Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-06-17
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A TRIP TO THE MINES.

An Oid-Itmer ReYistts the Old
Mtnes-Haywnrd' Last strike.
An Old Cap Gone ina Cosy Min-
ing TOwn-Rich Deep Diines-A
Remarkable Theory Mckee
iumne Hiii and what 4 Left
There.
EDITOR HERALD have just returned
from very interesting trip to "the
mines, as we used to call all that belt
of the mountain range that made Cali
fornia famous thirty.six years ago.
With a pleasant party and q good team
we reached Suffer Creek the frat day
out. On our way we took in Plymouth,
where Hay ward, after Gripping the i'm.
mense fortune he had made in the Eu.
reka mine at Suffer creek. is now work
ing one of the richest aud most reliable
mines in the State. The output of the
consolidated Empire and Pacific ranges
from 5000 to $4,000 per month.
The Now London, mine that has but
recently been opened. is now in rich ore,
with the prospect of becoming a stan
dard property of great value. Leaving
Plymouth we passed through Drytown,
one Of the original 40 mountain camps.
The last time | had visited Drytown was
in 1854 1t was then -four shing place,
the diggings in the vicinity being very
rich. Now the town presents the char.
acteristic appearance of nearly all the
old placer mining camps. Three or four
stores do all the business of the place,
and outside of these the buildings are
going to decay. At Amador there is
more life, and the prosperous appear.
ance OF the place is due to the fact that
one great quartz mine has been constant.
ly and protitably worked there ever
since 1852 mean the Keys one. A,
H. Rose worked this mine successfully
down to about 1868, at which time the
lead was lost, and he sold it to compa-
ny OF which Capt. Jim Mcdonald and
Andy McCreery are the principal own.
ers. They soon recovered the lost lead,
and since that time the output has been
something less than half million
year Mr.. Hewitt, a stalwart Virginian,
mas superintended this mine for the past
eighteen years. and by his intelligent
system of prospecting ahead, has kept
the mill constantly going on good pay
ing ore.
SUFFER- CREEK.
Three miles south of Amador is Suffer
Creek, one of the most delightfully."- stu.
ated towns in the mountains. Ii is pic
turesquely placed in small valley sur.
ra1t lad hu he l. Oh
the name to the town runs sinuously
through the valley, and it is bordered
by neat ana handsome residences in the
midst of spacious green lawns, shaded by
spreading trees, under whose foliage the
torrid heat of the open is turned into
cool and refreshing atmosphere. Since
the great Eureka mine was burned out
some fifteen years ago, the business of
the camp has been comparatively stag
nant; yet some of the smaller mines in
the enyitons have constantly empl&ys6
the prospecting going on and the trade
OF the farmers of the surrounding coun.
try, have contributed to give the bust.
ness portion of the town an air of pros.
perity which is not to be found in any
of the old camps that were built no
alone on placer mining. Consid-
cradle employ ment is also gwen here by
the chloridization works of Messrs. &c.
voorhees, 4 Barney. Mr.. B. having been,
with myself, one of the victims of the
White Pine disaster in 1859. These
works are very extensive, their capacity
being equal TO the reduction of eight
tons of sulphurets per day. They re.
ceive sulphurets from all the mills in the
vicinity, as well as from mines as far
away as III Dorado. When l say that
they guarantee ninety per cent of the
assay value of the sulphurets, you will
admit that the gentlemen who run these
works understand their business.
The quartz range that has made this
place famous lies east of the town, and
has been traced by profitable sinking
from the Ieile mine. south of jackson,
to the Grass Valley mines in Nevada
county. The ledge is lost at long inter
walls, but wherever it bias been found,
its geological charac terlstics have con.
tirmed the theory that there is vast
and continuous mineral belt, sometimes
cropping out on the surface and some
times diving thousands of feet into the
bowels Of the earth, and reaching per-
haps from the San Gabriel cafIon range
in the south, to the Trinity mountains
in the north. The contemplation of this
well ascertained fact opens up an inter.
minable field OF speculation, and iustifies
the assertion that we have but Just op.
ened the door 10 the vast treasures
which we possess in the hidden reeesses
OF our mountains. The time will come
when the inventive genius of the coun-
try will evolve a means of cheap pros.
peeting that will enable capital and labor
TO reach these great
sToREHoUsEs OF TREASURE
With unerring certainty. The diamond
drill may do something towards it; but
| believe that the germ of the idea of a
machine that is to explore the depths
and bring to the surface the evidences Of
underground wealth, is to be found in
the artesian well borer. When, by the
aid of invention, deep prospecting is
made cheap, then rich discoveries will
be numerous all along the lower Sierrean
belt, and the production of our mines
will far surpass anything dreamed
of in the past There have been
over thirty million of dollars taken out
of this belt in distance of
less than three miles-that is, from
Suffer Greek to Amador. How many
millions would be the output yearly OF
the entire range, from Los Angeles to
Trinity, when a cheap means of pros.
pecting would have caused the opening
of paying mines at short intervals during
that entire diStancvl Now capital
shrinks from prospecting 1t will only
buy when it is sure there is IA mine; and
as the poor miner has no means to do
deep prospecting, the chances for the
discovery of new mines are rather linn
tied. From Suffer Greek to Plymouth
there are no less than one hundred
claims patented along the belt; aud yet
not ohe-tenth of these claims have
even been partially explored. The time,
however, will come when these claims
will have value that will cause them to
be anxiously sought by capital In the
meantime their poor owners can only
hope and pray and wait.
NEW THEORY.
There is an old gentleman at Sutter
Greek who has lived there since the
Argonaut year, and who for the last
twenty five years has devoted himself 10
the study Of the meteorological peculiari
ties of the locality, and especially to
the perturbations and irregularities of
the course OF the paying quartz ledge,
While there we made the acquaintance
OF this gentleman, whose name is Nc.
Intire The result of his observations
is curious. He found that the ledge in
any one mine was limited to a horizontal
distance of about 800 feet, followed by a
barren gap to the same extent; and this
gap exists very regularly between the
paying mines on the same line. But he
observed that paying mines had been
opened farther TO the west in these bar.
rem intervals, and with this discovery as
cue, he has determined the fact
that the paying ledge is really
broken zig gag, breaking regularly
every 800 feet or so, and resum.
ing its course from point directly OPP
posite to the break at distance OF sew.