published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia but were not accepted by the scientific community. Barringer continued drilling on the south rim of the crater in the 1920s but had no luck in finding the supposedly buried iron meteorite. It wasn’t until after Barringer’s death that Eugene Shoemaker’s research gave the definitive proof of Barringer’s Crater impact origin in 1960, and Barringer’s theory was finally accepted.

Ralph L. Hennebach (1920 – 2008)

Engineer and Mining Executive

2026 Inductee from Mining's Past

Ralph Hennebach graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1941 as a metallurgical engineer and received an M.S. degree in industrial management from MIT in 1953. Hennebach began his long career with ASARCO as a carpenter's assistant while he was still in High School. Following university graduation, he was hired by ASARCO in 1941 as a chemist in the company's EI Paso plant laboratory and subsequently was an assayer and plant metallurgist. After serving as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Hennebach returned to ASARCO as Assistant Supervisor of their copper smelter in Hayden, Arizona. In 1948 he was transferred to EI Paso to start up a slag fuming plant and in 1953 was assigned as an ore buyer in the New York office. Over the next two decades, he rose to Assistant General Manager of the Western Department in Salt Lake City, Assistant to the Executive Vice President and then Vice President, Smelting and Refining, for ASARCO in New York.  ASARCO appointed Hennebach as a director in 1964, Executive Vice President in 1966, President in 1971 and Chairman of the Board in 1982. Hennebach retired in 1985.  Thereafter, he served as a director on many boards and was very active with his alma mater.

Hennebach was awarded the AIME Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal in 1983. The National Mining Museum includes the Hennebach Wing, which opened in February 2005 and was named in honor of Hennebach, retired chairman of ASARCO. Formerly Leadville Junior High School, the Hennebach Wing encompasses more than15,500 sq. ft. of floor space in two stories.