Arizona weekly citizen., 1893-08-26
AFFAIR OF MILLIONS.
Project Of Getting Water to
GreaterVille Placers.
Men OF Money View the Ground
and Will Probably Put in
Pipe Line.

from tie canyons of the Santa Ritas to
the Greaterville gold fields has been
a fascinating cne. The water is in one
place, and the gold is only few m les
away. waiting to be searched out with
the water. And it is an affair with
actual millions in it.
1t now looks as though this scheme
will be put through. The man of money
have been found, the field has been
examined, proved more than satisfactory
| and he promise of business made.
Fred HUghea of this city and d. H.
Jewell and J. W. Starkweather of
Denver, returned from Greatsrville
| ast night. Mr. Hughes is owner of a
ledge of good gold there, and is prom t.
ing the present affair. Should the ex-
pected colsummat on be made he will
De put iu charge of the hydraulic mining
taere. Messrs. jewell and Starkweather
are men of moae Themselves, I'D re-
present good deaf more.
The work Intended is hydraulic min
ing. Evc-ything Is favorable fer It. Tho
wafer wanted runs down a canyon Of
he Santa Il tas. This carries a sire am
six months a year of sufficient volume
for mining OF that kind. Betwesn this
stream and the gold fields is a huge
limestone divide. Il one place q gap
in it is only go fe higher than the
gold fields. The gold fields proper are,
MIR. Hughes declares, the biggest placer
irg proposition in Americs and probably
the world. They have produced since
their discovery, nineteen years ago,
about $2,O00,000 in gold. Ever since
they have been worked. At present
go men are there, working out the
yellow dust and tiny nuggets with
rockers, in a very prim tive fashion
On the fats there for thousands of
acres TIE precious dust is scattered.
PLAN OF THE WORK.
Mr. Hughes says the plan is very feas-
lb,e. The water in the canyon will
y,
% 300 20 500 feet. This would result in
toe strong a pressure, which could be
easily lessened, however. The pipe TO
be put in will be of cast iron, about
twenty inches in diameter and seven
miles long. The water can be drawn off
10 or twelve branches, there being
that number of dry gulches to be
worked. Each hydraulic pipe will re-
III Trrh To a
than the present, for smaller aud
poorer placer field in California cost
$3.50 day on An enterprise where Mr..
Hughes worked in California. yet the
mining was profitable.
An estimate Of the field was that 1000
acres there would yield fifty cents to the
lquare yard. This means S30,OO0,O00
ior the tract. Nor Is the field by any
means limited to 1000 acres. With tie
rockers ard present clumsy devices a
man can work about cubic yard day,
making good wages With the hydraulic
apparatus each stream will reveal the
gold Of 1000 cubic yards day.
The field impressed Meesrs. Jewell
and Starkweather favo-ably. They had
no objection to the flow of water or the
extent and richness of the gold field.
They did learn, however, that the gold
fields are
ON A GRANT.
This grant, known as the Vaca grant,
is now owned by Colonel ID. w. Boul-
den, of Austin, Texas. The grant WAS
made IN 1868 to a man named Vace,
who held another grant of land includ-
ing the town OF Las Vegas. The tract
IL the Santa Rtas was given in ex-
change therefor and little more vas
heard of 1t. 1t was purchased by
Colonel BOulden veral years ago.
Once before, through Colonel Boulden
and others, the present enterprise came
near bcing carried through. The man
who was to do it. however. was i'm
pressed with the thunders Of the San
! Diego boom and added everything he
had 10 it aud lost il.
Colonel Boulden is now on the ground.
He made an offer of sale OF the fields to
the Colorado people. The figure. now
ever, was a very big one, and probably
the Colorado people do not care tn make
such an investment when $4,000 would
do otherwise. II is not unlikely that
the matter Will be amicably arranged.
the Colorado parties putting in the
plant and paying Colonel Boulden
royalty on the gold taken out.
EARLY WORKINGS.
The group was first worked in 1874.
Mr.. Hughes saw two men working there
placerlng with small results. They were
somewhat disgusted. He at once saw
from the trend of the land that they
were not where the most gold could be
found. He accordingly, saying nothing,
went to the lower ground and COM
menced locating. At 4 o'clock that day
be had his monuments up. He then
went at placering, taking out $40 in
gold before dark. After that he got ex-
cellent returns. After his next trip to
town the new gold fields were eagerly
sought. Tos considerable extent the
locality has been worked ever since.