News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-10-18
QUARTZ MINING IN IDAHO.
What is Being Done in Placers and
Less Rich Deposits.
IN Y Sun Correspondence.

Less Rich Deposits.
IN. Y. Sun Correspondence.
IDAHO CRY. Idaho.-With the decline
of placer mining in Boise Basin opera
tions in quartz are more extensively car
ried on. The geology of the country IS
similar to all placer camps-granlte'
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 q
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 ara great deposits of gold. AS
soon Us tue 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
AO"fJ AAtASAAAiANAJ AN'J
deep mining here profitable.
The company of New York men who
have been making examinations OF
Grimes Greek, on the west side of the
basin, are very much pleased with the
ground and the feasibility of working it
through bedrock fiume. They con-
template commencing work Immediately
on the flume, 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 hume 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
ried by stream of water in o fiume to
an enclosed kox, 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
into it from the hume is forced to the
surface.
Near Mr.. Wilson's mine is gulch,
now uninhabited, but at one time very
rich in placers. 1t is known as "Grub
Gulch, when placer mines were first dis
covered many prospecto1s rushed to the
country, and, as is always the case,
many were without money and had lit
tie provisions. They soon reached that
point in financial affairs which the miner
terms "fat broke" 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 certain rich gulch should be set
aside for unfortunates prospectOrs to be
knOwneas ''Grub 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 iustices to otht RS
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
Chinese would now undertake to make
wages out of it.
The oldest aud most successful qua tz
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
and Thomas M0otry, Jr.
Until 1870 they worked diligently,
sometimes hopefully, and ut other times
4 i 70 u.
25-stamp mill had been erected near by
to work another mine, and the company
failed. The owners of the McEyoy and
Gold Hill mines Immediately commence
ed negotiations for the mill, which they
bought for $4,000 giving therefor their
notes, payable in one year. Some rich
ore was millei, 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 q day was lost, other than was
for occasional repairs. The
remains had hardly ceased smoking
when another 25-stamp mill was ordered /
In three months crushing was resumed, !
md 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 |
lntil two or three months after crushing |
was resumed. The burning of the mill |
.aused the only break in the monthly |
lividends. The business of the com |
oanyi is kept so closely that it is impossi-
Die to ascertain what the monthly profits |
ire, but that the owners are all rich men
low tells the tale of success. 1t can be |
;aid of only very limited number of |
mines that they have worked steadily .
or eighteen years without an assess /
nent being levied.
Not having machinery to work the |
which contain q high per-
.entage of gold, they arc dumped to one
side. Six thousand tons of these have |
)een saved, and there is now a PROPOSE |
ion entertained for machinery, which, |
t is claimed, can work them to advan-
age. Mr.. Mootry expressed his opin-
on in conversation with me a few days |
ince that there are mines enough in |
iold Hill (the mountain on which his |
mines are situated) to make twenty men
if they were taken hold of .
nd worked. At present they are
'wned by poor prospectors, who can do
10 more than develop them slowly and
lope for future sales
There are many quartz mines and
nils working in this vicinity, but any
nention of them is deferred until au-
hentIc information is obtained.