The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1889-08-17
THE osCEoLA PLACER.
what Is Expected Of This Great Min-
ing Enterprise.
[salt Like Tribune.

240 miles south of this city by rail
Mr.. Ben Hampton of this city has
been working it for ten years. Just
now through the fundamentally oil
Prof. Geo. w. Maynard, of New York,
| (but we'll known throughout the West
rs II mining engineer of high attain
ments and standing,) the Osceola
Gravel Mining Company has been re-
organized and 100000 realized on
sale of stock for the purpose of pur-
chasing the water supplied by Mount
Wheeler and carrying it to the placer.
The company have capital IF So
900, 900 in 100000 shares, of which
$4,000 are held in the treasury to meet
unforeseen contingencies. or TO divide
when the necessity for holding has
ceased. The existing sixteen mile
ditch, with the addition of reservoirs,
will deliver 521 miners's inches of
water per day for seven months, and
the proposed twenty feur-mile ditch,
skirting the opposite side of Mount
Wheeler, 2094 inches daily t the same
PERIOD, a total of 2615 inches; this
for ordinary seasons. This will break
down 10,460 cubic yards of gravel
every twenty-four-ho which at
fifteen cents per cubic yard, would
give a daily gross product of 81, 500;
for seven months, or say, 200 days,
$313,S00. Up to August 81, 1886.
1882 cubic yards had been hydrau-
Iced at one point known as the Big
Cut" yielding $29,715 23, with an
average of but 800 miners inches of
water for six to eight hours a day.
Other tests have been made, to wit:
The entire dump of a shaft 265 fl. deep
was hydraulieed and gave 21.19 cents
per cubic yard. Another shaft reach
ed bedrock in III feet Here drift
ON bedrock was run 1875 feet. Eight
samples of from 25 to 40 pounds each
were broken from the roof and sides
of this DRIFT. none being taken imme-
diately from the bedrock, and these
samples run from $40 to $50 per cubic
yard; the sample yielding the higher
sum was taken from point 10 feet
above bedrock. With water for about
100 hours in 1887, 500 ounces of gold,
valued at about $4,000 were cleaned
up from the sluice and the bedrock
In 1888. with the same limited water
supply both of these were dry sea-
sons-a partial cleanup OF $4,000
was made. In the line Of the deep
channels the average yield nj tie
gravel has been more than % cents
per cubic yard. In none of the pros
pecting shafts er cuts mas tho ground
been barren. So that the estimate Of
ID cents per cubic yard is deemed con-
sentative and safe. The company own
920 acres of patented placer, and
1880 acres Of desert below upon which
to run tailings. The gravel varies in
depth between A. and 265 feet, aud
exceeds in contents l15,000,000 cubic
yards. At Is cents yard there are
1000, 900 in this placer 1000 feet
wide (average) and a mile and u half
long. tits one of the great placers of
the world. Mr.. Ben Hampton has
$4,000 worth OF nuggets, the largest
weighing 72 ounces. This nugget was
found 30 feet above the bedrock One
nugget was found by the former own
ers which weighed "a pounds Above
the placer there are geld quartz lodges,
and the company own 20-stamp
mill of the best modern construction.
1t will hustle the company to get
the new ditch and reservoirs construct
ed in time for the melting SHOWS of
1890, but they intend to make the
best stagger at it they can by putting
thousand men on the work. After
the ditch, dams, reservoirs and hydrau-
lie appliances have been provided and
sundry "giantsn turned loose at a
gravel bank $50 high with 1900
inches of water playing, a gross out
put of 100000 year is expected.
Aud il no mistakes have been made in
the calculations, this gravel bank will
yield at that rate for fifty years. Near
ly one-half the stock is still retained
by Salt Lake people. The new direc-
tors are Ben Hampton, II. w. Law
renee, Charlton T. Lewis, Gustav L.
Kssell, and Geo. w. Maynard, the last
three New York men, from all Of
which the indications are that Benia-
min Hampton, whom everybody likes,
has "got there" at last in good shape.
This great placer mining enterprise is
in country southwest of Salt Lake
City, beginning on the boundary line
between Utah and Nevada and