Arizona weekly miner., 1876-12-22
BLACK CANYON MINES.
BY c. A. PLETZ.

These mines are situated about ten miles | South of West from the farm of MT. J. w.
 Swilling which is on the road to Phoenix,
 about 5S miles from Prescott, on the Agua Fria.
 The most prominent and best developed
 mine is the Tip-Top, owned by A. J. Moore
 & Co. On the North side of the Canyon
 they have sunk one shaft S5 feet, and fouRd
 good ore all the way. Another shaft, 30
 feet, is in good ore, and they are also rum ming tunnel on the vein to connect both
 shafts. The length of the tunnel, when
 completed, will be about 160 feet. Work
 IS going ~n in all of these places. On the ! South siIe of the Canyon they have a cut
 20 feet deep, but owing to the scarcity of miners, they are not working on it at pres cnt. Most of the ore worked at the Aztlan
 mill (61s tons) came from this place, and pulped S503 per ton. Up to the present date this Company have shipped over Is | tons of their frst-class ore to be milled Average assay value, $550 per ton. They l have about so tons of their first-class ore on the dump, which will not pay the heavy expense of S65 to $70 per ton of packing and hauling to the mill, but will pay the owners handsome profit whenever the time comes that the ore can be reduced nearer to the mine. The Company are working eight men, and have ordered um- Der to build houses for the winter, which, by the way, Is not severe-no snow, and very little frost
 The first southern extension, owned by John H. Behan, shows good mineral in different places, and will, undoubtedly, prove a valuable claim There are two northern extensions, hut no work has been done on either. Both show fae croppings of good ore.
 About one-half mile up the Canyon, I found MT. Stewart, at work on a claim called the "Nevada," with most flattering pros pect This claim also belongs to Moore & Co.
 Another half-mile up the Canyon, brings you to the McDerwin mine, out of which the owners, Maj. McDerwin S O., with very little labor or cost, have taken out 8 tons of tirst-class ore, part of which was on the dump, sacked, ready for shipment. The owners of this claim are not working the mine at present. They are satisfied the ore is rich, but prefer to wait until they know what it will mill. Next to it, distant about three-fourths of mile, is claim owned and worked by Brunson & Barnum. from which they have shipped five tons of very fine ore.
 About one-fourth mile above Brunson & Barnum's is the Swilling mine. This is, by far, the largest vein 1 have seen, being about four feet from wall to wall, with a pay streak from to inches on the hang icc wall, of fine, high-grade ore. About , tons of this ore was worked at the Aztlan mill and pulped $513 per ton, producing bullion 960 fine About tons of the same ore is in transit to the mill.
 The Pawn, another extension on the Swil- ling mine. owned by Mullen, shows the best croppings of any of the former veins. They have just opened the claim, and exposed vein of 22 inches of excellent ore. sw~On leaving Mullen's claim we changed our course, and in going about halfmile West, came to the George mine, owned by MT. Carpenter. This claim is opened by four shallow shafts, and good ore found in all of them. In the lower shaft I found | some very fine specimens of ruby silver, the | first have seen in Yavapai county. About a mile and a-haf North-East we found Mr. | J. Foy at work running a tunnel on a claim, | (the name of which have forgotten). He | has about two tons of ore on the dunn from which he expects good returns. Nj Foy showed me some ore, of which he ha | samples assayed at Prescott, which yielded | $1 300 per ton. An extension on the same vein. called the "lIomc,take,' is owned by | Moore X Corning, shows very large crop ping and some very rich ore.
 There is one more claim on which some work has been done. owned by Mr. More land. lie has tons of ore sacked, ready for shipment.
 There are number of other claims that promise well from which have seen speci- mcns at the different camps, but as there had been no work done on them, did not vist them. The ore from all these mines is packed on mules to Swillings, from which place teams haul it to Smiths mill, to be worked by Dr. Jones. The character of the ore is, generally speaking, such as to re- luire roasting before it can be worked by pan amalgamation. There is plenty of wa er near the mines, but wood is very scarce ind of poor quality.
 There are now about 60 men at the mines, md more going in daily. The climate is 'ery pleasant, and outdoor work can be ,arried on at all seasons of the year. The miners supply themselves with fresh meat ,y killing deer, which are plentiful.