Show special activities of home T of truth and san juan go co HISTORY STORY OF THE HOME OF TRUTH CREEK OUTPOST one of our more recent mining at ai tivi ties is the leasing of a placer ground claim where a group of our men worked from october until just recently the recovery of the natural resource of our country is one of the most interesting and necessary fields of engineering and labor man is engaged in since roan man depends entirely on these gods gifts for his necessities of living his comforts and happiness even in the stone age man used stone in many ways and today I 1 all metals play a leading role and especially gold gold is the standard by which man values his possessions and the conquest for this yellow metal is a very interesting one to study man has battled with every conceivable condition and hardship to gain gold into the artie artic regions which spell cold upon the vast open deserts into death valley in california chich rm ans extreme heat into all all these places sturdy souls have ventured in the hope that they might be rewarded with one of gods gifts gold in searching for this and a few of the other metals the prospector has either the choice of a lode or a placer enrichment and it is interesting to sady their respective locations A lode clairn claim is usually found in the mont ains As the mon fains were formed 2 were a in the te rocks the law by which these metals are deposited is an intricate one such deposits of metal are found in what is 19 known to miners as veins and the value of the rock or ore as such deposits we aie called varies over a large scale to recover the metal in such state requires much labor and machinery the rock nast first be broken out of the vein then hauled to a mill suited to the grinding of it in this manner the metal is released and finally caught or retained by one of the many processes perfected for this purpose thousand of years ago as today nature was at work tearing down mountains and moving the debris into the lowlands and valleys during this process of development if there was a vein of ore in the mountain nature took the place of machinery in breaking and grinding the rock but this process was a very slow one As the water in the form of rain and snow washes the broken and ground rock down into the stream the metal is also moved and when metal is found in this state the en flehme lich ment nt is known as a placer As we members of the home of truth have been so recently engaged in working a gold placer this article will more fully treat the recovery of the gold from the gravel in which it i is found the p placer lacer we have leased is known as gulch and is located four miles north of blanding in pla cering as in lode machinery may be used although this is unnecessary since the use of sluice boxes is is a very common practise into these long narrow boxes the gravel is shoveled the boxes are so built as to catch the gold and the gold being heavier than water or gravel settles settle washed off by the water which is necessary in this process of work ava jo aan forms and in our oui work we are using a machine it consists of a classifier water pump and a bowl into which the gravel goes after being classified as well as the gold mercury is is placed in the bowl which coll collects t u lz the gold this bowl revolving at a biven given speed throws dihe gravel 0 ort L t but C holds the gold and mercur mercury water is used in this method of pla cering and the machine is power ed cd or operated by a small gasoline engine starting on our work this fall we stayed with it until december 10 when wo we were obliged to stop due to the lack of water when we ed the weather was mild freezing only at night but as the days grew colder it was necessary to thaw out the pumps and pipes every morning before we could start our work and it became more and more difficult until finally our water power was entirely shut off gold is a great calling to which many have responded we believe that san juan county has unlimited wealth of this yellow metal which will be extracted in the near future we are but trying to do our little part to bring this into reality and in order that our work may progress for the good of our fell fel ownen ray bay 0 bush jr |