| Show FROM THE MINING cAi1PsT I A Week of Great Activity at the Park I I THE GUEAT DRAIN TUNNEL SOME ADDITION DETAILS OF INTEREST I TEREST COXCERXUXG IT II I I proJ A Jlounil Up of THnKl nm lUck Producers Pjt Pro-ducers At the Copp ropollMTln 11t1 tic Mining Notes Operations in 11 r41 American Pork Cnnyon Iurch i w anccl Oregon Ilacera Tlic Com sinclc 4 Superintendent Chambers of the Ontario is back from the Park and reports re-ports the vigorous prosecution of the lt ft work of removing the slight elevation I I i in the bottom of the great drain tunnel jt The complete connection will more than likely be effected this week I t k The Park City Record of Saturday I 1 q contains an extended writeup of the tunnel and as some new details refurnished t re-furnished It is here reproduced as l follows l Ii t At 9 oclock Sunday night after six 1 years of hard and incessant labor and I l the expenditure of some 5400000 the Ontario drain tunnel was practically i completed as at that hour the shift on z the tunnel side broke through into the r connecting drift driven from the bottom I bot-tom of No 2 shaft a distance of 270 I feet The connection was made several sever-al days earlier than anticipated owing Ito I-to the fact that the drift from the mine i had been mlsmeasured and erroneously I reported at 240 feet instead of 270 feet I which was its actual measurement and J the additional fact that Surveyor Palmer Pal-mer made a mistake of ten feet in his triangulation the distance being that I number of feet less than his survey called fora very accurate piece of work considering the rough country over which the line was run and its great distance As soon as the boys on 1I shift realized that they had holed through word was telephoned to Foreman t Fore-man Keetley who at once went into < the face By the time he arrived on I the scene the boys with the assistance of several men on the mine side had a hole large enough to crawl through end Mr Keetley realized for the first I I time that the great work which had 1 been prosecuted day and night for six long years which had cost the company BO much treasure WAS NEARING COMPLETION He also realized that the connection was a magnificent one for the two pieces of work had headed together as fairly and squarely as If cut to a straight edge He at once telephoned the glad tidings tid-ings to his wife and that lady ever enthusiastic en-thusiastic for the success of the gigantic gigan-tic enterprise which her husband had c undertaken had the engineer on shift t blow the whistle and getting out the stars and stripes had them run up to I the mast head and unfurled to the night breeze The whistle aroused the whole I neighborhood and oy the time Sir I S Keetley came out of the tunnel a large f crowd was already dressed for the occasion f1 occa-sion The demijohn was produced and the event duly celebrated after 1 which the whole party went In to have I 1 a look at the fast fading partition of I ok between the two tunnels Sirs 1 Keetley was the first lady through and 11 in company with her husband and I others went up the shaft and reported 1 at No2 works It was a night never to be forgotten as It witnessed the consummation of an enterprise which i 0 in numerous instances placed the great Sutro tunnel In the shade and the benefits ben-efits of wnich to the company cannot now be estimated I A BRIEF HISTORY In announcing the completion of the tunnel it is most opportune to give a brief history of the great work the dangers encountered and overcome the skill perseverance and constant 4 watchfulness required to carry the undertaking v I un-dertaking to a successful conclusion I Men supplies and tools were moved on to the ground on the 12th day of lpf July 1SSS Buildings were erected and at 2 oclock p m on July 25 1888 H ground was broken and the feat of f i driving a tunnel through the mountains 1 moun-tains was fairly launched The first 000 I ji feet were driven by hand that distance being broken before the necessary machinery I ma-chinery could be placed but on December I 1 I f Decem-ber 10 the same year everything was ih I in readiness and Mrs Keetley blew the 1231 l first whistle and turned the air into the 11 12 > power drills It was claimed that with 12 one setting of the bar a round of holes ti1 could not be drilled at the right angles to make the face break large enough 1I for the required size which was 11x9 4 if feet when timbered and 6x9 feet when t not timbered so an experiment was It tried of driving a small tunnel ahead 1 and then coming back and taking up 4 I the bottom That plan was followed i 5 for 200 fept when it was found that It required just as long to a day to take I J 1 up the bottom and lay track as it did to f drive the tunnel so the scheme was 5 abandoned and an attempt made tore to-re break the whole face with one round oCt 4 oC-t shot and it proved so successful that 14I t that method has been followed ever p since > ITS SIZE AND LENGTH S t The tunnel from its mouth to the bottom of No 2 shaft is 15190 feet long It is inside the timbers 9 feet high 4 j feet wide at the top and 5U feet wide t at the bottom and is timbered with 10x10 timbers The water ditch or flume is 516 feet wide and 21 inches deep and is cut out of solid rock It has a grade of half Inch to the rod and is capable of carrying 13000 gallons of water per minute and is now discharging discharg-ing at the rate of 10000 gallons per minute The flume is crossed at regular regu-lar intervals by 6x6 ties and covered by threeInch planking which affords a good roadbed and tow path for the mules The track in the tunnel is of 19Jrich gauge and laid with 18pound iron rails and is straight as an arrow for standing at th bottom of No 2 I shaft lay light at th mouth of the t i tunnel can be seen glimmering three I miles away t THE DIFFICULTIES MET t and overcome In prosecuting the workS work-S have been so tremendous and of such nature that persons not thoroughly familiar fa-miliar with the dangers encountered under ground will fail to omprehend the true facts For the first mile the formationwas porphyry and contained no water to impede progress though I Its persistent swelling smashed thousands thous-ands of dollars worth of timbers and r taxed the skill and ingenuity of Mr Keetley to the uttermost to get the I better of it and keep the tunnel from closing up on him entirely After the first mile the formation was lime until I Abc 11LOOO foot mark was reached This I q body or rock dipped to the east at an FS angle of from 10 to 15 degrees and contained r1L con-tained a number of large water courses and much running ground and besides c flooding the tunnel several times presented I a pre-sented a difficulty that would have I w driven a less persevering man than Mr J Keetley to desperation In one place the ground was so bad that it required J two