Show THE MINES OF OLD ALTA staff correspondence yelta which in the early was M recognized as greatest min ing camp is on the asden dency again after thirty years of slumber rip van winkle like it has awakened in this advanced age of mining with all its latest improved ma chinery and aepli ances coupled with the greater L knowl edge the american miner and me gist possesses today of mineral forma eions there is no reason to doubt t that h a t this old camp will once more achieve fame and play an i important in part in the states production of wealth with the exception of souie some of the old timers who have not followed their former comrades over t the h e great divide there are few interested in the mining industry of utah today who can tell much of the history of the big and little cotton wood districts of which alta was once the metropolis about all the information that they can an impart relative to the past is that the old flagstaff and emma mines have pro deuced millions how many they are not able to say that ends their story and the rest can only be conjectured probably no one is better able to place an estimate with some degree of accuracy than is john G stillwell the present postmaster at alta and the leading business man of the town at the present time mr stillwell was in alta in its palmy days held responsible positions with 7 V i 37 ni aw hajn trinnel of colimbus Coh imbus mine alt some of the big companies which operated there in those times consequently he was in position to ascertain some knowledge of what the mines were producing he has compiled the following statement for the mining review which shows a production from the mines of the cottonwood districts amounting 15 to a sum consider considerably abl y in in excess of out of this enormous production the mines located on what is known as the emma lode contributed according to mr Stillwell Still wells 3 figures among them were the flagstaff emma valejo and north star south auth star nabob the mines of other parts of the district he be mentions as having yielded very generously are produced the grizzly city rocks prince of wales savage e and montezuma mon mckay and revolution albion toledo Frederic F r e d e r i ck kand and crown prince oxford 14 geneva pluvial Pru vial besides the above named the camp furnished 0 other t h e r producers such as the reed and goodspeed which has a record of ore sales in excess the mark other liberal contributors were the stoker copper prince native copper iris ohio golconda and a number of others the mines of alta in those days were operated in the main by english companies the shareholders of which it is said received little return on their investment which came near leading to an international scandal particularly ticul arly in the case of the emma company which furnished grounds for an investigation by congress the facilities for mining minine were crude when alta experienced its most prosperous existence nothing was done systematically as the ruins of many of the old workings will demonstrate and it is a notorious fact that in few instances was ore extracted from any considerable depth from the surface what ore that was extracted necessarily carried high values in order to stand the expense of transportation to swansea wales where a very great portion of it was consigned for treatment As a consequence the rich ores were gouged out while at the same time no systematic effort was made to prospect for new ore chutes while it was out of the question to try to handle the large bodies of akk X R av ae T py my t V at a 7 W 56 V 0 V 01 old reed ca goodspeed mine owned by kennebec mining co low grade ores there being no advanced methods for their treatment at that time this condition of affairs together with the litigation in which the companies became involved followed by the depression in silver together with the visitation of disastrous snow slides which wrought great damage resulted in a general closing down from which the camp never fully recovered at one time alta was populated by several thousand thrifty people and at oue one election held in 1872 over two thousand ballots were cast for the candidates who made the race for office during that campaign during the latter years of the camps prosperity the ores of the little cottonwood were hauled down to sandy over the tramway built from that place to alta steam power was employed as far as wasatch over a standard guage road from grade is heavy and smaller narrow cars care were used with mules as locomotive power returning the cars run down the entire length of the road by gravity the road is still in operation but the track and equipment is in poor condition the property is in the hands of the R G W railway and its improvement is one of the things promised for the very near future and in all probability the upper tram between wasatch and alta will be operated by electrical power the waters of the little cottonwood creek are of such abundance that they could be utilized for all purposes needed the mineral belt which includes the big and little cottonwood districts also reaching over into american fork canyon has a width of about ten miles and it is asserted by old miners that it is certainly a continuation of the mineral bearing ground which is responsible for the existence of park city and