Archives West Finding Aid

Minutes of the Board of Directors and stockholders, 1887-1968, are the official records of the proceedings of meetings. The majority of these are typed and in bound volumes. Also included in the minute books are typed copies of the Articles of Incorporation and by-laws. Other minute books include those of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, 1905-1927, and the Sullivan Mining Company, 1917-1955. Book two of the Sullivan Company had warped badly due to the thickness of the material glued to the pages; for this reason it was dismembered and the pages placed in folders.

Minutes for several internal committees are also included, the Management committee, 1955-1962; 1969-1972; Management-Operating committee, 1963-1969; and Policy and Development committee, 1956-1959. The Management committee was, until April 1955, called the Policy Committee. It contains reports on general operations by managers of the various divisions--Mine, Geology, Metallurgical, Plant services, Employee & Public Relations, and Financial. In February 1961 it became the Joint Management & Operating Committee, then in 1970 it split into two committees. The Planning and Development Committee was originally called Planning & Diversification.

Annual Reports, sometimes called Manager's reports or President's reports are yearly records of the activity of the firm. Annual reports from 1893-1907 are typed, while the remaining reports through 1978 are printed. In 1968 Gulf Resources and Chemical acquired Bunker Hill and the annual reports reflect all of that company's activities. The quarterly reports for Bunker Hill and Gulf are short descriptions of the income and expenses for each quarter.

Staff Reports to the Board of Directors, 1961-1968, are written reports prepared by the heads of the various divisions of the company and presented to the board at the semi-annual meetings. The 1961 report is dated August, and the years 1962-1965 contain a January and mid-year report presented in July or August. The 1966-1968 reports are dated January, and 1967 also has a bound volume of supplemental reports for April, July, and October.

The Printed notice of the annual meeting of stockholders in 1968 announces the proposed take over of Bunker Hill by Gulf Resources and Chemical Corporation.

The correspondence files consists of incoming and outgoing letters, some arranged chronologically, others by subject.

The managers letters are letters from the manager of the mine in Kellogg to the president of the company in San Francisco, detailing the operations of the mine, union activities, and related information. In 1892 the letters were from V.M. Clement to John Hayes Hammond; letters for 1893 are lacking; 1894- 1896 are from F.W. Bradley to N.H. Harris; 1897-1898, Frederick Burbidge to Bradley, also Bradley and Burbidge to Alex Granger; and 1899-1909 Burbidge to Bradley or Granger.

Then comes a general correspondence file, 1894-1900 which is an alphabetically arranged group (M-Z, 1898-1900, is lacking). The majority of these letters are inter-company correspondence between the Kellogg and San Francisco offices, although there are a few letters from suppliers.

Correspondence from stockholders contains both incoming and outgoing letters and is arranged alphabetically by the stockholder's last name. Most letters concern dividend payments, proxies, and stock purchases.

The F.W. Bradley correspondence files are arranged alphabetically by what appears to be the subject of the letter, although in some cases it is hard to tell. Letters were left in their original order. Most letters are from Bradley, as President as the company, to A. Burch and Frederick Burbidge and deal with routine company business.

The manager's letters of Stanly A. Easton, 1904-1926 (lacking May-December 1911 and January-March 1919) contain originals of Easton's letters to Bradley, carbon copies of letters from Easton to others which were enclosed in his letters, and copies of Bradley's replies. One file in this group concerns concentration and slips of paper in the main file refer to this concentration file, while slips in the concentration file refer to letters in the main group. For the years 1921 to May 1926 there is a separate file of carbon letters from Bradley to Easton. The letters from Easton to Jules Labarthe in San Francisco are original letters from Easton and carbons of Labarthe's replies. Most of these letters concern the cost of smelting.

A.A. Irish sold mining properties and his correspondence with Bradley, 1916-1928 concerns available mines.

Oscar A. Hershey was a geologist and consulting engineer who examined properties for Bunker Hill and Sullivan. His files, 1918-1929 contain originals of his letters to Bradley, carbons of his letters to Easton and carbons of Bradley's letters to him.

Easton's correspondence with the Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company, 1925-1937 contains photocopies of Easton's letters which give information on Bunker Hill equipment and National Labor Relations Board hearings.

Urlyn Clifton Tainton was the electrometallurgist at Bunker Hill who designed the electrolytic zinc plant in 1926. His letters, 1920-1930, concern the treatment of ore.

The acid marketing correspondence, 1942-1954 and 1972 concerns Bunker Hill's supplying sulfuric acid to other industries.

The Employee and Public Relations Division file, 1955-1958, contains notices to employees concerning public relations matters. Carbons of letters to the department, and originals of letters from the personnel assistant and employee and public relations division manager are included.

Most of the letters in the Lead: Sales contract and correspondence file are to/from National Lead Company. Originals of letters from Nalco and carbons of letters to Nalco are included. The letters from Bunker Hill are signed by the Sales and Traffic manager; all letters concern the sale of lead and zinc to Nalco.

