| Show region reg on rich lit ich in Rio romance mance and gold in wyoming on the eve of revival as big metal producer the old south pass mining district in fremont county wyoming enriched with historic lore of early wyoming is again in the ascendancy A marked revival of interest has injected into the development of the area and activities along 6 broad and well planned lines have evolved in the last year that may the district into a paying condition the eldorado it was half a century ago relates the kemmerer gazette in submitting the following story south pass city cradle of woman suffrage and once boasting population center of population in a territory later subdivided into half a dozen sovereign states spot where the first piano echoes sounded resounded re in wyoming main main trail for immigrants from eastern states to the california b gold bold rush path over which many of brigham 6 youngs heroic band of sturdy adherents slowly treaded their way following a retreating sunset to later make utah blossom as a result of their energies rendezvous of adventitious soldiers of fortune miners and sappers bullwhackers military men and hordes of intrepid characters who brought the spreading west into the prominence it has attained in its vast developed interests all contributing Z to the great epic it now reveals much history was made along these mountain paths among the mushroom hamlets that sprung up almost magically it was at south pass city that mrs esther morris famed agthe as the first woman justice of the world was appointed tober to her post at a meeting of trustees february 14 1870 the hustling alpine city was the county seat of sweetwater county from november 2 1874 to june 15 1975 where the commissioners held their meetings regularly after that date the political seat was moved by legislative enactment to green river thus ending the juggling and vacillating of county seats area rich in mineral potentialities during the last year a number of mining devotees realizing that the south pass district is highly mineralized with rich deposits of free milling gold and copper renewed their energies interested needed capital to investigate their hidden wares and finally aroused sufficient enthusiasm to revive the dormant mining industry in that domain statistics lavor favor the importance of the area facts which reveal that the ground involved covers about five full townships its center being T 29 R fremont county where worth ot 01 gold has been extracted from the ground it is regarded as Wyo best bet as a producer of sold gold owing to topographical difficulties its northern outlet is is traced oer innumerable winding roads and treacherous f passes while a counter down hill grade favors rock springs via a pacific and the eden valley a distance of but eighty miles 1 1 1 10 additional to the rich deposits of placer minerals found throughout the district the hills were penetrated with scores 01 if shafts which cut and crosscut into continuous ore bodies most ost of which are found in vertical veins with but slight pitch some statistics on production the separate lode mines embraced in the general area the following and their recorded outputs miners delight carissa caribou garfield 1 I victoria rena regia i franklin mary ellen lone star carrie shields ground hog other quartz mines total the first discovery of gold gold was first discovered in the region in 1842 but the great south pass goldruss gold gol drush brush took place in 1869 to what was then known as the sweetwater mines where placers rich enough to pay handsomely when operated on a crude basis were later developed to a very profitable scale it was then the carissa lode was opened and quickly paid large returns then came miners delight at peabody hill the burr at lewiston and many others for nearly a quarter of a century the district remained in a dormant state while some of the properties were allowed to run down and later abandoned when the water levels alsand and laase ores were reached all except the carissa which has been kept in first class condition finally in 1924 the golden gate mine and timber company a subsidiary of the hearst homestake Home stake of leada south dakota took options on the 1914 group of cla imsand claims and did continuous development work until the shaft house was destroyed by fire in september 1925 historic and operating data the carissa was located in 1867 and has been a phenomenal producer for many years today it is the deepest developed property in the south pass district here the high grade ore shows in quartz lenses lying in the chist having the same edip and strike with the ore lenses occurring at regular intervals at first the low grade ores were ignored and work confined to the higher grade lenses possibly owing to lack of facilities for successful handling later the occur ance through a series of quartz lenses and conditions were determined in a west crosscut from the lower foot fiot level the crosscut is foot long and cuts chist leads that vary in value running from a trace up tip to 50 a ton in gold although the free condition of the precious metal remains unchanged the milling of the combined ores showed a mill value of 6 a ton in gold for the whole length of feet the present development of the carissa consists of over 2500 feet of drifting crosscuts cross cuts etc with a shaft feet deep following the dip of the veins and equipped with hoist and necessary appliances for handling the ore on a limited scale oxidized ores found in the upper portion were very rich lower they pass out with the appearance of the sulphide forms foams mostly arsenical pyrites and the milling of them shows that the free gold character persists and on the lower level from 60 to 90 per centon cent of the gold values may be saved from the plates the carissa has 2300 feet of drifts on the five levels the fourth level being feet long the fifth level at a depth of feet being feet long money for development is needed at south pass the franklin the carrie shields and others are lying idle owing to lack of capital to push further development atlantic city is situated in the central part pari of the working district four miles east of south pass city the dexter mill now part of the timba bah mining company is at atlantic city the atlantic district is composed of many promising pro promising 9 properties mostly of high I 1 grade 11 ll ores no deep work has been attempted on the tabor grand near the duncan although it shows analogous characteristic lens conditions V peabody hill is the most prominent mark of the eastern castern m end of the uplift where the chief famous mine of wyoming in was found in 1867 at ait miners delight by owens holbrook and others and which produced in gold from a very limited area barea lewiston Lewi iston at the extreme east end was opened in 1879 with the discovery of the burr mine the bullion iron duke ruby and others yielded heavily for a time but were later abandoned for obvious reasons now all these properties are receiving the attention they deserve soon as the water handicap can ibe be obviated the progress will be certain considerable development has been accomplished in the hidden hand where a circular stamp in mill ill is installed the dump is said to run 40 a ton substantial placer production shown placer production in the entire district is credited with the following subjoined sub joined returns return sf meadow gulch yankee gulch springs gulch promise gulch smith gulch red canyon atlantic gulch beaver creek other placers total the mineralogy of south pass the grade of ore of the south pass district has been remarkably mar inar kably high the process of stamping and amalgamating the free gold values is suited to the ores of some of the mines especially the carissa which the mill figures readily show rusty gold is common and may be handled avith proper precaution the character of the minerals revealed is recognized in the following summary calcite quartz muscovite actinolite hornblende chlorite chlo tourmaline apatite magnetite ov trite rite and free gold such an association is typical of high hiah py temperature veins natural gas for power now available the buffalo basin oil and gas g as field is only thirty miles mile southeast where the prairie oil and gas company has several capped holes one gasser there being capable of cubic feet daily capacity its cost would be about five cents a thousand feet at the hole hermit creek supplies ample water for all uses undeveloped water power may be obtained from the sweetwater river nine miles southwest or the little popo agie fifteen miles northwest the district abounds in limestone deposits and plenty of scrub timber to burn it into commercial uses an important item in in a cyanide mill ribs of hard tough Z slate in the district are abundant and make excellent tube mill pebbles climatic conditions are favorable climatic conditions are favorable to ito such activities and are clement as the general weather encountered in the black hills of south dakota summers are dry and cool while the autumns are generally open far into november plenty of snowfall features the winter the depths being heavier northward between south pass and lander than in the sloping direction of rock springs the district is almost on the edge of the southwest slope of the wind river mountain range with a declivity all the way to rock springs principal union pacific rail point former state geologist of wyoming albert B bartlett after a long study of the south pass district prepared and issued a valuable statistical work known as bulletin no 20 july 15 1926 he was assisted with notes on geology geolot ff DY by dr J J runner of the university of iowa john R bane president of the B H gold minin 0 j company is familiar with the district and has made much the last few years development progress on various claims in |
