The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1868-01-18
OUR PLACRRs.

July 1st, 1866. SlS,000.000 in gold for
the year "nding July LIST, 1867, $12,-
600. .00O-a decrease of one third in a
year. Such is the report of the Com
missioner. 1t may not be strictly accu.
rate, but. compiled from reliable statis-
tics by competent persons. il at least
approximates closely TO correctness
This decrease in the product of the Ter
ritory is a subject of vital importance TO
those interested in it's welfare, and de-
mands serious consideration of the
causes II it is attributable to any
causes over which we have control, and
any remediable errors exist, it is our
imperative and immediate duty to adopt
sucL measures as will surely and speedI-
ly correct them. If the minerals of the
country are exbausting, honesty requires
that we should not delude strangers to
our borders. If it is simply owing to
the state of affairs attending the transit
/ tion prom placer TO quartz mining, we
should sec If the decrease in product is
not greater than the capabilities of the
Territory warrant, and whether we are
not letting golden opportunities slip
through our fingers. and through apathy,
lag through years of depression, that
might be made those of rejoicing. We
hold that the minerals of the country
are inexhausted and inexllaustible; that
its wealth has never been fully esIi-
mated, scarce prosPeci ed-certaiuly not
developed !; that our placer mines. tlr,'s,
that are discovered, still retain the larger
portion of their treasures that they
have not been Systematically, thoroughly
or economically worked, and that ihv
profitable working of them is yet to :
accom- plished that there are thousands
of acres upon which there has neyeI
been a sluice box or prospect hole, rich
I with wealth, and that will be before
] long busy with industry; that the larger
portion of our quartz operations are
commenced at the wrong place, and in
the wrong manner toFconmand success,
and that where succsss is achieved under
the present popular style of develop
ment in Montana. IL is blundered into,
\ verylcretlitable TO the Territory but not
4 to the business iact and proverbial
! shrewdness of Americans. We Tuay be
wrong in our views. AS we propose to
give them uIt tterance, hear and then
Judge. In this we shall speak of the
placers aIone--a. field offering as great
inducements for capital, labor and science
combined. as do the best quartz lodges
in the country. Since the first discov-
cry of gold in Montana the gulches have
yielded their millions Tlavishly to un-
skilled labor, unaided by other capital.
The transient miners, picking the pre-
ciuus plums from the placer puddings,
liave followed from Bannack TO Aide,
Gulch, thence to Last Chance, Confed
crate and the camps of Deer Lodge, sue
cessiYely running over aud leaving each
after the rich pay streaks had been
"gutted out of the claims, and making
their exodus for other localities. What
is the result That nearly a hundred
million dollars has been taken out in the
FIVE years. and there is not a principal
gulch in Montana that does not yet re-
tain from forty to sixty per cent. of iti
golden treasures, just as capable of being
produced as that taken out by the pere
grinating miner. They require syste-
matte mining, conducted by companie,
having sufficient capital to put in bed
rock fumes and furnish a Sufficient sup
: ply of water TO wash and clean up
gulch instead of pay streak or patch
1t is legitimate, practicable enterprise
now being prosecuted with immens
( profits in California, where there is no
a tithe of the wealth remaining, or as am
pie facilities for economical working a
, there are here. We take, as an instance
: Alder Gulch, and while it is doubtless
r the richest gulch in Montana, there arr
many others with immense wealth re
, manning in them, requiring a less ex
: penditmre TO commence operations AM
with equal or superior facilities 70
{ thorough working. The first question
!. is, What does it contain2 No one vii
s question the assertion that from twenty
;, FIVE to thirty millions of dollars at leas
n have been taken from it, and muc
J. larger estimates have been made. Ever
t practical miner, from the canyon to Sun
e miG. and every person conversant wit
= the manner in which it has been works eC
l. will sustain the statement that fifty pc
+ cent. of the gold yet remains in th
D gulch- There. then, is an object
q twenty five millions of dollars. Is ther
sufficient fall for a bedrock fun.s
q Messrs- King & Gillrtte stnfe thar fro,