The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-29
Prospectors Said to Have Quit
in Disgust.
WE'RE CLAIMS ''sALTEDs"
MIR. WARNER, OF PReyo, ADMITS
THAT HE WAS DUPED.
Samples Sent to Salt Lake Show
Only a Trace of GOid-Mining Re-
view For the Past Weel>-Marl>ed
Decrease in the Ore and Bullion
Receipts.

Mining men all over the country have
been anxiously awaiting developments
from the Uintah gold fields, and the fol-
lowing from the Provo Dispatch of last
evening will be read with interest:
How much money has been lost in the
late loudly Wanted rich Uintah gold fields
no one will ever know-if human lives
are not lost in it, it will be a wonder.
For week or more grave suspicious
that all was not as it should be have
been entertained and now all of the men
interested in the Dead Mans mine have
given it up as fraud, NJ M. Warner, of
this city, being the last to give up and
acknowledge that he had been duped and
swindled. 1t will be remembered that a
great number of assays of ore from that
mine We're made and that all ran rich in
gold-in the neighborhood of $500 to the
ton. Assays from the same ledge and
from claims Immediately adjoining, at
most went only 81 or So. The Jim Blaine
Mining company was not formed and
money was not given to Hatch or Halli-
day nor put into the Dead Mans mine
until after numerous assays had been
made, nor until after it was thought that
1T had proven beyond doubt that the
assays We're not being made of sailed
rock. That is, pieces of rock We're Sc
lected and the outside portions Clipped
tically the same results were obtained
from these assays as had been obtained
from the others. Then George White
more, D. H. Peery, George Sutherland,
Mayor Holbrook and M. NJ. Warner went
out to the mine, formed company, or
ganized mining district and went to
work. Mayor Holbrook was not inter
ested in the company. However Judge
Henderson and Arthur Brown, of Salt
Lake, were, and perhaps others.
From a converse ton had with Mr.. War
contract with Hatch. Halliday and Cald-
well was $4,000 should be paid for the
half interest and spent upon the mine to
develop it, buy machinery, etc, and the
first $4,000 taken out of the mine to be
paid back to the members of the COM
pany who advanced the original money.
OF course the living expenses of the men
operating the mine were to be paio-the
in getting out of the company $1,000 in
cash. All seemed well and work progress
sed nicely. However, in spite of all that
Mr.. Warner could do to induce the origi-
nal locators not to sell any more shares
and their positive promise that they
would not for any price, with the assur-
ance given that parties were daily ap-
preaching them with offers to purchase
only to be refused, it was learned that
they were offering for sale at ridiculously
low price all or any part of their inter
est. This together with the fact that as
says of ore from adjoining propertieS-of
from the Dead Mans mine, were very
low, aroused suspicion in the minds of
the members of the company at this end.
Mr.. Warner, working away at the mine,
however, continued to have implicit con-
hdence and he had occasion to have, for
in addition to all that he had before seen
the mine as it developed continued to
look more and more like a big paying
gold mine. He quit work, however, the
other evening, in response to a telegram
from Mr.. Whitmore instructing him to
cease all operations, discharge all men
and bring in all sacks, tools, implements,
ETC., and informing him that circumstan-
ces had arisen sufficiently conspicuous to
warrant this action at the present time.
However, Mr.. Whitmore informed Mr..
Warner to see that the corner stakes
were up, assessment work done, and all
else possible done to hold the mine.
Mr.. Warner came in and brought with
holds that he has done nothing criminal,
and also that to his knowledge no one
else has-that the assays were genuine
and that the rock was not sailed Mr..
Warner brought with him d sack Of ore
and carefully guarded it so that no one
could get at it in any way He sent the
ore by Mr.. Peery to Salt Lake ana assays
from 1t showed only trace of gold, and
he was now convinced that the samples
heretofore assayedl had been sailed
How was it done, if it was done? No
one will ever know. positively. The
theory believed generally is that the work
was done with a small syringe filled with
chloride of gold, pushed through the
sack or cloth containing the samples of
ore to be assayed. and the liquid sprayed
over the rock.
What harm has been done if it is true
that the rock was sailed? Three or four
hundred miners have gone out into the
Uintahs and have spent very hard
month at big expense, which has all been
wasted to put no money in the pockets
of anyone.
But the greatest harm has been done
to the honest prospectors, who will in the
able to get help to develop their mines.