Background
Spence, Clark Christian was born on May 25, 1923 in Great Falls, Montana, United States. Son of Christian Edward and Lela (Killion) Spence.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
British Investments and the American Mining Frontier, 1860-1901
(This significant study offers information on the British ...)
This significant study offers information on the British investors who brought capital to America's mining industry in the late nineteenth century.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0893011789/?tag=2022091-20
Territorial Politics and Government in Montana, 1864-89
(".. one of the first fair-minded, objective histories of ...)
".. one of the first fair-minded, objective histories of early Montana..."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0252004604/?tag=2022091-20
The Conrey Placer Mining Company: A Pioneer Gold Dredging Enterprise in Montana, 1897-1922
(Placer mining companies revolutionized the mining industr...)
Placer mining companies revolutionized the mining industry during the late nineteenth century when they first put dredges to work on previously unprofitable ground. Dredges would so effectively mine gold-bearing grounds, one forecaster predicted in 1903, that the world would "not only be saturated with gold, it would be nauseated with it." In The Conrey Placer Mining Company, historian Clark C. Spence describes the optimistic hopes of the dredge miners in Virginia City, Montana, and the hard realities of this new industrial placer mining technology. Since 1863, miners had pulled millions of dollars in gold out of Montana's Alder Gulch using pans and Long Toms and later tunnels and ground sluices. But dredging was a dramatically different process. The most costly of all placer mining techniques, dredging was a highly industrial and technological enterprise. Spence describes how the dredges, as large as ocean freighters and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars each, dug their own ponds as they moved ponderously down the gulch, ripping up paydirt from bedrock as deep as a hundred feet below the surface. He shows how the efficiency and power of this revolutionary, "mass production" technology changed the mining industry and how it irrevocably altered the western landscape. Using corporate papers held by Harvard University's Baker Library, Spence recounts the story of the Conrey Placer Mining Company. In many ways, it is the story of the early years of the American gold-dredging industry. As the pre-eminent Montana placer firm of the early twentieth century, Conrey's operations showed a continuity common to only a handful of multiple-dredge concerns. The company tested different types of dredged, innovatively adapted them to the special conditions of Montana's climate and terrain, and later adopted state-of-the-art California-type dredges. Spence takes a penetrating look at this unique company, which operated so successfully in the isolation of Montana's southwestern mountains. This volume is at once a corporate history, a technological history, and a local history that takes readers through the intricate workings of an innovative mining company and examines the lives of the executives, the engineers, and the workers who made it possible.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0917298187/?tag=2022091-20
Montana: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393056791/?tag=2022091-20
The Sinews of American Capitalism: an Economic History
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0333024893/?tag=2022091-20
Mining Engineers and the American West
(Gives a wealth of information and supplies insight into t...)
Gives a wealth of information and supplies insight into the nature of the whole mining industry in the later West. Voted the #1 mining history book by Mining History News. This is a treasure trove of tales about the early mining engineers and their experiences on the Western frontier. Mining History News
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0893011673/?tag=2022091-20
The Salvation Army Farm Colonies
(history of the farming collective of the Salvation Army)
history of the farming collective of the Salvation Army
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816508976/?tag=2022091-20
The Rainmakers: American "Pluviculture" to World War II
(University of Nebraska Press, 1980.)
University of Nebraska Press, 1980.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803241178/?tag=2022091-20
Montana: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation)
( At three times the size of Pennsylvania, with a county ...)
At three times the size of Pennsylvania, with a county bigger than the whole state of Connecticut, Montana is a large place, once described as "bounded on the west by the Japan current, on the north by the aurora borealis, on the south by Price's Army, and on the east by the Day of Judgement." Montana has a rich story, in which different people have sought both great fortune and modest prosperity. How well they succeeded is part of the story told in this engaging history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393333833/?tag=2022091-20
The Rainmaker, American "Pluviculture" to World War II
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BH9YFA/?tag=2022091-20
The Northern Gold Fleet: Twentieth-Century Gold Dredging in Alaska
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0252022181/?tag=2022091-20
Mining Engineers and the American West: Lace-boot Brigade, 1849-1933 (Western Americana)
(Though they were key figures in the development of the we...)