its big dividend paying mines the distance from the great park city bonanzas is but little the domains of the daly judge company compan Y come to the divide only a few miles distant from the town of alta the ontario with its dividend record of is only about six miles away so is it in almost as close proximity to the silver king daly west and others of the big producers of the park lime and quartzite quart kite are the predominating formations in the Cottonwood districts and in the past no great effort has been made to prospect for ore in any place but in the lime although ore has been found in fumall r small quantities in other places the ores are invariably found in a bedding of lime over hanging banging y shale competent metallurgists account for this for the reason that the ore has precipitated and the lime altered to its present condition by the infiltration from the cross fissures f is old mention camp has been made of a revival in the the next year will undoubtedly see a changes wrought in all parts of of the dist any fortunately for the rick ct camp new blood has haa quiren a foothold there and their hold 10 include some of the former bonanzas of the alf brict which includes the flagstaff reed i goodspeed albion oxford A geneva cai ci rocks grizzly and a number of others J with the introduction of new energy and ad talent it can be expected that their move amov ments will not lack system a condition chih characterized the operations of their sors thirty years ago some deep minin will be done the great bodies of low graz grade ores will not be overlooked but on the con arary will be put into marketable shape b y the installation of concentrating mills these are some of the things promised for next year so that the coming spring will mark an era of rapid development THE COLUMBUS consolidated the management manaa ement of the columbus consolidated N mining ining company has probably con tributes tri buted to the reviving of the camp of alta alt as much as any concern or individual the columbus company has territory embracing ten claims or a total of acres the officers of the company are salt lake men who have had no small amount of experience in the mining world and are therefore competent as well as reliable they are president dent and manager tony jacobson set bee detary and treasurer arthur E snow superintendent in A 0 jacobson the company is capitalized for shares of a par value of 50 cents per share the companas comp anys domains are located to the south and adjoining the flagstaff ground which is also bounded on the east by the territory belonging to the old emma company the greater portion of the columbus ground was formerly the property of fritz owner of the she old frederick mine manager jacobson states that he is working a force 0 of twenty men at the present which is kept busily engaged in doing development work A carload of ore is shipped to the smelter sm elters weekly which more than pays the cost of operations only such ore as is encountered in the course of development is extracted I 1 strikingly good feature which is so seldom found anywhere the property now in possession of the columbus company has produced considerable ore in its time considering the amount of development work it has d done one remarkably well the present developments consist consi oi three tunnels and three dinzes besides numerous open cuts made to prospect the veins veil and fissures four contacts and eight fissures cross the ground the fissures cut tho the contacts at right angles t and the ore appears aphea to make at their intersection similar ta t other properties in the district the fo dorius eions consist of lime and quartzite with POP phyra dykes cutting through them the lower or main tunnel shown in n the accompanying illustration has been ru the length of feet one cross cuti cut bated as cross cut no 1 runs east fro aroi main tunnel feet and a has 8 0 sunk below 50 feet from this the and cross cut were both driven through a large body of low grade milling ore from the main tunnel is also sunk a 60 foot which passed through a body of ore ten feet in width carrying values of 18 per ton it is estimated that through the means of this the management has been enabled to block out tons of ore of this grade at a point feet from the entrance to the main tunnel there is another cross cut known as no 2 running east on the strike of the fissure for a distance of 75 feet this tunnel was also run in low grade ore this tunnel will be continued for a distance of feet further in order to tap the upper tunnel 1 1 by means of an upraise of feet this will give opportunity for sloping for that depth et along balong the vein while the upraise is being I 1 made a will be sunk to connect with it from froin above and thus the ground can be worked both ways at the same time forming the connection that much sooner the ore know now being shipped is being extracted from this at another point in the upper 11 tunnel a drift has been run on the ore chute for a distance of feet the pay streak in the chute opened in the upper supper tunnel averages from one to five feet in width while the vein is from six to twenty vleet feet wide 1 the company proposes to extend the upper S tunnel feet further at which point it will intersect with what is termed the big fis t sure