History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 96

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080

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of the shells being broken loose from their bowlders and into small pieces, presumably by being moved around after they were formed. The chimney of ore does not run down verti- cally, but dips to the south about ten degrees for 260 feet, then dips to the west and north-

west, so that it is, at 700 feet deep, about one hundred feet from the perpendicular shaft which starts from the tunnel into the mountain, at the point where it has tapped the ore body,

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about three hundred feet in and almost under the center of the top of the hill. At this point, an engine-room has been excavated, and hoist- ing works erected. The ore, when hoisted to the engine level, is sent out in cars and dumped into the concentrating mill at the mouth of the tunnel, where about ten tons of everything in the chimney are concentrated into one ton of ore, which averages about $400 per ton. This mine paid largely, about three fourths of a million dollars being taken out, while under the management of the discoverer, E. C. Bassick, who sold for $330,- 000, in July, 1879, to the present company, re- serving one-tenth interest in the mine. Under the scientific management of the new stock company, there has been one dividend of $25,- 000, or 25 cents a share, paid (in March, 1880). There are several hills in the vicinity of Rosita that closely resemble the rounded knoll in which the Bassick mine is situated. Similar quartz resembling chalcedony has been found in the Iron Mountain Mine, and rounded bowlders in a clay and quartz crevice have been found in the Geyser Mine, near Rosita, and gold has been found in the Ophir, Silver Coin, Cymbeline, and in several other mines near Rosita. It would not be surprising nor unex- pected if several other rich chimneys of ore- coated bowlders should be opened in that vicinity within a year or two .- The Bassick Mine had very little showing of quartz, and no bowlders on top, so it will probably be by tun- neling into similar hills that similar deposits will be found. Whether this Bassick Chim- ney will lead to a contact fissure between por- phyry and granite, as the Humboldt, no far- ther from the contact on the surface, has, at the same depth, developed, or whether it will always continue down, as a chimney, getting larger and richer (or poorer), are problems that can only be solved by deeper develop- ment. In the meantime, it is to be hoped that another dividend will be paid to encour- age the stockholders to sink deeper. The Bull-Domingo, situated about three miles northerly from Silver Cliff, is a " blow-out," or deposit in granite, of galena ore, running high in lead and low in silver, and which has been opened to the depth of 350 feet. It is claimed that 20,000 tons of ore have been

taken out already, which have averaged about thirty-five ounces of silver per ton, being a total yield for the mine, to date, of $700,000. The company owning this mine is another $10,000,- 000 stock concern that has paid no dividends, though the previous owners made money work- ing it, and the mine was sold for about $300,- 000 to the present company when it was less than one hundred feet deep. The company have a fine "plant," a cage, and complete hoisting works, and a good concentrator, which concentrates about sixty tons of the ore as it comes from the mine into about twenty tons of 70 per cent lead and sixty ounces silver ore daily, when the supply of ore is sufficient to keep the concentrator running. The ore has been running very low in silver lately, and the stock selling at $2 per share, but both may improve as depth is gained. The ore body. is irregular, averaging, perhaps, forty feet long and twenty feet wide, being iu some places much larger, in others, closed out, almost, by a " horse," as was the case between 200 and 300 feet deep. The ore is not at all like the Bassick Mine. It seems to be a ga- lena "blow-out," from some larger body, pos- sibly a contact deposit below, for it is but a few hundred yards in the granite from the line of contact on the surface, and, while the porphyry has overflowed the granite at Rosita, as shown by recent Humboldt developments, it may be that the granite overlies the por- phyry along the line of contact near Grape Creek, and it may, at the depth of 600 or 700 feet, be found directly under the Bull-Domingo shaft. The ore has bowlders of all sizes, but not much rounded, and "horses " of granite imbedded in it, so that not over one-third of the ore taken out concentrates into shipping and smelting ore.

The Ben Franklin is a chimney deposit now down about 300 feet deep. It lies between the Bassick Mine and head of Carolina Gulch, and about two miles northwesterly from Rosita. Over $65,000 have been taken out of this, but owing to unfortunate "hitch- ings " between the owners, it has remained idle for over a year. The character of the ore in this chimney is a mixture of carbonate of lead and pyrites of iron and copper, with gray copper, chlorides and silver glance, in small

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quantities, the " gangue," or crevice material accompanying the ore is blue flinty quartz in immense masses, near the surface, changing into a softer "gouge matter" at the lower depths. There is a great deal of ore in the bottom workings of this mine. Like all the other chimneys in this section, it dips away from the perpendicular shaft. If it has any origin from below (the accepted theory) it must certainly lead at a greater depth to a large body of rich ore.

