Show RICES IDAHO COPPER DEALS CALLING FORTH explanations the editor of mining truth spokane wash has undertaken der taken to sweep the cobwebs out of the sky and set the public right with respect to the deals and operations of the various interests that have been responsible for all the hullabaloo that has accompanied george graham rices promotion of copper mining schemes in idaho and oregon owing to the luridness of the pictures drawn by rice in his campaign to get the money for his enterprise a cloud of greater or less density has been hanging over the heads of a number of mining men and engineers 6 who possibly see the need of having their conduct explained in connection with the affair otherwise it is not clear why the following initial installment of the story of what has happened and what the prospects of the proposition for the future are should be shouldered by the editor of mining 6 truth read it and do your own guessing deep in the perpendicular fastnesses fast nesses of the seven devils a mighty mining enterprise is under way the mine is the red ledge and the story of how its operators conquered mountains and overcame prejudice to bring it to the verge of production is one of the most interesting narratives of recent mining in the northwest red ledge as most readers know is presumptively the principal property of idaho copper company and its existence has been known for fifty years but it has always been labeled inaccessible and until youve seen the seven devils or a country equally rugged you dont really know what inaccessible means there are many regions rec t rions with steep cliffs and some with rock faces that are vertical but in the northern part of adams county idhaw they actually lean out many miles of hard travel up until the idaho copper company completed its private motor road from homestead oregon to eagle bar a visit to the red ledge required miles of the hardest kind of travel afoot or horseback over difficult mountain trails to convey an adequate impression of what is going t on in HI the snake river canyon country it may be well to sketch briefly the history of the red ledge itself and then to tell how hov cooley butler of duluth and his associates set about solving the situation that had baa baffled fled many of the best minds in in the mining world what white man first saw the red ledge local legend 6 has as failed to tell whoever he was he must have gazed crazed 2 long in in amazement at that great 6 precipitous ridge standing vertically on the east slope slop e of deep creek canyon and rising feet above the tumbling cascades which made its ress as northward toward the snake the ledge itself starts some 1200 to 1800 feet above the stream varying at different points so that the sheer walls of rhyolite red brown tan n orange mauve maroon scarlet and vermillion range from om to 2000 2600 feet in height not located for years early prospectors found the red ledge but alpar antly aly made no locations as its remoteness and the com combar par at ive ve low grade of its ore removed all possibility of opera n in the it was gone over by other mining scouts tits but the e nearest railroad point then was weiser on the oren short line y more than miles away and there gasn wasn t any y road in the however certain properties in the campara dively bely accessible portion of the district began to be worked the peacock group located in 1874 was patented in 1883 and shipped chipped ore to weiser by pack train and wagon in 1889 the e allue e jacket having shipped a year earlier near these mines the old camp of helena sprang up on the northwest slope of white monument mountain and the headwaters of copper creek at an elevation of feet to reach this camp the famous grade probably the best mountain road of pre motor days in the west was built from ballards landing on the snake below homestead in 1900 shortly afterward the pin railroad officially the pacific idaho northern was started from weiser with helena as the objective the promoters ran out of funds and the road was never completed but grading actually started on the helena end and the old grades can be discerned on the sides of white monument to this day ore boats wrecked in rapids thus transportation came to helena and to the peacock and its neighbors 6 the Klein tried to ship ore from ballards landing to huntington by boat but on the first trial the boat broke away and was wrecked in the rapids of the canyon that ended that effort companies which attempted to operate in the district included the american mining 6 company northwest copper company boston seven devils copper company the blue jacket copper company all of which failed when their funds ran out before their ambitious development schemes were completed smelters shelters Sm elters were built at cuprum and landore but collapse of of the mining companies closed them too consideration of this history will help explain the recent and much discussed conduct of idaho copper company ltd and its successor the present idaho copper company the road to helena did not greatly help efforts to open the red ledge 6 one thomas heady an old timer in the district filed on it in the date however and did his assessment work for several years the remains of heads cabin can still be seen at the mouth of heady creek which flows into deep creek below copper creek to reach the red ledge from helena you descend about fet in aj miles furthermore the upper country is a section six months closed with 20 foot snows to haul red ledge ore over the mountains via helena would be be prohibitively expensive butler saw need for big money heady interested robert N bell former state mine inspector and they started some tunnels through bell seeley W mudd and his california associates became int interested 1 extending the tunnels and running some diamond drill holes the world war stopped their activity meanwhile ownership of the red ledge had been acquired by cox colby of boise and from them it was obtained in 1919 by cooley butler minnesota open pit iron