Though they were key figures in the development of the western mineral industry, the mining engineers of the early West have received too little attention. Drawing upon the careers of a number of individuals - some famous, some little known - Mr. Spence examines the professional mining engineer in terms of his education, life style, acual work, and impact upon the rugged environment beyond the Mississippi. He depicts the engineer's versatility in his several roles as manager of mines, consultant in the field and in the courtroom, and builder of financial empires, and traces the engineer's evolution from a generalist to a professional specialist. Mr. Spence's volume is at once technological and social history. The context is international as well as national, for the engineer moved in cosmopolitan circles, pursued his career on a global scale, and applied ideas and techniques from one area of the world to another. An extensive bibliography completes the volume.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300012241/?tag=2022091-20
Mining Engineers and the American West: Lace-boot Brigade, 1849-1933 (Western Americana) Hardcover June 11, 1970
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010EVDE34/?tag=2022091-20
Mining Engineers and the American West: Lace-boot Brigade, 1849-1933 (Western Americana) by Spence, Clark C. (1970) Hardcover
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011SJL92E/?tag=2022091-20
Mining Engineers and the American West by Spence, Clark C. (1993) Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011SJUPV0/?tag=2022091-20
Clark Christian Spence
Edit Profile
Clark Christian Spence, American history educator. Fulbright fellow England, 1953-1954; Ford Foundation fellow, 1963-1964; Guggenheim fellow, 1970-1971; recipient annual book award Agricultural History Society, 1959. Served with United States Army Air Force, 1943-1946. Member Western History Association (president 1969-1970), Mining History Association (president 1990-1991), Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha Theta.
Education
Bachelor, University Colorado, 1948. Master of Arts, University Colorado, 1951. Doctor of Philosophy, University Minnesota, 1955.
Career
Instructor Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, 1954-1955. Instructor, then associate professor Pennsylvania State University, 1955-1960. Visiting lecturer University California-Berkeley, 1960-1961.
Member faculty University Illinois, Champaign, since 1961, professor history, 1964-1990, professor emeritus, since 1990, chairman department, 1967-1970, associate member Center for Advanced Study, 1975. Visiting lecturer Yale, summer 1964. Visiting professor University Colorado, summer 1967.
Distinguished visiting professor Arizona State University, spring 1988.
Achievements
Works
book
-
Montana: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation)
( At three times the size of Pennsylvania, with a county ...)
-
The Conrey Placer Mining Company: A Pioneer Gold Dredging Enterprise in Montana, 1897-1922
(Placer mining companies revolutionized the mining industr...)
-
Mining Engineers and the American West: Lace-boot Brigade, 1849-1933 (Western Americana)
(Though they were key figures in the development of the we...)
-
British Investments and the American Mining Frontier, 1860-1901
(This significant study offers information on the British ...)
-
Mining Engineers and the American West
(Gives a wealth of information and supplies insight into t...)
-
The Salvation Army Farm Colonies
(history of the farming collective of the Salvation Army)
-
The Rainmakers: American "Pluviculture" to World War II
(University of Nebraska Press, 1980.)
-
Territorial Politics and Government in Montana, 1864-89
(".. one of the first fair-minded, objective histories of ...)
- God speed the plow : the coming of steam cultivation to Great Britain.
- Montana: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation)
- The Sinews of American Capitalism: an Economic History
- The Rainmaker, American "Pluviculture" to World War II
- The Northern Gold Fleet: Twentieth-Century Gold Dredging in Alaska
- Mining Engineers and the American West: Lace-boot Brigade, 1849-1933 (Western Americana) Hardcover June 11, 1970
- Mining Engineers and the American West: Lace-boot Brigade, 1849-1933 (Western Americana) by Spence, Clark C. (1970) Hardcover
- Mining Engineers and the American West by Spence, Clark C. (1993) Paperback
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Montana: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation)
Membership
Served with United States Army Air Force, 1943-1946. Member Western History Association (president 1969-1970), Mining History Association (president 1990-1991), Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha Theta.
Connections
Married Mary Lee Nance, September 12, 1953. Children: Thomas Christian, Ann Leslie.
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Born
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Nationality
American
Awards
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Fulbright fellow England, 1953-1954. Ford Foundation fellow, 1963-1964. Guggenheim fellow, 1970-1971. Recipient annual book award Agricultural History Society, 1959.Fulbright fellow England, 1953-1954. Ford Foundation fellow, 1963-1964. Guggenheim fellow, 1970-1971.
Recipient annual book award Agricultural History Society, 1959.