The Leavenworth Mine, the farthest west- erly of the claims developed, and paying, on the great Humboldt-Pocahontas vein, has helped very materially in the last two years to keep up the reputation of this famous vein. While the Humboldt Mine has yielded about $300,000, the Pocahontas $200,000, the Vir- ginia $20,000, the East Leviathan $25,000, the Stephen and West Leviathan have furnished but little ore, and that end of the vein would be in disrepute if it were not for the hand- some returns from the Leavenworth just beyond them, which has yielded about $100,- 000 since 1879. The mine is now in unfort- unate litigation, which will in all probability, soon be settled, and the mine set to work again in the old style. This mine is opened for 600 feet in length and the main shaft is over 300 feet deep. The mines of the chlo- ride flats around Silver Cliff come the nearest to being " free-milling" ores of any in Col- orado, though only about 65 per cent of these ores can be saved by raw amalgamation. The word " base," which is used all over the Pacific coast to distinguish refractory ores (as they are not very rich nor abundant there), is sel- dom used in Colorado, for nearly all our ores of silver are base, and have to be roasted before either smelting or amalgamating them. This roasting causes an additional expense, varying from $10 to $30 per ton, above the expense of free-milling or raw amalgamation. If the Racine Boy, Plata Verde, Vanderbilt, Milkmaid and other Silver Cliff mines were " base," there would be a loss in treating them; as it is, they have to be worked on a large scale with the most improved machin- ery and cheap transportation from the mine to the mill, to leave a margin above the expenses of taking out and milling the ore.

The Racine Boy Mine has yielded (according to C. C. Perkins, the practical and gentle- manly Superintendent of the company's mill), 10,000 tons of ore which averaged $35 per ton, with the old dry crushing-mill in operation, and the new forty-stamp wet crusher has probably taken out nearly as much since it started up, over four months ago. The expense of treating this ore is estimated at $3.50 per ton, including interest on money invested, wear of machinery, and all running expenses. The tailings from this mill is concentrated by stirring up as it passes, with a stream of water, through a long flume, and is quite an item in the list of "results," these tailings being the heavier manganese ores that carry considerable silver, but not in the chloride form, and will not amalgamate raw. These Silver Cliff chloride deposits seem to be super- ficial infiltrations in the crevices and seams of the porphyry, which, in this immediate vicinity is not different from the country rock for miles around, until the granite is reached. This Racine Boy and part of the Silver Cliff Mine adjoining it, seem to be the only ones of those deposits that will pay at present, but perhaps with similar large mills of the wet crushing pattern put up on the mines, many that are now sleeping might awake to active and profitable life. As this ore extends only, on an average, in the best mines, forty feet deep, there is, of course, a limit to the paying capacities of these mines. Although true fissures and contact veins are generally con- sidered the best mines (because more exten- sive in depth and more even in their width) there is a limit (between 3,000 and 4,000 feet deep) when hot water, bad ventilation, cost of hoisting to the surface, pumping and timbering overbalance the profits of treating ordinary ores, in the best mines. The history of mining in the United States will show that among sil- ver mines a considerable number of comfort- able fortunes have been made from the uncertain deposits (or rather the deposits that are certain to give out). Considering the amounts expended in actual development and the time they have been worked, White Pine, Nevada, Little Cottonwood, East Cañon, Dry Cañon and Leeds District in Utah, Lead- ville and Silver Cliff in Colorado, Pioche,

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Paranaget and Eureka, Nevada, and many other " deposit" camps (including the chim- neys around Rosita), furnish proof that they are a good class of mines to have. They are generally easy to work, and when worked out, there is no further waste of capital and energy hunting for a continuation of the deposit beyond reasonable limits, while mill- ions of dollars have been thrown away in trying to make fissure veins pay that "had good walls, good indications, and were in good formations" but did not carry ore in paying quantities. .

