Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-06-02

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Alta CITY. UTAH. May 20, 1874.
To the Editor of the Ledger:
Having arrived in this wonderful min.
ing district, and seen with my own eyes
that which bad doubted for years, l can
no longer hesitate to acknowledge its
truth Alta City is but small village
Of 1900 people, two.thiras OF whom are
miners. 1t is situated twenty-nine miles
southeast of Salt Lake City, ard at the
head Of Little Cottonwood Canon, 10000
feet above the level of the sea, and is
regarded as the richest mining district
in Utah. The great Emma mine,
stocked at $5,00O,O00, gold, is located
here; also, the great mine Prince of
Wales, yielding her fifty and sixty tons
of ore per day; the Flagstaff also ship
ping her sixty to seventy tons per day.
The Mckay, Vallajo, Last Chance, Hia-
watha, and many others, are pushing
their ores into market with great energy.
The Enterprise has made some won
derful developments. After sinking $50
feet of shafts, cuts, drifts and tunnels,
it sampled the mine by taking thirteen
samples from thousands of tons of ore
that stood exposed from one end of the
mine to the other, had them assayed
separately, receiving the wonderful re-
sultan average per ton of Sl04 in sill
yer and A per cent. lead, all purely
smelling ore Miners never felt so Jolly
as they feel this year. all mines in
Little Cottonwood District that are
pushed are paying well. Buyers are
here from San Francisco, Chicago,
Omaha and the home offices, competing
strongly for the crude ore, paying the
full silver assay value for it ON the spot,
the smelters making their profit out of
the large proceeds of lead. This, also,
does away with the necessity of every
mine having a mill or smelter Each
mine produces its ore and sells it for
cash the same as we sell grain IN the
States.
This great system of mining makes it
a business ofimmense magnitude. Over
two-thirds of the men in these great mi
ming districts live under ground almost
continually. The amount of timber
used for mining purposes in this county
may seem incredible, but nevertheless it |
is fact that more lumber is used in |
cribbing and walling up silver mines than |
10 uoCQ lOt dll CtllcSt lOWuS, |
dwellings and fences in the Territory; in
fact, this is about the largest expense
that good milling ore mine has to con-
tend with. Timber being very scarce of
course it comes very high. Many of the
fine smelling ere mines have defined fis- |
sure veins and are thus blessed, having
no timber to buy, and at the same time
selling their ores very Aigh. These are
the mines that pay best. The tunnels in
Little Cottonwood promise something |
after awhile. OF course they are all as
yet in their infancy, not having reached |
the mineral lodges, but much may be |
expected of them within another year. |
The Bay City tunnel, owned by st. |
Louis company, is beautiful piece of |
work, in splendid location, 300 feet in,
and promises a handsome reward for
Mr. Tulley, the superintendent, and her
stockholders. The great Rowland tun-
mel is to be 5000 feet long, is in some
four or five hundred feet, has made such
wonderful developments that $5,000,000 |
is asked for it. The Prince of Wales !
was valued last year at 100000, but
struck such rich deposit of ore this |
winter that 100000 is the price now.
The Flagstaff in Farley Park was offer
ed last year at $8000 is to-day held at
$500,O00. The Mono in Dry Canon sold
last year, l think, for $60000 could not
be purchased to day for Sl,0O0,0O0. In
fact | could name many other such |
cases, but have not the time to go into |
the details. Let me add that these won
derful developments have driven every |
one who has a good claim to push it;
and for these reasons we may safely say |
that more good honest mining will be
done within the next twelve months |
than was ever done in this Territory |
before, all told.
Gold and railroad stock have failed to
pay the capitalists of the East during
the last year. think it likely they will
now turn their attention TO the silver
fields of Utah and Nevada 1t is esti-
mated that England has more capital
invested in Utah than the United States
has. We think this likely, as they have
the best mines in the country. 1t is but
a short time since they purchased the
Chicago mine situated in Dry Canon for
$3.50, 600 cash. This is the way business
is done here. No one talks of horse
trade unless one or the other is to get
100000 to boot Snow in the noun
tains from four to twelve feet deep, but is
moving very fast now. Salt Lake City
is lovely place-cool nighis-but hot is
no name for MONDAY. The railroad in
terest Of Salt Lake Valley is attracting
a great deal of interest. Several new
roads are being pushed as fast as possi-
BILE. Crops all look fine. c. b. 7.