The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1880-09-30
EASTERN IDAHO.
Yankee Fork and its Mines and Prospects

yet good wagon way has been con-
structei at a cost of about $40, 00o, and
reaching
BONANZA CITY,
By stage, we find an excellent hotel, a
town of 400 people, several stores and
other places of business and weekly
newspaper, The Yankee Fork Herald,
to give the news of the camp, Just
above the town, Jordan. creek enters
the Yankee Fork, and the placer mines
along the Jordan was what first brought
miners into this vicinity, some eight or
ten wears ago. For a distance OF sev-
eral miles up Jordan creek placer min
ing was at cue time carried on extern
sively. aud ut places large nuggets were
taken out but as whole they did not
pay very rich returns for the labor and
capital expended. AT the present time
claims are berg worked to some profit.
by tunneling III on bed rock.
THE YANKEE FORK
Is a large stream draining vast scope
Of country. and its waters empty into
the Salmon River. Quartz mining was
not thought of until some three or four
| years ago, when some locations were
made, and about all that has been done,
50 far was done during the past two
years. One OF the nearest mines to
| Bonanza is the Charles Dickens, loea-
ted one mile from town, and few mines
are richer in silver than is this one.
AN ENERGETIC PRosPECpoR,
! VIM. Norton, the discoverer had been
engaged in placer mining, and failing
| to make q success in that, tried looking
| for quartz, and making the discovery OF
the lode bent his energies upon that
| During the several years OF toll here, a
FREUD had supplied him with means to.
go on, until he seemed hopelessly IN
! debt for grub stakes now consumed,
but he worked on, opened the mine,
and selecting rich ore pounded it out.
| During the day he would mine, and at
night he would pulverze the ore with
/ drill head in a mortar made by cutting
a quicksilver tank in two, and IN one
month he thus secured 81 800, and at
once paid off his Indebtedness to his
friend of over $40, 000 and began anew.
! a very rude arastra reduces his ore to O.
pulp, and from it he is now taking out
! over $4,000 per month, and yet the
| tailings assay nearly $500 per ton. Good
machinery would make this mine one
of the best paying mines in the coun
! try. The lode ranges from two To eight
! feet in thickness, and shows good hang
ing and foot walls. and he goes down,
the mine improves in size and richness,
so that in the two tunnels run'ln, the
| lower one shows much the best. Eight
/ miles from Bonanza
ESTES MOUNTAIN
Is located, from whose peak, rising to
an altitude of 10000 feet above sea
level, the view is grand in the extreme.
Here one can trace out the Saw Tooth
and other ranges far away in every di-
rsctiou. The sides of this mountain IS
| covered with broken rock far down, and
amid this is mixed rich float rock. that
caused prospectors to search for lodges.
| Estes found and located some of these,
and hence, the name of the peak.
| Search was made at another point, re-
sulting III the discovery OF the Montana
! The owners were poor men, but ener-
| getic. and the ledge once found, their
| purse was replenshsd by pounding out
! ore in mortar aHtl melting snow Tor
| water to use in matchmaking. Farther
| advanced. and the richer specimens
were sent out cn pack trans to an out
side market hundreds of miles away
| To build their cabin, an excavation
must be made to give a spot for II to
rest on, AMI in doing so, 81 900 ore was
shoveled out. The company Is becom-
ing strong one, and the time will soon
come when good machinery will reduce
| their ores. Numerous other mines are
on the same ledge, and other lodes in
the same hill, and this district bids fair
to produce very largely. Two miles
above Bonanza on the Yankee Fork, is
THE TOWN OF CUSTER,
So named after the General Custer
mine, which shoots up out of the hill,
far i'll the air. and thus exposes a body
of ore over 100 feet thick and several
hundred feet long up and down. the
mountain. Never before has such an
immense ledge of high grade milling
ore been seen exposed above ground.
The discovery was made by the great
slide of ore lying in broken fragments
down the sides of the high mountain.
The original owners culled out portions
of the rock and sent trout to market,
and while culhng threw down what they
classed as waste, until fully 1000 tons
laid on their dump ASSAYS of the