| Show ni iiii tim thib T HE M I 1 N E S C OF P 3 W ly WRITTEN FOR THE MINING REVIEW ILVER CITY idaho sept 25 it i has remained for one of the oldest rold oid silver mining camps in the west to ome to the rescue of the friends of the min anz neof of the precious metals and prove to the orld the truth of their assertion that the ninin ining k of gold and silver is ia as safe stable nd ind certain as any other line of business it has been the part of one of the early day bonanza districts to give the lie to the professional I 1 stock jobber and prove to th the e world that the properties upon which he boated bloated companies sold stock and used the proceeds for other purposes than develop ment ent are rich in the yellow and white metals there is perhaps no mining district in the world that has suffered as greatly from the dwindling swindling r methods of the stock pirate as that 4 which surrounds silver city idaho in the heart of the owyhee owahee mountains had it not aen been for his operations there is little doubt put but the great discoveries of the past pact ninety days would have bave been made years ago and that the camp instead of being abandoned for almost twenty years except for two mines would have been steadily adding to the store of wealth I 1 1 discovered in the fall of 1863 the rich placers on jordan creek and in many gulches on n florida and ana war eagle mountains became te mecca towards which thousands of eager prospectors made their way the fame of the diggings 11 sped ped fast atone at one time it is estimated mated that men were working on jordan creek alone between silver city and dewey a distance of about four miles there is no decord record showing just what the placers produced deuced but old timers in the camp estimate it it at 4 more than the following year came the discovery of extraordinarily rich quartz veins ore was discovered on the surface that when pounded up in a hand mortar yielded as lugh as 70 from a single pound placer mining took up the attention of the miners for three or four years however and it was not until in the fall of 1868 that the morning St star armine mine located in the foothills of 1 avar war eagle nio began to produce ore that was so rich as to be almost beyond belief two years later a number of san franisco francisco promoters came into the camp and bonded I 1 a few properties this stimulated prospecting especially on war eagle and rich discoveries became the order of the day the organization of the oro fino ida elmore minnesota golden chariot south chariot mahogany E empire poorman and a number if bf other joining companies followed in quick hii almost as soon as the farat pick was thrust into nto the ground the mines became producers reducers cers the ore taken out was so rich a minature war was started it became kith esary sary to guard the shafts and the dumps alta armed men excitement ran high throughout the entire west stock in the companies which was listed on the san francisco exchange fluctuated wildly prices for the different shares ranged from nothing to 20 and upwards it is estimated that the mines mines produced fully during the next three years the poorman alone produced the latter was owned by an english corporation and be it said to the credit of its promoters it was not a party to the scheme of robbery practiced by the stock selling sharps while the excitement at san francisco Eran cisco was at its highest the managers of the several mining companies operating on war eagle r mountain entered into a combination for the purpose of fleecing fleeming flee cing the public it was arranged that the different companies operating on the big hill should exchange production each month for instance 1 in may nine of the companies would turn their entire production of ore and all their bullion over to the tenth thus the production would be swelled to enormous figures and its stock would be sent up to extremely high figures in june the number ten would be turned over to eight and the price of the stock in ten would tumble as fast as it had gone up in may while that of eight would soar skyward sky ward dividends were declared that were t taking aking all of the production of the mines to pay but they all found their way into the hands of the promoters while lethe the excitement was at its height in 1875 the bank of california failed and the shar pers lost their all in its downfall the mines were then closed down it was reported that they had ceased to produce that they were worked out and that in fact they never did produce anything except on the surface surface the camp received a blackeye black eye from which it is just now recovering it was not until in 1890 when col W H de dewey ey succeeded in interesting some pittsburg people in the black jack property on florida mountain that anything was done in the district in a raining mining way immediately following this another crowd of pittsburg people headed by mr J M guffey secured the trade dollar properties and an english corporation came into control of the mines at de lamar since that time the proper properties Lies have been operated continuously and have never passed a dividend all of the properties that developed to great depth on florida mountain are now owned by the trade dollar consolidated mining company this company has paid over in dividends in six years the de lamar mines have paid in the same length of time about two weeks ago the trade dollar company completed a tunnel which runs en through florida mountain from dewey to blaine a distance of feet tapping the rich black jack vein 1700 feet beneath the apex of the hill and developing feet of new ground general man 1 ager hutchinson now pron pronounced pronounce bunce the property to be one of the greatest mines in the world this tunnel has demonstrated that thai the bonanza veins of the silver city district on florida mountain go down to great d eptha and that they carry the same values as on top the only difference being that gold instead of silver now predominates on war eagle mountain there was no work done except for the exploration being done by the poorman mines company on their property from the time of the fhe disaster in 1874 5 until a few philadelphia capitalists secured control odthe of the old oro fino golden chariot minnesota ida elmore south charlot chariot and mahogany Maho gony properties in 1899 and decided to drive a tunnel into the mountain from its east slope a distanced distance of 1500 7 feet or more for the purpose of tapping the vein veins at great depth and draining the e old working s of water about six weeks ago the tunnel was announced to be a great success A chute achate afore of ore r has been developed in the south drift for a distance of feet that averages 20 to the ton and that runs from one foot to seven feet in width 2200 feet beneath the surface it is not believed that this vein was ever discovered co vered on the surface the drift is still being ing run in in a southerly direction and it is expected that the golden chariot vein will be encountered almost any day less than a month ago the poorman mines limited of london england struck the old vein in that famous producer at a depth of 1100 feet beneath the surface and feet below the the deepest workings of the early days the ore is extremely rich these two strikes have proven that the bonanza beins yews on war eagle mountain go down to great depths several new discoveries have been made on the surface during the past 90 days and two other old producers long since abandoned have been proven to be bonanzas probably the most striking example of the manner in in which mining was done in the district in the early days is shown in what was formerly known as the whisky mine A local company took hold of this property about five weeks ago and have since cleaned out the old shaft which is ninety feet deep at the 70 foot level two drifts one north a distance of feet and and one south a distance of 40 feet were found eighteen inches of ore that as says from 30 to to the ton was found on the hanging wall in both drifts for their entire distance at 90 feet a similar condition of affairs was found to exist there was some gouging found to have been done and it is said that in the early days that ore that ran from 1800 to 2500 to the ton was taken out of the property and crushed at that time however it would not pay to mine ore that went less than as the cost of mining milling and hauling equalled equal led it is estimated timatea that fully 1500 tons of ore is now blocked out in this property ina in a little over six months the addle addie consolidated mining company has proven another old producer the eureka to be very rich since the of january this company has uncovered and blocked out it has erected a stamp mill modern in every particular with electrical power it is now installing transformers and will drop stamps within the next ten days one great advantage that the district now has over the days of the bonanza kings is it ifon this power can be immense electric power furnished in any part of the country and milled for be through its use ore can and less as against 20 per ten years ago about but the most important things strikes to the mining man is the fact that that the veins vein 3 in the por have they proven their values region go down and carry as well |
