The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-06-18


cate, may be tinctured by the mythol'
gy of the region whose inhabitant
: are peculiar people.
Of course the thin and meagre in
agination of the American savage wa
not equal to the creation of Milton
magnifcently imperial Satan, or q
Goethe's Mephistopheles, with hi
subtle intellect, his vast powers, hi
malignant mirth; but in SO far as tn
Indian fiends, devils and other god
have the ability they are wholly a
wicked as these and only think O
evil-and as it is said that gold, which
these mountains and the earthly homt
of these devils contains, is the roo
of all evil, perhaps by having recourse
to their legends we may the better
discover the radical root, as the Jesuit
fathers Odd while the country was
younger, but as well known, almost, as
it is to-day, and SO trust that / may
claim your indulgence when l mingle
myths and truth, weaving web of both
but keeping each distinct and giving
preference to truth, which is Of the
most concern. And so as fiction is to
occupy position subordinate to fact
in this correspondence, / shall devote
the rest of this letter to a statement
Of the facts which have engaged pub
lie attention already and given inter
est to my subject, although at the out
set I may have conveyed an opposite
impression.
The discovery Of rich silver-bearing
carbonates in the vicinity of Leadville
has produced a resolution in mining
for the precious metals. For years
those carbonates were considered a
worthless material to be got rid of and
thrown away. Being heavy, they sunk
to the bottom and filled the rifles in
the sluice boxes of the placer miners
and prevented the successful raising
of the gold of the gulches where they
were found. Their first result was to
stop gold mining and all other mining
in the regions where they existed, for
they were not known to contain silver
in paying quantities, and the superim-
posed rock where they exist being of
the more recent silurian formations
contained only small "gash veins or
lOdes of the precious metals. The
carbonates lay in the contacts between
the aZoic and paleaZoic rocks, SO that
finding such suppOsed-to-be worthless
rock exploration was not carried be-
low, and exploitation ended at the
contact. But this is now all changed,
and the stone that was rejected has
now become the chief stone of the
corner of the temple Of Colorado's
prosperity, and threatens to impair the
commercial value of silver which has
so long been a standard. ProspectOrs
are now most excited over discoveries
of carbonate ores, and although they
admit the superiority of assure veins
as permanent mines, yet, on account of
the large bodies Of rich ores contained
within small compass in the contacts,
contact veins have the preference.
The carbonate belt struck in the
vicinity of Leadville attracts most at.
tention, but that belt extends north
westwardly through the region of the
parks of Colorado and into Wyoming,
and being most accessible at this sea-
son Of the year, from this direction
this place is receiving large influx OF
miners and prospectors and is
destined to become the great entrepot
of the region, as it is situated
on the line of the Union Pacific
Railroad, where that great trans.
continental highway traverses the
park region at an elevation equal to
that Of the North and South parks
which lie Immediately to the south.
ward, and are at the same time of easy
access and the centre of attraction in
mining circles-the mountains encir.
cling them Astounding in rich and ex.
tensive gold and silver bearing veins
and the passes over the divides be-
tween the parks being low an excellent
natural route extends from this
place through the parks and as far as
Leadville and the Gunnison country.
Persons going from this direction
toward the parks have upon entering
the mountains between the North park
and the Laramie plains found rich
gold mines at the end of their first
days journey. Jelm mountain, which
lies on the line of their march, seems
to be network of gold veins-small
in size, but exceedingly rich in the
character of their rock, numerous
veins attending samples of ore assay.
ing over $4,000 in gold per ton, and
as high as 100000.
The result has been startling, for.
where no one lived two months ago,
Cummins city, prosperous town and
live mining camp, is situate to-day at
a point only about thirty miles distant
from this place.
The Douglas creek region, which is
in the Medicine Bow mountains some
dozen miles west of Jelm mountains,
also attracts considerable attention.
Nuggets of pure native gold weighing
as much as so dwts. (worth as many
dollars) have been found in the alluvi-
UNI of the gulches, and rich quartz-lodes
in the rock in place-one of which,
the keystone by name, having already
yielded by means of rude processes
some 100000 in gold, and another, the
Centennial, a like amount of the pre-
cious metals. In fact the whole Medi-
pa1Yy ,-opoa 1x,;,o~ @lo