The Great Falls leader. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1888-1900, 1889-12-17
The Mines Castle Country
Prof. Swallow Tells About it's Rich
and Promising Lodes.
The Miners Only Wait for the Whis-
tie of the Locomotive. "
Heavy Freights Eat up the Wealth
Of the Mountains.
The Mines of Castle,

The following article by Prof. Swallow
in the Mining Review, shows another
instance where the railroad WEI open up
country to which the only present hing
drance is communication:
The first discovery of mines in Castle
mountains was made in 1885. They at
once attracted the attention of the min
ing world and have since held promi-
nent position in public estimation. A
great many discoveries have been made
and an unusual amount of energy has
been displayed in developing quite a
number of these prospects into mines.
This was to be expected where rich ores
in such abundance moved the muscles
welding the pick and the shovel
Castle is a mining camp built in a
beautiful sheltered valley at the south
east base of Castle mountain. This
mountain received it's name from the cas-
tleated rocks which form the very at
tractive feature of its crest and peaks
The principal mines are on series of
rounded mountain spurs from one to six
miles from the town. The mountains are
limestones, porphyries, GRANTEES and va
rlous eruptive rocks.
The ores occur in contact veins, crew
ice veins, blanket veins and veins Of seq
regation. Many of the best mines are
opened along the line of contact between
the limestone and porphyry.
The ores are oxides and sulphurets of
iron, carrying gold, silver and lead, car
Donate and sulphuret Of lead, rich in sill
yer, carbonates and oxides and sulphurets
of copper, containing gold and silver,
oxide of manganese, containing gold and
silver and sulphuret and other ores of
silver. These ores vary In richness all
the way from one to two dollars up to ten
or twelve thousand dollars per ton.
! A very large number of the mines of
Castle have a cap of iron o.es, known to
old English miners as gossan, and though
these caps are not rich in gold and silver
and copper, they have been in all ages
and in all great mining countries, esteem
ed good indication of rich mines. This
opinion was so strong and prevalent
among the miners of Europe at very
early day in the history of mining, that il
found expression in several languages
as shown by the "gossan hood" of Corn
wall, "chapeau de fer" of France and the
"eiserne hut" of Germany. 1t even be
came proverb in the early ages of min
ing, as is shown by the following, wei
known to German miners:
"Es ist ME nicht gang so gut
Der tragt NIGHT einen eiserne hut.
No mine Is deemed so good
AS one that has an iron hood.
Though the iron and manganese ores
which form these caps, are not, as a rule
very rich in the precious metals, they
carry enough to make them very valuable
t1uxes to use with more refractory anC
richer ores.
There is furnace at Castle, which has
smelted the ore from several of the Cas-
tie mines with what would seem to be
good results. During the last fall it ran
1000 tons from the Cumberland, which
yielded bullion worth some 100000 ant
only profit of 1927 per ton on the ore de
livered at the furnace. The Connellsvill'
coke used cost $25 per ton and the char
coal Is cents per bushel. The bullion
contains SO large a per cent OF lead tina
the freight and refining make large re
duction on what would otherwise be ne
profits. The refining cost $16 per tol
and freight to Aurora, Illinois cost 50
per TOM and the freight Oh coke by raj
to Livingston and by wagon to Castl
costs about the same. Thus the freigh
bills alone exhaust the value Of goo'
ores. Hence none but the richest ore
can now be worked at Castle.
These figures show that railroad t.
Castle would save in working the ores o
that district $15 per ton. This $15 pc
ton would enable the miners to take on
ores at fair profit. which yield no prof
under the present charges for freight o
ores, fuel and bullion.
Hence a railroad to Castle would Civ
q commercial value to ores which no'