Show possibilities of the learfield leadfield Le Lead fieldy california district As industrially reported upon for a railroad company by letson balliet the following article with a few deletions for brevity Is an industrial report upon the possibilities of Le learfield leadfield adfield california as effects the freight and transportation problems problem 11 of the tonopah tidewater railroad made by letson balliet consulting engineer it does noi of deal definitely with mining details or geology further than to report to the railroad company what it might expect if Le Ii eadfield adfield develops as many engineers expect EDITOR beatty is situated at the junction of the tonopah tidewater railroad and the bullfrog goldfield railroad in the amargosa amargoso valley through which a small stream flows that has been dignified by the name of amargosa amargoso A river although there are places where the flow of the river is entirely under the sand and often but little is visible agthe at the surface it is possible to obtain an inexhaustible supply of water from shallow wells that have been dug along the river literally the sand is on top and the water under icum elevation of but 2000 feet higher than beatty the new highway was built with the expectation of hauling heavy machinery and mine supplies into leadfield learfield Le adfield from beatty and for bringing a big tonnage of ore and concentrates to the railroad at beatty the road is rolled macadam and can be easily negotiated by small cars or the most elaborate limousines or trucks without the least trouble this road made the district possible at the present time there is no water for the twenty two miles between lead field and beatty but a hejl is to be sunk at the foot of the krade grade fifteen miles from beatty and seven miles from lead field hence there will be ample water for all purposes at short distances A telephone line has already been constructed from leadfield adfield Le to beatty which is in operation at the present time and the workmen are constructing a link between 77 0 41 X 4 PV X mountain down if the tm hn to blast blant the whole hole Le learfield leadfield leada adfield eld california showing the limestone strata that carries the lend lead values plans taken are before the rush for town lota and building this view vie wan am Pr egnation in general all the way back from the fault extend face this thin side of the lower foreground I 1 which sites ir ajl il 41 a neath it is from this source that the tonopah tidewater avater obtains obtain si its water and the town of beatty obtains its I ty ity water supply various mines and mills in past years have ave obtained their requirements from the same sources beatty is situated but twenty two miles distant from the thriving new mining camp of leadfield learfield Le adfield this distance ls is the speedometer distance by way of the new highway chich aich has just been completed over the state line to the new california mining camp this highway is one of the scenic c routes elites across the mountains into info the state of california with th a maximum grade of ten per cent and reaching a max a which will connect con hect Le and tonopah To beatty distance telephone and telegraph te le graph world by long outside L Le eadfield adfield office at have postoffice post planned to a it is already running ning between bus lines run with a mail stage stag cre and passenger will be in operation eld which I 1 am informed beatty and learfield leadfield Le adfield stage by the middle of the summer two passenger lines have already been put in operation lake to benefit los angeles and salt from which is the nearest supply point los angeles the bea beatty and leadfield adfield Le obtained for both tty b be supplies can e materials in both towns is demand for lumber and building large mining machinery and other supplies amounting to an enormous aggregate will come from los angeles via the santa fe to ludlow california or via the union pacific to crucero crucera Cru cero at which point it will be transferred to beatty nevada through passenger sleepers are operated between los angeles and beatty both the standard oil company and the union oil company have erected big supply tanks md and established special agents at beatty first class accommodations can be obtained at beatty two new hotels are now in in process of erection while preparations are being made for a 40 room hotel with baths at leadfield adfield Le utah smelters shelters sm elters have in sight the possibility of obtaining a large tonnage of the much needed lead ores while utah coal mining supplies machinery groceries and other merchandise have a direct inlet into the new district via the union pacific to crucero crucera Cru cero where freight i is s transferred to or from the tonopah tidewater road there is existing now a special tariff on ores from the tonopah tidewater 3 OM 14 I 1 V act T ja ON 41 ek r 42 ar 1010 folded limestone strata at leadfield learfield Le adfield at upper end of titus canyon fault railroad to utah smelters shelters sm elters and no doubt a keen competition with equalized freight rates will give salt lake city an eq equal ual opportunity with los angeles for general business from the entire district the tonopah tidewater railroad was built originally to replace