Show GOLD GOLDFIELD MAN fEW MAN VISITS RICH OLD I TAILING DUMPS ON CARSON RIVER WHERE DAYTON WORKING i iI I I I 1 Writing in a the Gol Goldfield Tribune RI R. R j. II Ritchie says puffing and panting up tip upgrades gr grades es that would stall tal a Mallet mogul mo mo- gui gul tho the busy busi little HUlo V V. T. T locomotive Its Is ornamental polished to the he brilliancy of or a destroyers destroyer's ers er's binnacle threads its circuitous c course c along the mountainside and drops almost verti- verti ert call cal cally to the rock rocky bed of the Carson river In places you ou could Jump from Crom tho the car steps Into the river hundreds o of feet below and half the tho time so short are the curves ur cs you OU can keep tab tabon tabon on qa the engineer and make malce sure ure he's hes I awake wako and on tho job By arrangement with wih the autocrat In Ingold Ingold gold old braid who punctures your ticket the train trin Is hale halted at t a n place that is no place at all al and you ou alight on tho the lip lp lp of oC beetling precipice where you ou balance until the train moves mo on and ce cedes es you tho the right of wa way Thereupon and without warn warning Ins you OU are confronted confront confront- c ed b by Romance It I Is romance to which Is s closely closel related the tue eagle earlo on the dellar dolar dol- dol lar ar but it I lacks not thrill and interest from that fact Spread before you ou in panorama panorama arc are the Iho sources of or wealth that established the nations nation's naton's credit following the civil civi war ivar and that later developed de the great rent west the richest area on tho the footstool I Hero delved and schemed the men who Became tho the rl worlds world's s 's greatest empire builders whose prescient vision Islon and I constructive enterprise built buit on a a kingly king king- ly 3 scale who sought no nl aid of oC foreign I capital to further their vast un undertakings lags ings since tile the they wore creating capital In volume that seemed limitless On the shank of oC the steel rail rai at OUI your feet are letters In relief reler setting forth that this rail rai was rolled In Sheffield Shot Shot- field In 1873 Shipped round the Horn lorn these rails rais many of at them still in use use were werA freighted b by team from Sacramento Sacramento Sacra Sacra- mento to Virginia Cl City and the Virginia Virginia Vir Vir- ginia tc Truckee railroad hale hailed as asono asono ono one of the epochal engineering tents teats of oC America was built buit from Virginia City to lo Carson to transport tho Comstock Constock ores ore to lo mills on the Carson river an and to bring back mine timbers from tho the lumber flumes at Carson Later Latel the lie road was extended from Carson to toReno Reno neno Off or to the north looms the lie pyramid of Mount D Davidson idson Its Is southern base honc honeycombed with wih tho the Comstock mine workings g. g and above c these a surface scarified by tho the work of or three generations generations genera genera- tons of oC miners miner Two hundred feet almost vertically 0 rt ca 1 below you and near tho the rivers river's bank twisted iron and weathered stumps of oC timbers mark marle the site of oC ono one of oC the half dozen ozen or more pan amalgamation mills mils that treated tho the bonanza ore of oC the Comstock lode Here in the narrow strewn boulder canyon canon bed beil in a stretch of oC six miles of oC tortuous rock-bound rock mountain cleft eeC centers one ono of oC th the tue most Interesting anti and romantic phases of the thc stor story of oC the greatest bonanza Hero here began In tho the early earl GOB COs an nn outpouring outpouring out out- pouring ur of wealth that has no parallel In his history tor Throughout tho the e earlier eals years of the Comstock the ores taken from relatively ely shallow levels contained con con- more gold than silver In ratio of at about CO GO to tl 40 per cent of or value Ore Oro sent to tho the mills mils on the Carson Canon river was sorted sorte to a a. L minimum value of per pcr ton ton and records show that the Vivian and Santiago mills mis ran for months together on ore are assaying lOpO 1000 per ton Primitive methods methods then hen In iii uso use recovered an alt average a of on only I 60 per percent percent cent of oC the precious metals tho the remaining re- re 10 per cent together with wih man many thou thousands an s of tons lons of quicksilver used In the amalgamation process passed into the river bed with wih tho the mill mil tailings s. s Sharp bends In the river caused the tailings their rich content of metals metals met met- als aiR to deposit in the fOr forth forni l Jf C f an sandbars bars which have not been disturbed by freshets or hl high h water This Thle Is proved by y the tho heavy growth of or large cottonwood cottonwood cotton cotton- colon colon- wood and other oilier trees on the bars ban While hlo tho time mills were wel still sUl operating mile some borne hand sluicing was WIS done near the tIme tall tail result but efforts efforts ef er- ef- ef tal r races ces with wih good soud forts were confined to re recovering th the tue gold an and silver cr 