OCR Text |
Show Iew Mystery Se is eom If Gold Ledg-es Found Near Rocky Bar Said to Have Been Worked Long Ago. STORY IS ROMANTIC Assays of Ore Give Values of $110 and $160 in Gold to Ton. Another of the. mystery mines of southnrn Idaho has been found. The search oarricii on for more than half a century hns been ended by the discovery discov-ery of the old-bearing lodges which yielded wealth to the Spaniards during tho early sixties of the nineteenth century. cen-tury. Such is the opinion of the men who recently organized the Old Spanish T0W71 Mines company to reopen the old workings found at Old Spanish Town, near Rocky liar, Idaho. Spanish Town derives its name from tho Spaniards, who, about 18G0, carried on extensive- crude quartz mining operations opera-tions along Elk creek, about four miles nurthoast of Rocky Bar. At the time the operations of the Spaniards attracted at-tracted little attention because all of the creeks in the immediate vicinity of Rocky Bar were proving very productive produc-tive in placer gold. In 1S64 the Spaniards Span-iards lei t the country and prospectors ventured in. The following year large boulders of high-gra.de gold quartz were found which yielded a.n average gold value of about 200 a ton, and the condition in which they were found indicated that they were not far removed from their place of origin as the edges were rough and showed no wear from contact or : weather. Noar by were a cabin and some arasta beds, around which were found small cubes which were approximately ; half gold. The search for the lost mine was begun. The story of the search is told briefly by William D. Ebbert of Idaho Falls, president of the Old Spanish Span-ish Town Mines company, as follows: Interesting History. On our property, immediately adjacent ad-jacent to the present mill site, wore five arasta beds which were used by the Spaniards. At the time the first prospectors entered the district it was known that some of the ore which supplied these crude mills came from what is now the Republic Repub-lic group, which adjoins us on the west. It was known also that some wras taken from the ground now owned by the Idaho Consolidated Mining company. All of these ores were transported by pack mules to 1 the arastas. The supply of ore cle- rived from these sources, however, would not have warranted the operation oper-ation of so many mills. For many years the main source of the ore was shrouded in mystery. No one was able to find the opening open-ing from which it was taken and it was only recently that the old J tunnel was discovered. The man from whom we acquired the prop- i erty decided to select an easy place ; to do his assessment work, and when he drove bis pick into what appeared to be the easiest place along the ledge to work he uncov- ! ered the old workings. I Even at present the extent of j the operations is unknown, but ; ! we have followed hundreds of feet j of old workings and some are filled in to such an "extent that we have i been unable yet to reach the end. i j The pld dump at the mouth of the I tunnel appears to have been washed away by the creek and the tunnel ! was filled in by the Spaniards be- ; fore they departed. I have walked by the tunnel entrance many times and until it was opened up I would have wagered almost anything that it was nothing more than a shallow or caved-in prospect hole. Around the arasta beds T have found inch to inch and a half cubes which were fully half solid gold, and other prospectors found similar cubes long before I went into the country. These cubes excited our curiosity, but we were unable i to ascertain from where they had . been taken. It is all simple enough now, as the vein we have opened up in the old workings bears the same kind of ore, but nothing like as rich as the samples we found on the dump. Work Is Begun. The recently organized company controls con-trols six quartz claims aoid Mr. Ebbert announces that negotiations are under way looking to the acquisition of five more quartz claims ami five placer claims. The ground has ben opened up on tho strike of the vein for a distance of 140 feet. The vein varies in width from two to twenty feet and assays taken on tho vein for a distance of sixty feet have yielded old values of $20to $2j to the ton, with occasional grab samples yielding around $150 to the ton. All of the product, however, is said to be of good milling grade. A new ledge has been discovered recently re-cently which appears to give promise of Yielding rich' values. Two assays gave values of $110 and $160 in gold to the ton. After prospecting the ledge another ten days two samples yielded assay values almost double the returns of the first two assays. A road has been built a distance of two and a half miles, a new bunkhouse has been erected and a mill is under construction carrying five 850-pound stamps with amalgamation table and ore feeder. Mr. Ebbert reports that supplies have been laid in for the winter win-ter and that an aggressive development campaign has been outlined for the coming year. |