"Souvenir of Mount Isa" was issued by the Federal Methodist Inland Mission and includes rare vintage photos of the early field.

Mr Forsyth said the hill captioned as "The Hill known as Mount Isa" in the booklet is actually Urquhart Shaft Hill and was not the site of the original find which was almost due west of where the Barkly Hotel now stands.

Nonetheless it remains a fascinating glimpse into the early days of the city.

In the foreword written by Rev Rupert Hayes and store owner George Milthorpe they said they had great faith in Mount Isa "and we are desirous our faith will be contagious so we send out this little booklet in an effort to popularise our town."

The Queensland Methodist Conference promoted the book especially the photos which included "the first two white women on the field, the discoverer and early prospectors, the main street, the hill, the smelters and power house and other indications of mining development."

Ahead of a photo of Mount Isa's founder John Campbell Miles, Mr Milthorpe wrote Mount Isa was originally overlooked as prospectors went further west.

"It remained one Mr Campbell Miles to reveal to the world the hidden treasures that at the time of writing promise to be one of the world's great producers of silver and lead," Mr Milthorpe wrote.

"Mr Miles like many others was accustomed to the bush, was a child of the wilds, with patient endurance and stubborn perseverance he toiled on and won."

Optimistically he wrote Mount Isa would infuse "new hope (and) greater faith for the country's prosperity."

Then premier Arthur Moore (who led Queensland from 1929 to 1932) also wrote a piece for the booklet saying the town's growth since its 1923 start was phenomenal.

"Its population is now well over 3500. Hospitals, an up-to-date state school, banks, insurance offices, comfortable hotels, electric light, ice works, picture shows, modern butcher's shops."

He also looked forward to the connection of Rifle Creek Dam (completed in 1929) which would feed the mines and allow residents irrigate their gardens.

Mount Isa was then "a small mining town in the Cloncurry Shire" with half of its 3000 inhabitants living in houses built by Mount Isa Mines with the other half on the town side.

As well as two cinemas ("one showing talking pictures every night") there were two dance halls, a stadium and ice rink.

While it hoped Mount Isa would become picturesque, it admitted houses were basic, mostly galvanised irons huts with some "built from packing cases and benzine tins".

Water was very expensive with 100 gallons in kerosene tins costing four shillings.

When Miles and his partner WJ Simpson found the first outcrop of ferruginous oxidised silver lead ore they showed it to mining inspector Fletcher Young who was unimpressed.

But he sent a bundle to the Cloncurry Assay office and encouraged by the results he sent more ore to Port Kembla in NSW for treatment.

He then moved to Darwin and months later when he returned to Cloncurry and picked up his mail he learned his parcel of metal was rich in silver and lead.

He and Simpson rushed back to the site of the find and pegged two leases.

"Miles then named the hill Mount Isa, after his sister Isabelle, and the other lease was later called Racecourse because the folds of the hills gave it the appearance of the turn into the straight of a racecourse," the Souvenir said.

"Thus in September 1923, the first leases were pegged at Mt Isa".