The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-10-16

into the district, now the Monte Cristo
mine, be did not reach; but he came upon
another OF even greater extent the now
famous 20, whose broad road of ore rang
ing from eighteen % forty feet in width,
travels up the mountain side from the
rock slides at the basin till it is lost
beneath the glaciers field OF ice. The
mine was named in honor of the day of its
! ery-"Independence of 17-6"
convinced OF his wonderful find, Pearsall
carried the secret of his discovery back to
Seattle, and there met one of the Wilmans
Bros, OF Park City, Utah, then fresh
from their remarkable exploit of leasing
and taking out of the abandoned Wood
side mine, AT that place, S625, 600 in the
course of q few months. K. W. Wilmans,
president OF the company, came in and
organized an exploring party, is being
notable that the original locations ran at
the beadwaters of an unknown river" II
did not take long 70 discover the almost
unlimited quantities of ore the district
contained. From its peculiar formation,
the veins could he distinctly traced from
the face of one basin To the opposite side
through the huge mountain tongue which
lies between the two basins and across to
the farther side OF the second there were in
the literal sense mountains OF ''ore in
sight"
The ore was there and its quality estab-
lshed; into the problem of working came
the factor of transportation-it was fifty
miles TO a railroad. and fifty miles over
mountain roads and through almost inn
passable Western Washington jungle was
formidable matter. Shipments by wagon
road could hardly be made; a railroad was
necessity.
The rest of Monte Crsto's history is
that of development on large industrial
plan. a control in a ma jority of the pros
poets was sold last year To the Colby
Hoyt syndicate, of New York city. The
syndicate is composed of John ID. Rookie
teller, Joseph l.. Colby, of Cleveland, o.:
Charles l.. Colby, and Colgate Hoyt,
OF New York. and is the owner
OF large mining properties at IRON
wood, Mich. in Colorado and Mon
tana. 1t undertook the building OF the
everett & Monte Cristo railroad: FEAST
BILE route was found up the valley of the
Stillaguamish, and construction of the
road was begun last spring. The line is
an entirely independent one and is built
for the single purpose of opening up the
Monte Cristo mines. 1t could in fact have
no other purpose. for il runs through vir-
gin forest, and Its passage across the Cas-
cades Is barred by range after range.
In general character the ores show pyrite
anu gaIena. combined with small quauti-
ties of arsenic anthony and blende They
carry from So to $50 in gold, $40 to $50 in
silver and from IA TO IS per cent. lead at 4
general average the ores Will run from So
To $40 per ton. Al a rough estimate about
90 per cent. of the rock viii be suitable for
concentrating, though the developments
of the last month or more show up large
quantities of rich direct shipping ore. The
bulk of the ores may be worked by the
concentration and smelling process, but
some OF the heavier gold rock will
require roasting. At tide water at
Everett a 2i0-ton smelter with five
roasters is now being built by the
allied companies here, and at Monte
Crlsto concentration will be erected us
soon as the railroad can bring the mate
rial. The extensive tram system now
under construction, embracing three main
ways with numerous auxiliary trams-in
all about i've or SIX miles IOng-will Goa
vey the ore from the mines to the concen-
traitor and ore bunkers. One of these
tramways, that reaching the WImans
company's Monte Cristo mine, has the
steepest pitch of any tram line in the
United States. In the entire enterprise,
including the railroad, smelter, concen-
traitor, tramways and all, about 100000
Will be required, every dollar of which
must be expended before dollar of return
can be had.
On the whole, when one has penetrated
into this mountain fastness and climbed
up the steepest, often dangerous, and
always exhausting mountain ways to see
these broad, rich lodges, some of them laid
mile, the judgment is not that the en-
thusiastic hopes of Monte Cristo are as
the baseless fabric of boomers vision.
There can, indeed, be little doubt of the
Importance of the discovery to Western
Washington. 1t is the beginning of q
great industry, promising untold wealth,
the extent of which il is not easy TO recog-
nize. Yet it is not in ores of fabulous and
eye-starting richness that the promise OF
Monte Cristo lest is in the almost i'm
measurable quantity of average grade rock,
and of this there is no question. Nature
has, in fact done the larger part of the
mining. 1t has cut two immense gorges
in cross section of vein after vein of rich
mineral to a depth of 1000 and 3. 600 feet.
And this series of veins is not more re-
markable for their numbers, parallelism,
and continuity than for their width. The
Pride of the Mountains ledge is exposed
along the mountain face in width varying
from eight to twenty-eight feet for dis
tance of 1000 feet, or three-quarters of a
mile. and the ledge of the Monte Cristo
and rs mines are of almost equal extent.
Moreover between these two gorges the
glaciers knife has left huge mountain
ridge, the veins exposed on either face,
leaving lodges of lore in sight" almost
mountain high and of mountain length.
There il enough To mine for generations.