The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-04
MINERAL RESOURCES.
The Great New World District Where Fab
ulOus Riches Are Known to Exist,

The Great New World District Where Fab
ulous Riches Are known to Exist.
Nobody but an ignorant fool or a man
willfully malicious could have made the
statement that the Cooke City mining dis
trict contains no mineral. But such a
statement was recently made to con
gressional committee by one Philips, who,
it is needless to add, will never make him
self known in the vicinity of Park county
again. The statement was very promptly
contradicted by miners of Cooke CITY and
prominent business men of Livingston.
Not only does the Cooke City district con-
tain mineral, but mountains of it, and
though the mining industry in that section
is in comparative primitive state, fully
$500, 600 has been expended in development
work. The district has fully 400 claims
upon which assessment work was done last
fall and at least 100 new locations have
been made this year. Men of practical ex-
perience in mining, men of recognized au-
thority and ability, have visited and exam
during the past year, and there was
make-that the Cooke City district is des.
tined to be the greatest gold and silver and
lead producing section in Montana. This
is a broad statement when it is considered
first, that Montana il the greatest metal
producing state in this country: second,
that within it's boundaries is Butte, the
greatest mining camp on earth; and the
Philipsburg district, with the Granite
Mountain mine, the greatest single silver
producing proposition in the United States;
also the Hecla, Marysville, Jay Gould,
Flat Creek and many other sections in
Montana.
The question then occurs. "What is hold
ing Cooke City back? And the only answer
is. lack of transportation facilities For
several years the miners of Cooke and the
citizens of Park county generally have been
asking for a railroad. They are still ask
their request until it ID granted. The ad-
vent of the iron horse into that section will
witness an era of prosperity for Park county
that will be the admiration of the state; It
will witness the building up of spars-
ely settled and rich section and
1 ss . Ct ths to as Of aea dollars
Park county. Where now there is not a
steam engine or modern hosting works,
there will be no less than 200 the Erst year,
and the many plucky prospectors and mine
owners who have put their money into the
hills of Cooke City will reap the hard and
well-earned rewards that will surely follow.
They have explored their properties and
have found them to be all they hoped for;
they have the ore ready for the smelling
furnace and make sworn statements as to
the productiveness of their properties. and
with their present limited facilities for ore
extraction guarantee a daily output of at
least 800 tons of ores, while in the course
of six months after the railroad shall have
reached them they will double this amcaut.
Montana's three representatives in the ma
tional capital are familiar with the situa
ton. and the people they represent want to
see them exert their influence to secure for
some railroad company or corporation the
northern boundary of the National park
to Cooke City. The strip of
the park through which the
road is projected to run ia
one that ia never sought by tourists and ia
Of but little value, being separated from