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Show SEARCH FOR GOLD. Always a New Field to Replace tho Old One. The life of a gold mine Is uncertain and the problem of the future gold supply sup-ply of the United States, when some of the present day bonanzas shall have been exhausted, is one that attracts Iho attention of scientist and fortune hunter, says the Chicago Inter Ocean. It has been tho history of mining, since tho early discoveries of gold In California, Cali-fornia, that there Is always a new field to replace the old. nnd it Is the search for these new llelds that has mnde the life of tho gold seeker one of peculiar Interest. There Is, of course, no immediate danger dan-ger of mineral exhaustion In the great gold camps of Colorndo. California and Alaska, but at the snino time, and while development is showing the riches of tho discoveries there, the search for new bonanzas goes on and tho Western prospector Is ready to turn at the llrst Indication of an Important find to any new location that promises reward. In the current number of Cassler's Magazine the possible new gold fields recelvo attentoln. First of these is the Tonopah district In Nevada. toward which there has been a mild rush, although al-though nothing to be compared to the great gold scrambles in early California and later duplicated In Colorado and Alaska. Gold was discovered at Tonopah Tono-pah In 1900 by James L. Butler while encumped at nn old Indian spring. He found numerous outcropplngs of black line grained qunrtz. on which assavs inn from $S0 to 5600 to the ton. He located lo-cated several claims and when the news of the strike reached the outside world a large numher of miners sought tho new camp. The Butler group of eight claims Is the nucleus of the field uud at present 100 hoisting plants are in operation. op-eration. Since the discovery 25.000 tons of ore have been reduced to a bullion value of about $4,000,000, of which two-thirds two-thirds is silver and tho balance gold Government experts who have examined exam-ined the region declare that It Is unquestionably un-questionably the richest In gold and sliver that has been discovered In recent re-cent years. Thunder Mountain In Idaho attracted attention In 1001. but operations were only experimental until 1002 Then the discovery of the lode renewed Interest t...ivs,fcl uijiitio w uu mm worKeu placers years ago, and the possibilities of Idaho as a gold State have prompted experimental experi-mental openings upon sheep ranches from which vgold ore of high qualltv has been taken, v The Thunder Mountain country Itself Is almost Inaccessible and Its isolatoln and the dlfileultv of getting machinery to It are among the reasons why It has not become a center of greater Interest. Tho opening of gold deposits contained con-tained In Mount Baker, In Northwest Washington, brings another field to view, while the mining possibilities of Wyoming are so great that one Is at a loss to understand why development has been so long delayed. The new fields In Novuda, Idaho and Washington, while pronounced rich have not, however, produced discoveries discover-ies of startling dimensions, nnd the successor suc-cessor to the great gold mining camp of Cripple Creek Is not yet In view unlesa It lies In Alaska, to which torrltory tho gold seeker evidently looks with the most confidence for the future. |
