Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1888-02-15
MINING INTELLIGENCE,
Cleaned by the JournaI-Miner Man on a Four Days Trip to the
 Country.

 f Through the court. sy of F. M. Mur
 phy, the editor of this paper had an or . portunity of visiting the Martinez dis
 trict during the past week and take look at the big ledge of the now famou
 Congress mine. A road was complete,
 ln December from Martinez creek acros the mountains to this property, savin.
 about seven miles ill distance in reach ? ing the mine from Prescott. Descend
 Ing the western slope, as view of the
 camp Is obtained, the first impressio |
 Is that nature has here provided plac. Tor big camp, the location and sur
 roundings being the best eyer seen in
 this section. There are about fifteen
 men employed at present, developing
 the Congress mine, under the foreman
 ship of that experienced miner, F. D
 Gillespie, who, by the way, has not only
 had years Of experience III mining, but
 has also had d taste of Indian fighting.
 mixed with 1t During his residence Ill
 southern Arizona, in mining and pros
 pectlng, he had his camp jumped three
 different times by red skins and, on one occasion, in 1886, in the Harshaw
 mountains, Was tine only one who eS- capped alive from camp, and Was report
 ed killed also Mr. Gillespie Is a hard ! working and industrious man, we'll
 liked by those employed in the mine,
 and is making rapid progress in dcv,l- oping what Is considered by all who
 have seen it the biggest gold property yet discovered in northern Arizona The main shaft Is now down to il depth
 of nearly l5O feet, and shows up d big.
 strong vein of very high grade sulrhu- ret gold ore. Other openings are also
 being worked, all of which show up rich in ore, with a vein vary ing from
 three to six or seven feet in width. The
 property is one which has not only idends from the grass roots down, and enough high grade ore Is now being l shipped to pay all expenses of dcvelnI- ment, Ill addition to the tons upon tons of ore running all the way from $.,O to over $lOO, which Is being piled up on the dumps. And this just from sink ing, running drifts, etc, thc-e being no ! stOping done yet. There are two big parallel lodges on the clam, the open ings on both showing very much the same character of ore N- Murphy says that the force of men will be in creased from time to time and the prop erty developed as rapidly as possible, although there is enough or. now in sight to keep big mill crushing for a long time The company which owns the Congress has four other claims in the group, all of which, with but little work, shows up good ore.
 E. D. Gillespie and Jame~ O'Hara own claim called the Ballick, adjoin- ing the Queen of the Hills on the east, on which they have shalt about | thirty-tive feet deep, with good showing.
 O'Hara and Byrne have also Il claim adjoining the Cumberland or Why Not on the west, called the Bellevue.
 John Kelley, who by the way dis penses liquid refreshments to the camp, also owns good claim, called the Ex- celsiOr. All the properties i'll the dis trict make a good showing wherever worked, and this camp promises to be the best i'll the county at an early day.
 While there, it was also learned from Stanton, that NIT. Kerr, who went down with J M. Vandeburg, had. after examination of the mines in that section, satisfied himself oi the ica- sibility of erecting mill, and would at once commence work on one. This de cision had already given an impetus to mining in Weaver district, and arrange ments were being made by miners to work claims which would otherwise be allowed to remain idle.
 Several placer claims are being work ed in Skull valley and are yielding good returns. The dirt Is hauled {" water q distance of from two 70 fOur or five miles, and from $6 to S9 per load is re- ,.lized.
 Wm. Fontaine, recently engaged in freighting. has taken a lease on claim owned by "IIoncst" John Morrison, and is hauling the gravel to William . Rudy's, where he washes the gold out After paying a good liberal royalty per load for the gravel, he realih,, extra good wages.
 At Iron Springs We found Robert J. Atkinson busy at work, having jus completed an arastra, and had l,ODO pounds of ore for an experimental run from the Sugar Loaf mine. Horn spoon tests of the ore showed good results. and Mr. Atkinson expects to r''llize all he way from $60 to SlGO per ton arAS- lraing the ore If the expern, ntal lot proves successful he will put men at work developing the mine. The mine is located in Spruce Canyon
 The owners of the Golden Queen mine, located in the same district. will work that property during the coming season. Eighty dollars per ton was re ,lized from ore from this mine worked by arastra, last summer.
 Mining Items.