Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-08-02
COLORADO LETTER.
CLEAR CREEK CANON, July 90, 1878.
GOTD Am STT vrp

| GOLD AND SILVER.
Dear Telegraph left Denver at z
a. m. by raii. In an hour we reached Golden
City, at the entrance of the Canon, where
we changed to narrow guage railroad.
and took our seats in an observation car
that is, platform car with seats and roof
but open at the sides.
These three feet guage roads are q great
institution in the mountains, where they
serge all the requirements Of travel and
freight at less than half the cost of the
ordinary railroad, and make nothing Of
curves where you cannot see the locomo-
tive from the rear platform-of rising two
hundred or more feet to the mile-or Of
going zigzag up to dizzy height. Indeed,
all this is jolly if you don't get dizzy your
self.
We expected to find the creek clear as
indicated by Its name. 1t is said to have
been beautifully clear before opening the
mines, but now it is mass of rolling.
fOaming. tumbling, dashing mud, caused
by the mining, milling and washing oper-
ations along its course. Thus man in his
greed for gold spoils the beauties of ma
ture.
The walls of the Canon however, man
with all his efforts has not been able to
spoil. They rise from one hundred to one
thousand feet high, ranging from an angle
of forty-fvs degrees to perpendicular, and
in some places Overhang the road more
than the whole width of the train. The
rocks are exceedingly craggy and pic
turesque and the canon so narrow that
there is hardly room for the creek and the
road.
The conductor kindly stopped the train
for us at the Office of the
BLACK HAWK REDUCTION WORKS
and offered to send US a hack from the de-
pOt-a mile further on-a letter Of intro
duction to the manager, procured us every
attention. These works are the most ex-
tensivs of any in the State-and with the
possible exception of Virginia City, Ne
vada-are the most extensive Of the kind
in America.
We were first shown through long one
story shed-like building, where the ore is
received from the several mines, and each
placed in separate piles until tested and
settled for. We expected to see the ore
glittering in the bright sunlight and i'm
posing tax upon our sense of honesty
and sense of propriety, and were not a lit
tie disappointed to find instead, only
broken stones, and after being told that
this was mainly iron--that mainly copper
little silver and lead-and over yonder
pile of copper-and so on through fifty or
more piles which looked to our inexperi-
enced eyes like piles of ordinary broken
stones or gravel for repairing roads, and
then after all this information, We could
not tell one from the other. However, the
eye of the expert can call every child by
name and nearly approximate the value Of
each. After being settled for, the several
lots are taken in wheelbarrows to a mill
where they are ground to the consistency
of coarse meal. Then the several lots are
mixed so as to bring together the various
ingredients that Will make good fux
when melted; and thence by wheelbarrow
again are taken to the furnaces, where the
rock and metal are converted into fluid in
q few minutes. The metal being heavy
sinks to the bottom and the refuse floats
on top and is SKINNED off with a seraper
introduced by long handle into the side Of
the furnace. The process of melting and
skimming continues for two or three days,
until the bottom Of the furnace is full Of
MoULTON METAL,
Which is mixture Of most of the metals
known to art. 1t was our good fortune to
be present at the drawing off of this metal,
which one enthusiastic spectator took to
be pure gold-"0h, more than d
WAGON LOAD OF PURE GOLD,
for only see how it Shines" and surely it |
did shine until our eyes were like the eyes
of many who looked at the eclipse with |
too little smoke on their glasses.
The manager explained that Of the ore
put into the furnaces, full nineteen parts
out Of twenty were SKINNED off as worth
less and only the one twentieth part was
metal. Then of this twentieth part more
than three quarters was composed of iron,
lead, copper, &C., and less than one quar-
ter was mixture of gold and silver.
The process of separating the several
kinds of metal was chemical and too in
tricate for description, but we were shown
pure silver and pure gold as the final re-
suit of so much labor and so much ex-
pense.
Nearly an hour was consumed in walk
ing through and examining these works.
We were glad to find the hack waiting |
when we came out, and thanking the man
ager for his polite attention, we bid him
goodbye and drove off to the
BOB TAIL MINE,
Which is one of the richest in this Canon, |
and most easy of access. The entrance is |
directly by the road side and under a large
shed, where were standing number OF
miners cars loaded with ore, which to our
eyes was only broken rock. A letter OF in
PRODUCTION again procured US the same
kind of polite attention, and in a few mo-
ments each member Of our party being pro-
vided with a light, were following our
guide into the bowels of the earth.
The limits of letter will not permit
description Of miners tunnel, running
horizontal more than thousand feet into
the mountain, then perpendicular shaft
five hundred feet to the top and three hun
dred feet deeper to the lower working level
the pipe through which fresh air is forced
into the mine by an air pump-anether
and larger pipe through which an immense
suction pump keeps the mine free Of water
the process Of loosening the ore and
loading it into the cars-hoisting it by
steam to the tunnel and then drawing it
out over tramway by mules-together
with the weird appearance of the work