The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-07-19
The -Four Mile Placers.

# AAO AouI 4AA0 L A0CcI0s ~
A correspondent of the Rawlins IVY,
oming) Republican gives an account Of
a recent visit to the placer district Of
Routt county, Colorado, from which we
gather the following:
I'm the morning we were met by Mr.,
Human, who kindly took us over to his
plant, situated Oh the opposite side Of
-Four Mile gulch some half a mile dis,
tant. This plant consists of a large
sluice box some six feet wide and two
feet deep, that carries the gravel from
the property above on to the grizzly,
through which the finer material passes,
while the cOarSer is carried over on to
the dump below. From the grizzly the
finer material is carried in toughs to a
series of twenty-four sluices, twelve
on each side. These sluices are three
feet wide, six inches deep and eighteen
feet in length, the bottoms being made
a fall of six inches and is bare; from
this plate the gravel drops about three
inches on to the lower plate which Is
eight inches. The burlap catches all
the fine gold, and is especially adapted
to this district. The burlap is taken up
duu WdSucu cpSIS IWO udyS. Lie
washings are then run through a Hills
| gold saving machine which collects the
gold dust with quicksilver; this is then
strained through buckskin or heavy
duck, the amalgam retorted and the
product is ready to be taken to the mint
for refining.
1.-The company are using a little giant
that thrown a three-inch stream under
o1o,+ vr,o-%r f1o+ nj.
| giant handles about 1000 yards every
twenty-four hours. The average depth
of gravel from grass roots to bed rock
is nine feet, or 1850 cubic yards to the
acre. The company have some 700
acres of ground and have worked less
than seven acres up to date, owing to
lack of water, which heretofore has on
ly been taken from -Four Mile creek,
Arrangements have since been made to
connect with the Willow Greek ditch.
which was done last Saturday. This
will insure a good supply of water for
some time to come.
zone mile further up we find a
unique apparatus for raising the water.
consisting Of an endless chain with
buckets attached. These buckets hold
some two gallons of water each, and the
plant will raise about 250 gallons per
minute. The plant is run by horse.
power, the water being taken from a
reservoir forty feet below which is fed
by living springs. This water is raised
to the top Of the mesa, washes the
gravel into the sluice boxes, does it's
work there and returns to the reservoir
ready for another journey. Here the
wife s~uperintends the raising of the
water while her husband runs the
sluices. The gravel on this property. as
well as on the Nelson, will average
about 81 per yard.
Cali that is necessary to make this
belt the greatest placer producer on the
continent is sufficient capital to bring
the water upon the ground. 10 practi-
cal mining men, this is a matter Of little
Importance, as many a one has been
compelled to spend from $500, 600 to ST.
600, 600 on bitches alone before turn
ing a wheel on the property.
"This is only a small portion of the
placer belt. There are many other
properties that deserve mention, espe-
cially the Dry Creek property owned
by the Rhode Island syndicate, upon
whose ditch work will commence at
once. Suffice it to say, however, that
the placer belt extends forty miles in
length and thirty miles in breadth, ono
half of which is good placer ground
from six to ten feet to bed rock and ay
eraging twenty cents per yard gold"
Sixteen to one is spreading in unlocked
for quarters. Most of the summer re