River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-08-09
NOTWITHSTANDING MILLIONS
4 Pencil sketch of Some OF the Many Mines
in GalIatin County, with Their Inex
haustible Store of Treasure.
A County Which, According to the ROseate
Views OF d Correspondent, Is Destined
to Have a Big Future,

with unruffied brow and watches the shafts as
thew creep down between the wall rocks on
true assure veins of unknown wealth and add
to the tons Of precious ore on the
dumps The miner-the only man in
the world of one idea-hears of heavy crops, |
failures and light yields without 2 thought as
to their effect on himself or the world in gen.
eral, but let the smallest mention be made Of !
mine pinched out or a new lode struck and his |
attention awakens in a moment His judg- |
ment, in this one line of business, is quick and |
very often correct as to the value Of |
new mines, their general characteristics |
and the probability of their proving to carry |
heavy or light bodies of ore. Experience is |
his teacher, and he reasons entirely from COM
parison. accurately made by reason of his cul- |
tiyated perceptiye faculties. While is an I'M
doubted fact that this county of Gallatin is
wonderfully rich in gold. silver, copper, iron,
coal, plumbago and platinum, it is also
a fact that the development of these
riches has been much retarded for lack or the
capital with which to open mines properly and
put up the necessary smelters, Commentators.
etc Thus far your correspondent has heard
of but one smelter in this county-whIch by
the wav is half as large as the State OF Nlscon-
sin Nearly all the mines in this area are
owned in Bozeman aud the Gallatin valley
II You will allow me to take you for
lttie tfip Will my bNhS4 gbH
NAV be enabled to form some idea of the MN
ing interest here, which is always passed by
with the general remark of very rich" SIX
miles away to the south and IN plain view
from the city a resident of Bozemau found an
outcrop of silver and copper right on the
ridge of a wooded mountain las. spring
Lately he concluded to sink on the
vein. and much to his surprise found
at depth of fifteen feet that he had a true
assure vein five feet wide and running from
~ ~ maj
copper The vein is traced on the surface by
outcrops for 8, 900 feet. local party vii!
put SIS, 600 into the mine for half-interest as
4 developing fund. Locations ON rich pros
poets are made all along this mountain, but
the above is the deepest shaft on IL
A RICH LOCATION.
Now take the Jump over hundreds of loca-
lions on probably good veins, thlrty-hye miles
cas-. of north and we strike camp that has
never been mentioned in print Here are forty
locations all showing fine outcrops. One Of
them has a shaft 5xlO feot and
fifty feet deep on the vein. Every
thing within the walls Is ore, and
here you find copper and silver in all their beau
tifui tnts in abundance Once III while
pocket of gaena is struck in the vein, but this
only runs in pockets and carries small guam
| titles of silver. On the dump are 300 tons OF
| ore, assaying all the way from S24 Ia silver
and 20 per cent IN copper to P4Zo IN ST.
| yer aud so per cent copper to
| the ton There is no smelter within 100 miles
of these mines, and the miners amnse them
selves by dropping ore on wood hre, ana
watching the copper and silver smelt cut IN
great beads in this light heat Across the
range once more, to the south twenty-elght
| miles, we drop in on Mill creek, tributary OF
| the upper Yellowstone. just at the mouth
of the canyon five large outcrops from Lodges
| of copper and silver are in PLAIN sight These
outcrops are from three to six feet wlde and
run right up the steep face of the mountain
| The assays from the ore in sight run from ~
| to 40 per cent copper, and $40 to S4S silver,
with rich traces of gold Up Mill creek for
| fourteen miles we ind locations on
| fine looking ore all along At the end of the
| trip we run full on twenty or thirty prospects,
| the largest of which has tunnel thirtytwo
| feet long on body of ore four feet by elght
feet in extent This is the galena, carrying on
| an average $50 in gold and silver On the
Of white. soapy, decomposed mineral
| and as the temptation is strong, We hli
miners gold pan with it and carry to the
/ river. We fill the pan with water, shake 1t and
| smooth off the pebbles aud coarser maoeriai.
