The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-01-07
The Weekly Leader.
ISSUED EVERY THURSDAY.
Terms sz.5os Year 81 50 Half Year
Commercial Job Printi,.n
RIVER BONANZA.
Big Find Expected Mt the Bottom of a
California RIVER.

The most extensive mining operation
OF its kind ever known in the history of
California has been inaugurated by
eastern capitalists of Chicago, New
York and Boston, at Big Bend, on the
north fork of Feather river, ten miles
from Oroville. A million dollars, it is
said, has been pledged to the under
taking and $4,000 paid in to start the
work. The scheme contemplates the
working out of thirteen miles of the
led of Feather river, not by the old
process of fuming, but by a tunnel of
sufficient capacity to drain the river
bed, so that it a be worked in a man
Eer familiar to the early miners on the
American river, where SO many for
tunes were made in the flush times.
The Feather river at Whisky Bar
makes a large bend thirteen miles in
length in the form of a horseshoe.
| Near the junction with the west branch
there runns into the latter a stream
| called Dark Canon. This stream heads
in the direction OF the upper portion of
the north fork, and in the neighbor-
hood of Whisky Bar, the distance be-
tween it and the bar straight through
the divide is less than 12,00U feet. It
is proposed to construct an eocene tun-
mel half a mile above Whisky Bar or
Dark Canon, of sufficient dimension to
drain the thirteen miles of the hors Sc
shoe bend, and the securing the gold in
the channel will then, of course, be an
easy matter. This tunnel will be H.
GOO feet in length and will be a little
larger than the ordinary railway tun-
1t will have a fall of ffty-two feet
nine inches to the mile, with a capacity
of discharging 6.S23 miners inches of
water per second. At the highest por-
ton of the divide the level of the tunnel
will be 1000 feet from the surface.
The formation Of this divide is mineral
in character, consisting of strata OF
slate, porphyry and diorite. AtHamil-
ton Bar, where the water will be taken
out, a dam will be constructed, the
lower portion of which will be of ma
sonry. Along these thirteen miles
several small creeks run into the river,
and by means of bitches along the
banks of the main stream an abund-
ance of water can be obtained, and the
gravel, which is probably from fifteen
to thirty feet deep a easily be washed
by the most improved methods in
placer mining. BY the well known pro-
cess of fluming great fortunes have
been made in the neighborhood of Big
Bend in years past. The works, how
ever could only be prosecuted during
the dry season, as the floods always
swept away the works. With a tun-
mel, of course, this trouble will be
obviated. At the Cape claim, from
3,400 feet of the river, by wing-dams
and a flume, in forty-two days, $780,
600 was taken out, with only one-third
of the claim worked, when the season
closed. Another attempt to flume the
whole of Feather river was frustrated
by the early rains, which swept the
whole fabric away. Judging from
what had been taken out, old miners
estimate thirteen miles Of the river, at
Big Bend, contain about $3.50, 600, 600.
OF course, to reach it requires the best
engineering skill and an outlay Of at
least 1000, 600 before substantial re-
suits can be achieved. Waldemar
Allstrom, the financial head of the en-
terprise, feels competent to grapple
with the undertaking. By taking up
the water right and running the tun-
mel, the manager of the tunnel will get
an extensive right, which they may
hereafter turn into a source of revenue
for irrigating. When the bed of the
river is worked out, it is possible that
irrigating bitches may be constructed,
and the waste scattered through dry
regions in the Sacramento Valley,
where it will find sale and became a
source Of permanent revenue.