Show lei wo lei iwo iwo wilelle liel wa lei wo 1 I wl wo M wl of wa q i 11 AN OLD CAMP THAT HAS S Ad advocate st george atah 9 1 i already there are a great many people in washington county who know comparatively little of the past history of silver reef notorious the world over for the richness of its ores and from the fact that its discovery marked a new epoch in mining operations it being the first time that silver was known to exist in a sandstone formation silver float was first discovered in 1866 by john kampell Kem pell and while he is credited with being the first discoverer he was unable to trace the ledge and it remained for elijah thomas one of the early mormon pioneers and a member of the mormon battalion who was present at the discovery of gold in california to make the first locations he having found chloride of silver in paying quantities army soon on ground assays essays of the ore gave such fabulous returns that an army of men from california were scon on bo ground an armed force I 1 under the direction of a man named hoffman took forcible possession of 0 mr thomas locations and forbid him coming on the ground on penalty of death sult suit was planted in the circuit court at beaver against the invading horde and judgment was finally awarded plaintiff and either an injunction was granted or was conditioned upon the payment of the regulation fees however this may have been the outcome of the matter was that mr thomas and his backers went broke and for the lack of capital to go farther with the proceedings forfeited his title to the ground at the expiration pi ration of the statutory life of his location notices while the property was in litigation mr thomas refused a tender of for the ground his price being it is the old story he dropped the piece of meat in his mouth to catch at its reflection in the water but then the ground was rightfully his and he doubtless could riot see ee how he could be bunched out of it he still resides in leeds and is probably the oldest man in washington county his principal income being a united states pension of 12 per month barbee on scene but to return n to our story the ground located by elijah thomas was on what is known as the white reef and while the incidents above were being enacted another role was was being played in the drama attracted by the reports of discoveries and preceding the california company W T barbee a prospector and nd practical mining man arrived on on the scene in 1875 making i leeds his headquarters he bomm commenced en edd prospecting the hills about silver reef and on what is known as tecumseh hill he found a piece of petrifaction onto which the native silver was sticking like globules glo bules of pine gum he returned to salt lake and reported what he had found and was fitted out with an assay outfit and full camp equip page by walker bros retracing his steps to silver reef he located the tecumseh hill for himself and backers then walker bros sent out an expert to report on the property who condemned the entire proposition because it was in a sandstone formation by his advice walker bros made mr barbee a present of all their interests te it was barbee who did the first practical mining in the camp and marketed the first ore which was sent to pioche for treatment the first mill was erected by the california people who formed what was known as the leeds company and the plant was located behind the white reef then about 1877 followed the christie company who put up a small plant below leeds and one near toquerville hunter goss came next and erected a mill with water power plant down on the virgin river later they were bought out by the stormont company which also purchased the small plant below leeds mr barbee sold the tecumseh hill to the christie company and with the proceeds commenced the development of the white reef erecting a mill to treat his ores which is now the property pro of the brundage mining milling company and has just completed one of its periodical runs on ore furnished by the chlo riders the christie company also erected a plant and was one of the principal sharers in the general prosperity for some time the miners all resided at leeds but later silver reef was laid out and an aggressive little community soon sprang up the population at one time exceeded 1200 and votes were polled this was in the old days when there was bitter strife between the liberal and peoples parties p and it wa thought advisable to annex a portion of kane county to this in order to prevent the liberals from controlling the county election accordingly according ay a strip of territory carrying 9 with ft toquerville was transferred prosperous times those were prosperous times farmers found a ready market for everything they pr produced hay being an especially remunerative crop but the blow dealt to silver by the na national tio fial cong congress fess in 1873 began to make itself felt the price of the white metal steadily declined until there ap was scarcely any profit to tle the operator the th surface workings were ere all exhausted too to and in order to extract values from the lower levels liebal reavy y pumps puffins lia had d to he be em aloyed which added ma materially serially teri ally to the cost of mining the mills were imperfect also and failed to save all the values and III ait those days of bf waste waife it was thought un able to attempt to work on such small mar anar gins of profit as the modern plants are do nig the result was that one of the companies after an another oiher closed down and left until silver reef seemed to be a thing oi of the past houses and furniture were sold almost ar for a so song ng and the residents sought employment 61 elsewhere s ethere today not more than 6 a dozen doten houses remain to mark where a pretentious town of comfortable if temporary frame cottages once stood effi not extinct though practically deserted its mines filled with wafer timbers rotting away ani and expensive plants and machinery rusting 7 away life was not quite extinct A few miners termed chlo riders remained and leasing the properties from the old companies commenced taking out the high grade stringers of ore from the most accessible points this has continued from year to year some of the chlo riders making big pay when a rich streak is encountered the tol following lowing are at present engaged in chlo riding arthur nichols and nichols bros albert hartman angell and hartley W D newton cobb harris for a number of years james andrus sons who succeeded the barbee walker company in the management of their plant treated the ore furnished by the chlo riders on a royalty basis also keeping a supply store for their convenience about a year and a half ago they sold to the brundage mining and reduction comp company anyo which has since acquired title to a number of other mining properties which bid fair when developed to become dividend payers among their properties are the following barbee mine old leeds mine jumbo mine free coinage and the six side line claims it is the intention of the present owners to put on a force of men in the near future and develop all their properties and should the price of silver reach 60 cents per ounce again some lively times are promised barbee walker mill the old barbee walker mild mill since it las has fell into the hands of the brundage company has been greatly improved and brought up to date by the expenditure of about the amalgamation process is employed and the plant has a capacity of fifty tons per day A new penstock has hag been installed which furnishes forty horsepower it is equipped with five sta stamps eight dight pans and four settlers a new wake blake crusher ct usher two gcoy retorts a ne new w assay office fully supplied with all modern conveniences in short it is now a practically ab nb new w and modern plant and works admirably only three to four runs per year are now being made covering about thirty days to the run most of the ore being contributed tri buted by chlo riders but as much of the companas comp anys ground is as yet practically untouched better times are hoped for T L brundage of cleveland 0 is president of the operating company frank of cid cleveland Veland is vice pers ident and J A crecelius ce is the local manager old tailing dumps As we have already stated the mills by which the silver ores were treated were im perfect and allowed quite a percentage of the values to escape with the tailings behse were reservoir ed and in time formed huge dumps which assay anywhere from 4 to 8 ounces in silver to the ton A year ago a company headed by thomas ferge son erected a leaching plant for the purpose of treating these tailings by the cyanide process the plant was a good one and cost eight to ten thousand er a fair trial it was found that the tailings contained too much copper and base to permit of profitable handling the aya nide solution costing almost as much as the silver was worth when extracted still a denizen of leeds is authority for the state ment that the company would not have gone to the wall had not a flock of sheep come along and drunk up all their cyanide solutions we are convinced that it is only a matter of time until these immense piles will all be handled however the values are there and only await one more triumph of american ingenuity to devise an economical means of extracting them millions yet there in some localities the earth has been Z completely honeycombed honey combed and the surface has sunk in but there are other veins in abundance that have been scarcely touched unquestionably there are yet millions of dollars worth of silver slumbering in the bos bosom om of mother earth in the mines of silver reef and in all probability mining will yet be conducted on as large a scale as when the camp was enjoying its pal days |