/ The cold water makes fingers ache, but we
keep on washing the painful of DIRT till at last
| we give it little circular shake and hold
it to the light, after drawing off
the rest OF the water and (of course you shout,
| Won are ''tenderfootO fully 10 cents in fine
| gold DUST marks its golden way across the pan
| like great gilt stripe. The other mines here
show fine prospects, but nary smelter within
ninety miles.
| Back to the Yellowstone and four miles mp it
i we come to the Emigrant gulch and river.
| Here the placer mines with their slulces aud
/ drifts on bed rock stop us for little ume,
| and we watch the miners dumping gravel from
the drift into the sluices, where the gravel and
dirt is driven by the rapid water through the
| long boxes and the gold dust is caught by the
| RIFLES in the bottoms of them Every Satur-
| day night they ''cleau up" from S6 to
S25 per day to the man. Just below
| the present works, the Henry Wizard
| company have $50 acres of this placer ground
| and will use 10000 inches of water from
| Mill creek to wrest the golden grains from the
| rich gravel AS We enter the canyon outcrops
of gold quartz, galena and copper, with
| representation" work alone done on them,
with the sIuice boxes, appears
at the bed of the creek, but
we climb up till we strike the Great Eastern
lode across which the river runs. This vein,
| we find. is forty feet wide between the walls
and carries galena, gold, silver and
copper to the aggregate value of
from 5000 to $500 to the ton.
| Two miles further up the gulch three men
are ct work on bed rock drifting under the
| river bed and driving their shafts upward to
/ the surface The next shaft will be eighty feet
| from bed rock to the surface. Three men
| have already been crushed in this queer way
of working, but the pay dirt is
very rich and the temptation 4ot too
Il
rree as5B Bur psp nogn VEINS
| still further up the canyon
AS we reach the Yellowstone again the track
layers on the Park branch are just passing,
and the new rails look like two long
| black serpents trailing down the valley.
| Thirty miles up the river our pencil flies
| RAPIDLY and we land at Bear gulch, just this
| side Of the entrance to National park. Here we
| find two or three dozen locations and four
mines with good shafts down on the ore.
One, especially rich, deserves mentions
| For sixty feet the shaft follows the
wall rock down on the gold quartz vein and the
dump is covered with the ore, one glance at
which sends a ehIver through the newspaper
man of the party. We pick up piece OF
black ore, and pointing to the yellow streaks
nearly as large as our pencil running through
| 1t. we show off our mining knowl-
| edge with the remark, "Pyrates Of
| irons" Our astonishment Is something to be-
| hold when we are told those streaks are gold,
| and that man with druggists mortar can
pound out $50 day on this dump. The river
| from four TO five feet wide is traced for 300
| feet On another lode near by two shafts fifty
and sixty feet deep show fine free milling gold
quartz all the way down.
IN THE PARK REGION.
But the afternoon Is waning and we want 10
see the wonderful Ciarks Fork mines, so we
touch up the faber ana cross the boundary Of
the park at Gardner, the terminus of the Park
branch, turn to the left at the Mammoth hot
springs, just gianelng at the Dig hoU9
large enough TO bury small town l.,
and skip away toward the mountains on
the east. We know are on the
right road for we smell the Internal perfume
from Soda Butte springs two miles away from
them Twenty miles awav we find Cooke City
nestled at the base of Republic mountain, as
pretty spot of green earth and trees as ever
laid out of doors. The smelter built
ten years ago while the mines were
still on the Grow reservation, is still in shape to
run, and they tell us it will start up soon.
When the smelter was built the hardy pros
pectors, who erected it, made a run Of five
days, and the OUTPUT was 81, 600 pounds OF
lead, carrying 500 TO the ton in silver
The Indians routed the miners at the close Of
The fifth afternoon, and since then the smelter
4as stood idle, till now that the reservation
ines have been drawn in, the hum
)f business is heard there once more.
You are evidently getting tired, but |
We must make the climb of 5000 feet |
nearly, to the Black Warrior. Here the shaft
IS ninety feet deep, aud goes forty five feet |
straight through solid galena ore, assaying all |
The way from $1I0 to 500, 900 to the |
ton. The vein pitches away to the |
0orth, but in the bottom Of the shaft |
there seems to be another vein coming in. |
Think Of vein of pure galena, silver and |
gold furty-five feet thick aud already traced |
on both sides Of the mountain, running prob |
mr.