Show the blue mountains of utah A M ROGERS IN MOAB TIMES I 1 down near the southeastern corner of the state of utah the sierra abajo or blue mountains rise above the surrounding mesa plains which spread in undulating waves like the billows of the sea to the eastward into the rich valley of the Monte in colorado to the south to and beyond the valley of the san jaun river westward to the colorado which skirts the eastern foot of the henry mountains and northward to the sierra la the view from mt linnaeus the southernmost and highest peak ol of this group is as beautiful and picturesque a landscape panorama as will be found anywhere in the wonderful west far in the eastern horizon may be traced for leagues P the great continental divide divid while rhile the ute la plata and other groups rise like islands in an emerald sea to the southward is the loo ki choo ki or chucka luck range ranee overtopped over topped here and there by the higher g peaks of the more distant white mountains the cariso mountains the cala basl basi and Pai panoche loche the vast stretches of the navajo and puerco deserts and in the hazy distance the san francisco and navajo or joni toh mountains rear their frowning crests the courses of the grand green colorado and fremont rivers are on a clear da day readily traced for great distances as ruay may also be the courses of the rio dolores and san tann jaun rahe contemplation of the vast agricultural areas and still more wonderful mineral resources is awe inspiring if one will overcome his admiration of the sublimity of the scene long enough to think of material things but it is not the writers object to attempt so arduous a task as to give details of the wonderful resources of this vast sparsely populated comparatively unknown land of the ancient azeta toltec and clatl whose works are in ruins and whose bodies are in decay what we wish to call the attention of the living and enterprising american citizens to is the actual tangible wealth in gold silver copper and other metals which lie beneath our feet and in numerous places crop out through the soil and above the rank growing verdure to gladden the eye of the prospector and tempt the heart of avarice to this end let us glance at some of the mines of the blues on the north fork of montezuma creek is the copper queen lode owned by wells and hobbs on this property there has been over feet of substantial development work done in in r running drifts and sinking shafts and in all of the workings a strong well minera mineralized 1 l vein showing good values in gold sil ver and copper which with facilities for treatment of the ore would place it in the list of handsome dividend payers lying on the east side of the copper queen is the illinois group five claims owned by martin hobbs of monticello william innes of grand junction and joseph innes of fruita colorado this group is developed by upwards of one thousand feet of shaft and drift work besides numerous open cuts and trenches run t to 0 determine the course of the vein before real development work was begun john bailey of monticello owns three claims on the north of this group and ana two on the south on the same veins the course of the veins being nearly northeast and southwest mr baileys properties althou although gli not so extensively coextensively developed show the same characteristics as the illinois group about two miles southeast of the illinois group is the gold been group of two claims which have over 1000 feet of development wort and large quantities of good ore ere in sight it is believed by many who are familiar with the property however that the main vein from which very rich ore was extracted or on tho the surface has never been reached by the lower world workings this property is equipped with a 10 stamp mill a beschen Jf eschen cable tr tramway aniway assay office boarding house etc but is now lying idle the dream group on the southern slope of the blue on johnson creek consists of five claims owned by chas ooley cooley of 0 camp a rap jackson blue mountains and eastern parties it is equipped with a 5 stamp mill has five caal claims and from 1500 to 2000 feet of development work the ore body on the dream is twelve feet wide and averages over 40 per ton gold values owing however to some refractory condition of the ore probably mineral oil they have never been b een able to save enough of the values to make operations of the mine and mill pay expenses probably a strong sal ammoniac arnmon lac solution or concentrated lye would solve the problem these properties are patented and lying idle between the gold queen and dream groups james hewitt and others have the viking group of six or seven claims these show good values in a formation which is easily worked the ore appears to be a free milling proposition but may contain enough oils to require an alkaline reagent to successfully treat them there is or feet of development work on this group on west mountain john and joe duckett have a group of several Is isad ead ad bearing properties which return very high as essays assays sa y s in these ailiese metals and are reported to carry large bodies of such ores on my va visit lilt I 1 did not have time to go to them there are numerous other prospects of lesser note in these mountains many of which will no doubt in time be developed into paying mines but transportation facilities is the crying need of the country and it is to be hoped the oil boom will assume sufficient magnitude to bring it or at least grease the way for it to come as gold and silver mines seem to be impotent to produce the desired effect |