Back when we were painfully recovering from the Depression, with WW-2 looming,
Dad was trying to get his mining company operating again. Old chat piles were
found to be economic to re-process by running the tailings through more modern mills.
 Dad made a deal to lease the Brewster mill west of Baxter since he thought it to be
 a particularly efficient design. He successfully processed a number of the old chat
 piles of the Picher area in this mill.

       This resource was limited though and Dad decided to re-open the old Brewster
 mine next to the mill, since it had a history and drilling records making it of
 interest.  I was in college then and later in the Army Air Force and then back
 to college, so I was rarely home to see what was going on. However the following
       seems to be reasonably accurate. Dad moved his office (including the records
Safe room) from Picher to the Brewster property. The mine turned out to be
horrendously  costly to re-open, since it was full of water like nost of the closed
 mines there.  Furthermore, that water was highly acidic from the rock's iron
content.   Pumps and piping had to be made of stainless steel, requiring special
       government purchase approvals and didn't last long even then. The removed water
couldn't be dumped into the creeks without much costly treatment with alkalis in
settling ponds. After all it eventually reached Willow Creek going past our home.
Anyway the mine was finally opened and proved successful enough to pay off those
startup costs. Whenever I was home from college I did a lot of photography both
in the mill and underground for a college research paper project. All of those hundreds
 of photos disappeared later. I still though have my old hard hat with its carbide lamp.
 Electric hat lamps common elsewhere came later to the Tri-State.

       Sometime during the War or shortly thereafter, the traditional mine mules were retired
 and the mines were thoroughly mechanized for greater efficiency. Diesel work engines and
trucks were disassembled, dropped down the shafts, and reassembled under-ground. The lower
 emission of CO by the Diesel engines compared with gasoline made this practical within
the abilities for ventilation. I am not too sure when the mines of the Tri-State
       finally gave up using 25-cycle power (specially generated by the Riverton plant) to go
 to 60-cycle.  Those 25-cycle motors were positively huge, running at around 50 RPM.
The fluorescent lights flickered and radios buzzed. Spare parts for those motors
       were to be had only from Buffalo - if there. Of course nobody else wanted or could use
 the things so they were cheap.

       Later after the war was over, Dad built a new office on the Baxter home property, about
 halfway between the house and the Rt66 entrance.
       Of course this included the records Safe room with its big steel door dating from
 grandfather's time, drafting room, Dad's office, Polettes office for accounting, etc.
Dad landscaped it well so that it wasn't obtrusive.