Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

to the Silver Wing, and assaying about 60 ounces of silver per ton. During the past summer the company has been completing its mill, a very good one, containing a twelve-stamp battery, and two pans for amalgamating. Arrangements are said to have been made for the erection of a Stewart & Airey furnace for roasting and chloridizing.

The Old Settler lode, owned by Black & Milner, is tunneled 260 feet, and shows an ore-streak 2 feet wide, composed of lead, zinc, gray copper, and iron sulphurets. Assays range from 20 to 100 ounces of silver per ton.

The Dysart lode, owned by Geo. W. Packard, has a shaft 30 feet deep, showing a vein 4 feet wide between walls, and an ore-streak of 18 inches. Assays give from 30 to 100 ounces of silver per ton.

The Umpire lode, owned by Sharrat & Morrow, has a shaft 20 feet deep, showing a vein 4 feet wide. Assays give from 20 to 60 ounces of silver per ton.

The North Star lode, owned by Lynch, Pratt & Co., is 4 feet between walls, with 12 inches of ore, composed of lead, zinc, and copper sulphurets. It assays from 80 to 240 ounces of silver per ton.

Guibor's extension of the Coley lode, owned by Guibor & Co., has a a shaft 60 feet deep, a vein 4 feet wide, and an ore-streak of 20 inches, assaying from 50 to 200 ounces of silver per ton.

The Tiger lode, owned by Lynch, Pratt & Co., has a shaft 20 feet deep, a vein between walls 6 feet wide, and two pay-streaks, one next the north wall 10 inches wide, (heavy galena,) assaying 100 ounces of silver per ton, and the other next the south wall, 6 inches wide, assaying from 1,000 to 2,500 ounces of silver per ton. The intermediate rock assays from 16 to 30 ounces of silver per ton.

The Walker lode, owned by Fix & Hewitt, is opened by a shaft and tunnel, and worked by the latter, which is in 60 feet. The vein is 2 feet wide, and the pay-streak about 4 inches. An assay from several tons of ore reduced in the Sukey Company's Mill gave 206 ounces of silver per ton.

The Chatauque lode, owned by Teller & Bull, has a shaft 32 feet deep, and an ore-vein 6 feet wide. About 100 tons of ore are extracted, all of which contains more or less grey copper, &c. Four samples taken from the pile-two from the inferior and two from the best quality—were assayed by Hon. J. T. Lynch, with the following result:

No. 1, 41 ounces of silver; coin value, $54 08 per ton.
No. 2, 224 ounces of silver; coin value, $29 12 per ton.
No. 3, 7163 ounces of silver; coin value, $931 84 per ton.
No. 4, 672 ounces of silver; coin value, $873 per ton.
Making an average of 3632 ounces of silver per ton.

The average of 34 assays, made by Mr. Lynch, agent of the Sukey Company, during the summer, from various lodes in this vicinity, as shown by the assay book, was $143 35 per ton.

Each of the mines above named has ore on the dump ranging from 20 to 200 tons; and there are many other lodes in the district which contain ore in paying quantities. It is believed that as soon as the late improvement made by Mr. Stetefeldt, of Nevada, for roasting and chloridizing ores, is introduced into Snake River district, which is contemplated next summer, it will be one of the most important silver-producing districts in Colorado.

There are are numerous other lodes in all stages of development in other portions of the county, many of them exceedingly rich. The Bullion and Incas Mining Company, near the head of Clinton Gulch, in TenMile district, owns some very good veins, and has run a tunnel 800 feet,

passing through several lodes which are said to "prospect" very handsomely. A large number of lodes of decomposed quartz, containing free gold, have been discovered near the sources of our placer mines, and will, it is hoped, be thoroughly developed and practically worked next season. The lodes of Summit County have been neglected in the past, but the coming year will witness an era of development, both in placer mines and lodes, never before known; and it is expected that the yield of the precious metals will double that of any previous year since the settlement of the county.

LAKE COUNTY.

I have never personally visited this county, nor have I received any direct and detailed information concerning its mines during the past year. The county seat is Granite, a small town pleasantly located on the eastern bank of the Arkansas River, and in a district characterized by the occurrence of free gold in quartz veins. Many lodes have been located, and a few are worked with energy. Among the most prominent enterprises is that of the Yankee Blade Mining Company, on the lode of the same name. About half a mile above the town this company has a 20-stamp mill, in which the ore is treated by battery amalgamation, blanket-sluices, and paus for tailings. The mill is run by steam in the winter, and by water-power in the summer. During the winter of 1869-70 the quality of ore treated appears to have been high. According to a report in the Georgetown Miner, the average yield from a lot of 40 cords was 231⁄2 ounces of gold per cord. At midsummer, 1870, secondclass ore was under treatment, yielding (on the same authority) an average of 8 ounces per cord. Major H. Hill is superintendent. The product of the mill for the year ending June 1, 1870, was about $60,000. Thirty men are employed, at the average wages of $75 per month.