The Game Ridge Consolidated Mining Company's property, situated on Game Ridge at Rosita, is similar to the Plata Verde and other claims on Round Mountain near Silver Cliff. It is estimated by the company's expe- rienced Superintendent, Gen. Carl Wulsten, C. E. and M. E., that, in a body of ore already exposed in this property, 800 feet long, 100 feet deep and 200 feet wide, averaging twen- ty-five ounces of silver per ton, there are over $2,000,000 profit "in sight;" estimating the cost of taking out, transporting on a tramway, and milling the ore, at $5.50 per ton. As soon as the large forty-stamp mill (a dupli- cate of the new Silver Cliff Company's mill) now being erected, gets at work, treating 100 to 120 tons of this ore per day, " we shall see what we shall see."

The "carbonate beds" lying between the chloride deposits of Silver Cliff and the gran- ite formation in which the Bull-Domingo is situated, are simply soft clayey fissure veins carrying refractory, low grade ores. There are several mines being developed in those carbonate beds, that promise well, and some ore has been shipped that paid a profit above expenses. The Lady Franklin, the Song Bird, and several others now being worked (some of which are over 200 feet deep) will soon determine the value of deep mining in this section. Most of the ores are pyrites of iron, zinc blende, and decomposed quartz, with oxide of iron in it.

On the Sangre de Christo Range, west of Ula, in Verde District, the Verde, Alta, Zoo, Venez- uela, and other well-defined veins, carrying galena, gray copper and quartz, have been opened up, and developments indicate that,

with capital to assist, some of these mines will soon become prominent bullion producers.

All along this range, from the Yeoman Mines near Music Pass to the Lake of the Clouds and the head of Lake Creek, good prospects have been found.

In the granite formation, from four to six miles east of Rosita, gold has been found in "encouraging" quantities. A shipment of 800 pounds from the Golden Eagle Mine to Argo yielded $19.50 in gold and four ounces of silver per ton. The Orinoco, Gold Hunter and others in this vicinity furnish free-gold ores also. These ores are oxide of iron and sulphuret of copper in large fissure veins of quartz, stained by iron. Several good pros- pects have lately been opened at the head of Antelope Creek. The great inducement to capital to purchase or assist in developing Custer County mines is the fact of a continu- ous contact for ten miles in length, between two mineral-bearing formations, the granite, similar to that in which the rich and perma- nent fissure veins of Boulder, Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties are found, and the por- phyritic trachyte, which is always a good sil- ver formation. Next is the softness of the rock in the porphyry formation or the con- tact, and of the easy working "gouges" that accompanies the ore, in almost every such vein. And last, but not least, are the con- veniences of the locality, its pleasant climate the whole year round, its railroad facilities, and the cheapness of all supplies.

SCENERY.

Coming from the East to Wet Mountain Valley, either by way of Hardscrabble Canon with its towering walls and dark ravines, or up Oak Creek Canon from Canon City, over "the grade" (where we have a fine view of Pike's Peak and "the wide plains that lose themselves to the vision in the dimness of distance"), then down into the tortuous gorge, through which Oak Creek dashes and mur- murs, the appreciative traveler will be charmed by the variety of grotesque shapes carved out of the solid rock beneath a restless sea, " when time was young" and by the sudden changes that confront him at every turn. Or, if the cars are taken up Grape Creek Cañon, its

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wierd windings and dizzy depths furnish enough suggestion of danger, to delight, with out overawing the beholder. And then, after a few hours' ride by either route, the top of the hills are reached, the eye is startled by a rare vision of the Sangre de Cristo Range piled up in rugged masses against the west- ern sky, and reaching from end to end of Wet Mountain Valley, with only one depression (the Music Pass) in sight, beyond which, to the south, it loses its continuous range char- acter, amid a dazzling collection of snow-clad pointed peaks, the highest in Colorado, the famous Sierra Blanca. Nowhere else in Colo- rado can the tourist so easily and so sud- denly arrive in the immediate presence of such grandeur. The eye has hardly become accustomed to the change from; prairie to mountain scenery before the glory of the snowy range is upon us; we are at a proper . distance to drink in the full extent of the view while the memory of the monotonous plains is fresh in the mind. Before us stands, in silent majesty, the bewildering array of lofty ragged peaks, reaching above the line of vegetation, and beyond the line of snow, in sharp pinnacles, that carry the mind up into the inaccessible region of thin air and ether, "where the stars have their orbits and comets maintain their erratic flights." Vast snow-bands in midsummer, clinging to the bare rocks wherever they can maintain their hold among the higher summits, give us a vivid idea of the "age of ice," when immense glaciers plowed their way over these mountain tops, and when, by desolation and death, the surface of the young earth was being pre- pared for the preservation of the lower orders of life, and finally for the habitation of "man with an immortal soul." In our times, this desolation has passed; the various forms of life have existed, appropriated the means of continued existence from their surroundings, and after transmitting life to their progeny, " each kind after its kind," they have died and many, species have passed away forever.

