Show r P pt to t lp bt K K in K 10 bo in P K K n K K K K K K V KIP K KIP 0 bl apt ap KIP 10 K 0 M va ap ir WV 01 bp KIP K 0 0 KIP ap VP 0 bat K bp KIP ar ap ir K K ar SP bl it ap K M ap PM ap r q 9 X I 1 BEAUTIFUL LITTLE cottonwood CANYON X X X X KATHLEEN L GREIG IN FOUR TRACK NEWS X X n 5 gold gold gold gold bright and yellow hard and cold gold A curious charm lies in the word every one of us in his day has been a treasure seeker there was a time when if the sun shone after a shower we looked anxiously for a rainbow at the end of which we were certain lay a pot of goll gold if only i the grownups grown ups would let us go out to find it and sometimes when we were awakened by a bar ar of yellow moonlight falling over the bed we momentarily expected to see a fairy appear and off offer er to conduct us to an underground treasure chamber where precious gems and lumps of gold lay strewn around us thickly as hickory nuts after a frost the thought that gold is good to have and beautiful to look upon seems to be born with us it remains for the world to teach us how cold and hard it is for many years I 1 cherished the hope of some day aay seeing a great mine this desire fa in att 4 N AS cl t AM ga A ar L ok continental alta mines upper terminal of five mile aile aerial tram was so strong that in a man it doubtless would have developed into mining fever an insidious malady which leads men on to wander with their eyes fixed upon a willo will o the wisp the witch light of which seems to blind them to the thorns and rocks at their feet ha hardships T that would crush a man in any other walk of life seem but phantoms to the prospector nothing will shake his belief in his luck and indeed luck seems to have had more to do with the finding of great mines than anything else K R kasper in the salt lake minn mining review tells us that nick creeds dog while trying to dig out a woodchuck dis covered the wonderfully rich galena which resulted in making a poor prospector who had no money no credit and no friends a millionaire and that the discovery of the great silver king mine in british columbia in 1890 was due to a few horses in halls party that got lost and which some boys were hunting while looking for the horses the boys discovered some float which led lea to the discovery of the great mine after halls party consisting of twelve men had spent an unprofitable summer prospecting in that region my opportunity to see a famous mine came one day while staying in salt lake city near which up the beautiful little cottonwood canyon lies the town of alta once famous the world over aal the scene of wild excitement for the precious metal found in such quantities in the emma and flat flagstaff staff mines seemed to upset the equilibrium of even the wisest of miners to say nothing of what it did to the rest the great emma mine was discovered in the year 1868 and after the town of alta had produced about the fever began to die down and men blinded by b what they had found rushed away to other F 0 a 74 0 7 continental alta aines aerial Tr aramay amay columbus con aill in foreground parts of the wonderful west hoping to d discover s even greater finds and so the mighty rocks of the little cottonwood canyon were left to guard the treasure that remained and brood in peace over the strange fever that tred treasure sure had awakened in the hearts ot of men the great peaks of the wasatch range must have looked wonderingly down upon the mad excitement of the foolish humans who rushed frantically about in search for other entrances to the treasure trove in the breast of the canyon but this solitude was not left unbroken for very many years early in the twentieth century the continental alta mine at alta became one of the mining industrial surprises of the west men having become convinced that great treasure still awaited them at alta began work with all the mod ern improvements which the men of an earlier time lacked it was just after sunrise en a perfect october day that we started out to see the old camp of alta and the new continental alta niffie mine alta is si situated about thirty miles from salt lake city about half of this journey was made by rail Arri arriving vint at the town of sandy a pair of vigorous horses was engaged and the journey up the little cottonwood begun for a few miles we were constantly reminded of the sense of fitness displayed in naming the town we had just left indeed sandy was no misnomer clouds of dust enveloped us blotting out all but a glimpse of the blue blud sky directly overhead but soon we came to that great crevice between the peaks of the wasatch range known as the little cottonwood canyon here we reached a rock bed road and the air became as crystal invigorating as wins wine and fragrant with the breath of dew drenched flowers and foliage on either hand stupendous cliffs some almost perpendicular and gleaning white as alabaster others brown and an 1 gently sloping and overgrown with metal colored sagebrush that shone like copper ornaments orna menis on an indian maidens breast after a time the road became so steep that tha the horses barely crept along behind us the th e valley began to take on the hazy blin tints of distance while far up in front of us the morning sun fell feli on towering peaks covered with virgin snow gleaming like the pearly tints of an ocean shell sometimes the trail led through a perfect wilderness ot gold for the touch of early autumn had fallen allen upon the canyon in that wonderful golden atmosphere with tile the yellow glitter and gleam around us one was made to think