months hard labor night and day with power drills and a resort to entirely I en-tirely new methods of driving spiling 5 and breast boarding in order to get in 5 one set of timbers and cost the company ii com-pany 5 3500 PER FOOT to advance the tunnel beyond the bad I ground Ordinary spiling and breast boarding proved useless and before S f any advance could be accomplished I spiling had to be made from carefully S selected timber shod and capped with iron and driven home by means of compressed com-pressed air while huge sacks of hay were placed in front of the breast i I boards and thoroughly packed before 1 the ground could be held at all and often of-ten as much as forty and fifty carloads car-loads of sand and gravel escaped through a crevice that was not large enough to admit of the passage of a mans hands In the meantime two long circular drifts were run for the purpose of drawing the water sand and gravel from the face but proved Ineffectual until it was discovered that the water and sand invariably gravitated to the point where operations were being arried on then by boring the breast boards in the side drifts full of holes and keeping men constantly at work with bars the face was finally advanced ad-vanced beyond the point of difficulty There were six just such spots encountered encoun-tered within a distane of 700 feet From the 14000 foot mark to the bottom bot-tom of No2 shaft the formation was granite though very soft and of a difllult nature to handle In fact from beginning to end the tunnel went through bad ground varied in nature and constantly presenting new and unexpected un-expected features DESTROYED BY FIRE On Novmber 2 1890 the entire works were destroyed by fire and though I none of the machinery was badly damaged dam-aged it was two months before the damage was repaired and work settled down to its customary routine On I November 25 following a large watercourse water-course was cut The ditch was soon I filled and the tunnel flooded the track being under water from C to 13 inches for 9000 feet the entire length of the I tunnel The rush of water was such that the 20inch ventilating pipe was floated from its moorings and bobbed I about like cork the engine pits flooded I and the works had to be closed down for six weeks At that time the ditch I j was only 12 inches deep and was i thought to be deep enough to handle any body of water that might be encountered en-countered It was afterwards increased to 21 inches and carried through at that depth After waiting for the water to go down until patience ceased to be I a virtue Mr Keetley purchased a number I num-ber of hunters rubber suits that came I up about the neck at a cost of 13 per suit and the track was raised nine inches from the mouth to the face On I April 7 1894 another large body of water was cut and the track submerged submerg-ed a few inches and again three weeks later another one was encountered that placed the track under water for 10000 feet and all the drifts run to get through previous bad ground had Ito I-to be filled in order to keep work at the face moving SWELLING GROUND I On December 22 1833 that famous 600 feet of swelling ground was encountered i en-countered and it knocked out for weeks at a stretch the best known method of timbering and required the herculean efforts of a small army of I men to keep the tunnel open so that I grade might be taken and the centre accurately kept and for weeks Mr I Keetley hardly dared go to sleep for I fear the ground would get the best of the men and disturb both grade and center and the tunnel be thrown out of line The trouble was overcome i however and in spite of every opposition I i opposi-tion of nature was successfully completed com-pleted as stated in the early part of this article WHAT THE TUNNEL MEANS i The completion of the work means a i great deal to the company and to the camp It means the shutting off of the I constant and heavy expense of pumping i pump-ing watera vast saving It means I that the Daly Daly West Anchor and other properties in that section will be drained of water It means that every important property lying east of I the Ontario mine can now be prospected pros-pected at a nominal cost and be made producers It gives the company an outlet for all waste broken on the lower I low-er levels and affords an easy method of I delivering timbers necessary there It will enable the company to go deeper on the vein and consequently gives it a decidedly new lease of life In fact as before stated its benefits cannot now be accurately estimated ONE FATAL ACCIDENT Considering the length of time the work has been going on the dangerous character of the ground and the number num-ber of men employed the fact that only one death resulted from accidents I speaks well for the care taken to guard against fatalities The accident referred refer-red to occurred on March 8 1892 and Leander Colsen was th IleUm He was repairing the track 1000 feet in and was in a stooping position Then a large boulder slipped from behind the lagging and struck him in the back The injury was not thought to be serious seri-ous at first but Colsen grew rapidly worse and died the second day after I the accident the immediate cause being be-ing internal hemorrhage The deceased had no relatives in America and his remains were interred in the city cemetery cem-etery in Park City and Foreman Keet icy has caused a neat headstone to be placed over his grave Outside of this fatality no other persons received a serious injury not even a bone was broken from the beginning to date Only two of the boys now employed William Tierney and L J Larsen have been with the work since ground was broken though many of them have served through the most trying times and situations and Mr Keetley I says they are the best and most capable I capa-ble lot of fellows that ever drove a hole I into the ground RENDERED UNTO CAESAR I The credit for the great work is due almost entirely to Foreman J H Keet ley Mr O A Palmer did the surveying survey-ing while Mr Keetley furnished the executive ability to keep the tunnel straight follow the established grade and overcome the tremendous obstacles that continually cropped up from unexpected un-expected sources Mr Keetley had the hard work to do and did it well and deserves the writer thinks his full meed of praise Mrs Keellev is the I proudest woman today and glories in I her husbands grand success She has only been absent from his side for six weeks in the six years and over and knows and understands better than anyone any-one else the worry and trouble that lie has endured during the progress of this gigantic enterprise and now that the work is done and well done he Is her king among men Mi Keetley says the tunnel will be extended through to the Daly but whether without interruption is a matt mat-t > r yet to be determined |
