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Show THK SKVIKR VALLEY. Couunuuiualod. To adventurous aud sagacious prospectors pros-pectors and investors who prefer to take time by the forelock, and to skirmish in advance of oncoming railways rail-ways the mountain slopes on either side of the middle and upper Sevier valley, iu Utah, present great attractions. Tho secretary of tho interior, in his report for 1800, refers to the mining claims made by Mormon hunters and prospectors in tho Ohio mining district, west of what is now tho town of Marysvale, in Piute county, on the Sevier river, as "valuable discoveries of rich argentiferous ore," and to the locality lo-cality as "a continuation of the geological geolog-ical formation which holds the rich silver sil-ver ores of White Pine, in Nevada." As early as 1870, rive tenderfeet, residents resi-dents of Chicago, (the writer being one) sent an agent to spy out this camp and to report with samples of the ore. His first letter is dated April 15, 1870. He writes, among other things: . "This mining district differs from most others in the clearness with which the leads may bo traced, both wall rocks cropping out from one to twenty-live feet above the ground for several thousand thou-sand feet, with traces of them for several sev-eral miles further, so that should the ore pro7e rich in qualit-, there can be no doubt as to the quantity." Some 7000 or 8000 feet of mining properly was purchased, and with, a fatality which has ofteu attended the operations of greenhorns in mining enterprises, expensive and successful efforts were made to get the cart before the horse. A stamp mill with a capacity ca-pacity of twenty tons a day was built before the mines were properly opened. But the financial blunder, disastrous as it was to the company, served to draw attention to the splendid possibilities possibil-ities of the district. "He serves best who stands and waits," applies with force to the first arrivals in a promising mining district. Hasty and injudicious expenditures often diseourago first investors aud, in the reaction, injure the the district. Among the eight or tenmining properties prop-erties in which the aforesaid company obtained interests was the "Bully Boy" and "Webster," now owned by Salt Lake parties and which, in the not distant future, are probably destined, under the same management, to supplement the famous Ontario aud help make Utah prominent in the arena of the world as a great producer of the royal metals. This property is now owned and patented by It. C. Chambers Cham-bers of Salt Lake city, and associated capitalists. Of this vein, our agent wrote in 1870: "This is a mammoth lead between wall rock which, in some places, crop out as high as 00 feet above tho outside surface. A tunnel is started in 25 feet, showing a solid mass of black and white quartz with rich pay streaks through it. From one of these I send you a sample. Should the black and white rock in this vein prove profitable to work, it would employ two or three mills, as the ease with which the rock could be got out and tho large quantity is really wonderful." wonder-ful." Before me are printed reports made in 187:j by R. C. Chambers and Johu T. Boyd, the California mining expert. From them it appears that the developments develop-ments ou this champion vein of Utah do not exceed 125 feet in depth. A cross cut . at the bottom of the shaft shows an average width of the vein of about fifty feet. An average lot of 1090 pound's taken from the whole mass of ore extracted ex-tracted from the "shaft and drifts gave an average assay of $27.07 gold and $38.51 silver, or a total coin value of $115.68 per ton of 2000 pounds. This claim, notable on account of its size, is much below the quality of ore from scores of properties in the district. When the great Ontario fails through extreme depth, or any cause, to pay ils imperial dividends this southern Utah mine will astonish the world with its hundreds of clanging stamps and tho Ohio mining district with its scores of producing and profitable mines will have a world-wide reputation. reputa-tion. The multiplied mineral, agricultural agricul-tural and grazing advantage and facilities facil-ities of the Sevier valley and surroundings surround-ings furnish material for extended newspaper articles of interest to newcomers new-comers in Utah. When the railways now builUiug and heading in that direction direc-tion are completed, no part of this rich and beautiful territory will offer greater attractions to "settlers, investors and tourists than that favored section. j J. F. B. -j |