The Elk Mountain pilot., 1881-09-08

as has been fully demonstrated by
those that have been developed.
Elk MI, CONSOLIDATED.
To any one who is not acquainted
with the history OF CiEui5oD county,
it is thought that the settlement
dates back to within the last two or
three years, but that is a mistake. The
Tumichl Valley was settled some
eight or ten years ago by some tronteers-
men, who ventursd occasionally up in
the Elk Mountains on a hunting ex-
pedltlon, little dreaming of the vast
riches that lay concealed In the great
mountain dehles, gulches and canons,
whose only inhabitant at that time
was the wild animals that roamed at
large with an occasional band of Utes
camping along the placid streams and
lakes. Even this was not the first set
tlcnent Of this section Of the country.
AS far back as 1861 Washington
Gulch was as famous for its placer dig
glngs as was California Gulch. Wash
lnston Gulch lays up from Crested
Butte seven miles, and 1861 gold was
found in the stream wh!ch attracted
thousands of ventursome prospectors,
and it is said that there were over
million of dollars taken out in one
year. After the first year or two the
placers seemed to be washed out and
the place became deserted to certain
extent until within the last two years.
At that time there was no attention
paid to quartz Or lead mining. In
1878 Geo. W. Mckay prospected in
Washington Gulch fer leads and SUI
eecdcd in locating seventeen different
claims. He had unbourded fai''
their richness, but we'll kr
would require conside~,' as
always does in 10 de-
velop t -,.y succeeded
IN pe' ,cerS of the AtChico,, .
santa Fc R''y interested
with HIM, and company formed to
be known as the Elk Mountain Con-
solidated Mining company.
The company is stocked at 81, ,ooo,-
900, and al! the stock has been sold
to raise sufficient working capital,
which was two-thlrds of the capital
stock, and singular to say it was all
sold at par, so it cali be seen that this
company is not organized for any
speculative purposes, but on purely
legitimate basis.
Their properties are grouped very
nicely for company work, and on all
the properties they have over 500 feet
of shaf,ing done besides number Of
prospect holes.
In the Painter Boy they have
shaft Is feet deep and drift run 81
feet from the bottom of the shaft. The
vein in this property is five feet wide
with pay Streak IL to IS inches, and
carries very high grade Of galena
also ruby, native and silver glance.
The other claims are all developed
In proportion, and the company ship
ped two tons Of ore last fall that mill
ed 500 ounces. 1t will be seen that
the reason the company has not taken
out any ore is because they have been
doing development, or dead work, as
they have one tunnel 675 feet long,
one SIS feet, and another rs feet,
making an aggregate or total amount
of work done on their seventeen props
critics. in shafts and tunnels of over
5000 feet of work.
This will give an idea of the amount
of work that'is being done in this
part of the county. Mr.. Mckay,
who superintends the work, employs
over 80 men, runs two steam holsters
and pumps, and also has good saw
mill on the ground. The company
have laid out town which they have
named Elkton, and already have quite
a settlement made by the employees
and their families. They will prob
ably ship over 200 tons OF ore this
fall that will average not less than 400