Plumas County
Biographies
MURDOCK R. McKENZIE
Much of the credit for the
successful operation of the great Walker mine, in Plumas County, is due Murdock
R. McKenzie, who, as superintendent of the mill for the past nine years, has
made many important changes and improvements and has shown splendid executive
ability. The Walker mine, located about
twenty-six miles from Portola, is the largest copper property in California and
the development work now under way is intended to make the property one of the
most scientifically operated mines in the country. The ore run as high as ten per cent copper
and carries values in gold and silver that pay practically all mining and
reduction costs. The mill is reducing
sixteen hundred tons of ore daily at the present time. Work underway contemplates economical mining
and development that will make for greater economies in the future. At present the ore is mined from slopes and raises above the tunnel level and is hauled by electrical
trains to the mill at the portal of the tunnel.
After passing through the crushing plant the ore is transported to the
ball mills, of which there are four. The
pulp then goes to the flotation tanks and through an Oliver continuous
filter. The values are contained in the
resultant fine powder, which is dumped from chutes into tram buckets and sent
on its nine-mile journey to Spring Garden, where it is loaded into cars and
sent to Utah for smelting. The copper
bars are then sent to Connecticut for refining.
The operating tunnel is two miles
long and is called the seven-hundred-foot level, with ore extending to the
surface. Shafts are being sunk from the
tunnel level to the thousand-foot level and good values have been exposed
through the entire depth of the shafts.
It is the purpose of the management to continue the tunnel from the
thousand-foot level a further distance of two miles to the other side of the
mountain, to an exit at Ward Creek, in Genesee Valley. When that work is completed another mill will
be erected by the Valley end and ore will be dropped to the lower tunnel, thus
avoiding the cost of raising ore. When
the Genesee objective is obtained, the Walker mine will be unique in that it
will be the only mine in the country that will have two reduction plants, one
at each end of a development tunnel. The
present mill and townsite will not be affected by the
new developments.
Murdock R. McKenzie was born in Nova
Scotia on October 24, 1872, and is a son of Kenneth and Elizabeth
McKenzie. His paternal grandfather,
Donald McKenzie, was a ship-builder on the Clyde in Scotland, and his son
Kenneth followed in his footsteps and became a shipbuilder. He was also the owner of three ships. He died in Nova Scotia, at the age of
eighty-four years, and his wife died at the age of seventy-eight years. They became the parents of ten children,
three sons and seven daughters, of whom Murdock R. is the sixth child in order
of birth. Murdock R. McKenzie was reared
in his native land to the age of eighteen years, and from twelve to eighteen
years of age he worked with his father at shipbuilding. After finishing the eighth grade of school
work, he did much night studying and general reading, pursuing courses in
mechanical engineering and mechanical drafting, after which he became a pupil
of Dobe, of Chicago.
Going to Great Falls, Montana, he engaged in mill-building work, helping
to install the concentrating mill, into which great plant he helped to put the
machinery as much as thirty-nine years ago.
He also assisted in making other changes and improvements there, and for
forty years was so engaged in its mechanical department. From there he went to Anaconda, Montana,
where he served as master mechanic for twenty-two years. In 1922 Mr. McKenzie came to the Walker mine
for the purpose of improving the machinery in the old mill. Incidentally, he found the climate of this
locality milder and more congenial than that of Montana, and, Mrs. McKenzie
being in need of a change from the severe winters of the latter state, Mr.
McKenzie decided to make the change and establish himself at the Walker mine,
where he has remained to the present time.
He has been superintendent of the mill continuously since and also
helped to plan the new mill, of the operation of which he has also been superintendent. He is without doubt one of the ablest and
most efficient mining men in the country and his work here stands out as of
vital importance in the success of the Walker interests. He has made many improvements in both
machinery and methods, until today this great mill is the last word in
efficiency.
In 1894, at Great Falls, Montana,
Mr. McKenzie was united in marriage to Miss Phoebe Brown, who is a native of
Ontario, Canada, and to them have been born three
children. Dr. Wilbert L., who was a veteran
of the World War, died at Pocatello, Idaho, at the age of twenty-six years,
from injuries sustained by being run over by his own automobile. He was married, but left no children. Grace is the wife of Frank W. McKenzie, a
prominent newspaperman of Anaconda, Montana.
Milton Murdock is an electrician and radioman in the United States Navy,
being now stationed at San Diego, this state.
Mr. McKenzie is a member of Quincy
Lodge, F. & A. M., and Sacramento Consistory, A. A.S. R., thirty-second degree, at Sacramento.
He has shown a proper interest in local public affairs and has served
for eight years as a member of the school board. He is a Republican in his political views and
is a man of sterling personal qualities.
He is a member of the National Geographic Society, and is a close reader
of the leading technological magazines and periodicals bearing on his line of
work. He is very popular throughout this
locality, as is Mrs. McKenzie, who enjoys good health in this place and has
become a leader in the religious and social life of the community, being a
superintendent in the Sunday school for eight years and very active in
community work.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 357-359. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.