, 1879-12-08
LeadyilIe's Former Owner.


J. P. Whitney, lormerly of Colorado,
makes some explanations in regard to
an interview with him about Leadville
and its mines which appeared in the
World of October 10th. Mr.. Whitney
wishes, the first place. to say that he is
not DR.. J. P. Whitney, of California.
who is a well-known physician of that
State. To reporter of the World he
good naturedly said yesterday: ~
call myself simply j. P. Whitney,
though l was dubbed an Honorable by
the territorial legislature of Colorado
in a parchment emanating from that
body in 1868 and recording a unani-
nous vote upon a series of resolutions
thanking me. with the governors sig
nature and the great seal of the terri
tory. for my personal efforts in securing
the first gold medal of the worlds ex-
position at Paris, in 1867, for Colorado
ores.
Mr.. Whitney said furthermore that in
former years in Colorado he was very
much amused by being generally called
Professor" while, since the late dis
covery of the great wealth of the mint 8
about Leadville, he had been designated
by some of his friends as a " damphool!"
for not holding on to all the mines he
once possessed there. Neither OF these
appellations does he think himself
wholly entitled to.
"Why did you not hold on to those
rich veins 2" asked the reporter.
81 did under the territorial laws,
whichj jwere also ratified by the action
OF congress, which gave me undisputed
title to over four hundred continuous
mines, none of which were less than six
teen hundred feet in length. Them l
held by discovery, pre-emption and i'm
provement as real estate until the new
mining law of the United States of 1872
came into operation, which required a
continuous working of the mines or an
expenditure of one hundred dollars
upon each one hundred feet in linear
measurement to secure United States
patent, otherwise all mines were open
to new locators, and in 1876 and 1877
these mines were relocated, and doubt
if any are left worth looking after,
though / am going out for the fun of
the thing to look around"
g. suppose you feel good deal of
regret at allowing all this property to
slip through your hands ?"
mo, not much. Although life is
full of regrets, feel but little on this
score for myself, though for company
to which sold portion of my prop
erty and which lost its property as l
did, I do feel sorry. We must step
aside and give others a chance. If l
had all these properties to-day, Ishould
have been worked to death, and, per-
haps, as uneasy aud nervous as a mil
lionaire mine-owner from Leadville
whom I saw to- day. Colorado is too
large to be controlled by few men, as
Nevada is"
"Do you think Colorado presents
better inducements for mining than Ne
vada
"Yes, altogether. There are but few
great mines in Nevada. Take away the
Comstock-which, with all its bonanzas,
has cost more to work the whole vein
than has been produced from it-and
you have not got great deal left.
Colorado has dozens of mines which
will approach, if not surpass, the Com
stock vein."
"Do you think the best mines in
Colorado have been already discov-
cred ?"
"By DO means not but what great
many already discovered will pan out
altogether in excess of present develop
ments as they are sunk into. Still,
there are literally thousands of rich
veins in Colorado yet over which the
pick has not yet been swung"
"Are not these mines visible on the
surface 2"
90 Yes, almost always; yet. owing to
their oxidized surface exhibits and the
obliteration of surface by rock and
earth slides, they are not always in sight,
and, besides, rich veins do not always
show their wealth at third-surface crop
pings. Sometimes the miner strikes at
once chimney or pay-streak which
opens into bonanza, but generally
not"
"How did the mines appear to you
about Leadville when you first saw
them?"
"In the most prominent cases like
roads on the mountain sides, and the
eye could follow them for long dis
tances. I was like Aladdin in the gar
den without hardly realizing it. l was
quite alone in this region with my band
Of employed prospectors. When I re-
turned into this region after the assays
/ had made at Denver iu 1865. helped
myself to three or four hundred mines.
besides taking up large quantities of
water-powers and tunnel sites under
the territorial laws"
did you take them all up in one To-
cality?"
"No Il went from mountain to noun
tain. On Fletcher mountain, a few
miles from Leadville, where thought
the mineral veins most prominent of
any. took up over l60. 600 feet ofmines
in ten days. I took up here some mines
fo, <uo ~ tbroa milan in LENGTH DlAinlV