thin with sudden pity of the men seeking for treasure in the darkness under the earth now and then a glacier stream astrea in came tum bling down from the snow cov coterel e re a he heights 1 8 and forced its AS way over the rocks and ran singing along beside the trail and often bending aside the golden branches we saw pools so clear and still that one was involuntarily unta rily forced to halt like a pilgrim before a holy water font up up we went mile after mile until at last the world seemed very far behind and what a noisy dusty old world it seemed looked back upon from those alpine heights of the little cottonwood it was almost noon when the worldly pound of hammer and saw fell upon our ears some carpenters were working on 0 n a building belonging to the mine and singing right merrily as they worked and no wonder for the place was a very eden behind the little wooden building a mighty white cliff that seemed like a marble stairway into the blue from its crevices hung trailing vines scarlet carlet as blood drops and here and abid there patches of gold tinted shrubbery clung to its sides like otar atar dust one man paused in his work some day this place will be a city he said it named yet but some day it will be a city and in the eyes of every one of them shone the look we see so often out there in n that wonderful country the dream of tomorrows greatness A after after fter resting the horses we journeyed on to our destination arriving there the first object to claim attention and envy was the great reat aerial tram the lar largest larest est in utah on this tram the ore is started on a five mile journey to the mill bearing in mind that while it too took c about half a day to climb up to alta the journey downward was so rapid so full of jolts and bumps and hairbreadth hair breadth escapes from ling over the rocks altogether the memory of it is mingled with envy of the ore gliding smoothly down into the valley on that aerial train near the upper terminal of the tram are the important buildings of the conti cental alta mine my most vivid recollection of them is a big spotless clean mess room roo m with long benches and tables on one or which stood a bushel of freshly made doughnuts they tempted us and we fell upon them presently the manager of the mine appeared with candles and mackintoshes mackintosh es and all was in readiness for our entrance into the mine on we went straight into the heart ot of the great rocks towering a thousand leet feet above us until the light of tile the entrance became buta but a tiny star then faded altogether the weird under earth silence seemed to creep up close and grasp the beating of tile the heart tile the imagination he be coming more intensified reached out into the glowing bloom blooming ng world above us the glorious bright world outside with the noonday sun upon it here and there in glowed the star of a miners the darkness flickering light sometimes a car loaded with ore glided past on its journey into the world to the smelter and from thence on until at last perhaps the ore becomes a coin of the realm and that is how it comes that since the wonderful journey up between the peaks of the wasatch range I 1 to the treasure chambers of alta one treasure seeker often looks upon a coin of silver or gold with eyes seeing something beyond its intrinsic value proud mountain peaks lifting their heads into the sky huge mighty and free more gorgeously majestic than the kings whose coffers are filled with the treasure that once was theirs the mining einings review takes pleasure in I 1 T h 0 AL MA W wow ar Continental Alta mines in ore body sixty foot wide reproducing the above from the pen of kathleen L greig because ii if is a literary gem and because it so beautifully describes one of the most enchanting canyons to be found in the majestic wasatch range in this article passing mention is made of the continental alta mine and as this is one of the great enterprises in the mining line in little cottonwood canyon we feel that in giving space to a reproduction of miss greigs greegs glowing tribute to the scenic beauty of little cottonwood a few words should be added in the way of a description of what the continental alta is doing in this the home of the ancient and modern bonan zas at the present time the company has in commission a concentration mill of a daily capacity of tons the mill being oper abed by direct di application of water power the power plant being modern in all its details the mill has its own electric light plant a slimes department and a sawmill for cutting mine timbers for transportation onterial on aerial tram to the mine the mill is most economically arranged and in its operation requires but four men on a shift the cost of milling including drying of product is forty six cents per ton the company operates a five mile aerial tram train of most modern pattern having a carrying capacity of twenty tons of ore per hour down while about five tons of up freight including mine timber lumber general supplies etc are often sent up daily this system isso is so nearly automatic that it is operated by four men including the lineman and the saving on up ui freight alone pays the entire cost of operating the milling ores of the continental alta occur in large bodies from twenty to sixty feet wide and are so easily extracted that the daily output is three tons to each underground employee the mine is worked entirely through tunnels employs no machinery and is finely timbered henry af crowther of salt lake city is president of the company and general manager |