The Fessler Mine was located within the present Mines of Spain Preserve [General Location SW1/4 SE1/4 NE1/4 Section 6, T88N, R3E]. My father observed the mine to be operating in the 1940's as basically a two man operation thus making it probably the very last serious attempt to mine galena (PbS) in Iowa portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley Pb-Zn District. In the 1970's electric wiring and wooden ore cart rails were still evident though at that time the entrance adit had collapsed. Galena occurred as a thin sheets along the plain of the crevice and crosscutting joints. Mine was worked by removing with pick and shovel the weather dolomite and limonite and hand sorting out the galena on the surface.
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This page has been created and is maintained by James A. Dockal
Jim Dockal --