For the present the importance of the San Juan mines to the rest of the territory cannot be disregarded. Plenty of Eastern capital is going in there this year, a vast amount of work will be done, and much ore taken out. The Summit district alone will not fail to produce $100,000 in gold bullion, and the production of the Animas, Uncompahgre and Gunnison mines will doubtless treble that amount. Means the experience of last year, that but a very small portion of the production of the mines already opened can be shipped as far as Pueblo or Denver with profit, and that there is a great need of a large smelting establishment on the Animas, and of another on the Gunnison or Uncompahgre. We know there are several smelters in the region already, and that a company has been organized to put up other works this spring, but unfortunately of reaching this new district should every one who is going into the smelting business in San Juan, or who has, appear to have the idea that there is a great abundance of galena in the district, and that lead smelting is the proper system for that class of ores. We feel quite sure this is a mistake but it is now too late to change the order of affairs. Even if this season's smelting operations should not prove wholly successful, the really valuable character of the ore will prevent any discouragement, and ultimately the proper system will be adopted. therefore be discussed, for the rapid growth of any one section of the mines means the improvement of business in every other. Whether we open San Juan to the rest of the world through the South Park or Arkansas Valley Railroad is a matter of importance to Denver or Pueblo; but that the railroad should be driven forward as nearly as possible towards those wonderful mines, is a matter of personal interest to every citizen of the State. IMPORTANT LESSON. latter estimate does not take into account the amounts expended in prospecting for mineral, but in this the value of the discoveries would equal the expense of prospecting. There were seven thousand seven hundred and forty failures in mercantile business in the United States dur ing the year 1875, with liabilities of over two hundred millions of dollars. The profits on mining operations The relative importance of this induring the same period was between terest may be further understood by twenty-nine and thirty per cent. The an examination of the following table, Buy your Tickets to Canon City, via Kansas Pacific Railway. showing the aggregate amount of ex-nent one for many years and furnishes ports for five years. Aggregate exports of the United States for the years: 1870... 1871 1872...... 1874 1875... Total...... a strong reason why an increased effort should be made in the development of our mineral resources to keep $499,073,932 good the present supply, to meet this 562,518,651 and other demands for our coin and 649,132,563 bullion. $3,058,283,083 704,463,120 That the product can and will be 643,094,767 largely increased for the next five years there can be no doubt to him who has examined into the source of The exports of gold and silver is supply, and the growing interest maniincluded in this statement, and dur-fested in mining affairs. ing the five years they amounted to $345,747,581. This great export of the precious metals has been the result in a measure of the demand to meet the interest on our bonds held in Europe, and likely to be a perma There is no good reason why, if the same efforts were made in the business of mining as there are in other pursuits, that the yield of the precious metals should not reach, in five years, two hundred millions annually. OUR PRECIOUS METALS. The Immense Undeveloped Treasures of Colorado-Disinterested Testimony to the Value and Extent of Our Rich Mineral Interests. [From a Communication by Josiah Copley to the Editors of the Pittsburgh Gazette of January 1st.] * Prosperity and business activity, to be real and abiding, must be based upon the pro- | duction of something whi h the wor'd wantssomething which is not already in excess. For example: Prosperity could not be revived, or business made active, or confidence restored, or the ability to redeem either greenbacks or bank bills in coin, brought about by doub'ing the production of iron. And why not? Because the world does not want more iron than is now produced, and hardly that much; and the same is true of textile fabrics, and even of the products of the soil. What is there, then, the production of which may be increased to any practicable extent safely, and with no danger of plethora or stagnation? Gold and silver, the absence of which in sufficient quantity, as you have so clearly shown, renders the redemption of our paper currency in coin simply an impossibility. Already the production of these metals is an important industry-wild, fitful and irregular, as Ship to Ft. Garland, the nearest Railroad Point to the Mines, by the Kansas Pacific Railway. compared with iron, it is true-but still it tided the country over shoals upon which it would otherwise have stranded years ago. CALIFORNIA IS NEARLY EXHAUSTED,. so far as its gold product is concerned, and the present prostration, is more attributable to that exhaustion than people generally imagine. California produced a flood of placer gold, drift gold, without the investment of much capital; and the getting of it out more resembled a wild scramble than the steady and systematic pur suit of a well established business. But in Colorado, especially in Southwestern Colorado, the conditions are altogether different. There, in thousands of well developed lodes of unknown depth, the Creator has deposited inexhaustible and incalculable stores of the ores of the precious metals; and now they have been brought to light and made easily accessible just in time to replenish the depleted life-blood of the country. But these treasures are not to be gathered up as those of Colorado were. Science, skill, cap ital and well directed industry are required to make them available. During the past summer and autumn, which I spent in Colorado, I looked calmly and carefully into this thing, and the more I studied it the more I became satisfied that there are MORE GOLD AND SILVER IN THAT SECTION OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS THAN IN ANY OTHER AREA OF EQUAL EXTENT ON THE GLOBE. They are there, but they are not to be gathered as the gold of California was gathered. The thing was attempted in the rush to Pike's Peak in 1859, which resulted in the sad failure of nine out of ten of the eager but inconsiderate adventurers. The more bold and unscrupulous sought and found mines which they had neither the skill nor the capital to work. They then turned to credulous capitalists to aid them in what they had neither the means nor the skill to do themselves. The result was that the capital thus put in was, in many cases, wasted, stolen or misdirected, and mining in Colorado fell into bad repute. True, the gold and silver were there, but operations characterized, as many were, by ignorance, inexperience, rascality and profligacy failed to bring them out. While there is no difficulty in this business, at which men of ordinary courage and enterprise