In his time, Albert “Bert” Holden was one of the most important industrialists in the nation and had built the second largest mining, refining and smelting trust in the world. After graduating from Harvard in 1888 as a mining engineer, he joined his father, Liberty Holden, in the silver fields of Utah. In 1899, he bought out Liberty’s mines in Bingham Canyon and organized the United States Mining Company to consolidate his interests. He purchased the Centennial Eureka Mining Co., the Old Telegraph Mine, and the Old Jordan and Galena Mining Company. Gold, silver, lead, and copper ores were shipped from Bert’s many mines to his five-stack smelter on the banks of the Jordan River. Between 1901 and 1906, he created the second largest mining and smelting trust in the world; a serious competitor to the great mining trusts of Amalgamated Copper, Federal Lead, and American Smelting and Refining.
With the huge quantity of ore pouring out of his mines, he built an even larger smelter at Bingham Junction and formed the United States Smelting Company to operate it. He purchased the DeLamar Copper Refining Co. of New Jersey and the Mammoth Copper Mining Co. in California and built another smelter. The Mammoth Mines were the largest producers of copper in California until 1920. With his new smelters, reduction works, and copper and lead refineries, Holden could compete with any trust. Today, Kennecott Copper’s enormous Bingham Canyon mine in Utah incorporates the mines once owned by Liberty and Bert Holden.
In 1906, Bert formed a company to operate gold and silver mines in Mexico. Pancho Villa was a friend of his and while American-owned mines in Mexico were being plundered, his holdings were never touched.
His extensive mineralogy collection—The Holden Collection—was one of the finest in the world and became the nucleus of Harvard’s present holdings. Half the U.S. coins in the famous Norweb Collection were once owned by him. The Holden Arboretum, built by “Bert” in his wife’s memory, remains today one of Cleveland’s major attractions.
