| Show NEVADA r SOMETHING OF THE HISTORY AND MINES OP MOUNTAIN CITY interesting article on a district ir which many ogden men arc interested J J Carml chaet has favored this paper with the following article on mountain city n northwestern nevada in the mines 0 which district many ogden men are interested thirty five years ago there were camped in silver cit idaho eleven men who had gone through the boom days of california and who in looking tor new fields to conquer had followed the different excitements excite ments and new camps until they had left civilization tar behind them at this time the shoshone indians were a wild and savage tribe never losing an opportunity to murder and pillage whenever the opportunity presented itsell and the prospector in those days while keeping one eye on the ground tor float had to keep the other eye open tor bcd which kept him quite busy it he did much prospecting looking to the cast and south from silver city across paradise valley a mountain range can ba seen at a distance of perhaps one hundred and forty miles to this range our party of eleven men always ready tor adventure determined to go an indian guide of a friendly tribe was employed and the party under the leadership of A J st claar started for the east after several fights with the indians in one of which they were surrounded and kept in a canyon for ten days before the indiana gave up the siege st claar with his band reached the river in the bull run range of mountains and went in to camp a little of what Is now known as mountain city in nevada the morning following the arrival of the party it was discovered that the horses had wandered away from the camp and while two of the party remained in the camp on guard the rest of the men started out to hunt the horses and to prospect tor ore in the afternoon the men found the horses ho and back to camp one man had found bome float that looked good and put it in his pocket upon the arrival of the party at camp it was found that the two men left on guard bad in the absence of the others been by the indians fearing another attack the party started south to the mining camps of white pine counte where there were numerous settlements tot miners and their families in course of time the party arrived at hamilton one of the three little camps of a small district that has produced in lead and silver during winter back bird the man who bad found the float at what Is now mountain city bethought him celt to have it assayed the aes ayera report showed it to ie a very high grade silver ore bird let a few of the boys into the secret and the following spring he and wo others left white pine county for the present location 0 mountain city soon atler the departure of jack bird A J st claar the leader of the first party into mountain city began to smelia mouse and he also started north meeting men coming back from mountain city with rich silver ore from this time jon there was great w cit ement in that camp but the ledge bird got his float from was never found until this spring when walker and lall made the discovery of the greenback for several yeara mountain city was a great camp rich was found and hauled to the mills by the wagon load and the ledges that fur dished this rich float are yet conred con red of the many famous mines of the camp the old argenta perhaps takes the lead in the early days the ore from this mine was chipped to swansea wales tor treatment one carload netting the owners but at 76 feet the cornish foreman of the argenta came to a fault in the formation and very wisely informed the owner that he bad the roots of she and that there was no more ore at about that time the same wise decision was handed down on the property now known as the nelson mine but the nelson boys with a tunnel later demonstrated that the experts opinion of early days was incorrect and blat the veins with a blight displacement near the surface go down increasing with depth in values the of the nel pon mine feet and its rich ore fully demonstrated this one of the rich mines of the early 8 days was wa s the resurrection mine in milling this ore some of it was so pure in silver that it could not be stamped f up fine enough to go through the ecremen and granite was often added to a the ore to granulate it I 1 but these are only a few of the many f rich mines that I 1 might mention be cause the veins were supposed to pinch out at from 75 to feet in depth men begun looking for more permanent camps about this time the big prominent ledges of rich sliver ore in the bull un leaie of mountains twelve miles neat or mountain city were attracting rana presented to the prospect or tb paradise he had long been lonk da lying on the south side of the surrounded by an abundance of wood which to build and furnish fuel pure mountain streams abounding in trout A camp was boon started columbia the name 0 this camp grow and flourished and was soon quite a mining center it Is eald that at oae time there were 1500 men employed on the blue jacket and the stoan mines beside the smaller mining enterprises terp rises in the camp one of the first mines found in columbia was the 0 with bromide ore running thousands of dollars in silver to the ton this claim wag three malpa north of columbia then comes the great blue jacket mine with tt mill aerial tramway hoists air compressor and power drills it cost per day for fuel alone on athla mine then ed stokes equipped his mines with a large mill run by water and steam and bealda treating his own ore treated his neighbors ores tor which he received 35 per ton with whatever gold was in the ore thrown in for good measure ore from one of the veins on the aura king group was treated in this mill was the mill practice then in the camp and nothing running less than 75 per ton could be treated at a profit columbia was a camp unique in many ways it Is surrounded by an agricultural country today one can hear the clink of the miners hammer the roar of the stamp mill mingled with the hum ot the farmers mower and reaper in merry unison in the camp there Is scarcely a miner in the camp that has not got a garden well supplied with vegetables tor his own use beside flower gardens that would compare favorably with some of our eastern lawns another interesting feature of the camp is its many large caves but few it any ot them have ever been explores although in the camp of eureka large bodies of ore were genei ully found in those caves the formation being the same as in columbia sometimes these caves are connected and from water courses that extend for miles in length one in particular up near the top of taylor peak receives all the water from a large basin and carries it through a spurs of the mountain two and one halt miles discharging the water into west bull run creek at the head ot this underground stream where the water enters there is the receptacle ot drift wood lo gsand ter that Is feet deep this hole is the cep ot drift wood logs and whatever comes along with the spring freshets fresh ets but with the exception of sometimes obstructing the passage of water for a short time and thus causing floods at the mouth ot the under ground stream they do no harm this follows the gold vein ot the aura king mine for at least 2000 feet the average flow of water being 70 miners inches gome reader of this article will very likely ask why do we not hear something of this wonderful country in the papers the answer is that there is no newspaper in that camp nor any within 75 miles of it besides the big mining companies now in the camp do biot want any boom they are quietly securing all the claims they can get this fact alone is the best proof ol 01 the jalue of the camp another man will ask it this camp is BO good why has it bald idle so long in reply to this will say that when silver commenced to go down no ono thought it possible that the silver industry could be crushed any more than do we now believe that our ironald iro nand steel industries will be ruined and crushed and as silver kept falling in value men thought it wise to close down their mines until such time as the metal should regain its former price men did not like to market their product at ruinous prices believing that the depression could not last long while others found that they could not make any profit on their ore because ot the jow price of silver and bad to close down remember we are talking of conditions as they were thirty years ago sliver ore that could not worked profitably at per ounce will now pay a profit in come cases at 58 cents per ounce mining and milling has greatly changed in thirty years and ore can now be extracted and dressed for almost one halt what it could then in the early days ot the camps of mountain city and columbia no one hunted for gold except the placer miners every gulch and stream was washed for placer gold but no search was made to discover the golds source or it there was it was unsuccessful cess ful and until the last three years no gold ledges were worked in columbia and for only about one year has gold ore been taken out at mountain city in this short almo a number of rich gold strikes have been made in both camps big mills are now running on gold ores sending their product out to in the shape of bullion while new mills are going in to concentrate cen the silver ores columbia and mountain city are justly proud of their past record tn silver and lead this does not include the vast amount of placer gold that has for the last forty years supported chinatown and a number of white men who have gleaned tor years the treasures 0 abo creek beds while the campa have been proven with depth as to their permanency and the ore speaks for itself as to values yet the camp is practically virgin ground here fortunes await the sturdy prospector and miner with ore as rich and ore bodies as big and extensive as either tono pah or goldfield with trees flowers clear mountain streams and a climate unsurpassed in the world with every advantage and everything that goes to make up an ideal mining camp why should men so out lo 10 abo desert treeless waterless plains to bunt gold when it can be found under such favorable conditions as those just mentioned J J |