need be appalled, still much care and those who go into it. If they wish to be their prudence ought to be observed on the part of own miners they must be sure that they have a good mine-not so much a mine that yields wonderfully rich ore as one that has plenty of it. If their object be to put up reduction works, whether by smelting or chlorination, let them make sure that there are good mines in sufficient number near them to furnish them with all the ore they are able to work up. THE BETTER AND SAFER WAY is to have at least one mine of their own, as a from other miners, at fair prices, the ores which sort of reserve, and at the same time purchase they may bring them. Most of the mines in the San Juan country, as well as in many other districts, yield ores which will give a generous margin of profit to both parties. Although I am no longer a resident of Pittsburg, and never expect to be of Colorado, and, although I have reached a time of life when 'treasure upon earth" has almost ceased to be an object of personal desire, still I see how much our deeply indebted country needs this treasure; and, above everything else, I should be gratified to see this city take a leading part in its development. THE Kansas Pacific Railway runs a fast freight train from Kansas City to Denver in 60 hours, where close connection is made with the trains of the Denver & Rio Grande, for Pueblo, Cucharas and Fort Garland. Ship your freight by this route. El Moro, the nearest Railroad Point to San Juan, by Great Southern Route, is reached via Kansas Pacific Railway. THE SAN JUAN COUNTRY. [Letter from the Lawrence, Kansas, Journal, Sunday, June 4, 1876.] Editor Journal : Having spent several months in Southern Colorado last summer, I endeavored to make myself as well acquainted with the mineral resources of that remarkable region as I could. south of the town of Del Norte, and sheds its water into the Rio Grande, although some of the waters of the San Juan are in the neighborhood. Colorado is divided on the east side of the continental watershed into two well defined sections of about equal area The northern division is drained by the Platte; the southern by the Arkansas. Between these two divisions a mountain spur runs eastward about a huudred miles across the Great Plains fifty miles south of Denver. Its average altitude is about two thousand feet above the general level of the plains, and between seven and eight thousand feet above tide. Denver is the natural trade center of the northern division; Pueblo that of the southern. Colorado Springs may compete with Pueblo for the trade of Southern Colorado; but Pueblo, which is the western terminus of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, seems to be the most natural trade center at present Both the northern and southern divisions of Colorado are rich in go'd and silver mines. Greater progress has been made in the norta; but the southern and southwestern mines are richer and more numerous, although less developed. What is known as the San Juan country (pronounced San Wan) is probably the richest mineral region on the continent. It is an extensive tract with no definite boundaries-as large, perhaps, as four or five of our counties. It lies west of the continental watershed, and drains into the Pacific through the Great Colorado. The southern portion is drained by the San Juan; the northern by the Gunnison. The San Juan country is subdivided into four districts. First-The Animas D'strict, so called because it is drained by the Animas, a branch of the San Juan In this district there are thousands of well defined lodes, principally silver, some gold, and much copper and lead. On the Animas there are several mining towns, the principal of which is Silverton, which is rapidly becoming a place of importance. A spirited weekly newspaper is published there, and there are two or three reduction works. A few miles above Silverton the e is a miting property, called the "Silver Wing a score or so of claims consolidated-on which there is a cluster of not less than forty distinct, vertical lodes, from four to thirteen feet in thickness, very rich in silver ore, combined with copper, and some of which have a large per centage of gld. A tunnel of 1,000 feet in length will cut the whole of them. There is an excellent mil site on the property and good water power. This property is for sale, in whole or in part, by the Colorado Springs Mining Agency. There are numerous lodes equally rich scattered through the Animas district, but not such a cluster. Second-Directly north of the Animas District, and only separated from it by a mountain range-itself rich in mines-is the Uncompahgre District, less developed than the other, but perhaps equally rich. It is so called because it is on the upper branches of the Uncompahgre river, a tributary of the Gunnison. Its course is a little west of north; that of the Animas is south. Third-The Lake District, so named because it is on the upper branches of the Lake Fork Strictly speaking, the Summit Districtsmall in area, but remarkably rich in goldbearing quartz-is not a part of the San Juan country. That district lies some thirty miles Ft. Garland, sixty-five miles from Del Norte and one hundred and seventy from Silverton, reached by the Kansas Pacific Railway. of the Gunnison. It is east of the Animas and Uncompahgre. The people of Lake City and its surroundings strenuously contend that theirs is the best district in the San Juan country. Be that as it may, they certainly have some excellent mines, and many of them. lands to agriculture. A good wagon road has Fourth-The Elk Mountain District, which is on a mountain of that name, a little to the north of the Gunnison, a few miles east or northeast of the mouth of the Lake Fork. It is spoken of as a very rich distri、 t, with mines The mountains around South Park are rich of both gold and silver, principal'y the latter. in gold and silver, and near where the line of Having been until within four or five months the road strikes the Arkansas, far up in the very difficult of access, it has been less ex-mountains, is the Chalk Creek District, said to plored and developed than any of the others. be rich in mines. Chalk Cre k is an affluent of In that district there are extensive deposits of the Arkansas, coming from the west. anthracite coal, and the val'ey of the Gunnison for many miles is admirably adapted to the rearing of stock, and some of the bottom Perry, May 31, 1876. Very resp. ctfully, JOSIAH COPLEY. DIAGRAM, SHOWING THE LOCATION OF POSTS OR MONUMENTS, GIVING SURFACE BOUNDARIES OF A LODE, LOCATION STAKE AND DISCOVERY SHAFT. the lead can be opened to best advantage, taking into consideration the mineral outcrop, the approachability to the discovery shaft, the formation about the vein and the facility by which it may be opened, should be There can be but one location made within a mining claim, and the dis tance and direction claimed from the discovery shaft should be stated upon discovery stake. Suppose George Legit and Nathaniel Prospect have discovered a lead. The point where selected. When this has been decidRemember, the Denver and Rio Grande Railway is now completed to Ft. Garland. |