Show the story of the blue jay the blue jay consolidated mining company was an incorporation upon a group of three patented mining claims in the washington mining district in beaver county utah forty miles north of modena and more than fifty miles southwest of frisco on the san pedro los angeles salt lake railroad the blue jay is said to have been trail over the mountains on one occasion a was hauled to provo a distance of about three hundred dundr ed miles which was at that time the nearest shipping point all these early shily shipments r ants paid well some of the ore running into the thousands of ounces in the white metal and a shovel full of ore recently taken by manager teas V al X F 4 SILVER ORE one EAST exar DRIFF BLUE JAY MINE LEAD CHIMNEY COPPER ORE WEST DRIFT JAY located twenty five years ago by a pioneer prospector who disposed of his title to two flock masters misters alex wood wood and a mr mcclellan W who ho worked it with several different shafts to a depth of from fifty to feet taking out silver lead ore of a remarkably rich character the veins were worked the rich pockets and streaks and the richest ore selected by hand sampling and carried to market on the backs of that constant prospectors friend the burro to frisco a distance of af about sixty miles via dale from an old dump was assayed and showed a value of over ounces silver and yet this ore was not considered of sufficient value to pack to market by the burro route old time miners along the utah ne vada line are authority for the statement that alex wood disposed of his sheep interests and having acquired a rich heritage from his labors in the blue jay sold it and retired to the east to enjoy the reward of his hardships and privation the name he gave the property was from the large flocks 13 of blue jay birds that made their home in that neighborhood the year round and which give cheer to the weary miners even to this time while hp he sits basking in the rays of the evening sunset as it sheds its lustre 0 on the peaks of a thousand mountains in view in both utah and nevada the present company bought the three patented claims from the blue jay consolidated soli dated mining company and incorporated under the name of the blue jay extension mining company ltd lt d and tracing the huge ledge more in the character of a dyke than a vein for a great distance up and down the mountain 1 slope covered it for feet with claims making a group of fifteen full size mining claims feet each besides filing on springs of water nearby for all mining and milling purposes the whole of the group and for that matter the whole of the mountain side Is covered with a beautiful and healthy growth of juniper cedar and pinyon pine trees that will furnish fuel as long as men will wield an all axe in its cutting the mountains on which this property is located are named the indian peak range after the gif w 1 IK 1 A walt avaca Av aCT JP fe jr s r awaa ea aja 4 7 T 6 mi r N tf i eky T aser ryby y itei b le BK L sa SHAFT HOUSE OF THE BLUE JAY MIN MINE E tribe of indians inhabiting them a few of whom still make their abode there and the mine is about three miles maies to the northwest of the base of indian peak a landmark known and used to guide travellers trav ellers from afar its elevation is nearly feet the mine being about feet above sea level and the climate is so cheering and inviting that miners prefer to remain at the mine for months than to even go down into the valley railroad points nearest them on the inception of we tue present company mr L H beason one of the ablest mining journalists in the western states then on the staff of the mining review made a visit to the mine to inspect the workings and examine the formation as well as the plan of organization which is on the operative cooperative co plan and which he described at that time in these words the shareholders of this company are strong advocates of co operation cooperation they believe it is one of the strong points which will crown their efforts with success their plan is a novel one and if all other companies carrying on prospecting and development t work conducted their affairs along the same lines there would be fewer failures recorded in mining the operating expenses of the mine are kept up by the levy of an assessment of one fourth of a cent per share every sixty days upon all the stock of record every person who acquires stock is advised of this plan so that he knows just what to anticipate in fact every shareholder expects to pay his pro rata when it becomes due so that the treasurer of the company can safely be counted on as having a certain amount of funds in his possession at these stated intervals to be expended in the development of the mine these assessments are to be kept up until such time as the mine can pay its own way then they are to cease out of a total of shares set aside as treasury stock about shares have been taken up on the plan outlined A block of the remaining treasury stock is to be placed in the same manner no consideration is asked except that the new share holders will be expected to pay the amount of the assessments that have been levied of one fourth cent per share each the manage force of from two to eight men have been engaged from these thes 0 assessments 0 of one fourth of one cent each every sixty days in the neighborhood of a thousand feet of work has been done including drifting cross cuts sinking and upraises up raises the greater portion being in ore some high grade and in large bodies for instance in the east drift on the level an ore bolly body being encountered t arc d a crosscut cross cut was driven fourteen feet a was sunk twelve or fifteen feet an all upraise was made ag feet and all being in ore that will carry from 20 to 40 value per ton and known to ext extend en d up to and connect with the rich ore in the bottom of the upper shaft that was never worked below the level work was then suspended here and renewed on the west drift which was being driven to intersect the big north and south cross fissure with the huge east ea stand and west ledge while this ore shoot should have been encountered