The Montana post., 1868-02-29

ED. PosT: As several very reliable(Y
gentlemen have written letters from
this place to the Denver papers, falsely
representing the mines in this locality
as to richness and extent, and as it is
quite probable those letters have been
copied by the Montana and Idaho pa
pers, consider it the duty of some one
to publish the facts.
have been in nearly all the mining
camps from British Columbia to Mexico,
but have never seen place so overrated
as this. Nearly all the new camps l
have been in have been more or less
overrated, but in no instance have I
seen q place so magni6cently and per
sistently pulled as this. A year ago /
was in the salmon mines Everybody
knows how great failure that proved
to be. AS great failure as it was it is
no comparison to this. g.. -.
These mines are located on Maxwell's
grant, in the northern part of Mexico, 35
miles west of Maxwell's Is ranch, and about
the same distance northeast of Zaos
The first prospects were found nearly
eighteen months ago. No excitement
was created at the time, from the fact
that the discoverers did not think the
groand would pay. Some time during
last summer, Messrs. Scott, Lawson &
Co. found very good prospects in Last
Chance gulch, q small sag emptying into
Willow Creek. This discovery gave
new life to the place. A few miners
from Colorado rushed to the country,
and in a short time the entire camp was
staked off and recorded. The diggings
already discovered are on the Cimarron
(here called Moreno) river and its tribu-
taries, and are scattered over an area of
six miles square, There are two mining
districts, each containing some thirty or
forty gulches, hills, bars, &c. The camp
is very poorly watered. Most of the
gulches being dry as soon as the snow
disappears. A company have been or
ganized with a capital of one hundred
and twenty thousand dollars, for the
purpose of bringing water into the camp.
The water is to be taken from Red river.
The ditch, when completed, will be 45
miles long, and is intended to supply
1000 inches of water. The company
expect to have the ditch completed by
the first of July. Work has not yet
been commenced. think it will take
two years TO finish it. The diggings here
are deep, averaging from 10 to 75 feet
What little gold there Is is scattered
through the dirt from the surface to the
bed rock. In many places much better
indications (they do not deserve the
name of prospects) are found in the grass
roots than on the bed rock.
Moreno Tor Gmarron) creek is claimed
for eight miles, and, Notwithstanding it
Il ravlortsd to ha and ronsidared fha hest
thing in the camp, there is not a claim |
opened on it. There have been only two |
holes sunk to the bed rock. 1t is from
10 to 80 feet deep, xnd the largest pros
pect found was two cents. f-- 4
A few of the gulches emptying into |
Moreno have been worked, but with |
what results can not say. have pros
pected in some of them, and think If
they were properly managed would pay /
from one 10 three dollars day. That
there is ground here which will pay toll
erable well for this country, L do not
deny but do say that nine-tenths OF
the claims which the miners consider
good will not pay to work. | have
prospected In -aome of the richest claims,
and the best prospect could get was
from one to ten very fine colors-
There have been several quartz lodes
discovered. No assays have been made
from them, but of course they are the
g richest ever found" There are at this
time between fifteen hundred and two
thousand men in these mines, and every
day adds forty or fifty more l under
stand there is party of four hundred
men with train of eighty wagons di-
rect from the States within q weeks
travel of this place.