1 Quicksilver was w orth 1 then hen only y a about iWI t 3 35 a flask of oC 75 pounds as us against time the current curent quotation quo quo- tation of oC O. O In former fanner years school chool schoolchildren schoolchildren children from settlements down tho thu river mono money by ml made e their spending ly panning tho time gravel tot for nug nuggets of oC amalgam and a 3 small mal primitive dredge worked over o twenty years rears ago aha near Dayton Daton recovered from the sands along Ilon feet of oC tho the river has based d on government ho statistic statistics sta sta- t of or ore oro treated amid and metals lost place the value of ot gold gol silver er Bl and quicksilver in J tho the river be bed at John W W. Mackay and other bonanza kings of oC the Comstock realized the value of the river bed an and discussed discussed dis dis- I cusse cussed measures to recover reeo r tho the lost metals but it has remained for tor an n as- as n of oC present da day mining men mento mento mento to first apply power supplementing the lie simplest form torm of placer operation to the saving of ot these metals Title Ito was early obtained by the Union Milling Mining Mining- company to toa toa toa a a stretch of or six ml mils miles along tho the Carson Carson Car Car- son river bed led embr embracing the tho sites sies of oC tho the mills mils this ground having been patented under the lie half breed hal breed scrip provisions Long after aler the mills mils had ceased to operate John V. Mackay convinced that the lie river bed held vast ast recoverable wealth suggested to his friend and anti associate Senator A. A B. B B Lewis a prominent Utah mining man that thc they ensa engage o Jointly in a n project to recover the tho lost metals but hut MackBy's Mackay's Mack Mack- ack- ack ays ay's death eath proY prevented carrying out this plan The ho un undertaking was wa revived however howe by the Uno lda Gold Mining com company pan of oC which Senator Lewis 1 is 18 president and amid n n a test plant was in installed installed In- In stale stalled sonic some time ago aSo to determine the time of scale large placer operations Results o obtained In washIng washing wash- wash I Ing the sand and amid gravel of ot the river riverbed riverbed riverbed bed have havo been nothing less than start start- ling hing Extreme Extremely Rich Illch From Front holes at or below water level the gravel an and sand are raised by means of a n centrifugal pump to a six six- ty foot sluice lined with wih riffles and cocoa matting mating Near tho ho en end of oC the tho ho fines are arc caught by one- one eighth mesh mch screens screen used as a grizzly to divert ert the fines to a n side sluice for tor concentrating on an undercurrent Black sand or concentrate from the th sluice l Is ex exceedingly rich in amalgam virgin quicksilver and flour gold Jold T Tests of or tho time concentrate at the lie Mackay school of oC mines and In California laboratories laboratories lab lab- l oratories s have have yielded sensational re returns returns 10 turns one sample after three s separations para para- ions lons leaving fines that assayed over per ton and man many samples of oC the straight concentrate into the time thousands thousands Ono One yard ard of or dirt from froni the Santiago bar yielded 1266 in ingold gold silver and quicksilver er the lie fines after ter extraction e amalgam and virgin having ha been sold for Cor 35 a pound Bedrock has been reached reache at t only one point and sand taken takemi from this fourteen-foot fourteen shaft in the Santiago bar panned spoonfuls of virgin quicksilver er with Ion long I strings of or flour Cour gold old coated with mercur mercury The Une l n company I its tests having surpassed all al expectations expectations will wil now proceed d with large larre scale operations with wih good prospects of Quantity production within time the next sixty days Material for or a seven foot metal flume fume has been ordered and the pools In iii tho the river will wil be drained b by building san sand bag ba darns dams and nr diverting the water waler to tho the movable flume tume Operations are in charge of William WilliamC C Ralston Coalston Jr secretary and manager of oC the tho company compan who ha had many years ears experience In tho the California Call Cali fornia placer fields and whose illustrious ilus- ilus illus illus- father known as the west's greatest bui builder er operated tho the mills along alons tho the river here over 0 fort forty years ago The company has other largo large larlo holdings s in Neva Nevada a. a near Battle Dalle Mountain as well wel as 38 In Iii I Idaho aho and Utah Amol Among other well wel known men inca identified with the lie company are B. B D F F. Yoakum tho New ew York traction tracton ml mag nate AV W. Yo S. S Salt Lake banker and mine operator George II H Merrill wealthy Boston manufacturer with N N. N M. M 1 H Hamilton mlton and amid W Steig- Steig racier moler of or Salt Sal Lake Ilko Cit Cl City A party of ot eastern men who vho are Interested In tho the enterprise visited the time plant recently and left lef greatly Impre Impressed sed with its Is promise of material success |