Photograph depicting a man at Argo Smelting Works in Denver, Colo. opening a slide in the bottom of a hopper to let the ore run into a furnace. This photograph was shot circa 1906-1907, possibly by Jesse D. Hale (1855-1946) who worked at the Argo Smelting Company for over twenty years and who compiled the photograph album. Nathaniel P. Hill (1832-1900), a chemistry professor and U.S. Senator from 1879-1885, founded The Boston and Colorado Smelting Company and erected Colorado's first state smelter in Black Hawk, Colo. in 1868. The company relocated to the Globeville neighborhood in north Denver in 1877 and established the Argo Smelter Works. The plant processed gold, silver, and copper ores for more than thirty years and finally closed in 1910. Jesse Hale's sister Alice Hale Hill (1840-1908) married Nathaniel P. Hill in 1860.