the twenty mule teams that were hauling borax from the edge of death valley it was extended to beatty 7 for the purpose of hauling metal ores and mineral products with which this region abounds the map makers called all this section of california and nevada the desert the early immigrants named it death valley neither term has been very alluring to prospectors though it has been said by good authority that there are more varieties of mineral products and ores obtainable tributary to the miles odthe tonopah tidewater railroad than there are upon any other miles of railroad in the world it has been asked what w hat the desert sands and rugged mountains of this region will not contain nobody knows but the opening of supply stations like leadfield adfield Le will permit the prospectors to penetrate further into the unexplored recesses of the district aside from borax and borax products lead and lead silver ores going to the smelters shelters sm elters have been a very prominent part of the tonopah tidewaters dewaters Ti freight for a number of years most of it came from the station of tecopa tecola with beatty second in in importance as a lead ship per with them the products r from C chloride cliffs and the lemoine Lemoin e lt 3 r mines on the edges of death valley with the leadfield learfield Le adfield development beatty promises to be not only the most important shipping point for lead upon the tonopah tidewater but will probably become one of the important lead stations of the west geologists band and a few desert prospectors have known for years that the funeral range panamint t range cottonwood range and grapevine mountains were abundantly supplied with lead and lead silver ores but with lead at to 4 per hundred weight the investment of huge sums of money for roads development and machinery was hard to obtain it simply was not an attractive investment particularly ticul arly when the promoters were obliged to describe it with such forbidding terms as on the desert or in death valley where the very names of the district would frighten the timid investor but with lead permanently up to 9 and 10 per hundred pounds with every indication that it may go even higher the demand for lead has become almost a hysteria why the demand for lead what is making the demand for lead storage batteries batted s are the heaviest users with relatively low salvage possibilities bili ties when we realize that the weight of a storage battery is largely due to its lead content and that every automobile truck airplane motorboat railroad car pullman sleep sleeper er submarine and locomotive carries one or more storage batteries we can realize that more than ve 64 Z limestone strata probably silurian lurian i severely seTe rely broken and up heaved along the titus canyon fault learfield leadfield Le hides are carrying around from 50 to pounds 6 of f 16 each we realize that every radio set on board every ship that sails the seas or in every private house has one or more storage batteries and this is a demand that haSt hasi grol gro since lead was selling at 4 per hundred weight another anoche r great demand is by the telephone telegraph tele grap and electric companies not only for fuses but thousands of miles of lead coated cables are being placed underground in in almost every city in the world mine cables and SOD marine cables are also lead coated the use running millions of pounds of lead in addition to this we have lead lea paints and pigments and yet we have named but three de mands forlear for lead storage batteries cable coating and paint and the demand is growing greater every day if the grapevine mountains can produce lead le beaune is destined as a possible headquarters or supply la 16 pg which prospectors can comb the mountains for fifty it w abou arou around n d for other deposits b besides isid e s th those 0 s e which are n now nonbeing av biag being c worked at leadfield learfield Le adfield and this may make california an important producer of the world s lead of which chic h the united states without the leadfield adfield Le deposits is already producing 62 per cent of the worlds supply location of leadfield adfield Le district the leadfield adfield Le district of california is three miles from the nevada line and has been liberally and widely supplied with galena carbonates and combinations carrying silver and some gold values A vast area in this vicinity is prospective prospectors who have been over the district say that many square miles show outcroppings outcrop pings and indications of ores it is hard to believe that an area so wide and so extensive as this would have only a casmear smear on the surface As the prospectors say it must have come from some place it rain down hente hence from the railroad standpoint it appears likely that a big tonnage of incoming and outgoing freight will result from the new mining town of leadfield adfield Le as the base of a much larger district than is now known the one question that I 1 have been asked many times by friends and acquaintances since making my preliminary survey of the district is has leadfield learfield Le adfield district really got the ore the general public do not seem to care much whether the deposit is in silurian limestone cambrian slates or rhyolite so long as the lead ore is there