Who can say also but the Mound Builders of the Mississippi Valley, the Aztecs of Mex- ico, or the more ancient race of Toltecs whom they supplanted, and who are supposed to have moved South from the mysterious North-

ern lakes; or even the earlier " cave dwellers," who drew ladders up after them, to their holes in the rocky canon walls along the San Juan River and its branches, in Southwestern Colorado, and who also were extinguished, may not have gazed in admiration and won- der at these same snowy peaks as we do now. We know the unprogressive and brutal Indian has been here for ages before the Mexican hunters, herders, and small farmers came in, and gave names to these mountains and streams, that it is our part of the great plan to occupy, possess and develop. Reasoning by analogy, we cannot help wondering if we, too, must pass away, and be succeeded by another superior race, who will pity our igno- rance and blame our superstition? When Macauley's New Zealander gazes in silent speculation on the ruins of St. Paul's Cathe- dral, a few thousand years hence, will some Siberian philosopher gaze in equal astonish- ment on the railroad grades and deep mining shafts of Custer County, and conclude that the former were thrown up by savages for defense, and the latter were dug to live in? But let us return from the region of fancy to the scene before us-those mountain peaks, the scarred veterans of a past age that have sur- vived the many and severe shocks of old Father Time. At early morn, or late at even- tide, they assume so many fantastic changes with their moving retinue of clouds, that the mind is- constantly being pleased, or awed, by the variety of combinations " presented to the brain through the eye." Occasionally at morn the mountain tops pierce "the blue cold vault of heaven," while half their height is hidden by murky clouds, which overspread the valley at their feet, as though sulphurous fumes from nature's laboratory below had found vent, and impending ruin was at hand. Again, the rugged range "the Blood of Christ," shows through a misty veil, its high- est gorges, and its glittering peaks, dim as an incomplete picture, suggestive, mysterious, sublime. And oft at eventide the western sky is speckled o'er with a gorgeous proces- sion of fleecy clouds, all aglow with nature's gayest tints, such as the artist's memory may capture, but his hand can never paint. And thus the constant sun goes bravely down along

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the far-off sky behind the snowy range. Again, it is a chilling, blinding snow-storm from those ancient sentinels, that sweeps across the valley and drives all living things into their artificial shelter, or into the pro- tecting "lesser hills" beyond. It was only last September that Mr. P. H. Kelly, a strong young man, lost his life in such a storm, while crossing this range.

TOWNS.

Silver Cliff is pleasantly situated in the Wet Mountain Valley, between Grape Creek and Round Mountain, the Denver & Rio Grande station of Westcliff, being about a mile and three-quarters from town, and Grape Creek about a quarter mile further. It has not the surrounding, half-timbered hills of Rosita and Querida, to break the occasional severe winds that sweep the level plain, but is compensated, to a certain extent, by a finer view of the Sangre de Christo Range. The dis- covery of horn silver in the summer of 1878, in the stained porphyry cliff, thirty feet high, standing up like a wall on the side of a prai- rie hollow, was the cause of our metropolis coming into existence. Messrs. McIlhenney & Wilson built the first house, a small frame building, in September, 1878, and kept a store and accommodation post office on Cliff street. The town grew rapidly, the assessed valuation of town property for last year (1880), was about $510,000. Being on Sec- tion 16, which with Section 36, in each town- ship is set apart for public school purposes by the organic act of the State, there was some "nice figuring" to throw that benefit into the hands of private speculators; and it was suc- cessfully accomplished. The town site of Silver Cliff, consisting of 320 acres, was pat- ented 8th of December, 1879. Thus another slight fact is added to the proof of ages, that in cases of contest between enterprising and liberal private individuals, and salaried public officials, where valuable public property is at stake, the State "gets left." There are two daily and three weekly newspapers published at Silver Cliff. One of the largest and most complete mills in the State (the Silver Cliff Mining Company's forty-stamp mill), which treats 100 tons of Racine Boy ore per day,

