In the lead up to Mount Isa's centenary in 2023 we continue to look at the town's early history.
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We began with a look at the newspaper archive Trove's first mention of Mount Isa.
The first mention of the area we could find was a small article in the Brisbane Courier of September 26, 1923 entitled "Government Geologist's Inspection" which reported one of two rich recent finds of silver-lead.
After we published that article the North West Star was contacted by local historian Bob Forsyth who found an earlier mentions of the city.
Mr Forsyth sent us a copy of an article in the Courier of August 31, 1923 about a silver-lead find in Chillagoe in which the final sentence read "A government official (had) gone out to Cloncurry to investigate another reported field".
On the same day as the Brisbane Courier September 26 article the Sydney Morning Herald reported the same news of the Chillagoe and the North West silver-lead finds and also repeated the government geologist's "very impressed" comment.
On September 20 several newspapers said the official reports of the new find were "regarded with satisfaction" by Mines Minister AJ Jones.
The Townsville Bulletin of September 24 asked a question in its headline of "Was Cloncurry's dark cloud breaking?"
Coming just after the closure of the Kuridala and Mt Elliott works it noted new finds at Mt Cuthbert near Kajabbi and repeated the "rumour" the West Leichhardt finds could be as valuable as Chillagoe.
"For some years Cloncurry has known 'the dark cloud' and it is hoped the West Leichhardt galena (lead glance) will provide a silver lining," the Bulletin said.
Mr Forsyth also noted that John Campbell Miles had applied for the Racecourse lease on May 8, 1923 while William Simpson applied for Black Star Lease on June 22, 1923.
He said Campbell Miles applied for the Mount Isa lease on September 21, 1923.
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