A note attached to the original bundle of Allied Chemical correspondence, 1952-1967, reads "Info was extracted from these files in response to a Justice Dept. inquiry re Allied Chem." Included are some original incoming letters and photocopies of outgoing letters which concern the sale of sulfuric acid.

E. Viet Howard's files, January-October 1979, contain photocopies of his correspondence, mostly inter office memoranda, concerning environmental issues.

The next group of correspondence is an alphabetical subject file, 1971-1981, maintained in the office of the president. Letters are both incoming and outgoing.

Finally there are letters between Frank Woodruff, President of Bunker Hill, and the Hecla Mining Company; correspondence with Hecla on the joint operation of the Star-Morning group, and financial settlements and progress reports of Hecla's work at the Star-Morning Mine.

There are many different types of financial records in the Bunker Hill papers. They are arranged in alphabetical order by type of record. The oversize journals and ledgers retain their alphabetical place in the inventory although their physical location may be on an adjacent shelf.

The first type of record is accounts payable/receivable. One group dating from 1965-1982 is in numerical order by account number. These folders contain memos, correspondence, ledger sheets, and financial statements. Among the accounts are accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory records, agreements, values of mining property, equipment, and taxes payable. The original folder headings were retained. These are followed by a group of accounts receivable, 1974-1975, arranged alphabetically by company. Most of the original folders contained only one ledger sheet, therefore several folders were combined into one. Other folders contained correspondence related to unpaid invoices and these companies have retained their individual folders. Other material in this group includes invoices, arranged alphabetically by company, and accounts payable for residential property purchased by the company between 1974 and 1976 from residents of the Silver King as part of a long-range goal to eliminate residential areas from within the industrial zone. The final items are detailed invoices from the legal firm of Brown, Peacock, Keane, and Boyd which detail the work done for the company from 1976-1982.

Each Annual report to the Shoshone County Assessor, 1957-1976, contains approximately 20- 22 sections giving values of the laboratory, North Idaho Phosphate Company, mine, acid, zinc and smelter plants, and other claims and properties owned by the company.

Appraisements, 1935-1977, are usually multi-volume sets which list the depreciated value and replacement cost of equipment and buildings. Unless otherwise noted in the inventory the appraisals were compiled by the General Appraisal Company. Also included are appraisals for the Sullivan Mining Company and Pend Oreille Mining and Metals. There are also eight volumes of appraisal reports and valuation analyses of property and homes owned by the company in Kellogg, dated 1974-1975, which were prepared by Reino A. Jurvelin of Acuff Realty, Coeur d'Alene. Included with these are plat maps, descriptions, valuations, and photographs. The legal papers documenting the sale of these properties are in the Legal series, box 58.

The Audit Reports, 1938-1968 were done by John F. Forbes & Co. of San Francisco. Most years include a regular and a condensed report. Audit reports for other companies are with the records of those companies. Forbes and Co. also prepared year end financial statements for the years 1961 to 1967, although the statement for 1964 is lacking.

Oversize volumes include cash book transfer sheets, 1940-1955, which is in two parts--cash receipts and cash disbursements; which also functions as a voucher journal, a cash received journal, 1940 to 1958, six volumes of construction ledgers, 1940-1970 which are arranged by job number, and four volumes of contract mining payroll journals, 1947-1969. which show daily time worked and earnings--straight time, over time, and bonus--for each 2 week pay period.

The Cortez Gold Mine was a joint venture formed March 17, 1968 to explore for minerals in Eureka and Lander Counties, Nevada. Among the records for this venture are distribution of funds and financial statements, 1978-1982 (the statement for 1980 was not included).

The Directors' monthly statements, 1955-5966 are a compilation of financial reports from all divisions of the company.

There are several types of employee earnings records. The first, 1937-1957, are 5x8 folders for each employee, containing employment information and records of earnings, these are filed alphabetically by employee. The second, 1975-1982, are computer generated quarterly reports listing alphabetically by employee the total of wages paid and taxes withheld.

There are also a number of financial ledgers, including general ledgers, and subsidiary and transfer ledgers for specific accounts.

Other financial records include lease data, payroll distribution records, actuarial reports on employee pension plans, property tax receipts, voucher registers and a product sales ledger for the zinc plant.

The Stearns-Rogers Manufacturing Co. purchase orders, 1951-1954, are for the crushing and drying plant, preparation and bedding plant, and the new pelletizing plant. Each project is contained in a separate binder; there is no correlation between these and the construction ledgers.

Another binder is labeled Singmaster and Breyer story, Zinc plant, 1952-1954. It contains a monthly list of costs associated with the Singmaster and Breyer contract, broken down by unit, e.g., land and improvement, utilities and service, engineering, field expense, roaster no.9, acid plant, and electrical system.

The claims register, 1885-1904, is an oversize volume, arranged alphabetically, which gives the name of the mining claim, the mining district, county, state, name of the locator, date, annual labor record, and transfer history for each claim owned by the Bunker Hill company. Each claim is on a separate page.

