The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1884-03-26
OUR BARKER BUDGET.


Editors of the River Press:
The blast furnace of the Clendenin
Mining and Smelling company started
up on the 9Th inst, and up to date has
turned out an average Of 200 bars of bull
lion daily. With the present condition
Of the ore, which improves in its rich
ness in silver and is more easily smelt-
ed, the managers expect to turn out
hereafter at least 225 bars of bullion per
day. The blast furnace never worked
in a more satisfactory manner than it is
doing at the present time, as it is now
smelling ore at the rate of about 20 tons
every "a hours. They will keep run
nlng until about the 1st Of April, when
they will haye to shut down for a short
time, until they can get ahead with the
coal supply. Their coal, which is burn
ed in brick kilns, is limited to some
fifteen or twenty thousand bushels per
month, and the blast furnace when at
work consumes as much as 1000 bushels
per day.
The Silver Belle mine is worked un-
der the able management Of T. d.
Mccarthy, as foreman. The force in
and around the mine is sixteen men,
eleven Of them working in the mine
and carrying the ore to the tramway.
The daily output is about twelve tons,
but quite double the present force OF
men could be put to work with advan-
tage.
The Silver Belle mine never looked
better than it does at present writing.
On Friday last the miners discovered a
cave in the bottom Of the level, the ex-
tent of which has not yet been ascer-
tanned, but as far as explored it is
literally full of carbonates, and may
possibly lead to a larger deposit Of ore
than has yet been discovered in the
mine.
On Saturday your correspondent call
ed on Messrs. Burghardt and Blattner,
who both expressed themselves highly
pleased oyer the present outlook of the
Silver Belle, and the mining camp in
general.
With the advent of good weather, and
the snow rapidly disappearing, many
valuable strikes and discoveries may
soon be looked for in the Belt range Of
mountains. From Martin Barrett, just
in from the Montana district, we learn
that most of the miners in that neigh
borhood have been kept busy during the
past winter, and haye been working
steadily on those most promising leads.
Chamberlain, Bell & Co. have worked
on the Montana Belle and st. Julian.
They have sunk a shaft on the former
to the depth of IS feet, with a fine show
ing of high grade ore that they are ship
ping to Omaha and receiving very salts
factory returns. The latter is being
worked by Sites and White, who are
down IS feet with a continuous vein of
high grade ore. The Massachusetts
mine is worked by Marias & Lohmire,
and has the deepest shaft in the camp,
being 80 feet deep and showing four feet
of solid ore at that depth, averaging
about 80 ounces in silver per ton. Adam
Hamilton and Larry Neihart are work
ing on the South Carolina lode, which
shows up a large body of free milling
ore. John Lend and Dune. Mcdonald
are at work on the Deadwood lode. This
lead lies adjoining and east of the Queen
of the Hills, and is considered n of
the best prospects in the camp. Capt.
ID. B. Mcintosh is postmaster and the
only merchant in the camp. Although
he has q corner on all marchandiSa fha |
captains good heart will not allow him
to practice extortion on the boys, so
goods can be bought as cheap in Neiha1t
as they can here.
The IXL mine. owned by Tuck Lam
bert and situated on Snow creek, has
been worked all winter. They have
now q shaft sunk IS feet deep, showing
a true fissure vein and rich in both gold
and silver. A good deal Of work has
been done during the winter in this
camp. and its show is good to rival that
of some OF the older ones.
In the Belt Park district parties have
been at work on their leads all Writer,
and some good development has been !
made. The Rainbow and Colorado
mines, owned by Sellew g. Hendrickson,
have been worked by way of tunnel
during the winter to the extent of rs
feet, showing one Of the richest and best
defined leads in the Belt mountains.
The ore is a grey carbonate of lead and
assaying about 800 ounce in silver.
Thsn n,ina will lao work. oil hv tho nwnprc