BREWERY CREEK

Mineral Point, Iowa County. August, 1970. Altitude c. 2,000 ft. The rusty-red waters of Brewery Creek stand out in sharp contrast to green trees and cropland just south of the community of Mineral Point where lead and zinc mining and smelting, once an important economic activity, is now all but history. The curving white road to the right is Ferndale Road, and the straight path to the left of the stream is the Central Wisconsin railroad. This photograph is virtually vertical in perspective; northwest is to the top.

Dean Connors of the Mineral Point Historical Society writes that the source of the red waters was from the huge Mineral Point Zinc Plant, one of the largest in the world. Local ores contained practically no non-zinc contaminates, but when the zinc plant started importing Western and Mexican ores to process, considerable iron and other metallic contaminants were imported. It was the iron discarded in the "roasting" process that created the stunning red color in Brewery Creek as it flowed past the roaster discard pile. In the early 1990’s the DNR moved the roaster discard material farther south, and the color of the water has pretty much returned to normal.