several feet before it was found that the dip of the veins were at such an angle that it required more than forty feet further drifting before it was broken into while this north and south fissure measures from eight to twenty feet on the surface and ana shows copper diring bearing b manager teasdale was hardly prepared for tie the mining review has mentioned in previous issues the reports of the new strike were of such a cheering character as to cause a representative of this paper t to make a visit to the mine with the result that he came hop home e with the flat statement that manager P X A J agn A VA IT avi 5 J fa BOARDING ment of the property is safe and reliable nothing in the order of stock jobbery is tolerated but the officers and shareholders work together for one common good with the idea of making a mine and demonstrating the power of operation cooperation co after two years during which time a teasdale has a mine but what aidi kind of I a mine he is not ready to stake his Judg judgment met in the east drift the thousands thousand s of tons of ore already blocked out as well as alost ano of the large tonnage on the dumps is A concentrating silver lead ore carrying some gold values but in the new s strike at lover depth in the west drift an entirely different character of ore was encountered being a fine smelting smelling sm elting copper iron ore with an average value of 11 per cent copper 6 ounces silver and nearly 1 gold the better grade going 20 per cent copper 22 ounces ounce s silver and gold being so highly impregnated with iron which is characteristic of all the ore of the district makes it an especially desirable product for smelting smelling sm elting the ore shoot thus encountered reaches to the blowout blow out on the surface which on the line of dip will measure fully feet while it has been demonstrated nearly fifty feet below while chile the ore bodies have been proven to widen with depth they also hold or increase in value and when water is je reached ached a rich ore will surely come in for it is a rule that copper ore of this character Is always richer with the red metal at and below water level and while water has not yet been reached the bottom of the lower workings are becoming wet at places previous to this new strike a proposition was being considered by tl betm cigany ci pany yany to erect a concentrating mill anig new strike has proven that it is not yet tying to 10 ef erect act reduction works for it now seems seema evident that with depth the character or me ore may change entirely and become a smelt ing copper ore in fact it i is s believed by some that when the water level is reached it will be found that the copper has been concentrated down by water alteration and become richer there with easy shipping facilities a splendid shipping product Is now ready to be mined from both the east and west drifts but being nearly forty miles from rail and having a mile rail haulage it is deemed advisable by the management for the time being to let the ore remain blocked autan out in the mine and carry on exploratory and development work the very little assessment on the stock realizes such a small working fund as to materially hinder the progress the management would like to make but as a censure administered to the management the writer wishes to say that almost all claims made by it fall short of the splendid showing actually made in the mine however the conservatism of the management is quite in keeping with the plan of organization and operation and while the company is not heralding every new strike with a brass band the blue jay is being watched by the entire camp of stateline Stat eline as well as frisco milford and other places including enthusiasts in salt litke lake city the company is officered by frank sugden president george E teasdale vice president and manager L H gray secretary and treasurer all being residents of salt lake city and these with H A silver and charles charges ziegler flegle form the board of directors we unde understand that mr sugden Is traveling 14 1 europe dt at this time when ma manager nager Teb teasdale sdale first visited the property of the blue jay he was impressed with the splendid surface showings rich values and magnitude of the veins which he states surpass any he had ever seen before or since in any camp of any state at that time he was convinced that it was destined to become a great big rich producer and his judgment was not in error and as he has uncovered the different different bodies of ore he is more firmly convinced of the correctness of his first conclusion and the new strike wherein he h e encountered the big chimney of 30 to 50 ore at the intersection intersect on of the cross veins has proved the merits of the mine owing to the peculiar character of the formation or rather I 1 the many characters there is hardly another mine in all this intermountain ter mountain country which will from its hidden vaults an equal number of beautiful and valuable souvenir samples mr teasdale stated to the mining review representative that if he had a cabinet four feet wide and eight feet high he could easily fill it with specimens from the blue jay mine with no two alike which would rival in attractiveness many cabinets of valuable mineral specimens gathered from many states far and near the writer is convinced that his utterance is not only possible but most probable pro baUle baIlle for the crystal curio caverns opened in the workings it would seem of themselves would supply the choice selections these caverns are invariably small but rare in their beauty and sparkling whiteness the country rock is lime and granite the hanging walls of the veins being grey granite blue and white lime forming the foot later an ore sack partially filled with some of the higher grade of ore from the new strike brought in by our representative assayed 28 2 per cent copper 36 ounces silver and gold these samples were not especially selected but gathered from among the better grade of ore 1 in n the new strike and again shows at lea it one third better than the management claims for it and there is lots of it too |