Boxes 54 and 55 contain court documents, both typed and printed, which include transcripts of testimony, affidavits, and correspondence. Included are 6 volumes of transcripts and briefs in the Timothy McCarthy vs. Bunker Hill and Sullivan case, 1904-1906.

The agreements, contracts, and similar documents found in boxes 56 and 57 were originally in numbered folders; some were filed behind a subject divider, others began a numerical sequence without the divider. The folders were left in their original order and the subject divisions are in bold type in the inventory.

The property appraisals include correspondence, legal documents and legal descriptions of property and houses acquired by Bunker Hill because of lead contamination in the soil, also material concerning other homes owned by the company. The first folder contains photographs of some of the houses. These papers are in alphabetical order by owner of the property. The financial appraisals of these properties are in box 31 with appraisals of other company property.

In 1968, due to a change in the lead-zinc market, Bunker Hill abandon its development of the Higdon properties in Missouri, which were owned by National Lead Company. NLI responded by changing the discount procedure of the zinc it bought from Bunker Hill. NLI sued also Bunker Hill over the lack of development of Higdon. The related papers include correspondence, legal briefs, affidavits, contracts, invoices and other financial material. All materials are photocopies. Some documents were NLI records given to Bunker Hill, while others were Bunker Hill records given to NLI. The documents from NLI were in labeled folders and the folder headings were retained during processing. Those furnished by Bunker Hill were separated by paper clips or elastic bands, and were not labeled; they are therefore called Group 1, Group 2, etc., in the inventory.

The material in this series consists of two books of canceled stock certificates for the Nevada Bunker Hill and Sullivan Company, 1909-1917, and stock ledgers and journals for the Bunker Hill Company.

The stock ledgers are the official record of stock ownership, recording all changes in holdings, the names and addresses of shareholders, the date of issue, the certificate number, from whom it was received, the number of shares received, the date of cancellation, and to whom it was transferred. These are bound volumes and are arranged alphabetically. The stock journals list changed in stock ownership chronologically.

The ledger and journal for the Oregon based company are for common stock, 1887-1924, and voting trust, 1917-1924, whereas the Delaware company includes common stock, 1924-1927, preferred stock, 1925- 1927, and voting trust stock, 1924-1935.

There are four bound volumes of stock transfer ledgers, 1912-1918, plus another stock ledger for 1910- 1916, but there does not appear to be any relationship between the single volume and the previous four.

Box 66 contains a stock ledger kept on 5x8 cards from 1953 to 1068. Some of these entries correspond to entries in the Common stock transfer journals, others to not.

The nine volumes of common stock transfer journals are in order by folio number, each page being a folio.

This series contains plant and equipment records as well as ore shipment records.

The diversification program manual outlines proposals for effective functional operation of product and market development; research and development activities; merger, acquisition, joint-venture and new plant construction proposals; and liaison with industry activities.

Equipment records include blueprints and instructions for automatic station and switching equipment.

Among the ore shipment ledgers are settlement sheets, assays and bills of lading for copper residue shipments, 1966-1972; a daily summary of zinc plant operations, January-June 1945; a spiral bound booklet describing operations of each of the departments of the mine visited by the board of directors of Gulf Resources in 1968; and a computer generated stock control master inventory record listing all supplies on hand as of December 8, 1981. Also included are sheets documenting daily mill runs at both the south and west mills, 1930-1938, and 2 bound volumes of ore statements and smelter settlements, 1925-1930 which contain assays and shipping data. The mill assay records span the years 1906 to May 1955, with the exception of the volume for July 1926 to November 1940 which was lacking. The dump slag book, 1955-1970, keeps track of monthly amounts of slag received from the roasters and furnaces.

The majority of the material in this series was originally in two boxes labeled "Industrial Relations - Historical". The material was left in its original order, and the original folder headings were retained. It consists mainly of labor relations material and notes on bargaining sessions with the unions. The drafts of the contract with the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers and its local #18 are arranged by article number. Also in those folders are notes on the progress of the bargaining sessions. One group of material containing negotiation and strike material, memos, broadsides, newspaper clippings, and news releases was not in a folder and was therefore labeled "Miscellaneous". Another group of material concerns the National Labor Relations Board election which decided which unions would represent Bunker Hill workers. The two folders titled Recap of carpenters and machinists, blacksmiths, welders, and painters, contains bound volumes of detailed job descriptions for each employee in those classifications.

Other material in this series includes lists of hires, quits, retirements, and pension plan arrangements.

This file was set up by Ray Chapman of the Bunker Hill Company. He gathered material from various files in the company offices into one chronologically arranged group covering the years 1885-1981. Since it would be very difficult and time consuming to return items to their original location Chapman's arrangement was retained. Included are court documents, early correspondence to and from Stanly Easton, some of which predates his employment as manager at Bunker Hill, reports of Pinkerton and Thiel operatives during the years 1905-1907, newspapers and newspaper clippings, magazine, reprints of journal articles, brochures and small pamphlets, and company newsletters.