There is a freshly restored stamp mill that has just been made “Operable” at the Jerome State Historic
Park at the Douglas Mansion Museum in Jerome, Arizona! This adds one more mill
to my list of operable stamp mills. We now have (16) "operable" stamp mills in the
USA. The folks at the Douglas Mansion Museum, led by Wes Yeager, did an
excellent job with his first stamp mill restoration. I only jumped in when
there were questions. They owned the restoration and did an outstanding job.
The actual
restoration started in July 2014 and completed in May 2016. The timeline was
drawn out due to the lack of information on what the structure of the stamp mill
looked like, since we only had (3) stamps, a camshaft and a mortar box. We
finally found structural information through a stamp mill model maker, Western
Scale Models. They had the structural information we needed to come up with the
dimensions for the uprights and their configuration. The key to finding the
correct configuration was the ability to disassemble the mortar box and the
A-frame upright arrangement.
The following is a
description of the 3-stamp mill in an article taken from “Supplying the Mining
World 1850 – 1900” by Lynn R. Bailey. “The three-stamp mill, fabricated by Fulton Engineering & Shipbuilding Works, was
handy for prospecting or when a larger and more pretentious plant could not be
secured. The unit was designed to be operated by either horse, steam or water
power. The frame could be taken apart and put together again with no cutting or
refitting. The stamps were ninety-drop, and weighed 250 pounds each. The entire
outfit as shown, including frame, weighed 4,500 pounds. The picture below
shows the drawing of the model that Western Scale Models produced.
Without the above information we never would have come up with the correct stamp mill orientation.The picture below shows the parts we had to start the restoration.
The mill
was assembled in a courtyard in the back of the museum since it was close to utilities
and tools. After the mill had been assembled it was taken apart and the 4.500
pounds of stamp mill was transported
to its final location above the entrance road to the museum. The museum crew
took the stamp mill apart and lowered it down to its present location and
reassembled the mill. The picture below shows the rigging of the mortar box
down the hill on an improvised rail system.
The mill was set up at the present location, a sluice table added, a water sump and delivery piping and pump to complete the job. The mill has been tested and it works very well. This mill is capable of crushing 3 to 4 tons of ore a day. The picture below shows the completed 3-stamp mill setup.
