Lead and Lead Compounds

Lead arguably played the most influential role in Wisconsin’s history. Our state flag reflects this. If you look at the state seal on the flag, a miner is pictured. Below and just to the left of the miner are 13 ingots of lead. In fact our state nickname, “the badger state”, comes from the lead mining days. Miners dug mine shafts in the side of hills of southwestern Wisconsin and they often lived in them like badgers lived in burrows. This earned these earlier miners the “badger” nickname.

Figure 1- Wisconsin State Flag (courtesy of wikipedia)

The mineral these first settlers of Wisconsin were looking for was galena. Galena is the mineral name for lead (II) sulfide (PbS). It is a silvery black mineral that is easily broken, (so easy it can be broken with a knife). The mineral was mined for the lead, which was widely used in to produce pewter, pipes, weights, paint, and of course, ammunition for the firearms of an expanding U.S. military.

Figure 2 – Galena (courtesy of wikipedia)

The presence of galena was in southwestern Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa, and northwestern Illinois was known since the first French explorers passed through the area. Native Americans mined the deposits close to the surface and traded it with early traders such as Julian Dubuque. By the 1820’s, the “black gold” rush had started in the area. Miners wasted no time digging for the lead ore. Towns with names like Galena (in Illinois), New Diggings, Mineral Point started springing up with names reflecting the mineral wealth of the area. The first capital of Wisconsin was in Belmont, Wisconsin, in the heart of the lead-mining district. By the 1860’s, most the lead deposits had been extracted and farming took over as the main means of employment.

Figure 3 – Map of Lead Mining District in southwestern Wisconsin and adjacent states

Source: Unknown