| Show REPORT A HARD TRIP I Coloradoans Tell of Journey to Thunder Mountain FOUND GROUND FLOOR GONE Experienced Great Difficulty in Se curing Desirable Ground but Succeeded Suc-ceeded in Getting Two ClaimsNo Pla o for Poor Man They Say Although Al-though They Expect to See Some of Greatest Mines in Idaho Developed Devel-oped in District Say the Trip in Was Worse Than Klondike Trail After a trip that would have tested the nerve of the most hardy and resolute reso-lute W F nice of Victor Colo and C P McCarey of Denver arrived In this city yesterday from Thunder mountain moun-tain The story they lull takes away some of the glamour from the new gold fields Tne party was made up of three men George Smallwood of Missouri and the two named above They left Mackuy with three horses April 1st and were back at hat I placo at noon last Tuesday They were among the first to reach the gold district dis-trict this spring and are among the first to come out Mr Jllcrc Is a successful suc-cessful young miner of Colorado and Mr MoCarcy 1 Is hhi fathcrlnlaw a I man of GO years of age who lives in Denver Why did you go Into the district so early In he spring Mr Rice was asked For answer he said GJKOUND ILuuR GONE We wanted to bo In on the ground Jloor When we got there the ground floor was all gone We were in the district dis-trict eight days and succeeded in getting get-ting but two claims and those about two miles from the Dewey mine We staked thorn out I did the necessary work on them and came out That is the best we could do The ground Is staked out on all 1 Hides and It I I was I with the greatest difficulty we found ground that had not been taken up Many of the claims I were located last July many more were located on the snow in March The Holcomb outfit has located a great deal of territory Why did you not remain longer In the districtV was the next question Because we couldnt afford it was the reply I left Victor with UOO and a man could not remain long in Thunder Thun-der mountain on such a sum of money It Is a poor place for a poor man Living Liv-ing is fearfully high We were offered four 20 gold pieces for a 1 hundredweight hundred-weight of flour the day we arrived We were compelled to refuse It hecause we had to have the Hour ourselves But while we were there a mule train arrived with a stock of provisions and flour went down to 20 cents a pound LOOKS FOR GRID AT MINES In reply to the question as to what he thought of the district Mr Rice said I expect to see some of the greatest mines In Idaho developed in Thunder mountain but it Is the hardest hard-est thing in the world to get any reliable reli-able information about the place even while you arc on the ground One of our party got Into the Dewey mine and brought out a quantity of ore Some of this panned out very well and some of It did not pan out at nil Without With-out doubt the greatest liars in the world arc now In the Thunder mountain moun-tain district My opinion is I that all the gold ore Is a lowgrade proposition It Is going to require Immense capital to develop and work the mines and for that reason it will be a poor place for a poor man I look for great copper cop-per properties to be opened up there also A man who I think was telling the truth told me of a ninefoot ledge of copper ore to the north of the Dewey mine that would run from 15 to 35 percent per-cent In copper There are a number of properties being developed I the Thunder Thun-der mountain district and people are flocking In from all sides There were hilt fwf > nfvflvf mr > n In mir pimri whc11 we were there and not over l seventy five or one hundred In the entire district dis-trict Mr Rice was asked what he would take for his two clalmn lie said Ill take 500 apiece for them And when you divide 1000 up among three of us It docs not seem very good PitY for such a trip I did not expect to get rich out of the trip My intention was to secure some good claims and sell them because I know it takes money to develop a mine HAD HARD TRIP Speaking of the trip Mr Rice said We left Macikay April 1st and traveled as fast us we could We had three horses two pack animals and one horse to ride in turns At night we rolled UJ in our blankets and slept on the ground We aimed to have a lire whenever possible Ve had to wade the rivers and creeks often up to our waists In many places we could sec dead horses that had lost their footing and rolled down the hills There was danger almost every foot of the way and the snow was a fearful drawback Ve were tanned the color of Indians by the time we got back to Mackay Our line of travel was from Mackay to Challls then over the Morgan creek range then up Silver crook past the Three Forks and Liberty Pole over the Woodtlck range down to the Middle fork of the Salmon and up Marble creek for a distance of twentylive miles This last section was the worst of all The whole distance was ITS miles The people l at Mackay claim the distance to be 117 miles but we made the most careful inquiries all the way In anti all thc way back and we know that the distance Is ITS miles Mr Rice corrohorltes what has been said by others as to fish and game In tho country II We counted sixtytwo deer In two hours one morning while they were eating and before they had laid down for thc day Ve killed two on the trip Tho game warden dont get Into that country There Is I an abundance of fish in the streams and very fine fish they are too Salmon seem to be the most plentiful They travel all the way up there from the ocean WORSE TItAN KLONDIKE It would not be a hard trip for the late summer Mr Rice continued but it was a fearful trip for us Miners Mi-ners told us about the campHre in Thunder mountain that the t Klondike trip was nothing I compared 1 with i the Thunder mountain trip and they had tried both 1 can tell you I am mighty I glad to get back to civilization Why we forgot the day of the woelc up there and would debate about the camp as to what day It was SUGAR FOR A CAP Coming out Mr Rice said I lost my hat and hod to go two days bareheaded bare-headed Wo struck a shack on the route and I ashed the man In charge if he would sell me a hat U I havent got an extra hat he said but I have a cap that I got for hulf a dollar Ill give you a dollar for It1 I said No ho said yoUi money is no good to me but you can have the cap for a pound and a half of sugar1 fortunately we had plenty of sugar left and I gave him a couple of quarts for his cap Mr Rice and Mr McCarey will be in the city for a few clays and will then go on lo Grand Juimllon on heir way home The old 1 gentleman seemed to bo 1 none the worse for his trip and was out seeing the city with is 1 much enthusiasm en-thusiasm as a schoolboy Just out for vacation |
