The original Barnes-King company was almost entirely composed of men who lived in Fergus county; men who put their money and ef¬forts into the enterprise and lived to see their faith justified. This property was developed by the use of open pit and underground mining as was used by the Kendall Comp¬any. Their operating costs were much higher due to the fact that they used coal and steam to gener¬ate the electrical, energy used in mine and mill. The mine was later sold to a group of men from Butte. They called themselves the Barnes-King Development Company and set out to explore the surrounding domain, hopes of uncovering an ore body similar to the one on which they were operating. They drove a, 3,700-foot horse tunnel un¬der a group of claims known as the Boxer, they found some very rich ore but quantity was small. They also encountered a body of porphyry ore whose low assay value made it impossible of treatment at that time. The company finally withdrew from the field and leased the mine until it was permanently closed down in 1922.
