Chat dumps are where mining waste goes when it dies. Erm, I mean chat dumps are the huge heaps of mining waste. When we were kids, we’d call these sand mountains, and we’d beg our parents to let us play on them.

In winter, we wanted to sled down them. In summer [...]]]>

Chat Dump, photo by MilliGFunk

Chat dumps are where mining waste goes when it dies. Erm, I mean chat dumps are the huge heaps of mining waste. When we were kids, we’d call these sand mountains, and we’d beg our parents to let us play on them.

In winter, we wanted to sled down them. In summer we wanted to build sand castles on them (out of them). In spring and fall, we probably begged our parents to let us roll down them. Not once during my childhood did I ever step foot on a chat dump. I guess my parents were fans of trespassing. No sense of adventure, I tell you…

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I have no idea what you call these things, but if someone could fill me in, I’d be happy about it. I’m fairly certain that these things play an important role in the life and death of the mining waste that rests in the chat dump when it dies.

What Do You Call This? photo by MilliGFunk

So meet me halfway, dear readers. I’ve told you about chat dumps, so can any of you tell me what these monstrosities are called?

My most recent small town Missouri adventure was a freezing cold trip through Bonne Terre, Missouri. Bonne Terre is one of those old Midwestern mining towns that feels haunted to me as I walk its streets. I can so clearly imagine the time when Bonne Terre was booming and miners and [...]]]>

Bonne Terre, photo by smalltowngirl

My most recent small town Missouri adventure was a freezing cold trip through Bonne Terre, Missouri. Bonne Terre is one of those old Midwestern mining towns that feels haunted to me as I walk its streets. I can so clearly imagine the time when Bonne Terre was booming and miners and railroad men spent their hard-earned money in the town’s bars, but the town simply isn’t that vibrant in 2009.

According to the sign in the picture, the first lead mining took place in what’s now Bonne Terre in the late 1790s, but the town wasn’t established until the 1880s.  Jean Baptiste Pratte opened the area’s fist “lead diggings”. In 1864, all 946 acres of lead diggings were purchased from Pratte by the New York City-backed St. Joseph Lead Company. It was the St. Joseph Company who took the initiative to build the town of Bonne Terre.

Missouri is the oldest and largest lead-producing state in the United States, and Bonne Terre sits at the heart of the largest lead-mining district in the country. While the lead-belt’s history is rich, little remains now but historic sites and huge mounds of chat that, as kids, we called sand mountains.