bautsch-gray mine

1000 SOUTH BLACKJACK ROAD

The Bautsch-Gray Mine site is located in Jo Daviess County, approximately 4 miles south of Galena, Illinois, adjacent to South Blackjack Road. The approximately 100-acre site is composed of the surface-area remnants of a former zinc and lead mining operation. The site is located in a rural agricultural and residential area and is bordered to the north, south, and east by residential properties and agricultural land, and to the west by Blackjack Road, further residential properties, and wooded areas. The site is within a half mile of Smallpox Creek and about 1.5 miles of the shoreline of the Mississippi River. The Bautsch-Gray Mine originated as a lead and zinc mining operation in the 1850s. Throughout the history of the mine, several companies used the area for mining and milling operations. Mining operations on the site ceased in approximately 1975. The zinc production operations involved the crushing and grinding of mined rock to standard sizes and then separating out the ore. This action left behind waste-piles of leftover rock, called tailings. The elevation of the main waste-pile on the Bautsch-Gray Mine site has been estimated to be approximately 50-90 feet above the surrounding ground surface. Since mining operations have ceased, the mine tailings have continued to erode and migrate toward the residential properties, wetlands, and fisheries near the Mississippi River. The tailings piles have no vegetative covering and are therefore subject to erosion, disturbance, and displacement when weather or other natural or human activities affect them.