from which has been produced worth of ore this fissure has been scoped fout out along the surface to some extent and the I 1 I 1 I 1 greatest depth attained upon it at any time was 52 feet when the ores changed from a c carbonate ar bonate to a sulphide and were abandoned the lower tunnel it is expected will tap this fissure giving feet of room I 1 the columbus company in anticipation of a very prosperous season is planning some extensive improvements an order is to be I 1 placed at once for a 3 drill compressor and a 45 horse power boiler besides this several new buildings will be erected before winter for the comfortable housing of amplo employees y ees early next spring siring it is proposed to erect a I 1 ton concentrating mill for the treatment of low grade ores for this purpose a limited amount of the treasury stock of which there is shares phares will be placed on sale the com banys office is located at room atlas block KENNEBEC PROPERTY situated near the summit of the wasatch mountains near the junction of the big and little cottonwood districts are the properties of the kennebec Kenn ebeo mining company a recent incorporation which has effected the consolidation of some of the most valuable properties ties in the districts named included in this consolidation is the reed reeda goodspeed group abne one of tle the great early producers the location was made in 1870 and for several years after that the property was worked on an ex tei sive scale methods of mining being crude abat at time only the best of the ore found ay y to market the balance was not mined or was thrown into abandoned galleries and much value thus ignored is said to remain in these old works today nevertheless this old group turned out a half million or more from a fraction only of this ground the owners admitted admits ed selling tons at an average of and some of the still more valuable ores were sent to wales for treatment in the year 1875 the mine was in active operation and the figures given out on sales that year aggregate there is considerable sid erable evidence of value in the old works which was not mined at all and it is certain that much has been taken from the dump and from beneath the surface which was not counted the ore showed upon and near the surface and like other properties in the district the practice seemed to be to follow the rich streaks wherever they led without so much attention to system and geology as would be insisted upon at the present day the result was an irregular lot of underground excavations making immense labor and expense to get the ore out to the surface but even with rich ore these methods could not be continued for as depth was attained it became an imperative necessity to work with economy and system and it was debated whether to build works to hoist from above or to tap the ore channels by tunnel from below the latter course was adopted the ore was left at the bottom the old works were abandoned and the deep tunnel known now as the reed goodspeed tunnel was started the buildings at the entrance of which are shown in the accompanying illustration this was a magnificent piece of work costing an immense amount of money but whether there was a mistake in survey or other miscalculation the line of the tunnel was run so as to pass to one side of the place where the dip of the ore bodies would meet the tunnel level then after seeing the mistake the manager who was one of the heaviest owners of the mine was taken ill and died the property then became idle and remained in that condition until taken up by the kennebec company not long ago there are few tunnels if any in the state that will compare to this one just described A p person erson can stand erect while walking its entire distance without fear of getting a bump P on the head the mine at the time of its former activity was well equipped for those times elec triciti was employed for different uses including the lighting of the buildings and wor workings kinas t of the mine the other properties which form a part of the kennebec holdings are the eclipse which at one time was equipped with an ele gant hoisting plant but which were destroyed by fire several years ago 0 also the ophir group besides a number of new locations while the former owners of the properties now in the possession of this company lost disastrously because of miscalculation or perhaps mismanagement the present owners have been bene fitted the mistakes mistake of the he f I 1 others have been profitable to the new owners the ore in the kennebec properties in unison with other parts of the district is found in a bedding of lime overhanging the shale formation and the veins have a strike of northeast to southwest pitching to an angle of 45 degrees the ore has been precipitated lime altered to its present condition by the infiltration from the cross fissures no ore bodies of any size have been found in either the shale or black lime above this point did not seem to be realized when the former development was being performed as the long tunnel measures feet from the ore which fact has been demonstrated by the present owners in driving a drift to the northeast where the ore has begun to show the management I 1 expects to encounter a large body of ore on the hanging wall side of the white lime belt as that seems |