Blackhawk Mine, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, USAi

Regional Level Types
Blackhawk Mine	Mine (Lost)
Jo Daviess County	County
Illinois	State
USA	Country

The Blackhawk Mine is located in the Elizabeth Subdistrict within the SE¼ Section 24 (Elizabeth Township) approximately 500 feet north of the village limits of Elizabeth. This mine apparently was in operation for a short duration in 1905-06. Except for a brief mention in Bain (1905), little is known about the history of this mine.

Two sets of structural foundations (constructed using poured concrete) are present in the immediate area. The largest set is associated with the shaft which is approximately 8' x 12' in size and badly collapsed. This shaft was approximately 127' in depth. These foundations represent the remains of a tipple, hoist house, power house, and potential blacksmith shop. The tipple and associated power house foundations (all of concrete) are in a line stretching to the west of the shaft and include predominately machinery supports (tie-downs) with an occasion building pier. These remains suggest that the hoist house (and probably pump works) was approximately 28' by 42' in size. At some later date, a concrete retaining wall was poured around a portion of the building. The inside surface of these walls indicate that the original frame hoist and/or shaft house was covered with board and batten siding. The power house, which was attached to the shaft house and indicated by its brick foundations, was located along the south side of the shaft and tipple. The brick foundation indicates a structure approximately 15' by 16' in size. An early twentieth century line drawing of this mine building indicates that it had a steel smokestack.

Attached to the west end of the hoist house was another building. This building, which had combination brick and stone perimeter foundations, measured approximately 20' by 30' in size. The concrete floor in this structure is covered with brick rubble suggesting that this may have been a brick structure. A wide entrance door (for wagons and other machinery), is located in the west end of this building. Immediately adjacent to the doorway was a pile of coal. A smaller personnel door is located in the south elevation of this building. It is suspected that this building may have functioned as a workroom and/or blacksmith shop for support of the mine. A large, presumably steel smokestack is illustrated as being associated with this building in the early twentieth century line drawing.

Located downhill from, and northeast of, the main mine complex is located the second set of foundation remains. The structure once associated with these foundations is illustrated in the early twentieth century line drawing of these buildings and suggests that they were contemporary structures. A 4-5" steel drain pipe leads from the shaft to this building and apparently supplied this structure with running water. This set of foundation remains consists of large, tall piers built into the side of the hill. As such, the down slope piers (some as tall as 7'0") are considerably taller than the uphill piers. These piers indicate that this building was approximately 18'0" by 54'8" in size. A set of foundations, presumably once associated with a boiler, were incorporated into one corner of the structure. It is suspected that these foundations represent the remains of a mechanized processing plant or mill. Although the structural remains suggest that on-site processing was conducted, no tailings are present.

Numerous shallow shafts, representative of earlier mining activity, dot the landscape around this mine complex. Being located so close to the urban setting of Elizabeth, many of these earlier mine shafts are filled with a wide range of early twentieth century trash. The Blackhawk mine, with its relatively deep shaft, represents the final episode of mining activity which occurred at this location. The relatively well-preserved remains of this mine facility are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as per criterion D (archaeology).