, 1889-11-21
IN SOUTH PASS.
Gold GuIch Near Lander, Fremont
County.
Successful Operations of ths iiy-
draulic Mines.
A Bit of History of a Once Lively
Mining Camp.

tensive hydraulic mining operations in
the South Pass country, near Lander. is
in the city en- route to the st. Louis silver
convention. he being one of Wyoming's
twenty delegates.
Mr.. Granler is the representative of a
wealthy French syndicate, and is himself
not without means. With headquarters
at Atlantic City he has been investing In
the Fremont county placer gold mines for
three or four years. Since returns have
commenced to come In the clean ups have
been highly satisfactory.
AT FIRST much difficulty was experienced
in securing water but Mr.. Granier over
came this obstacle by making a storage
reservoir OF a mountain basin now called
Lake Christiana and carrying the water
nine miles through ditch andil iume.
There is now plenty of water for the hy-
draulic apparatus and when a stream is
turned on a gulehside the earth seems to
melt away
Gold was discovered in the South Pass
region probably almost halfa century ago,
The early prospectors grubbed around for
pockets with varying success. About
twenty years z operations were con-
Quoted on a pretty big scale and the
writer believes he has heard pioneers say
that there was once a stamp mill there.
At any rate the district was ~populous and
South Pass and Atlantic were lively
places indeed. Troops were stationed at
Fort S~tambaugh to protect the adventur-
ers. The country was full Of Indians
and a number OF whites were killed. Z.
A. Slack was one of the survivors. He
published a paper at South Pass and they
say that when his office caught fire one
evening Mr.. Slack rushed into the burn
ing structure and carried out by himself
a press weighing nearly three hundred
pounds.
There was a big scattering on the head
of an Indian scare up there one time
and the doughty editor, with q lot of
others struck out for a settlement seventy
five miles away. They had a brush with
the savages on the road and there was
another scatter. After the tilt with the
noble red men Mr.. Slack did some tall
travelling and it is recorded that he
covered seventy-fve miles in about fifteen
hours, carrying a u and pack, and then
did not seom fatigued.
The population of South Pass to day.
consists Of Mr.. Granier's crew, a store
and the owner, the postmaster and his
establishment. about 100 deserted cabins
and about twice as many prospect holes.
The place was deserted in a day. In
dams were terribly bothersome and then a
true assure vein Of rich ore was lost sight of
by it discoveries and has not yet been
o%vertaken. The people became thoroughly
Disguised and packed up and hit the trail
by common impulse.
Prospectors returned to the country so
soon as it was safe and while no one made
a sensational strike any practical miner
could always make big wages grubbing in
the gulch. For a long time one outfit
hoehSa IA W Nv onCCtWhtCI IlNCi. Unity
miles away. and washed it out. The
beasts of burden were burros and there
was good money in the scheme, but
for some reason it was abandoned. A
number of men were tenacious in their
faith and held on to their claims until
given liberal prices by the French capital
lists.
The methods Of the Granier company
seem thoroughly practical and its plans
certainly possess the merit of feasibility.
1t is proposed to carefully wash all the
dirt in which color has been detected and
thus capture every grain of dust in the
gulch. The company has shown enter
prise and it is hoped that it will make
money.
THEORETICALLY speaking.