Enos Andrew Wall (1839 - 1920)

Mine Operator and Entrepreneur

2019 Inductee from Mining's Past

Enos Wall lived in Indiana until he was twenty. He then moved west, mining, freighting and selling goods in Colorado, Montana and Utah. In 1868, he moved to southern Utah, to the newly discovered mines at Silver Reef. Here he discovered and operated the Kinner mine and also met and married his wife, Mary Mayer.

After a financial setback in Silver Reef, the Walls moved to Idaho in 1882 where he operated a mine, and was elected to the legislature. Three years later, they moved back to Utah where Enos successfully owned and operated mines at Mercur and Ophir.

Moving north in the same mountain range, he developed and sold the Yampa mine at Bingham Canyon. He noticed widespread low grade copper mineralization elsewhere at Bingham and sampled several abandoned adits, which indicated a large tonnage of low grade copper. He located about 10 claims and maintained the assessment, despite the derision of having only “Wall Rock” for ore.

The profits derived from the sale of his other mines were not enough to develop the copper claims, so he optioned them to Captain Joseph DeLamar (a successful mine operator), who ultimately had two engineers in his employ conduct an examination.

 Daniel Jackling, one of the engineers, was so convinced of the value of the property that he devoted the next four years getting investors to develop the great Bingham Canyon mine. Enos Wall retained a 20% interest, but has largely been forgotten as the man who discovered Utah Copper and inherently realized its value.

Print Version     Previous     Archive     Next