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Show INTER-MOUNTAI- The Gold Camp of Florence. Correspondence Mining 'Review. Florence, Ida., June 29. Florence, the name that fired the hearts and imaginations of the pioneers of the early days; the place where hundreds of dollars in gold to the pan were common occurrences, is again attracting crowds of prospectors, mining men and capitalists. They are rushing in as in the palmy days, but Instead of having to travel on horseback or on foot over hundreds of miles of rough, mountainous trails througn an Indian country, they can now leave the railroad at Uniontown, Wasn., or the Snake river steamers at Lewiston, and be whirled 4200 at an altitude of feet below Florence. 2100 low, rolling hills and numerous streams sinkjng proposition, except on the rim here and there, where rich spots had been overlooked. On the old townsite of Florence, where once stood forty-tw- o business houses, there are now but a few dilapidated buildings, and many of them are being torn down and the virgin ground underneath the foundations washed for gold. But in the quartz mines all is activity. There are 200 different locations in the camp, covering a comparatively small proportion of the area of the entire district. The formation is granite. The veins, and they are very numerous, vary in size from mere seams of talc d to ledges of five and six feet. The quartz has a banded and combed structure, and is perfectly free milling as far as sunk on. Some of the veins carry silver in paying quantities, but in all cases the gold is free. The principal properties are the Poorman, Gold Bug, Banner and Ozark, and the a good margin for the miner in every well-define- The district an area of about fifty square occupies miles, and generally the topography is and gulches, with little or no grade.-Aa quartz camp, therefore, it is a accompanying properties, groups. old-tim- er feet, s 5 of the basin, where the hills are higher and steeper, before the break-of- f into Salmon river. Florence was discovered in the fall of 1861 by a party of from Elk City, and within the space of a year or two boasted a population of about 10,000 people. The archives of old Florence, now in the hands of John who came to FlorClark, an ence in 1863, are an interesting study. It is estimated by men who arc familiar with the history of the camp since gold was first discovered, thac it has produced $15,000,000 in dust. 2now, the placer mines are things of the past, and your correspondent only saw a little of such mining going on, gold-seeke- rs into Florence 120 miles away on good stages, with a stop and a change at Grangeville. I will not attempt to take the space of this paper to describe the comforts or discomforts of this trip, but will say that it is a pleasant one, and the scenery along the road is beautiful in the extreme. The camp of Florence is situated in a semicircular basin or depression on the west end of the Buffalo Hump range. The mean altitude of the district is 6300 feet above sea level. The westerly and southerly rim of this basin overlooks the Salmon river, that flows below MINING REVIEW N comprising p Last fall a mill was taken into the camp for custom work. This mill has crushed up to date 234 tons of ore that has yielded an average of $25 two-stam- per ton gold, with several thousand dollars worth of silver in the tailings. The number of properties that have had ore crushed is but small as compared to the claims that have some ore in sight, and if worked by a company owning the mill would pay good returns. The mill companys charges were $7 per ton for crushing and from $2 to $2.50 for hauling. These figures go to show that all the ore worked was high grade, as it left instance. The highest grade of ore in the camp yet developed is at the Gold Bug, where the mill run gave $58 per ton. As high as $75 per ton has been rocked out of the decomposed vein matter on this property, and assays have shown as high as $420 gold per ton. The granite of the camp is pegmatite, containing a very large proportion of feldspar, and on exposure to air very rapidly slacks, and even in place, is with exceptions of reefs of harder granite, so soft that two men can easily run four to five feet per shift in an ordinary tunnel cutting the formation. Ore can be mined in this camp probably cheaper than any camp in the United States where the veins are similar in size. An impetus has been given the camp by the recent deals on the Gold Bug and Banner groups, that have passed into the hands of S. S. Glidden and F. |