The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-03-28
wOODVILLE.

Operations at the Wood
Camp-A New Indus
try for Montana.
Special correspondence of the MINER.
WOODv1LLE, M. T., March Is.
The mines adjacent to Woodville
are preparing for early spring work.
The Esmerelda, owned by Steen-
straup and Rose has been worked all
winter with the most gratifying re-
suits. The vein so far is a trife owe
seven feet wide with a pay streak of
five foot which goes from $3.50 to $175
in silver and about sixty per cent. in
copper. Very many are waiting for
the disappearance of frost and snow
to begin a thorough prospecting OF
the gulch and surrounding country.
THE sABOLsKY PLACERS
will be opened with a force of twelve
or fifteen men so soon as the ground
permits. With the work done last
year in the way Of opening up and
the paw received with Immediate
prospects and indications the COM
pany expect to reap a. rich harvest
the coming season. More water will
be introduced, new fumes built and
work prosecuted rapidly. The old
placers between Sherman gulch and
Pipestone, on the south side of the
mountain, will be re-opened by a
new company. The diggings are
rich in coarse gold, and water plenty.
Too many bOulders, in fact more
boulders than dirt, has been the
trouble which has prevented their
successful working heretofore. There
are other placer diggings in and near
the Park, but not sufficient water to
work them on a paying basis.
/ The Major Budd extension has
been worked all the past winter, but
with what success I have not ascer-
tain ed. The company have been
sinking and tunneling, and, I hear
from outsiders, r working On and
extracting good ore. Surely. none
more than Major D.. d. Budd and
Charles Lila, proprietors and discov-
erers of these as we'll as of the once
famous Fourth of July mines, are
deserving of success. Such earnest
men must surely reach the topmost
round of fortunes ladder after
awhile.
The building boom has not had a
starting impetus this present winter.
It began with the beginning of the
town and has steadily increased apd
from the present outlook it will con-
tinue. During the past three months
fifteen new buildings have been
erected. Mr.. VIM. McGee has now
going up an immense structure Of
logs for a new hotel. Several men
are employed and the building will
prove y credit to the town. Judge ID.
V. Sherman purposes erecting the
finest building ever erected in the
town. All the logs ere 20 to "a feet in
length, hewn Or squared, ana the
carpenters are at work laying their
plans and rushing their portion of
the structure
The ranches taken up in the Park
are being fenced, or rather prepara-
tons made therefor.
A new factory is soon to be started
by Thomas Gregory, the first black
smith and wagonmaker of Woodville'
He has sent Oh an application for a
patent for making q substance from
moss which will equal if not surpass
in all its utility the great Southern
commodity, cotton. He claims for
it durability, exceeding strength,
pliability, cheapness, and general
usefulness. The moss is to be found
in the Mountains surrounding the
Park in great abundance. There are
certain chemicals introduced IN its re-
duction which will revolutionize the
cotton world if it proves successful.
His brother-in-law, a chemist who
resides in Bologne, France, made the
discovery some six months since and
Immediately wrote to Mr., Gregory
enquiring as to the particular kind
of moss required for his business.
Surprising as it may appear the pine
trees and swamps of Montana possess
an abundance of the specified kind
required. 1 am informed by Mr..
Gregory that the process employed
is very simple. The machinery for a
modest factory will prove trifling in
cost-not over one thousand dollars.
1t seems from the plans and draughts
sent on that the machinery is in the
form of a weaving loom with an at
tachment. The attachment does the
first work tearing the moss into in
initesimal fragments and by a
circling wheel turning the moss into
y pulping machine, where it remains
for a given time, or until the chem
icals take action. From the vat the
material is extracted by means of a
wire network, dried by steam, and
when hardened thrown into the
loom-like machinery where it is
transformed into the feathery or cot
ton-like substance, for which he
should receive universal praise-pro-
vided, always, the thing prove Il
success and the gentleman from
Bologne prove not an enthusiast.
CHANCE.