OCR Text |
Show such heavy transportation charges. It has paid- well for its owners, however. Ipxact records of the production and dividends divi-dends have been destroyed, but it is estimated esti-mated at from $10,U00,000 to 510,000,000. That was thirty-one vears ago. Today, To-day, again the hills resound with .the noise of the hammer and saw and the ring of the pick against rock. The hum of activity asain permeates the place, and a short time hence mav again witness wit-ness scenes even greater than in the days of old, for the Silver King mine is revived; re-vived; the thousands of tons of ore left on the dumps, impossible in old days to be milled and hauled to smelter with commercial profit, are to he turned into money, and the mine is being unwaterrd and developed under modern scientific mining methods. The Silver King Mining- company of Arizona has been reorganized, reor-ganized, and preparations are at present being made to develop on a larger acale than ever. Experimental Mill Built, In October, 19lSt twenty-ton experimental experi-mental mill was installed, "and for several sev-eral months past this mill has been turning out at the rate of about 100,000 net per annum. The ore that was run through was from the 250 and 400-foot levels, and the average has been in the neighborhood of $40 a ton, mostly in silver, sil-ver, but carrying additional values of over 4 per cent copper and some little gold. Recent always made by leading metallurgists in Nw York have run as high as 3535 ounces of sliver and 3 2.96 per cent copper. The management plans to erect 'the first 250-ton mill. On the basis of the ore extracted since the mine resumed operations, the management believes that a 50-ton mill will show somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 per day net profit, without allowing for any of the bonanza strikes which are a feature of Silver Kinar. For example,' on the 400-foot 400-foot level, the ore is of the same character char-acter as that found by the original discoverer dis-coverer of the mines, and which was mistaken mis-taken for lead, because it "flattened out ' very much like lead. In looking over the records of the exhibit at New Orleans Or-leans exposition in 1885, it is found that the specimens of native silver extracted from Silver King ran from 22,000 to 28,000 ounces per ton, and it would not surprise anone connected with the company com-pany to find similar deposits, now that the property if, c rice more hi active operation. oper-ation. Magazine of Wall Street. v SILVER RISE AWAKENS 7 FAMED ill! Ml Queer Black Rock of Base Appearance Proves to Be High-grade Ore. Thousands of Pounds of Silver Are Taken from Glory Hole. The lights shone brightly in Florence that night. At Jim Sam's place there were sounds of merriment, the clink of glasses, and the talk was high and joyous. joy-ous. Above the din and the noise, the wall of Dad's violin rose shrill and high. The boys were1 all in town from the hills and the ranches ; there was gold on the bar, and the drinks were plentiful plenti-ful and strong. " The little old man who had held down one corner of the bar all the evening, I drinking quietly and plentifully, suddenly 'L exhibited signs of life and much exhil-f exhil-f aratlon. Reaching Into his pocket, he strewed the bar with rock, a funny black rock which sparkled and glinted in the dusky, smoky light like some strange jewel. Hock, which, when smasheiL crumpled and flattened smoothly, instead of breaking tike other stone. The boys gathered round and examined the "funny rock," then laughed loud and long. "It was nothing but lead common, humble lead," they said, "and worth nothing. Where had he found it?" "Oh, over on a little brown hill on the Stoneman grade, above Picket Post." "Well, it was hard luck, but the find amounts to nothing lead is not worth anything." Several specimens. however, found their way furtively into the pockets of the lavishing ones; and the little old man, who said his name was Sullivan, who had worked on the building of the Stone-man Stone-man grade, joined in the conviviality of the .evening, the incident and the rock forgotten In the joys of the occasion. Great Strike Made. One day, some time later, a lone prospector pros-pector wended his way down the tortuous windings of the Stoneman grade about five miles above the Picket Post. It wtis close to midday: the prospector halted his little train and prepared for hfs noonday meal. trpon making ready for the resumption of his journey, he discovered that one of the animals had strayed to the top of a "little brown hili," close beside the trail. Ascending the rise, the man noticed many specimens of a familiar looking "funny black rock," lying profusely scattered about on the top of the hill. Examining the same, lie rxhibt.;d signs of great excitement . and hastily packing his 1 rain, pushed rapidly over the trail town to-wn rd P'lorence. The prospector was Tsnac Copeland, one of the men who had laughed so loudly over the "black lead" in Jim R :tms pbico that nKTit. The funny black rock hnd been assaved and had proved to be hkick eulphide of silver, high in values aud rich '-in the precious met til. Silver King- Mine Staked Out. A short time later March 22. 