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Show BOSTON DEVELOPMENT COMPANY ALL who have seen the beautiful galena ore that has come down Big Cottonwood can yon from the Maxfield mine in the last two months have been curious to learn more of the property which produced it, and there have been not a few inquiries as to the price of the stock. The development of the Maxfield from a worn-out worn-out old mine into a vigorous new one is one of the romances of the mining world a romance which has unfolded so quietly an unostentatiously that the hundred of persons who have passed the property going to and from the summer resort of Brighton have had no idea to what was going on. Here is a part of the story: The old Maxfield was discovered in the early days of the Big Cottonwood Cot-tonwood district and became at once a heavy producer of silver-lead ore. While the ore held out on the above the tunnel level, the company flourished and all went merry as a marriage boll. Presently, however, the tops of the ore shoots were worked out and shipped, and the ore in the floors of the stopes were covered by water. Water was difficult to handle in those days, and the company, after making p. few ineffectual attempts to relieve the situation, threw up its hands and turned the property over to lesses. For a long period wor1 languished. Sometimes WWKSWWWWWWyWIWiM'WwiffMIWII Wl WMMIIMI the lessees worked and sometimes they were idle. The water was still the principal obstacle. Then Fred H. Vahrenkamp came on the scene. His observations led him to the conclusion that the Maxfield ore bodies had merely been scalped, and that their chief bulk was below the water level. Water had ceased to be such a formidable obstacle as it was in the early days. Only a I little way down the canyon a hydro-electric plant I was turing the water power of the creek into 1 electrical power. The Maxfield also had water I power of its own. I Mr. Vahrenkamp sought out the owners of the B old mine and obtained a lease, and bond on it. 1 Then he organized the Boston Development company, com-pany, a corporation capitalized for half a million ! dollars in $1 shares, and financed it. The mine was rehabilitated. Machinery was installed and sinking on. the ore was commenced. No dofficulty was experienced in unwatering the ground. Interruptions of the power line were remodeled by the installation of a second line from another generating plant. 1 From the first the mine responded generously B to the new development. It could hardly do other- B wise, as the ore lost none of its richness, or vol- 1 ume in going down, and when depth below the old I tunnel level was obtained veins were found that 5 the earlier operators of the property had missed. It was not long before the long-vacant boarding 6 house was thronged with hungry miners, and the empty ore bins were overflowing with the heavy black sulphides characteristic of the Maxfleld's ore bodies. The production at the present time is valued at about $25,000 per month gross. The success attained merely pointed the way to more important achievements. Having demonstrated dem-onstrated that the ore bodies descended far below be-low the tunnel level, Mr. Vahrenkamp looked about for an economic method of developing them to their extreme depth, and found it. Over the hill nothwest of the Maxfield lay another and much deeper canyon-Mill creek canyon. It had water, timber, a good road and all other accessories acces-sories of an ideal tunnel sight. Moreover the divide between Mill creek and the Maxfield was checked with veins and cross veins of mineral. A tunnel from Mill creek would save further pumping and hoisting expense at the Maxfield, open hundreds of feet of stoping ground on the Maxfield ore shoots, give a shorter and better haul to the smelter, and probably open several new ore bearing veins. These facts spoke for themselves when Mr. Vahrenkamp submitted them to his eastern associates, as-sociates, and the million and a half dollars needed for the enterprise was pledged in a remarkably short time. The first public announcement of the plan was made last month when the successful manager returned from the East with the pledges of financial support. The contemplated tunnel will have a length of three miles and will gain a depth from the surface sur-face on the Maxfield ore horizon of 3900 feet, or 2200 feet below the present maximum depth of 1700 feet. Being a crosscut tunnel it will intersect in-tersect the veins in the intervening ground at most, at right angles. Judging from their crop-pings crop-pings some of these veins will prove very rich at, or above the level of the new tunnel. It will take three years, according to Mr. Vohr-enkamp's Vohr-enkamp's estimates, to make the connections in the Maxfield, but there is no reason why the project pro-ject should not be on a profitable basis during the earlier part of the drive. The right-of-way and the mineral rights along the route of the tunnel have been purchased and paid for. The actual ligging will commence, probably, within ninety days, and is expected to continue without a halt (until its objective is reached. Then, if considered advisable it may be extended onward to drain and develop the properties along the South Fork of Big Cottonwood. The stock of the Boston Development has not been listed. It is held by a few individuals who have no desire to dispose of it, and for that reason listing was considered superfluous. The advantage of convertibility is not ignored, however, how-ever, and the stock may yet be called on the Salt Lake and Boston exchanges. The proposed tunnel will be the longest mine tunnel in the state and will make the Maxfleld an object of especial interest to engineers as well as to the investing public. |