Show COLORADO RIVER GOLD 7 written for THE REVIEW by prof S H sault where rolls the colorado through majestic canyons and towering clefts the searchers after gold the treasure seekers are few where they should be numbered by the hundreds yes and even by the thousands for this is a region where the yellow metal abounds in abundance and li is easily recovered and yet it is a singular fact concertin concerning the gold bearing bars of the colorado river that so little is known regarding them or of the millions upon millions of gold contained in the auriferous gravel which forms the banks of this picturesque water course and which have been laying there for centuries awaiting the doming coming of enterprise and push which has been so quickly attracted to less favored localities this condition of affairs is probably due to the inaccessibility accessibility in of the river and partly because of the reports of prospectors who have been in the canyon and who have applied old time methods in the attempt to save the gold but the values are in what is termed faour golda and can caa only be recovered by modern methods and appliances and one of the drawbacks has been the difficulty in getting water up to the bars which as a general thing are some distance above the bed of the river this trouble in a measure being overcome by pumping either by hand horse or steam power the lone hand power as worked by jack butler and a few others is a slow process but these thebe placer miners are makin making good wages the method employed being the stripping of the pay streak or strata and then thed with the aid of horses or burros and scraper to dump the pay gravel on wb the screen fixed at an acute angle the dirt passing into a hopper the large rocks passing over the screen into the river when the hopper is filled a small slide in the bottom is opened the pump is started and the gravel and water passes over a 15 foot snipe which is simply a trough lined with burlap and by this crude process the yield of flour gold is from 3 to 5 a day to the man about 80 per cent of the gold rold contents of the gravel is saved in this way another method employed differs but little from the one above described but in this the men work in pairs one at the pump and the 5 other at the scraper better results are obtained in this way as the flow of water is continuous which insures a greater gold saving 0 s the pay streak on nearly all of the high bars bard will run from 85 cents to 2 to the cubic yard while some of the gravel runs as high 7 as 4 this is the general average on the california and mitchell bars the latter showing uniform values of about to alie the yard on this bar the mitchell flour gold goldamae aahl is in use and all on the river who can are now using this machine running it by hand this machine if properly cared for saves all the gold and is it a boon to the placer ag mak 4 M R N A 4 4 b A gs W if d A 44 q W 05 AZ P W J r R WI c N A 4 4 www C N all 2 A GRAND CANYON COLORADO RIVER miners of this section the writer who but recently made a visit to the placer diggings of the colorado river brought out with him eighteen dunces of fine gold the result of an eight day run and cleanup made by W F mitchell the inventor of the amalgamator which bears his name mr mitchell is working four men two teams and a three horsepower horse power steam engine the fuel feel for the latter being furnished by the drift wood with which the banks of the stream ar CONTINUED ON PAGE EIGHT COLORADO RIVER GOLD CONTINUED FROM PAGE FIVE strewn and the outlook for the the enterprise is regarded as being excellent one of the peculiarities of placer mining on the colorado is that on the high bars no values have been found at bedrock the pay streak lays from two to four feet below a course gravel in a cement adobe under which is found a white sand in which a color has never been discovered discover od as yet but when the surface is is stripped from the gold bearing gravel a fortune is in sight as is instanced by the success which has crowned the efforts of bill hay of loa who with three men and teams took out in ten months using a mitchell machine which was run by hand the opportunities for successful ful placer mining along the bars of the colorado river are now bein being realized by men 0 of means and by capital seeking safe and profitable investment and quite a number of mining experts are now investigating abing into the merits of that region in the interest of syndicates and individuals vi duals one of the recent arrivals there being that well known mining man and promoter sam godbe who is now looking the ground over for a party of salt lakers who are thinking of putting in dredgers on the low water bars of which there are hundreds and containing hundreds of millions of pay dirt at the little giant bar at halls Cros crossing sine a company of boston capitalists is putting in in a power plant the intention being to use a mitchell machine and in the near future it is believed that the company will be sending out gold galore as it is there in quantities to satisfy the cravings clavings cravi of the most avaricious miner the only thing necessary being to provide capacity and machinery which will recover the flour gold and that this can be done has been amply demonstrated during 11 the past year or two in operations along the river I 1 do not know of any placer miners on the colorado who desire to sell but I 1 am of the opinion that here is a good opportunity for men who desire to invest in a small power plant as the returns are sure and the profits big while the risks are small as a lit it tle tie prospecting will determine the existence and extent of the gravel deposits after which it is a mere matter of figuring to ascertain just how cheaply the gold can be recovered and while I 1 do not believe that any rich finds will be made there such as have been the chief attraction in some places still I 1 am of the opinion that this section will bea be a heavy and steady producer of gold and that many operators will make their fortunes there the denver owners of the gardner process for the leaching of copper ores visited portions of grand county last week for the purpose of looking that section over with the view of later on erecting a plant there for the reduction of copper ores this is the same process so successfully experimented with by thomas daly at his copper mine near lisbon treasurer W W chisholm of the cen tennial eureka drew a big check cheek to his own order last saturday the same callino calling for something over being the final p payment for the shares held by himself and associates in this bonanza mine which is i s now owned by the united states company of boston now operating the united states consolidated mines in bingham canyon this is one of the largest mining minina deals chronicled in utah for a score of years or more prof W S keyes the noted mining engineer and expert is in the city and report has it that he is to aid the mammoth ammoth Nf mining alining company in its forthcoming forthcoming forth comin 9 extra lateral right suit against the grand central company in gintic tintic tin tic district mr tr keyes it is stated is to have a corps of able assistants while the expert army on the side of the grand central will be headed by 0 A palmer of this city one of the best and most successful mining engineers in the west the case will be hard fought from the start |