Wichita eagle., 1889-06-16

judge resigned his place and went to George
town and made it the business of his life to
fight for his party's interests; nor even then
until United States judge or two had been
worn out, numerous fights had taken place,
and Jack Bishop, the principal supporter of
the Pelican side was shot dead in open day
in the streets of Georgetown. After all this
the Dives won the suit. And what was the
value of the property2
Well, l VIII not undertake to say, but there
is a little plat there, perhaps three-fourths Of
a mile long and one-fourth wide, out of which
has come ct least $50, 000, 600 worth Of silver
ore The Dives alone shipped 100000 worth
In forty days and once when legal proceed
ings were dreaded $4,000 worta was sent
down the hill between midnight Saturday
and midnight Sunday. The kink Of this lit
tie continuance was that an attachment can
not be levied in Colorado on Sunday. These
mines are In the richest mineral region of the
Clear creek country, in the mountains south
west of Georgetown. 1t is commonly known
as the Silver Plume group and includes the
Dives, Dunkirk, Pelican and many others.
POINTS FOR SUITS.
Perhaps this region illustrates the origin of
law suits about mines as well as any in the
country To discover mine at the begin
ming there was nothing. The great trouble
was to sink shaft down to where the
ore was concentrated and then to put
up the machinery necessary to work
it. The Pelican mine extends directly
across Cherokee gulch and on to Sherman
mountain, and little beyond are the Cold
stream, Phoenix, Scotia and others, all OF
which are supposed to be simple combinations
or branches Of the great mother lode of
which the Pehcan-Dives is the richest section
and generally taken as the type. Beyond is
Brown Mountain, and near the top were To-
Gated the Hercules and Seven-thirty. After
years of law suits, innumerable fights, the
killing Of one man and wounding of many
Others, the claimants Of these two co1npro-
missed interests and sold the mine for $3.50 600.
As if those already enumerated were not
sufficient, a great many additional points for
law suits are found in the fact that successful
mining in Colorado is of necessity deep min
ing. Rare indeed are the cases in which good
paying rock is reached at less than hundred
feet, and in many mines the best bonanza is
not reached at less than 400 or 500 feet, and
generally the larger the vein is the further
down it is to where all the ore is concentrated
into one seam. Hence big mine below will
often appear in twenty or thirty seams on
the surface. An ore body may aptly be COM
pared to a tree, which divides and subdivides
and runs out at last to twigs How easy then
for shrewd lawyer to pick flaws in a in
chOate title! But the science of lode forma-
ton VIII be considered below. Suffice it to
say here that the eastern reader familiar
with coal and iron mining must dismiss pre-
conceived notions from his mind, because
coal and iron are the result of deposition, and
therefore tend towards the horizontal, while
gold and silver lodes, or rather the crevices
which contain them, are the result of frac-
ture and therefore tend towards the perpen-
dicular
When we think we have discovered the
outcrop of mine our plan is to first dig out
few cubic yards of earth or rock, whatever
is required by the bylaws of the district, and
then write our claim and fasten it on some
adjacent tree or rock We then record it in
the books of the mining district, then dig out
as much more earth and rock as the law re-
qures every month. We then proceed to get
q firIner legal tide by issuing the proper pa
pers, and if, as we go on developing, the mine
proves really rich and permanent, our last
move is to apply for United States patent.
For this We must advertise SO many weeks in
the nearest paper of general circulation. Any
one can contest. The matter is tried by the
United States district court as any other suit
at real estate, and finally the United States
patent is issued, which generally puts the
matter at rest But the ordinary miner is
accustomed to consider possession as worth
more than anything else.
PRACTICAL FIGHTING.
Hence the natural tendency to fight it out.
Hence the shooting in the bowels of the earth
and the amusing process known as smoking
them out" Sometimes it happens when there
are rival claimants on the same lode that the
bottom of their shafts come near enough to- !
gether for a passage to be effected, in which |
case the men who are the deeper can force
tube through with funnel at the lower end |
and by a judicious combustion of stink pow
der" can drive the other men out of their |
mine. On one occasion | was in the Captain |
Wells mine, near Georgetown, Colo, and tho |
jocular superintendent pointed out to me the |
method by which he had forced the burning |
powder through the pipe, and, in his own
language, 'You just ought to heard 'em
cough and sputter and scuttleup the ladder" |