The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-05-04
The Richest Region Yet.
Pueblo (Col.) Correspondence Of the Kansas Cit,
Times.l

lT"ep'oN NOoi'l S"i'''PTl,as " '~ ~~ ~
The City of Del Norte, the prin pa
Quitting point for the San Juan mines,
is city Of some three thousand inhabi-
tants, on the south bank OF the Rio
Grande Del Norte. 1t is Handsomely
laid out and has some excellent build
ihgs, and is, considering Its location, q
lively three. year-old. Every luxury to
be had in the States can be found III Del
Norte, and at reasonable figures, distance
from market considered. If hundredth
part of the stories they tell are true, the
COmstOck and Consolidated Virginia
mines of Nevada are small potatoes COM
pared with a hundred discovered gold
and silver leads in the San Juan country.
The mines are inaccessible, except on
snow shoes, and will be 80 at least for
two months to come. The Summit
Mine Is in many respects the most valu-
able gold mine ever discovered. The
whole top of South Mountain, nearly
seven thousand acres, is mass of bttrnt
quartz, and contains wherever prospected
free gold assaying all the way from $48
to $4,000 per ton. 1t is all claimed, and
the stakes are as thick as in newly dis
covered graveyard. One nugget was
found in the Little Anne Mine (the only
one that has mill yet) worth nearly
1000. / saw number of nuggets that
came from various claims in the mount
ain varying in value from $5 to $50. Of
course these are exceptions, and it would
not pay to work the quartz for the mug
gets; but it is very rich in invisible
mineral called -four gold. A shaft has
been struck by the Little Annie sixty
feet into the side of the mountain, and
the quartz keeps getting richer the fur
ther they penetrate it. There is gold
enough in this mountain, If it is once
got out, to pay the national debt and
hate surplus left. The Summit dis
trict is about thirty miles southwest of
Del Norte. The new district discovered
or explored last year by the Hon. Sidney
Clarke lies directly south of the Sum-
nit, about twenty miles, while up to the
southeast is the Decatur, a very rich dis
trict. One of the most talked about
at present, because it is the newest, is
the Bitter Creek district, discovered by
II. McFadden in July of last year. He
says that the crevice is one hundred feet
wide between the small rock of his Van
derbilt mine, and specimens of the
quartz shown your correspondent seem
to warrant his sanguine expressions in
regard to this and several other mines he
discovered and located. The district
lies east of the Summit, and is only
eighteen miles from Del Norte. The
character Of the Quartz is similar to that
taken from the Summit, and the quartz
is i'm well-defned leads. The regions OF
which 1 have spoken are only in the
threshold. 80 to speak, of the great San
Juan country. The Great Lake district
and the Uncampaque district are among
the richest, if not the richest, silver dis
tricts in the world. / saw twelve thou
sand pounds of bare bullion awaiting
shipment from Pueblo. This containg
about fifty per cent. silver, and the rest
is copper and lead, mostly lead. This
came from the smelling works of Green
& Co., of Lake City. Thousands of tons
of ore are mined in these regions, and are
only awaiting capitalists to put in mills
and smelling works, when the silver pro.
duct Of this region will astonish the
world. There are hundred of lodes uh.
touched that would pay big to work, il
there were mills and smelling works in
the vicinity. Reports of silver lead
one hundred and fifty-five feet wide
solid galena and gray copper ore, and q
fity-foot thick coal mine and mountains
of iron ore, are among the latest from the
front. l have seen specimens Of the ore
and coal, and can assure your readers
they are firstclass.