'

A Brief History of Granby and Early Mining Days

Presented by

R.. J. Savage
R.J. Savage was born and raised in Granby. He graduated from Granby High School in
1953 and the University of Missouri in 1957. Following his graduation he went into the U.S
Marine Corps, and served until August 1967. After serving in the Marine Corps he went to
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and subsequently served as pastor at a church
in Pearl City, m. R.J. returned to Granby in 1984 and went into real estate for a few
years. He decided to return to college to pursue a degree in education. He ended up
teaching at College Heights Christian School in Joplin until be retired in June, 2003.
Currently R.J., and his wife Elaine, work at the Miners Museum in Granby.

Outline of Presentation
I. The Country of the "Six Bulls"
II. Early Settlement
Ill. The Name-Granby
IV. Early Day Mining
V. Granby Mining & Smelting Co.
VI. Zinc Finds It's Place
Vll. Colonel John Kingston

BOODLE LANE
The following material is excerpted from an article that appeared in the March-April 2003 edition of Rocks &
Minerals. The article was "A nostalgic look at rock shops, tourist traps, and exploited geological curiosities
along the roadside" by Arthur E. Smith. It is reprinted with the permission of the author and the Helen Dwight
Reid Educational Foundation. Published by Heldref Publications, 1319 18th St, Washington, DC 20036-1802.
To many collectors, even today, the name Boodle Lane is synonymous with Tri-State district minerals.
(The Tri-State district includes Baxter Springs and Galena, Kansas; Joplin, Missouri; and Picher, Oklahoma.)
In the 1930s and into the 1950s stopping at Lane's shop in Galena, Kansas, was an absolute must for
collectors visiting the area. Here, good specimens of sphalerite, galena, pink dolomite, chalcopyrite,
marcasite, and calcite as well as such uncommon minerals as wurtzite, enargite, hemimorphite (there usually
called calamine) could be purchased at a cheap price. Sphalerite was called jack--ruby jack for the red,
blackjack for the black. Evidently, there was a rapid turnover of material, for most of the smaller specimens on
the outdoor tables did not seem to show effects of exposure to the weather. In the late 1950s I bought a 2.4 x
10-mm specimen with ruby jack crystals to about 3 mm for $1.25 from Lane. It is still catalogued in my
collection as specimen no. 125 and worth many times that amount.
If you picked out a lot of specimens and didn't want to overload your car (easy to do with galena
specimens), Lane would pack them in a barrel and ship them to you. Also, it was possible to order a selection
of specimens, sight unseen, to be shipped in a barrel. These were called "Boodle barrels," and I never heard
of anyone not being pleased with them.
There were other dealers in the Tri-State district whose names have been long forgotten, but Boodle
Lane remains a legend. Although he wasn't a miner, Lane appreciated the mines and minerals that provided
his livelihood. In the 1930s he put out a series of photographic postcards, two of which are shown here (figs. 5
and 6); the others show mines and miners on the surface and underground. The postcard showing his case at
the Smithsonian Institution has actual small mineral fragments glued in circular patterns on each comer of the
card. It's impossible to say how many Tri-State minerals in collections today were originally sold by Lane, but
certainly a lot of them were.

Post card courtesy Bruce Stinemetz