Re: Milling Question

Photos of the Oregon Smelting and Refining Co. smelter near S wye on the Sumpter Vly appears to have been as you say. Though on private land, I walked through the site a few years back and there were remnants of ties on a grade leading to the upper level. I think these type of opertions were often built on a hillside to use gravity in the process of moving ore through the plant with the concentrates or ingots comming out at the lowest level. A photo in R.S.&P on pg. 23. shows this mill and SVRy box cars spotted below. The mainline is in the general location of these box cars, but I think there was spur for the smelter shown on maps in this general location. When I walked the site, it seemed to me that the grade at the upper part of the side ran along the hill side and eventually joined the main, but I could be wrong as it is pretty overgrown and I was walking in some patches of unmelted snow when I explored it. In any event, I bet it was a pretty typical layout whehter it be Ore. or Col.