The river press., 1885-03-18
The Little Rocky Placers

The territorial papers have so persist
emily ignored the existence of the newly
discovered gold placers Of the Little
Rockies that it seems time that some
trustworthy and conservative account of
what is claimed for them should be
published. There is no doubt but that
these papers were very largely influenced
by the representations of the alleged ex-
pert miners sent from all portions Of the
territory and who made careful exam
ination of the ground late last fall
Neither can it be doubted that jealous
desire to preserve intact the reputation
of celebrated diggings" nearer home
Influenced the tone Of some of the criti-
cisms. This is natural enough feeling
and is no doubt difficult to overcome.
The expert miners who composed the
examining committees, however, were
not SO honest. They talked with two
tongues and were not at all consistent.
While IN the various camps they clam
ored loudly against what they consider
ed the injustice of the local laws which
laid over the ground until the coming
season, and they even went so far as to
threaten jumping. These men consid-
cred the ground good much too good,
in fact, to be allowed to remain unwork-
ed. The reason this was done was due
to the scarcity of water, which. as every
miner knows, immensely increases the
cost Of mining. In other words. these
men who spread broadcast the adverse
reports concerning the new placers con-
sidered the ground rich enough to work
without water. Every miner knows
what that means. 1t means either that
the ground is rich enough to warrant
heavy outlay for the purpose of bringing
in water as the first preliminary, or that
man can ''pann or 'rockn out wages
IF in the opinion of these reporting
committees the mines will do that will
they tell as what they will yield with
sluice head Of water?
A very low estimate rates ground
which pays So per day to the man with
rocker as paying SO day to the man
when worked with sufficency of wa
ter. These results We're obtained in
Little Alder, Rock creek and Peoples
creek. Lodge Pole, Thompson, Beaver
and four or five others have hardly been
touched as yet. The result Of the win
ter's work, which has consisted in sink
ing on the deep ground has confirmed
the impression among the 100 men win
tering in the Little Rockies that the
camp is destined to be permanent one.
Il was at first feared that only the shall
low and narrow ground contained gold.
It is a remarkable and significant fact
that in all the dust taken out late la t
fall, amounting to ten or twelve thous
and dollars, there aOds absolutely no fine
gold. The particles of gold ranged in
size from that of pin head up to mug
gets weighing $40. That the fine gold
which always constitutes the greater
portion of the placer product, is in the
deep ground has been most satisfactorily
proven by the work this winter, though
the exact results we are not permitted
to publish. Still another fact going to
prove in no less degree the eNtentSknd
permanency of the new placers lies in
the recent discoveries of paying bars,
some of them as high as sixty feet above
the present creek channels. Only one
Of these bars has been extensively
worked. and perhaps it is hardly fair to
quote the result Of one days cleanup
However, three or four men took out, as
the result Of one days sluicing, $lo1 and
a few cents.
50 much for Tie possibilities. The