New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-03
MINES OF COLORADO.
,,, Culver CLIFF COMPANY.


rurF OF THE PROPERTY.
-, STAFF CORRESPONDENT or THE rRIBUNR.I
c,,vFa CLIFF Colorado, July l9-Ihe discovery
- tbe Racine Boy, at present the pest mihe IN inc
",i,ride beltr described in my last letter be-
tho most developed, was an accident. 1t is
snr;s,no how many similar accidents have oc-
'' ,a in the mining regions of the Rocky Noun
- Jurins the last few years. Nature seems 10
ssI;Cb4 in concealing her hidden treasures from
So who sacrifice most and search Win the
satost diligence for them, while she opens I'M
tsaador her richest stOrehouses of wealth to men
- are not anxiously knocking at their doors
hon tempted to collect the material and write
Ito an chance discoveries. No chapter IN the
80 history OF mining for the precious metals IS
- ,,rie,e with romantic interest. Gold was
e. discovered in California by accident. Ten
n.o,sond men camped in sight of the great car
,ote bcds of Leadville, cut timber for their
r;rs ord sluce boxes on Fryer Hill, Carbonate
nan and Iron Hill, and cursed the heavy rocks
.,,;rterfrrefwith their mining operations, before
NJ Wood who was not looking for silver mlnes
49,, had gone TO California Gulch to build a ditch
:; nursuancc of a contract, thought of having some
s. those same rocks assayed. The presence of gold
:. Ider Gulch Montana, which is said to have
ildcd n larger amount of the precious yellow dust
In any other single gulch on the Pacific coast
.s;c,inrs in Idaho and who camped, on the gulch
Cor dinner The list of chance discoveries might
hoextendcd almost indefinitely, and would include
orcb well known mines the Horn Silver in Utah,
tbe Bassick at Rosita. and the Bull-Domlngo and
Racine Boy here at Silver Clif.
" Moiada or the Wet Mountain Valley was
Settled bv a colony of Germans from Chicago or
canized by Professor Carl Wulsten in the spring OF
1870 Previous to that time very little was known
of the country lying between the Wet Mountain ana
sanerc de Cristo Ranges. as no wagon road through
either OF the caIons leading into it was built until
that year and the trail a difficult one even
for mountain horses. The next year one or two
creviccs were discovered in the rocks, and in 1872
the first mining claims were staked of at Rosita. OF
which | shall write at some length III another
letter
Between 1872 and 1873 the hills for many miles
abont Ro,ita were carefully examined by pros
pectors and thousands of dollars were spent III eN-
plorations hut nobody thought of causing an assay
IN he made of the barren-looking trachyte rock,
great masses of which stuck ont of the buls seven
miles northwest Of the thriving Young town.
Though the ground over a large area was strcWh
with broken fragments of what has since proved To
be cool ore and the prairie dogs threw out small
pieces of it when they dug their holes the ranch
men in the valley, whose cattle e1azed over The
L,
picious of the wealth that lay before their very
ewes. and which they almost daily trod under foot
In JnIv ISIS Mcs,rs. Edwards. Powell ana
Ua0ord located the first mine IN this camp, the
Racine Bow. | have been unable To learn ali the
circumstances of the discovery hut the story cur
rent in silver Clih is that this firm owned a saw
mill and furnished lumber both in ROsita and III the
valley On the Goth Of June Mr.. Edwards, III pur-
suit Of his business passed over the present site OF
Silver Cliff and stopped beneath the rocky blum
from which the camp derives its name, either to cat
his lunch in the shade or for protection from a
passnq shower. While there he knocked of
piece of the rock and to his surprise found upon 1t
bnnch of horn silver Mentioning his discovery to
no one but his partners, two days later they
@located and surveyed three claims lying parallel
with each other. which they called the Racine
Boy. Silver Chm and Wet Mountain Valley The
same day they also drove stake in the Horn
Silver claim at a distance of about mile from the
others.
The news Of a rich strike does not take long to
travel in these mining regions, and within two or
three DAYS the hills about here swarmed with pros
peetors who pitched their tents excayated their
dugout, for temporary shelter. and within week
had stakcd out hundreds of claims ROsjta was for
a time almost deserted. About the middle of Sep
ternbcr. ls7S the first shipment Of ore was made,
and ten DAYS later the first wooden house was
BEGUN. silver Cliff is now a regularly laid out well
built Western town Of more than 5000 inhabl-
tants.
The SILVER CLIFF ooMPANY's PROPERTY.
Mcssrs Edwards Powell and Halord sold the
Racine Boy Silver Cliff and Wet Mountain mines
before they had been much developed to Mr.. Bailey;
the price which they received. as l have heard,
being $4,000. Through Mr. Baley's efforts the
Silver Cliff silver Mining Company was formed,
'. Csfn fAA IN 1olls
z. Jones and Mr. James II. Kecne being prominent
members of the company. The mineral land owned
by this organization comprises the whole OF the
Racine Boy and one-half of the Silver Cli1 mine,
and is 800 feet long and $50 feet wide. The COM
pany also owns a forty stamp mill, with tramway
extending from the mine TO it, and the remaining
half of the Silver Clif mine and the whole OF the
Wet Mountain Valley mine is held by the gentle
men who control this company.
As the Silver Cliff Company is the pioneer of the
camp moi only by virtue of the earlier discovery OF
its mines but also because II is the first OF the min
ing companies here to complete mill, nave
selected its operations properly the first TO be de-
scribed. Extending nearly east and west along the
northern border of the camp, and within stones
throw of the principal street lies an arroyo or dry
pulch from the border of which rises almost per
pendcularly a rocky bluff about seventy feet high
tie country sloping away gradually to the north
and northwest from its summit. This is the
sSilvcr Gin from which the mines and camp have
been named. The face of the rock, where II has
been exposed to the weather, is covered with black
STAN of oxide of manganese. The surface OF the
hill above it is bare except for thin growth OF
graIna grass which is all parched up, and the
soil which is very thin, is mixed with small fragI
ments of broken trachyte rock. No trees grow any
where on the chloride belt.
The proDerty of the Silver Clif Company extends
In a northwest and southwest direction. The de-
scrpton of the trachytic formation of the chloride