The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-08-09
MoNTANA's COMING MILLIONS

MoNFANA'S COMING MILLIONS
A Pencil sketch Of Some of the Many Mines
in Gallatin County, with Their 1nex-
=, haustible Store Of Treasure.
A County Which, According to the Roseate
Views OF a Correspondent Is Destined
to Have Big Future.
BozEMAN, Mont. Special Correspondence,
July 25.-Independent Of rain, sun and drouth,
the mining interest of this part of Montana sits
with unrufaed brow and watches the shafts as
they creep down between the wall rocks on
true assure veins Of unknown wealth and add
to the tons CT 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 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 bis
attention awakens in 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
parson, accurately made by reason Of his cul-
tivated perceptive faculties. Whileit is an un-
doubted fact that this county Of Gallatin is
wonderfully rich in gold. silver, copper, iron,
coal, plumbago and platinum, it is also
q fact that the development OF these
riches has been much retarded for lack OF the
capital with which to open mines properly and
put up the necessary smelters, COMMENTATORS,
etc. Thus far your correspondent has heard
the way is half as large as the State of Wlscon-
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
= little trip with my. pencil you
may be enabled to form some idea Of the MIN
ing interest here, which is always passed by
with the, general remark of Every rich" Six
miles away to the south and IN plain view
from the city resident of Bozemau found an
outcrop of silver and copper right on the
ridge of wooded mountain last spring.
Lately he concluded to sink on the
vein, and much to his surprise found
at a depth of fifteen feet that he had a true
s6ssufe vein five feet wide and running from
$40 to Isl 10 in silver. with % per cent of
copper. i The vein is traced on the surface by
outcrops for 5000 feet. A local party will
put S.. 900 into the mine for half-interest as
developing fund Locations on rich pros,
poets are made all along this mountain, but
the above is the deepest shaft on it.
RICH LOCATION.
Now take the Jump over hundreds of loca-
| tons on probably good veins, thirty five miles
cas-. of north and we strike camp that has
| never been mentioned in print Here are forty
locations all showing fine oqtcrops One o!
| fifty feet deep on the vein. Every:
thing within the walls is ore, and
here you find copper and silver in all their beau.
| tiful tints in abundance. Once in a while a
pocket of galena is struck in the vein, but this
only rune in pockets and carries small quan,
titles Of silver. On the dump are 800 tons OF
ore, assaying all the way from $24 in silver
and 20 per cent in copper to 1926 in sill
YER aud 80 per cent copper tc
the ton. There is no smeter within 100 miles
of these mines, and the miners amnse them
selves by dropping ore on wood tire, anc
| watching the copper and silver smelt out II
great beads in this light heat Across the
range once more, to the south twenty -eigh
| miles, we drop in on Mill creek, tributary Of
the upper Yellowstone Just at the moutl
of the canyon five large outcrops from ledge:
Of copper and silver are in plain sight: These
l
run right up the steep face Of the mountain
The assays from the ore in sight run from II
to 40 per cent copper, and 500 to $4s silver
with rich traces Of gold Up Mill creek TO
fourteen miles we find locations OF
fine looking ore all along At the end of tn
the largest Of which has tunnel thirty tw'
feet long on body of ore four feet by. elgh
feet in extent This is the galena, carrying Of
an average $50 in gold and silver. On tn
other side of the gulch we find q ledg
Of white. soapy. decomposed mineral or;
miners gold pan with it and carry to tn
river. We fill the pan with water, shake it an
| smooth off the pebbles aud coarser material
The cold water makes fingers: ache, but "
keep on washing the painful Of DIRT till at las
We give it q little circular shake and hol
il to the light. after drawing O.
the rest of the water and (of course you shou
you are ''tenderfoot') fully 10 cents in fin
gold dust marks it's golden way across the pa
like great gilt stripe. The other mines her
show fine prospects, but nary smelter With
ninety miles.
We come to the Emigrant gulch and rive1
Here the placer mines with their slulces an
drifts on bed rock stop us for little time
and we watch the miners dumping gravel ifror
the drift into the sluices. where the gravel an
dirt is driven by the rapid water through th
|
rifles in the bottoms of them. Every Satur
day night they "clean UP" from So
1875 per day to the man. just belo'
the present works, the Henry Villar
company have $50 acres of this placer grouu
aud will use 10000 inches of water fror
Mill creek to wrsst the golden grains from tn
rich gravel. As We enter the canyon outcrop
of gold quartz, ga!ena and copper: wit
"representation'' work alone done on them
show up at every turn. Placer ground
with the s'uice DO boxes, ,uoo, appear a,
lode across which the river runs. This weir
we find. is forty feet wide between the wall
and carries galena, gold,. silver an
f f9% 500 the To S S5ss"' to 1 ss toe
Two miles further up the gulch three me
are at work on bed rock drifting under tn
river bed and driving their shafts upward
the surface. The next shaft will be eighty fee
from bed rock to the surface. Three me
have already been crushed in this queer wa
of working, but the pay dirt
very rich and the temptation to
differing : to be- resisted. Just he,
@ Rysss w RaSFS S rel aPq 7e
still further upthe canyon.
l. As we reach the Yellowstone again the tracl
and the new rails look like two Ion
black serpents trailing down the vale.
Thirty miles up the river our pencil fie
rapidly, and We land at Bear gulch, just th
side Of the entrance to National park. Hero "
find two or three dozen locations and fou
mines with good shafts down on the or,
One, especially rich, deserves mentor
For sixty feet the shaft follows tt
; wall rock down on the gold quartz vein and t!
, dump is covered with the ore, one glance
which sends SILVER through the newspapt
,, man of the party. We pick up piece
black ore, and pointing to the yellow streal
nearly as large as our pencil running throue
1t, we show of our mining know
, edge with the remark, ''Pyrates {
, ironH'' Our astonishment Is something to b
hold when we are told those streaks are gol
: and that man with druggists mortar ca
, pound out $50 day on this dump. The riv
from four to five feet wide is traced for 8. 20
! feet On another lode near by two shafts if
| and sixty feet deep show fine free milling 60
! quartz all the way down.
IN THE PARK REGION.
But the afternoon is waning and We want
see the wonderful Clark's Fork mines, SO "
the park at Gardner, the terminus of the Par
branch, turn to the left at the Mammoth III
springs, just glancing at the big hote
, large enough to bury q small town i
!: and skip away toward the mountains c
the east We know we are on II
right road for we smell the Internal perfun
from soda Butte springs two miles away fro
nestled at the base Of Republic mountain: q
pretty spot Of green earth and trees as eve
laid out OF doors. The smelter bui
ten years ago, while the mines wer
still on the Grow reservation, is still in shape
run, and they tell us it will start up soon
When the smelter was built the hardy pros
pectors, who erected it, made q run of Fl,
l., -