mine operator whose examining engineer was frank A kennedy butler kennedy and 0 H griggs also a minnesota iron man organized the idaho copper company ltd in 1920 they spent exploring the property until 1923 and then for two years it lay dorment butler and griggs decided that it would take an even million dollars to open the red ledge nad that it would be useless to make the attempt with less than that amount their program called for a road down the snake from ballards landing to eagle bar which is a few miles above the mouth of deep creek a bridge a cross across the snake giving then them connection with a road to the railroad at homestead branch from huntington a t tern c r rr vnus nus of a union pacific foot tunnel from eagle t bar through the r ridge idge which forms the west bank of de deep e p creek to reach the red ledge at a depth of feet below the creek a 1000 ton flotation mill first unit power plant and necessary mining ma chinery Esti estimating estimation matin the tunnel and raise at road bridge mill power plant and equipment for mining they needed at least and a million would not be too much to insure success the experience of other pioneers in the seven devils had taught them the futility of trying to operate without proper financing for two years as they explain it cooley butler and 0 H griggs tried to interest large capital in putting a million dollars into development of the red ledge they could have commanded a quarter of that amount but they recognized the futility of trying to do the job halfway half way they found their efforts blocked at every point when it came to guaranteeing a million rice bought and boomed south peacock here is where the events start that have made idaho copper a subject of comment and controversy in all parts of the country four years after the idaho copper company ltd was incorporated or in 1924 a concern called idaho copper corporation po ration appeared in the field as the owner of the south peacock mine which adjoins the peacock near helena the south peacock was sold to rice by walter W time idaho copper corporation took it over it had not been opened for examination for twenty years the power behind idaho copper coloration Cor oration was george graham rice a clever and unscrupulous promoter who knows practically nothing about mining but who has the faculty of getting other peoples money developed to a remarkable degree the south peacock was sold to rice by walter K of boise lar gelyon largely on the strength of a report written years ago by W bertram hancock one of the promoters of the old boston seven devils copper company whether rice believed the hancock report or not is not material to this discussion the fact is that through his tipster sheet he boomed the south peacock as a great mine and the stock went or was manipulated on the boston curb from an initial price of 56 cents to in one of the wildest and most reasonless speculations known to mining history meanwhile the prospect was examined for rice by walter harvey weed mining engineer who seems to have reported that he had picked a lemon and that the way to save his company would be to get something 6 good this resulted in the acquisition by the idaho copper corporation of the iron dyke mine at homestead and weed meanwhile began looking around ifor for something else to add to the corporations holdings idaho copper company ltd had meanwhile started suit against idaho copper corporation for damages and infringement gement of the name the protests of state officials and mining journals against the manner of the rice promotion having caused some confusion in the public mind as between the two companies how the merger came about weed and butler met butler was worn out with his efforts to finance the red ledge weed had his finger on plenty of capital but no place to go with an understand indof the situation in which both concerns found themselves it is not difficult to reconstruct the gradual transition from litigation to amalgamation that marked the relations between the two companies at the time this background being absent it was quite a shock to the mining public the amalgamation was worked out chereb whereby Y the reorganized 1 I idaho copper company capital gave of its stock to the idaho copper corporation to be exchanged for company stock receiving the iron dyke mine the south peacock prospect in cash in the idaho copper corporation treasury and a financial contract by which the sponsors of idaho copper cor horation po ration underwrote underwrite under wrote treasury stock of idaho copper company to the extent of in cash and 25 oW in options which will probably be exercised stockholders of idaho copper company ltd retain stock in idaho copper company the new company receives par value of 1 for the treasury stock sold and to be sold this nets the company of which has already been paid handling of the mining operations remains by contract with the red ledge crowd butler briggs and kennedy walter harvey weed aids them as consulting engineer and geologist 6 po logist what will the harvest be the past is past and the present question for mining men to determine is whether the money is being expended sensibly and efficiently and whether the enterprise has a chance of success it will readily be admitted that bridge and road construction brought about by the amalgamation has already opened a mineral empire to development and that eastern oregon and west central idaho have bene fitted enormously even should the investors never receive a cent idaho copper company has been subjected to much adverse criticism and some official hostility since the two former concerns were consolidated in the face of this condition what has it actually accomplished what has been done or is being done with the million dollars raised through the amalgamation what kind of a working organization has been built up what are the actual conditions at the mining properties has the size and potential value of the red ledge property been absurdly exaggerated or has it not |