Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-12-14
THE NEW RAILROAD PROJECT.

/
Comstock to theCarson River at En-
pirc City, aud perhaps to the Truckee
At Reno, meets with most decided favor
at the hands of the citizens Of Virginia
City and Gold. Hill. Every business
man cannot but plainly see that it be-
necessary for our mine owners to
adopt som measures to get the vast
amoun Of low grade ores on the Com
stock to some place where they can be
cheaply reduced by machinery adapted
to water power. This can be done oy
Tho construction Of u railroad to the
river. I, is II fact well known TO
,ersons conversant with our mining
interests that ever since the great Com
stock was opened, scarcely any but the
best paying ores have been sent to the
mills, leaving what may be safely said to
he at least two-thirds of the vein deposits
either in the mines or on the dumps and
repositories of the works-ores which
will weigh millions Of tons, and which
will yield from six to fifteen dollars per
ton. At the present price OF labor -four
dollars per day to the handy, the price
of teaming, from one to Two and a half
dollars per ton, and the necessarily high
price for reduction at all our mills, be-
cause Of the exhorbitant price for fuel
and mill labor and neutrality-suspicious. of
those cheap ores have been worked,
and they are Of course still in the pos
session of the mines. Now let US mag
inc the railroad built to Empire City,
with q branch down the Carson River,
the low grade ores can DO unloaded at
the water-power mills at ono dollar per
ton the cost Of their reduction will
not exceed three to four dollars, while
the present price paid for reduction is
not less than from eleven to fifteen dol
lars per ton-leaving q far greater mar
gin for profit in favor of the low grade
ores, than has been realized from four
nituS Oh tue OteS tuhSu oub 4 ~ ouA
mines for several years past.
The mills which are now running on
Comstock ore, consume three hundred
cords of wood per day-which, at an
average of Sll per cord, is $4,000 per
day, or $l,5l2, 900 a year for fuel alone.
\ railroad would deliver the same
amount of fuel here for half that sum
and hence q proportionste reduction in
the price of milling our best class ores.
The timbers and lumber, too, which are
used in our mines would be one-half
less in cost to what is now paid. The
fuel consumed by all our people, and
the lumber for building purposes, would
also cost less by an hundred per cent.
than ID now paid so that our entire
community is interested in having this
railroad built, so that we can have
cheaper transportation for the very
materials which are so essential to keep
our industrial interests moving. Now,
so far as Storey County proper is con-
ccrned, she can we'll afford to make a
donation Of $500 900 in bonds, payable
In three, six and ten years, with a nero
nominal annual interest Of seven per
cent Her debt is only about $780, 900,
which she has been liquidating, last
and the present year, at the rate OF
$50, 900 a year. The enhanced value Of
our mining interests, the increased
revenue derived therefrom, the large
number Of additional hands employed,
and the large amounts of money dis
bursed by reason of such increase,
which will find its way into all tho
channels of trade and business among
our people, and the additional taxable
property which a railroad would create
in the community-would all tend to
make Storey County far more pros
porous than it has ever been. We
therefore say, let the bonds of the
county to the amount designated be do
mated to the projectors of this great
work, as an evidence that the people
want and must have this railroad.
The Humboldt country is having the
Pacific Railroad stretched through it
from one end to the other, and its min
ing interests are beginning to attract
the attention ocpeoplc and capitalists rs
they never did before. The Reese River
people, too, are taking the preliminary
steps for a railroad Of n hundred miles
in length, from the Pacific Road, to
their mines and homes and we expect
to hear before long of another branch
of railroad from the Pacific Railroad at
Gravelly Ford over to the newly-discov-
cred mines of White Pine, and from
thence southwark to the Colorado, as
there are reported TO be ~fabulously rich
silver mines in that direction and peo-
pie, miners, capitalists, business men,
Cand many of them, too,) are leaving
Storey County, and going to regions
which are manifesting more energy and
spirit than we are. We are decidedly
in favor of /" turning over q new leaf"
in business matters concerning our
mining interests, so rs to turn our hid
den wealth to active and positive ac-
count to people who are now here, and
to attract as many more, and as much
capital to our community as possible
and not wait for the next generation to
do what we ourselves II and should do.
We are pleased to see our Virginia City
contemporaries, the Enterprise and the
Safeguard, also taking a favorable view
OF the newly projected railroad to En-
pire City and other places, and we copy
the following article from the Enterprise
of yesterday
A movement is on foot to bring practically
before the people Of this and other counties
the project OF a railroad from Virginia to the
.Trucksc. A petition is in circulation pray
ing the Legislature to authorize county aid,
IN the character Of a loan to the undertaking,