Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1888-11-15
QUARTZ MINING IN IDAHO.
What is Being DoVf in Placers AM
Less Rich Deposits.
IN. Y. Sun Correspondence.

! Idaho CITY, Idaho, With the decline
of placer mining in Boise Basin opera
lions i'll quartz are more extensively car
RED on. The geology of the country is
similar to all placer camps-granite,
with seams of porphyry and quartz run
ming through it in northeasterly and
southwesterly direction. The bed of the
basin, through which several creeks run
from north to south, finding an outlet
through More creek to Boise River, is a
layer of what miners call "false bed
rock, hard sediment, evidently form.
ed when covered by lake. An effort
was made by the citizens of Idaho City
to sink shaft through this formation to
the original bottom, where it is thought
there are great deposits of gold. As
soon as the false bed rock was passed
through water came in so rapidly that
the engine, ten or fifteen horse power,
could not keep the shaft from filling up.
One shovelful of dirt was taken, and
found to contain little gold. A COM
pany with sufficient means to put on
heavy pumping machinery may find
deep mining here profitable.
The company of New York men who
have been making examinations Of
Grimes Creek, on the west side of the
basin, are very much pleased with the
ground and the feasibility of working it
through a bedrock fume. They con-
template commencing work Immediately
on the fume, which will begin two or
three miles below the ground to be
worked. 1t is the opinion of all the old
miners who helped to work the creek
bottoms that these bed rock fume en-
terprises will yield handsome profits to
the companies, and prove of much ben
eft to the country.
At Pioneerville Benjamin Wilson is
carrying on placer mining successfully
with hydraulic elevator. The ground
he is working is deep. The dirt is car
rled by stream of water in a hume to
an enclosed box, which runs up the
bank at an incline. At the lower end
OF the box hydraulic nozzle is insert
ed. AS the water passes up with great
pressure, the water and dirt that runs
vn1to it from the Hume is forced to the
Mrface.
: lear Mr.. Wilson's mine is gulch,
4 uninhabited, but at one time very
takSn placers. 1t is known as Scrub
q. when placer mines were first dis
coyeiaN many prospectus rushed to the
country and, as is always the case,
many W. fi,yithout money and had lit
tie proyis N They soon reached that
point in fiji ~ al affairs which the miner
terms "hat bfske. Nearly every man
in the mines having been in the same
deplorable condition many times before
reaching Idaho, sympathized with the
"broke" portion OF the community, and
held a meeting at which it was decided
that a certain rich gulch should be set
aside for unfortunates prospectors to be
known as Scrub Gulch." Hackers, the
slowest machines now used for washing
gravel, were placed in the gulch, and
every man without money was invited
to go there and work till he got $50 or $40,
which he was expected to invest in pro.
visions. If any persisted in hanging on
longer than he should in justice to others
in the same condition he was simply
told to ''git." In this way one of the
richest gulches in all Idaho was worked,
and so thoroughly, too, that not even a
Chinese would now undertake to make
wages out of it.
The oldest aud most successful quartz
mining company in Boise Basin is the
Gold Hill at Quartsburg. The McEvoy
and Gold Hill veins were located early
in the sixties, and development work
was carried ON by James McEvoy, David
| Coughanour, and Thomas Mootry, Jr.
Until 1870 they worked diligently,
sometimes hopefully, and at other times
almost ready to abandon the claims. A
25-stamp mill had been erected near by
to work another mine, and the company
fa.1aI Tho of kha AoEx i
Gold Hill mines Immediately commenc-
ed negotiations for the mill, which they
bought for $4,000, giving therefor their
notes, payable in one year. Some rich
ore was milled, and in few months the
notes were paid off; not, however, with
out paying a years interest on the $15,-
900. From the day they started up the
mill until it was burned down in August,
1886, not a day was lost, other than was
necessary for occasional repairs. The
remains had hardly ceased smoking
when another 25-stamp mill was ordered.
In three months crushing was resumed,
and the property is to day worth more
than ever before. For eighteen years
twenty-five stamps have been crushing
ore from these two mines, and the own
ers have never been called on to pay an
assessment. When the new mill was
constructed dividends were not declared
until two or three months after crushing
was resumed. The burning OF the mill
caused the only break in the monthly
dividends. The business of the COM
pany is kept so closely that it is impossi-
BILE to ascertain what the monthly profits
are, but that the owners are all rich men
now tells the tale of success. 1t can be
said of only very limited number of
mines that they have worked steadily
for eighteen years without an assess
ment being levied
Not having machinery to work the
sulphurets, which contain high per-
centage of gold, they are dumped to one
side. Six thousand tons of these have
been saved, and there is now PROPOSE
ton entertained for machinery, which,
it is claimed, can work them to advan-
tage. Mr.. Mootry expressed his opin-
ion in conversation with me few DAYS
since that there are mines enough in
Gold Hill (the mountain on which his
mines are situated) to make twenty men
millionaires if they were taken hold of
and worked. At present they are
owned by poor prospectors, who can do
no more than develop them slowly and