The state herald., 1890-05-16
A Flooded Mlns.
from lhs A.psn TImes.

|
The flood In the Franklin mine appears
10 be very serious matter and will proba,
bly, result In closing that property down
| for several months. The water broke in
about 3 o'clobk Thursday evening and
came In such great volume that the men
who were at work In the bottom had barc-
~ time to escape with their lives. They
Ileft their tools and dinner buckets and
some Of them had to leave their coats In
the rush to get out of the flood. Tho pumps
were quickly buried and tho shaft, levels
and slopes rapidly began to Hll up.
The water came In through what Ia
called the Millinee level, which is the sec
ond level Of the Franklin, running south
from the Franklin shaft. This level is
about GOO feet below tho surface, and runs
through the Millinee territory. 1t appears
that an Immense quantity Of water coming
from the melting snowbanks on tho noun
tain above had accumulated In some nat,
ural reservoir, from which 1t finally broke
forth into the level and rushed down into
the shaft, falling like cataract down the
400 feet
Aho AoA Va WabSk SOhtihuSh btCuuAAJ
night and had not diminished yesterday af-
ternoon, 1t being estimated that thousand
gallons u minute was being poured into
the works. Bye O'Clock Friday afternoon
the shaft was filled nearly 400 feet and the
indications are that tho water will rise
still higher.
Charles Burns, who is working his lease
on tho upper levels Of tho mine, had
quantity Of ore ready to hoist. When he
found that the flood would probably rise
to tho point where his operations were
being carried on and cover up the ore that
he had ready for shipment he set about
tho work OF hoisting the mineral out.
This orc was stored about fifty feet be-
low the point where the water was rush.
Ing into the shaft and tho experience Of
the men in getting 1t out will give an idea
OF the extent Of tho flood. They used .
bucket that holds ton of dirt, and while
this bucket was being lowered, although
1t was sent down almost instantly from
the Millinnce level to the point where 1t
was to be loaded, 1t would be filled with
water while going down that distance. 1t
was just like dipping it into lake.
When the bucket would get down to the
station the men would have to dump 1t be-
fore they could load it to be sent up.
The flood is also felt In the Enterprise,
and early Friday morning the men were
driven out OF the bottom Of the incline in
the property by the rise of water. Man
ager Newbcrry was just getting ready to
set his large pump near the bottom, but
he had not yet lowered it into position.
He considers this fortunate circumstance
us the water would probably have caught
it and buried it II the flood had been do.
layed twcnty-four hours longer.
1t cannot OF course be told how long tho
successive flow of water will continue
but 1t is believed that some great channel
through which the snow water from the
park finds its way to the valley has been
opened and that the flood will not cease
until the sun has finished the work of dis
posing Of the snow banks on top OF the
mountain. II this theory is correct it will
be impossible to do anything with tho
water for month or six weeks. One
gentleman who is familiar with the Frank.
lin, estimates that 1t will cost fully $40, 600
to clear the works out and that IL would
be useless 10 undertake to do anything
with 1t until 1t is settled that the flow OF
water has ccused