Mining - The Daniel C. Jackling Award

An annual invitational address by an outstanding man in mining, geology, or geophysics who has contributed significantly to the progress of technology in these fields. IN 1954, the first year the award was conferred, Fred Searles, Jr., remarked, "The earlier years are the easiest." In this, the second year, it was easy to choose the outstanding mining engineer. Our conferee this year has been destined to mine. He comes from pioneer stock, and though a son of the American Revolution he is most proud that all four of his grandparents came to the Jordan River Valley of Utah the "first summer," which all Utahns will recognize as 1847. At the time of discovery of high-grade ore in Bingham, his grandfather, Archibald Gardner, had a crew of men getting out saw timber in the area. The first claim staked in Bingham Canyon was named the Jordan, and Bishop Gardner was the colocator of the claim as well as the man to record it. E. D. Gardner was born in West Jordan, Utah, in view of Little Cottonwood Canyon, the site of the Emma Mine. Park City in the Wasatch Mountains a few dozen miles to the east, and Tintic, not much further to the south, were developing their vast ore-bodies throughout his youth. As a boy he was near the present Midvale metallurgical area and could see the Lark and Bingham Canyon mine dumps and imagine the mining activities at Tooele, Ophir, and Mercur just over the nearby Oquirrh Range. He was 11 years old when the first car of copper ore was shipped from Bingham Canyon. It was not surprising that he attended the University of Utah and graduated with an engineer of mines degree. Five years with the Utah Apex in Bingham Canyon as chief engineer and assistant superintendent completed his training for the 44 years of unselfish and lightly rewarded service he was to give the mining industry as a Government engineer. All of us in mining are familiar with the great work he carried on and directed during the genera- tion he supervised the Southwest Experimental Station at Tucson. He has written scores of papers and books. His observations and experiments on drilling and blasting have led to the important improvements in this field during the past quarter century. Whereas those of us who consider ourselves widely informed about underground metal mining methods make hasty trips through a half dozen or dozen mines a year, our conferee has visited them all—not only the metal mines, but also coal and hundreds of nonmetallic mines, in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and overseas. His keen observations and analytical mind have resulted in an encyclopedic knowledge of mining and mines. His improvements in mining technology have been steady and predictable. His elucidation of mining problems to the many young engineers that have come under his guidance have made them grow strong and useful to his industry. When he chooses to stop, his influence will continue to expand and prosper because of the inspiration and dedication he instilled in so many of us. The profits from his ideas have been distributed throughout the mining industry. He has remained a technical man who felt that he could serve the mining industry best as a Government engineer. But he is the staunchest advocate of the belief that the public should gain from his work through private industry. This is not the first recognition E. D. Gardner has received. The Department of the Interior awarded him the coveted Medal for Distinguished Service in October 1949, and he received the Engineering & Mining Journal's Salute in March 1951. His friends who are presenting him the Daniel C. Jackling Award today know this great mining engineer simply as "Ed" Gardner.