The Treasury Mining Company has a 15-stamp water-power mill, which was running last summer. Hayden & Son have a 9-stamp waterpower mill, which has been running during a portion of the year. The product for four months is reported to have been about $7,500.

The placer mines of Lake County have been hitherto more productive than its quartz veins. The product from thirteen claims, reported by the assistant marshal to the Census Bureau, for the year ending June 1, 1870, was a little over $60,000. These claims employed sixty-seven men for an average period of six months, at the average wages of $60 per month, and gave an average yield of $5 81 per day per hand. The principal claims were those of the Pilot Mining Company, the Graff Mining Company, and Inman, Dyer & Co.

PARK COUNTY.

The only quartz-mining company at work in this county of which I have any information is the Pioneer, which was at work during part of the year, and is reported to have produced $40,000 in four months. The placer mines of the county have yielded perhaps as much more, paying rather less than $3 per day per hand for a season of say five months.

CHAPTER X.

WYOMING.

The most promising of the mineral resources of this Territory must be confessed to be the immense coal deposits, which extend for nearly three hundred miles along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad. As these have been made the subject of special investigation and report by geologists in the service of the Government, I shall not speak of them at length. The coal is used in the locomotives of the Union Pacific road, and upon the Central Pacific for some five hundred miles west of Omaha. On the latter road it is reported that a ton of 2,000 pounds will run an engine, on the average, seventy-five miles. The average consumption of the engines on the Pennsylvania Central is one ton to every forty miles. These data could not fairly be compared without more information as to weight, grade, and load, but they must be considered, after every allowance has been made, as extremely favorable to the Wyoming coal. This coal certainly stands in the front rank among those of the Rocky Mountains, and ahead of many western coals, in its general heating properties, its freedom from sulphur, and its resistance to the disintegrating action of the weather. It is indeed claimed to be better than Lehigh coal, ton for ton, for making steam, for domestic use, and for gas manufacture. It gives little waste, ash, or clinker, kindles easily, and burns freely. It is asserted to make 10,000 feet of gas per ton, Pittsburg coal yielding about 8,500. Evidence as to its fitness for metallurgical uses is both meager and contradictory. The different mines now open seem to furnish different qualities of coal in this respect. Some of the coal, from Evanston and elsewhere, is said to coke well. Wyoming coal was tried last summer by the Union Pacific Company, in one of their cupolas at Omaha, for smelting cast iron, and found to answer the purpose better than anthracite, adding, it is said, to the fineness of grain and the toughness of the iron. The proportion of metal and coal were about the same as with anthracite, and the time required for the smelting process also about the same. In the hills north and east of these vast fields occur layers of clay, iron, and stone, yielding about 30 per cent. of metallic iron, remarkable for the large amount of lime it contains, thus obviating the necessity of using other flux, and leaving the ore in an unusually porous and fusible condition by means of the expulsion of carbonic acid gas in such great quantities. A few miles farther east deposits of magnetic ore have been found, and on the Weber River, a few miles west, the same ore has been discovered in great quantities. The existence of unlimited quantities of coal and iron, in such close proximity, promise to make this region the seat of a great iron manufacturing industry in future years. Its natural advantages, combined with the requisite transportation facilities furnished by the Pacific Railroad, are attracting the favorable notice of western capitalists, and it is probable that extensive operations will be undertaken within the next few years for the development of its vast resources of coal and iron.

The gold-mining industry is confined principally to the Sweetwater District, of which an extended account was given in my last report. I regret to say that the progress achieved last year in this district was not satisfactory. Operations received a severe discouragement from the failure of two mines which were so managed in 1869 as to create

large, expectations. A good ten-stamp mill was placed upon each of these mines, and they were so manipulated by speculators as to sell at high figures, in preference to more valuable properties. These two mines are now virtually abandoned, and the mills upon them have been lying idle during the entire season. The natural result of the failure of enterprises so prominently before the public has been a distrust that makes capital very slow of investment, even in mines that would yield good returns. The claims of this region are mostly in the hands of first owners, men who have not the means to put up mills and put their mines in proper working condition. The greater number of the claims in the country which were worked in 1870 were operated by this class of men, to the extent of their ability, for the purpose of prospecting and developing them. The lodes which do not promise well have generally been deserted. Nearly all the rock crushed during the past year was furnished by three or four claims.

