Arizona weekly citizen., 1886-05-22
THE VEKUL.
One oc the MarVcIs of 1Iining-Nasure's sresks In storing It> Precious Metals
 A Model Camp and a Pros

Who has not heard of the now famous Nekol mine, and the fortune l. has brought to it's deserving aud enterpris. lag owners? The .5ily5r King has en. joyed for many years the reputation waIch i;s name signifies and 1t has fully merlted the d sisnatIon. But even Kings are supposed to be but the gifts os their mothers and more remotely of ;heir ErandmOthers. Without ietract ius single silver thleai from the crOWnIDg glory of the King both III name aud m its iu rinric yaiue, the NekOl Is the grandmother mlne. The "ord is the Papago expression for grandmother, ant the miue takes its name from the Indian traii of that name, winch passed through the sadIle h e pass ot the mountain of the Butter Well ! range, 10 which the mine Is located The bitter well IS in the Vekol basi1, a natural opening about two miles wide uy four or nve miles long, surrounded on all sides by hills. The well is 10 lis center and was excavsied earlier than PapBgO traditional history treats. No one knows It's origin. It Was in ex- IsteCce as long as the oldest of the pres- ent generation of Indians can remember. lt K about thirty feet deep. the last len feet being througB rock. Its top Is about fifty feet Tiie and q path leads down It' sides to the bottom The wa ter was quite bracEIsh and, since other wells were sunk m the basin. It has al dISa. peared. The other wells have pure and clear water. with the exception of One-a salt well, showing toy analysis J0o grains Uf chloride Of sodium JO each gallon of water. The water IS invariably found at s depth of thirty feet, below which no wa ter supply has been found. Attempts have been made, and tUbes sunk from thirty to ninety feet below the present water level have revealed no Indications of water. The wells from which the w~.er Is pu nped to the mine and mil O. g, about 6 mile and a half to the north east Of the mine, n NekOl basin, and are nearly five buDdred feet below the level of the mill. Attempts were made to iiUd water at still lower altitude. and three wells were sunk at depths of l35, 2Is ard lG0 feet respectively, bu. no water was found. The pitch of the strgtIfication where wa:er was looked for was followed without success The water supply is not large, and only yields enough to keep the mill running six days m the week. Other wells are being dug, with hope Of securing more water.
 THE MINE.
 The Nekoi mine was discovered in January 1880, and was located the fol- lowing month. l: WAS originally found by an old Papago Indian who had been working at farming with Mr. J. b. Walker. Another Indian had, fully five years previously. shown Mr. Walker from distance where the mIue. Was, gu: it vas considered os lItile vaire and DO attention was given to r. The sec ond Papago brought some o' the ore and Was told that it was valuable and that Es had better locate 1T. Several day afterwards be re;uTred and Gaui-d Mir Walker to locate l: gith hun, as he vas afraid he othe- Indians msght cheat hum Mr. Walker made out the loc c4tiou notice from The description gwen and sent II ut b. tue PspaCo to. put ID, and ba fDllrNed feT dE.s later. accom- p.uied by MT. Merritt. IhsT dug oE the ore and during the first day they took out everything ID si-Lt. about two rnniTed pounds, which net;cd S5g. It really looked as though tne ore was Hii taken out, but M-. Walker thou. ht be wouij .urther rrcsy.lt Il, and fJur or five months later he took couple Of MeXIcans with him and succeeded in finding a tile ore hare and tnere,uEtIi enough was .se- cured to make a shipment % San Fran ,.,s,n, which brought back a rc;ufn of Si3U to tine ton. Since tpHt time the svCrk has been kept up almost ntIn- lolsiv, the tirst-c,ass ora being shipped and upon winch aboU. $50 COO was req iiz-g, arl the second grade ore Was
 - uD % tbe dump until the ten -ia.lp u-... MAS s.a..ed up ten months ago. since which lime It has been con slGn.ls Tn operation.
 CURIOUS FEATURES.
 The formation is limestone ed tale. Ic h!ch the ore seems to be tlreEGed rather than n regular vsIn. T. Is bot continuous fo. any great length. but .s broken with the formation. It was found on an exposed fucs of the r0sk from which the barren crOprings had a23.reutly Gt some remote r, rio1 bfok-
 
 five hQIdsel feet uy the face Ol tue hui fhc -aDgue can be traced, to the crop pings which hide the treasure from al other view. The ore bodies run cener- ally north and south. The ore IS ID punches ur pockets, sometimes several fees wide aud RgaIn nothing but a mere ilsco'Cred thread or seam for an in- definite distance, suddenly eularEinE again iuto u pocket. Some of these piuched-oEt eeauS continue for twenty or thirty feet before G new body uf ore Is encountered, bu: one is sure to be fouLd if the seam Is followed. This Ir- regular diffusion Uf the rich ore precludes the possibility of working the rine in that sys- tematic manner which the thorough aui.experienced miners from the Com st ,ck regard as tue only proper way of inning. The ore seams Tadiate m IT, regular directions and the ore can be mined only by following them. or "coy- oting" gs the process is appropriately termed, and s0 long as this method pro duces the requisite bullion returns and extracts all the pay ore to be found, It IS perhaps as good a method 0s the reg ular plan, and Tn fact IS the only system by which this peculiar mine can be worked at n prof: at all. There has been run in tunnels and shafts. Tn this way, from five thousand to siN thousand feet m the aCgre gate, and from the na. ture ot the work not a single stick or timber has been found necessary throughout the entire workings. Not withstandirg the apparent dlsadvsntaEe of following sach "s:reaks of rust. as one might call them, the rich quality of the ore amply repays for all dead work, and, as compared with other producing mine gives results largely n favor ot tbe Vekol. ns will be seen from fine fol- lowing
 STATISTICS.
 Be.weeu 5j0 ard GO0 tons Of ore per month IS milled. Tbe ere is chloride much of which zoe. about 6 per cen', m s,lver. and the mIll works it up Co 9l per cen', Of its ussay value.
 The lowest gross returns ger month were SI7O0O. and the highest about e2D- GHO. and the total for ten months were about S2lS.000.
 The cos. of the ore, iDcludlng every expense. such as salaries. irsurarce' re