Show feather river ri ver placers financed BY J F OBRIEN reno nov nev may 12 chas N miller who has mining interests in various parts of nevada and california has returned to his san francisco offices after a visit of inspection to several of the properties in which he is interested mr miller is particularly ticul arly enthused over the outlook for the mining company of san francisco which is controlled by himself and prominent new york associates and reports that splendid progress has been made during the winter in preparation for the unique placer mining operations which the company is inaugurating on the middle fork of the feather river in plumas county california natural barrier holds back gold it was not long after the original discovery of placer gold in california that the feather river began to be robbed of its wealth and it is credited with a production of that the gold of the known and easily worked deposits was recovered long ago goes without saying but there is a pool over 1200 feet in length and of varying width above what is known as hartmans bar which presented physical and engineering difficulties that prevented its operation in the early days numerous tests that have been made by competent mining engineers and practical mining men show that the gold bearing gravel underneath the waters of this pool is unusually unus ally rich and engineers have figured out a plan to work it which will cost but a small fraction of the wealth estimated above the bedrock hartmans bar is a mammoth reef of granite which crosses the course of the middle fork of feather river and above the bar is a fault over which the water falls the pool is between these two obstructions and d is a natural trap which has doubtless caught the placer gold washed down from the hills for countless ages that the foregoing statement is based on something more substantial than mere hope is proved by the tests of the engineers already referred to and by the fact that the bars of willow creek which empties into this pool are credited with a yield of in gold gravel deposits are rich among the various methods that were neu in the past to work this ground was the e building of a dredge from which a six foot ot caisson was sunk to reach bedrock the huge boulders encountered made this L plan avas impracticable practicable though the upper PP gravel s found aund to contain tain 1 per yard As bed mek 0 is approached the gravel should ally be he richer and in mr millers report states that brorn half lie he recovered 1220 in gold hoisted anic estea t a cubic yard ot of gravel that lie he personally penally from one place af after ter proving the richness of the gravel mr miller and his engineers decided upon the following plan of operation A dam thirty six feet high built of sawed timber and cement will divert the water to a flume six feet by nine feet with a maximum capac city of second feet and this will carry the water from the river over the cliffs the water will then be pumped out of the pool and the gravel removed and washed on a big scale the large boulders will be blasted and taken out with the aid of a derrick big dam is built for the flume and dam feet of lumber was necessary and a power plant and sawmill was at once put in to turn it out the contract for building the dam and flume was let to the foundation company of new york and san francisco and as stated it has made excellent progress it is expected that the clamshell derrick will be hoisting gravel by the first of next august the financing of the morington mining company was out of the ordinary mr miller brought the project to the attention of charles and dan moran of new york principal owners of the nevada california oregon railroad E remington also of new york and arthur roehl of san francisco they sent wm win C devereaux san francisco mining engineer to thoroughly investigate and on his report they purchased the entire treasury stock issue the morington company did not have to pay a dollar or a share of stock for financing the property 0 |