by the wet, raw amalgaination process, is steadily pounding away, night and day, just outside the city limits. The sampling works of the Silver Cliff Milling Company, under the able management of F. Dillingham, with a capacity of fifty tons per day, is also located outside of the city limits, and adjoining the forty-stamp mill mentioned above. This company has sampled and bought nearly all the ore from the Bassick, Bull-Domingo and other leading mines in the county for the past two years and a half. The Plata Verde forty- stamp mill, dry crushing and amalgamation process, is also situate within a short distance of the town. Silver Cliff is the base of sup- plies, and the trading-point for the mining region immediately around it and for all the settled lower end of Wet Mountain Valley. The following is a list of town officers since the town was organized in 1878:

Elected February 12, 1879-Mayor, J. J .* Smith; Recorder, G. B. McAulay; Trustees Frank S. Roff, Walter B. Jeness, Mark W. Atkins, Samuel Baeden.

Elected April, 1879-Mayor, Frank S. Roff; Recorder, G. B. McAulay; Trustees- Webb L. Allen Samuel Baeden, Samuel Wat- son, O. E. Henry.

Elected April, 1880-Mayor, S. A. Squire; Recorder, C. D. Wright; Trustees-O. E. Henry, John Dietz, William French, Alfred Wood.

Elected April, 1881- Mayor, H. H. Buck- walter; Recorder, George W. Hinkle; Trust- ees-R. Rounds, W. T. Ullman, William Fei- gle, E. Meyers.

Rosita, the county seat, is situated on the eastern edge of Wet Mountain Valley, among high, rounded hills, and about seven miles southeasterly from Silver Cliff. It was the first town built up by the mines, and dates back to a short time after the organization of Hardscrabble Mining District, in November, 1872. The town was first laid off into thirty- nine lots of 200x100 feet, around the present town plaza, in which the spring is situated which furnishes the town water at present. The town site, consisting of 360 acres, was patented March 22, 1876. Like all mining towns, it has had its ups and downs. It did not amount to much of a town until 1874,

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when it went up with a rush, and was ex- tended to nearly a mile square, laid off into lots of the originally established size. Dur- ing the earlier days, parties locating were limited to one lot (i. e., no two lots located by the same party could be held within one-half mile of each other), and there was a general district law for acquiring building lots by putting $20 worth of improvements on each lot within sixty days, and recording it. While the present population of Rosita is only about 1,000-in 1875, the town had over 1,500 inhabitants, three churches, a bank, a couple of good hotels, and a dozen business houses. It gradually drooped and became duller as the Cliff arose in 1878-79, many of the houses being moved away to that metropolis; but the discovery of paying ore in many of the fis- sure veins in the immediate vicinity of the town has, within the past year, given the place a new lease of life, and it seems now fairly entered on an era of active prosperity. The Humboldt-Pocahontas vein, opened to the depth of 800 feet, and located for two miles in length, is partly in the town site.

The Rosita Brewing Company's "plant," costing $70,000; the Pennsylvania Reduction Works; with a capacity of ten tons per day by the roasting, chloridizing and amalgamating process, costing $20,000; the Haverly Reduc- tion Works (roasting and leaching process), with capacity of eight tons per day, and cost- ing $15,000, are all in the town limits, and the large forty-stamp wet process, raw amal- gamation mill (with Bruckner cylinders to roast the concentrated tailings), now being erected by the Game Ridge Consolidated Mining Company, and estimated to cost $160,- 000, is within half a mile of town. Although the business part of the town was closely .built up of light fraine buildings, and a sweeping fire had been expected for years (as is the common fate of hurriedly-built mining towns in the West), it did not come nntil the 10th of March in the present year, when it made a clean sweep, leaving the business portion cleared off for a better class of build- ings. The estimated loss was $130,000, only partially covered by insurance. The fire broke out about 2 o'clock A. M. in an ice house in the rear of F. L. Miller & Co's. store

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 96

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 1080

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080