New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-23
MINES OF COLORADO.
THE GENERAL OUTLOOK AT RosITA

VISIT To HUMBOLDT AND THE POCAHoNTks
OTHER NEIGHBoRING MINIS.
IFRoMA STAFF CORRESPONDENT TIE rRIBUSgl
RosIrA. Col. July 27.-The chloride ores of sill
yer Cliff. described in recent letters from that
camp. were by no means tho first rich deposits OF
tie precious metals found in the trachyte country
lying on the western slope of the Wet Mountains.
The Bassick bonanza, in the same formation, was
discovered more than year before the Racine
Boy was located. a single tent or dng-Out marked
tie site # the present prosperous and growing city
that has now sprung ND about 1t. And even
before Mr.. Bassck's good luck brought swarm
of new prospcctors into these foothills Rosita
was a thriving mining camp which had attained tnc
mature age OF four years. b t about a beautiful
spring and nesting in the midst OF the SMOOTH
round foothills, which covered with thiu grass
on The side looking toward the valley and support
sparse groves Of pine trees their eastern slopes
the town seems 20 have bad a steady growth from
the very first. and now has population OF about
1900 people. all of whom seem 10 cherish an abd-
Ing faith in the fatu1e OF the camp and as they say
"have come to stay
The discovery of true assure veins in the neigh
borhocd of RosIta antedates by FIVE years any oil
the rich stlrses' that have more recently made
the Hardscra district we and II - not
at n surors.nr that this should be Eight years
ago prospectors in Colorado only looked Tor TWO
kinds of mnes-placers aud assures. They neither
expected to find broad belt Of country everywhere
impregnated with silver nor did they search Tor
great chmneys or blow-outs OF ore. They never
had heard of such mines, and unless they found
culch rich in placer gold or a creyice in the rocks
filed with quartz and containing pay-stroak Of
ore they camped only for night and then passed
on 10 some more promising region.
Some Old miners from the Northern Diggngs,"
as the odes ana placers about Black Hawk Central
City and Georgetown were then called followed the
German colouists into the Wet Mountain Valley IN
1870 aud in December of that year several Mining
claims were located, of winch the CIV. aud senator
were The most promising Bu; even these yielded
very low grade of ore and none of them were opened
to any depth until the fall Of 1872, when one very
cold stormy ght three pros9ectors returning from
the Ute Reservation pitched their tents IN the dafK-
ness at the Rosita Springs. In few days they or
canized the hardscrabbe Mining District, adopting
the name of a little creek in tue mountains, ana
during the winter months examined some of the
rounded hills in this vicinity very suDerhcally In
the sprnQ of 1873 many OF the mines II true
assures that nave since been productive were dis
covered the town of ROis WIS laid out, and the
business OF taking out ore began in earnest.
THE FIRST SETTLERS FIRST WINTER.
That first winter must have been dreary time.
The intense cold and deep SHOWS on the mountains
! prevented much work. and the hardy ahyenturerS
spent great portion Of their time around tho IRE ~
their rude cabins. rehearslng tales more than twice
/ told and binding castles in the air. They were
miscellaneous set. A majority o. them, very nat
urallv. belonged to thai rude, restess-alnost IN
letrered-race of prospectOrs who even elSht years
ago had already penetrated into the most naccessl
bile regions of this mountain country, stopping a
fe davs OF weeks to wash the gravel IN the gu cnes
| wherever thew found - c0lOrs' to encourage Them
Among them was graduate of COLUMBIA College,
who had tried bis hand at almost everything on tAe
Pacific Coast, from dabbhng IN stocks ana running
levels on a railroad. to prospecting gulches with an
old-f,.hioneI rocker" Another had wandered
| all over the globe. and helped to make the long
/ winter pass more swiftly away with his stories OF
wonderful adventures and hairbreadth escapes.
He had been in the Arctic regions but he never had
experienced such intense cold that which froze
him so stiff on his horse in crossing the sangre de
Cristo range that he had to be hOlsed out OF the
saddle like a clothes-pn and soaked in snow and
! xvhiskey all night before he thawed out and signs
of life returned.
THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. WIN
Amonr the mines discovered in 1873 were
several of those on tie Observation-Disclosures
vein. the largest Of the creylceS III this
region and the next year others were
fouDd on the same lode making the entirt
distance over which 1t has been traced through the
hills and across the gulches about two miles. This
great VEN is a creyce IN the porphYry or trachyl'
rock the formation which l have frequently de
scrbed in my letters from Silver Cliff, and extends
in = norf WESTERLY and southeaserly direction iron
tbe Cu.ter County Tunnel to the Virginia mine. LIZ
cbaracter throughout its entire len 9Th is the same
and Professor NewberTy. after visiting TINS CAM
last YEAR spoke Of this vein as one OF the best de
fined and most persistent he had ever seen. III
mines. on the lode beginning at the northwest en'
OF H. are the Custer County Tunnel, Leavehw worth
Stevens East and West Leviathan. Poca
hontas, Humboldt aud Virginia. Each OF thes
claims il 1.5O0 feet long and 800 Zee
wide. except the PocahOntas. which !
100 feet the Humboldt 1000 feet, AM
the East and West Leviathan which are each 7o'
,aat Consolidated with the I.eayeu worth mine IL th
Cmeftaln which Is on a spur or branch OF I'd
main vein and the two mines are worked as on
upder the name of the Chieftain-Lsavenworth y
the mines enumerated above the Lcavenwortf
Poeahontas, Humboldt, Stevens and West LeVid
than are now producing ore. aud machinery Is De
! ing set an for the purpose of working the East LIE
, vathan.
, In order to obtain correct idea of the characte
Of this VEIN the nature of the the extent OF tn
! Developments and the manner IN which Tue mihe
4 are worked visited the two most extensive opera
= tons upon it, the Humboldt and the Pocahon'as
: and went underground IN each. TIE country roe
os thi, lode that is. the rock IN which the crovic
: has been opened. is trachyte. similar to that II
which the chloride belt at Silver Cliff occurs. exeep
that II IS solid and compact III its character aud ha
not been shattered and broken up. Its strike tina
u the direction IN which it ex leads through tn
country. is northwest and southeast and althoua
IL cut through several hills and across two or tnrc
cuches. il holds its direction WIN great regular
and presidency The dip of tne VEN Is about %
. TO the southwest, and the With OF Ihe pay 9Ilea
0 u, Il from two inches 10 about two and hall feet
As 70 the actual width of the crevice there rs 200
: doal of difference of opinion. The banging Wal t