and to the questions so generally asked I 1 am free to sa say y that from all I 1 the indications that I 1 saw in three days I 1 think it really has the ore it is too early to make any estimate of tonnage or orl output of the district and yet from the numerous places where exposures have been made of lead bearing ore the indications are that the tonnage will be large the exposures that I 1 saw in my brief survey were upon fault planes where the fissuring opened the formations along the plane of fracture and faulting tunneling and open cuts have exposed good ores as far as they have proceeded proceed edi and to just what depth or extent the lead bearing ores will be found in each of these places is yet an unsolved unsolved problem but from the study of the structures I 1 can see no reason why vy the formations should not carry their imbed embedded imbedded im ded and impregnated metal contents for much greater distances than are now opened 0 p ened so far as I 1 was shown the ores are not high grade shipping ores but they appear to be b e good grade of concentrating ores field for huge concentrating mill it appears likely if development ent opens the ore bodies is AS every competent engineer who has seen it expects that a huge concentrating mill will eventually be erected in the district perhaps it will be large enough to handle several thousand tons a day if the deposits develop to justify it t if such a mill should be erected it will likely handle the ores res from a number of mines and prospects in the same district in event of this development and equipment being justified the concentrated values will likely be hauled in in an aerial for distance of about tramway over the mountains a five e miles to the foot of the mountains on the eastern side where it would be possible by merely ditching to run a spur track from beatty to the loading bin from beatty beauy the concentrates would then go by rail ra il to the smelters shelters sm elters where the ore is turned into pig piga lead e ad and sold economic questions discussed I 1 am a again 9 ain asked the question it can the production of 01 californian Californi Cah forma ai ae lead ad leadfield adfield Le from the region now known know n as be e g great reat enough enough to ju justify the expense 0 of f opening ot of the district added to the eapen expense se with a new highway mill developing dav eloping the property and equipping it alth mi ning m n the question quentio 1 1119 and transportation machinery machiner yr that is is asked by the transportation department of the c eta e railroad company it is the same question jhc thc q that is in the mindi n of capitalists the makers of storage batteries and hi other users s of lead it of is Vh the same tr question that is in the minds power companies compa who are inquiring as to the ties to of some day running a power line into the district always and always the one thought comes will up P it pay when an engineer does not answer that question in such a manner that S you can understand might you just as well 1 make a guess at it yourself without the ss engineers report the plea of caveat emptor let the purchaser be ware cannot be consistently made by the Z engineers so far as the physical possibilities of the property 00 are con berned when the engineer is sent to make a report it is because they want his judgment as to the possibilities po bil ties for producing a profit Is the lead there Is there enough enouen to make it worth while can it be produced with wis a profit pro t over and above all costs of moving it answer ilmy in my judgment with a large enough plant and sufficient development and competent management I 1 should answer yes to all three questions mining is but ani a moving oving job it is nothing more or less than moving a deposit of metal ores made by nature from the place where nature deposited them to a place where mankind can use them and benefit by them it is is an engineering gi job it is a matter of tools equipment and men if nature put a sufficient quantity of metal in the ground somebody can move it and andi twill will move it some day and with the present high price of lead the growing demand itis it is possible si ble to move this deposit at a profit structural geological conditions the western lead mines company is the pioneer of this district it owns about acres of land at the upper end of the titus fault during the period of earth formation the dynamic forces that thrust and folded the eart earth h strata made numerous smaller faults where the slips have exposed t the he formations for a height of several hundred feet in these places the ceolo geologist gist can study the formations and structures of the earth and can theorize and reason as to how it got that way and from whence came the metal deposits although the dist disturbances disturbance urbanc es have been great and the geology is complex the student can find plenty of opportunity to theorize on how it w was as before it was disturbed the make in the short time I 1 studies I 1 was able to preliminary was in the field caused me to believe that this is a post of cambrian depos deposition there are three thre e main classification from froin blue faulted faces limestone on the rocks exposed sandstones quartzite to coarsely ly stratified to almost black |