1875 -four men. Isaac Copelard and three of bis lU'K'hrnrs from the Gial, near Florence Flor-ence Her, .in m'n Rpgau. Charles G. Ma?on and W'lUapi G. fong appeared nr" in at t he tt le brown hill, and thre p'nkod off -the location notice, for what l,- tor proved to be one of the greatest 0 silver mines the country has ever pro-tli'fed, pro-tli'fed, the famous Silver King. On the same day, tiie Silver King was rf'orded in Florence upon the first page of th "pining record book in the recorder's record-er's offVe of Pinal county, and immedi-fiteh' immedi-fiteh' beneath it was inscribed the notice of 1he location of the Hub mining claims, mad" by n:u- William Tut tie, an oldtimer of the district. Thf Plub claim now t'tands above the shaft, out of which the great present-day producer, the Maema. is mining her enormous deposits of hifj;h-erade copper and silver ores. The four locators of Silver King sta' tcd active development work upon the property. They found that the top of the little brown hill was literally Impregnated Im-pregnated with hi eh -grade ore of great v-ihie. The ore deposits took the form of a great funnel, about 120 feet across one way by ninety feet the other, and extended downwards in circular form, gradually narrowing until a depth of 125 feet, the pit . had narrowed to a small point. By this t i nie, however, thousands of dollars wo"th of ore had been mined andhipped by the owners. Efforts Rewarded. Firm In their belief that they had discovered dis-covered a real mine, the four men continued con-tinued their efforts and were rewarded with rich returns. It was necessary at that time to haul the ore from tho mine by mulo teams across the desert sands ns far as Yuma, a distance of several hundred miles. So rich was the ore, that even with the large expense entailed In tills haul, the ore brought largo returns. re-turns. It Is said that the cost of hauling haul-ing from the mine to Yuma alone amounted to $120 a . ton, the total cost over S200 a ton. At Yuma the ore was loaded on cars and shipped to San Francisco to the smelters in that city. In those early (kiys the smelters paid only about two-thirds two-thirds on the assay value of the ore shipped, so that ' tiie owners received, after deducting mining and hauling costs, added to smelter depreciation, about one-third one-third of the value of the ore in profits. T P'lll, on the Silver King, so high was f tiie ore in silver, immense profits were m made on tiie tonnage shipped. j Mine Changes Hands. On June 30, l S7t, Isaac Copeland sold his interest in the mine to Charhs Mafon. and William Long sold his rpinrter to Benjamin Ileagen. On January 9, 1S7i, Charles Mason sold his interest to Colonel James M. Harney of Now York City, and on May 5, 1S77. Colonel Harney and James Rcagen deeded their interests to the corporation. Fp to the time the company was incorporated, in-corporated, it is said, t hat ore to the n mount of about $2,000,00" had been snipped from the mine. The main Ore bod was found in tlw King shaft, which was punk at a distance of about 10" feet from the Old Olory hole of "little brown li ill," where the original surface discovery was made. The ore occurred in the shaft in the shape of a chimney, as though blown upwards towards tiie surface of t he earth during long past upheaval of nature. Sullivan Returns. One day In IS SI an aged man came slowly Into the settlement at Picket Post, and with great interest wandered about l lie Stiver King mine, w lie re twenty stamps were night a::d day turning silver sil-ver from the lock. The man was ;:v!-dently ;:v!-dently in need of help and soon went to the office of the company, where he applied ap-plied for v erk. which was given him. When ask.-T his nam--, he replied it was Sullivan, an-.; thu t he had been In the country before. This was Sullivan, the original discoverer of the mine, who hid c'isappeared after that joyous night at Cim Sam's place 011 the river bank at Florence aid had nevci been spoj again. Sullivan told of wa tide ring here a n.l there over the west aud California. Hearing Hear-ing of tiie mining excitement at tho scenes of his old stamping grounds, he had return -(l to find his little brown hill thi r'-ntrf of a great mine, and the once desolate region a scene of mad ac-jj ac-jj tivlt v a nd prcspeiTty. T The mlno continued Its heavy and rich production until lSSS, when it was finally closed down, I ho price of silver having declined to -16 '"tils an ounce, which jjnaue it unprofitu..jle to operate under |