Show I 1 opportunities for McG mechanical baniul enterprises in uc seven devils dails written for the mining review by prof marcus E jopes jones le it is probable that there is no mining region which is better situated for the inaus inauguration 0 nu of great mechanical enterprises than the seven devils region 0 in western idaho and it is certain that there are few that will need them more this region t forms a great uplift of schist in the shape of a longani lon long gand and I narrow mountain chain nearly a hundred and fl fifty f ty miles in total length the range e begins in the elbow formed by the snake river where it turns abruptly northward near huntington oregon and continues to the salmon river river on the west it drops abruptly into the river for its whole length Z at an angle r of about thirty degrees ka from crest to base the mean hight of the range is about feet above the seab sea and feet above the river therefore the distance either horizontal horizontally lv or vertically to the axis of the range is only oday a few thousand feet from the river except near the crest the range range has little timber on the western adde ide the streams are few and small near the crest the winters snow is about ten feet deep as an aver average acre at the river side there is none at any time and flowers are in bloom during the winter on the eastern side the conditions are reversed rd the whole country is covered with a forest of yellow pine it is high rolling and cold with plenty of snow all winter the mountains can be reached on this side by wagon road almost anywhere but bui there is not a mine on this side and all the ore has to be hauled over the crest of the range to get it to market while on the western side there are almost no roads and even the trails are very poor the single exception is the grade on the east the streams are large all flowing into the weiser river a stream as a large as the bear river in utah the mineral veins lie along near the crest of the range on the western side and nearly parallel with it there are a few deposits near the river also they pass slowly over to the eastern side but there they are covered at least 10 feet deep with basalt and so are unworked and even unknown they dip to the east at an angle of about five degrees to thirty degrees from perpendicular they are very very extensive and wide though not continuous the groups of veins at mineral ruth berg cuprum and rapid river are for the most part of different character and probably of different origin though they lie in a string and are not separated at any points more than twenty five miles at mineral there are lead and silver veins in one region and copper and iron in another at there are arc very extensive low grade silver veins with some lead and manganese and not a mile away to the east there is a long belt of copper garnet and iron veins in the seven devils property at helena the veins all are copier copper with a garnet gan gane g e on rapid river the veins are copper veins with a quartz gange 11 in all these camps the veins a are re practically parallel with the snake river except in the last camp the snake river has a flow of about cubic feet per second and has a rapid about every quarter of a mile after you reach the western side of the seven devils region there are many places where there is a fall of twenty five feet in a mile and this fill fall is mostly confined within a few hundred feet in distance as the water rushes with speed through the rapid there is not a single place on the river where the walls are too abrupt for the laying 11 of pipe or the construction st of a ditch we then have the two elements of the problem a river with endless power at all points at the base of the mountains and high up on the range range are great depos deposits its of ore which need the application of this power the ore bodies lie so that they can be tapped with tunnels to the depth of to feet below the droppings crop pings and at any point along Z their course these veins now have water at almost all points below a hundred feet from the surface and therefore the item of pumping in will be a serious one till drainage I 1 tunnels are run at present there is sufficient chent fu fuel el at the mines to furnish heat for a few years but this will soon be exhausted the streams are so small and the cold is so great at the mines that shore ice will interrupt all work from that source for nearly half the year many inmany attempts have been made to reach the mines for alono along time they chev were accessible only by difficult trails now there are indifferent wagon roads that for a short time in the spring 11 1 1 and fall are practicable impassable all the ore taken out so far has had bild to be hauled by wagon r for a hundred miles to a railroad A number of railroads have been projected to tap this region one of these roads the P I 1 N R R started from weiser idaho atan elevation of 2100 feet altitude above the sea climbs up the weiser on a gentle grade and then has to pass over the crest of the range at an elevation of about feet or more going above most of the mines this seems to be the first road that will tap this region 1 though 11 it has a four per cent grade in several places this line will have to build switchbacks switch backs to get to the mines whether it builds on its present survey or adopts another another route the most feasible and natural one has been projected down the river from huntington but its promoters have failed in financing it and so it has been abandoned another route the harte line is a compromise between the two lines mentioned still another route is from baker city down past the cornucopia mining region Should dany vany of these rout routes es b be adopted the roads roada will have to use utah coal for fuel and therefore will be handicapped in power several years ago an attempt was made to navigate the snake river from weiser but this failed because of the excessive fall of the water in summer and the resultant exposure of rocks along the way because of all these failures the ores of the seven devils still come out by mule power and onla the very highest grades of ore at that the great body of the ores remains untouched and must continue to remain so even with a railroad at the doors of the mines because of their low grade the only solution of the production transportation por tation and reduction problems of this re region arion crion lies in the utilization of the water power this power can be transmitted by wire to any desired point and can be utilized in a thousand different ways it can furnish fur nish the power for any railroad from the 0 S L to the mines and thus will solve the tran transportation por problem it will enable the mines to be operated by electrical hoists and the ores delivered by tram to any suitable reduction point one of its chief values will be in the cheap drainage by tunnels to a great depth the easy mining of the ores and their easy delivery to the future reduction point along I 1 the river there are about tons of three per percent cent to live five per cent copper ore practically in sight 11 in this region 11 now but which no railroad will ever be tible able to carry except as bullion the cost of getting materials on the ground around for the erection of power plants will be sli slight ht as machinery can be floated down the river from huntington or weiser while timber of any size can be obtained from the mountains adjacent |