The district contains six ten-stamp mills, one six-stamp mill, and three twenty-stamp mills. Of two additional ten-stamp mills, one has been dismantled, and the power has been applied to run a saw-mill, and the other was destroyed by fire late in the season.

The express shipments of gold for 1870 amounted to about $80,000. The amount leaving by private conveyance is unknown; but I presume it was small, as this item is only considerable where express charges are high, and where placer mining produces large amounts of gold. I think that the product for the year may be put at $100,000.

For notes of operations, etc., I am indebted to Mr. Bolivar Roberts, Mr. R. K. Morrison, and other residents.

The best mines and claims, so far as they have been tested by the actual working and milling of the rock, are the Cariso, the Miners' Delight, the Young America, the Carrie Shields, the Sowles & Perkins, and the Buckeye lodes. The Cariso and Young America are situated a few hundred yards from the village of South Pass, and are but a short distance apart. The shaft upon the former is now 180 feet deep, and good machinery for hoisting is erected upon the mine. Two levels have been run northeast, to a distance of 50 feet each, at the depths of 90 and 140 feet respectively. Three levels have been worked southwesterly, from 30 to 60 feet. Good paying quartz was extracted from all these levels. The lode pitches south at an angle of about 45°, to a depth of 150 feet, when it becomes vertical. Water comes into this mine at the rate of about 250 gallons per hour.

The Young America mine has a shaft 85 feet deep, from which two levels have been worked to a distance of about 60 feet, at the depths of 60 and 85 feet respectively. The quartz is of good quality, and the vein is from 1 to 4 feet wide. Hoisting works of a superior pattern are erected upon this mine. The ten-stamp mill belonging to this company was destroyed by fire, the work of an incendiary, on the night of the 11th of November, 1870, which has caused a temporary suspension of operations.

The Carrie Shields lode is working to a depth of 80 feet. The vein is from 18 inches to 3 feet wide, and rich.

The Miners' Delight mine has been worked from an incline following the ledge, to a depth of 95 feet. The company is sinking a vertical shaft from which to work the mine, and is at present driving a cross-cut to the lode, at depth of 116 feet. The sinking of the shaft still goes on. The lode is from 2 to 6 feet wide, and pays from $35 to $150 per ton. This mine and the Cariso have yielded the richest ore yet produced in the Sweetwater country.

The Sowles & Perkins lode shows a vein about 3 feet wide of paying ore. The shaft is 90 feet deep.

The Buckeye lode is about the same in width as the Sowles & Perkins. The company is now sinking a vertical shaft from which to work this mine. The shaft, which is now (January, 1871) 130 feet deep, is located so as to cut the lode at a depth of 150 feet. They have now reached 130 feet.

There are a number of other lodes which promise well, but which are in the hands of parties who have taxed themselves severely to develop their properties thus far, and who lack the means to increase the scale of their operations. As these lodes have not been tested by the repeated and continuous milling of the ore raised from them, they must be passed by for the present; another year will, no doubt, prove the quality of a number of them.

The Sweetwater mines of gold-bearing quartz, so far as they have been worked, are comprised within a belt of country about eight miles long and less than one mile wide, running from southwest to northeast. Rich float-quartz has been picked up, and lodes that prospect well have been discovered outside of these limits; but the working of such lodes and the formation of new camps has been prevented, mainly by incursions of hostile Indians. The extent of the undeveloped lodes of the country is entirely unknown, and the gold-producing capacity of those which have been worked most is but very imperfectly developed.

The population of Sweetwater County, by the census of 1870, was 1,916. About half of this population belongs to South Pass and Atlantic Cities, Miners' Delight and vicinity comprising the mining district. Wages for good laborers are from $3 50 to $4 per day; wood is $4 per cord; lumber, $35 to $50 per thousand feet; flour, $7 to $8 per hundred pounds; potatoes, 6 cents per pound; sugar, 20 to 30 cents coffee, 35 to 60 cents; butter, 50 to 75 cents; bacon, 35 cents; lard, 40 cents; fresh beef, 15 to 25 cents; aud case goods, $7 to $15 per case.

« ForrigeFortsett »