Show GEOLOGY OF WAR WAK EAGLE IN OWYHEE IDAHO written for the mining review deview by F H perkins E M NM ame am mm a naem RM amm NM e war eagle mountain is one of the highest mountains of the owyhee owahee range which is situated in southwestern south western idaho on the southern side of snake river and near the oregon line this range of mountains extends in a northerly and southerly direction for a distance of about forty miles and not to exceed ten miles wide its northern limit is well defined in that it entirely disappears in the snake river valley its southern limit is not so well defined but war eagle is in about the southern limit of the range geologically speaking the owyhee owahee range consists of a core of granite which before the miocene period formed a narrow but abrupt range with the same trend it now has this formation by being tossed about formed fissures through it and these fissures formed open passages to the moulten moul teil material beneath and this moulten material which was rhyolite and basalt eind and for the time being formed a large volcano was the material to come to the surface and cover the surrounding country in many places this eruptive flow is sworn worn away and exposes the old walls of the once open fissures in the granite war eagle mountain was either not covered or the capping is worn away as the granite is particularly bare on this mountain the mineral deposits of commercial ww I 1 mw 1 al 47 k A k N MIMA out K 7 birdseye seye view of eengle mountain silver city idaho value are concentrated in and about war eagle mountain some prospecting has been done on the northern and middle portion of the range but the large areas of basalt and rhyolite appear to be entirely barren the vicinity of silver city and de lamar is thus the mining metropolis of the owyhee owahee range the larger ot of these camps is at the foot of war eagle mountain and is fifty miles southwest from boise A short branch railroad extends from nampa on the oregon short line to murph which is about thirty by good wagon read from silver city 15 the topography as illustrated by the accompanying compa nying map is rather rugged and irregular and war eagle mountain is deeply dissected by canyons and ravines the summit of war eagle mountain is about one and a third miles southeast of silver city this summit rises a little over feet above sea level which is about 1700 feet above silver city the eastern side of war eagle is much steeper and more rugged and the drainage is into sinker creek thence to snake river which is much lower than silver city an enterprising mining company has taken advantage of this fact and has started a tunnel which will cut vertically below the summit a point about 2600 feet lower down the sides of the mountain are covered with a good growth of grass but the arboreal v vegetation e g elation is very scant A few cottonwood trees are found along the creeks and higher up on the mountain are found scanty patches of gnarled jumper pine and mabun mountain mahogany heavy snow falls in winter as we could naturally expect from its elevation and strong winds drift it badly during the winter and early spring it is a difficult matter to keep the roads road s open to traffic and on the eastern slope snow drifts are known to last all summer in 1863 a prospector named jordan discovered rich float and much placer material in jordan creek at the base of war eagle mountain and thus it was that the attention lon of the outside world was called to war eagle the excitement brought many prospectors and the rich deposits of placer material were taken out then the attention r ja 77 9 al of the prospectors was given to finding the ledges a few of which the principal ones are indicated on the accompanying map while the oro fino and war eagle veins were really discovered in 1863 it was not until 1865 that these ledges on war eagle mountain were explored on the east slope of this mountain fairview a town then of about 2500 inhabitants came into existence right at the mines opening up these newly discovered ledges but since 1880 it has dwindled down to nothing only the old machinery is left to tell the story of a once prosperous town during the years 1874 and 75 the principal mines working were the ida elmore re empire oro fino golden chariot red jacket mahogany and poor mn man with depth much water was encountered and that with the panic of 1875 caused all operations to cease during the periods of mining activity the deposits were worked from shafts some succeeding in sinking as deep as 1000 feet be for pumping became so expensive as to use up all the profits in the old days 60 per ton was a mean figure for mining and milling expense the tunnel started in sinker creek has tapped the ida elmore vein 2500 feet below the droppings crop pings and affords a most excellent opportunity to test the value and continuity of the veins at a good depth the vein system of war eagle mountain has a general northerly and southerly di and usually dips eastward atan angle of about sixty degrees occasionally however steep dips to the west ares are met with as is the case with the poor man and silver cord veins there seems to be three systems first those having a north and south strike as the oro fino and poor man second those with a northwest and southeast strike st rike such as the illinois central pride of the west protect and green leaf veins third those having a northeast and southwest strike as has tho the addie or whiskey vein the relative age of these veins cannot as a s yet be definitely determined but I 1 am inclined to think they are contemporaneous normal granite of the usual acidic type make up the dome shaped mass of the mountain many dikes of gran granite i te porphyry and diorite porphyry cut the granite grani 1 te several rhyolite dikes and some narrow dikes also cut the granite mass in a northeasterly direction the veins generally speaking are narrow rarely more than a few feet thick the quartz filling of these veins which are true fissures is massive and sometimes the typical comb structure is found the ore minerals consist of native gold argentite pyrite and some of the rarer rich silver minerals the sulphur ets are as a rule present in exceedingly cee small quantities the average values in gold and silver in the ore is as in weight gold values always predominating the pay chutes of ore may be several hundred feet long but are ordinarily less these veins are usually faulting fissures the throw always being small instead of the usual conversion to carbonates bo nates we find a nearly total absence or carbonates and a scarcity of and though there is some of it present in the altered rhyolite and a little in the granite there is none in the basalt in the case of most of the larger producing veins there seems to have been two consecutive processes of alterations one contemporaneous temp iraneous with the first filling of calcite calcite and barite anda and a second undoing the work of the former causing the extensive fi and ore depositing the veins on this mountain are long straight and sharply defined one wall only at a time being frozen by the up flow of ozithe ithe fissure filling the other wall always hav having ing a gouge or parting on it up to the present time we have government records that point to at least a production of from its quartz mines and mining has hardly begun there being only one company the sinker tunnel company which is doing any deep mining |