Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-08-01
GOLD IN YER MONT.
PEOPLE LAUGHED AT THE IDEA
ONLY A FEW YEARS AGO.
Nuggets Arc Found and Dirt Is worth
Hundreds of Dollars II Ton-No For
tunes Made Yet, but Yankee Miners
Are Sapguine-- Digging Goes On.

When it was said few years ago and
obscurely, that certain portions Of Yer
mont contained gold in paying quantities
people laughed. old i'm Vermont? Nom
sense! Nobody ever heard of such a
/ thing
Well there is gold i'm Vermont, and they
are getting it out of the earth in paying
quantities at the present day.
You have only got to go up to Bethel
on the Boston and Maine road, take
wagon for four miles across country until
! you reach the White river. There ask
| for the gold mining company and the
native who gets a good living out OF this
industry will take you over to field and
| the river lying between two mountains, or
at least very high hills.
| There you Will see a long sluicc running
about throe-quartcrs of mile up the
river, guarded on one side by stone work
| in anticipation of spring freshets. You
will see cradles, mining pans and all the
paraphcrnalia that distinguishes a mining
camp. There is a good deal of difference
in the miners. however. Tho company
only employs Yankees. BY and by they
will get Italians to do the rough work.
/ I}ut at present they find it policy to keep
friendly with the inhabitants of the Couu-
/ try and pay them good wages.
LAY or THE LAND.
Well the native takes you over to a man
clad i'm rough ovcralls holding pan in
in his hand. and anNiously watching every
dip as the mud runs over the rim.
The Journal man was introduced to
Nelson Morkcll, the superintendent and
general manager of the concern. lie was
well known il Boston two or three years
ago, and for n long time was closely iden-
titled with John Stctson'S enterprises. both
in general business and in theatriCals.
Morkell is an old Western prospcctor and
he swears thar never before in any part
of the West did he find such a natural
lay of the land" for gold as in this par
ticular section OF Vermont.
Look here" he said. you cannot deny
the evidence of your own eyes. and he
| dumped the spade full of dirt into his
milling pan and then began working it.
Gradually the mud oozed away and a
black sand began to appear Ultimately
that was all that apparently remained.
This he dried in the sun and then gently
blew on it. Then began to appear small
specks Of gold, hardly larger than dust,
but distinctly gold.
Nov" said Morkell "in that one pan l
can count about 50 to 100 colors. Color is
the name Of a speck of guld) Twenty
would pay we'll. | have taken this mag
nctc sand. which. by the way, of itself
is worth 500 a ton, for in amaGam it
strengthens steel by one-third and makes
the best quality in the world This black
magnetic sand is purely metallic, and in
it you invariably find gold. At present
we are only doing alluvial mining. The
ground is rich enough to pay well.
HOW IT PANS OUT.
81 calculate--and | say it without any
eXaggeration whateVer-that we can get
from $3.50 to $50 a ton out of this dirt /
have had it assayed in Boston, and oX-
press myself as being thoroughly satisfied
no ora he
experts assured mo that $3.50 was the very
least, and ii might run more than that.
by and by, on the opposite mountain
there-the Nulturc as it is called-we will
be working on quartz mining. l feel sure
that when we get to bed rock we will find
plenty of rich pockets. Why not? | know
the lay of the ground. But you cannot
seem to make people believe that there is
gold in these regions. You probably have
not heard of gold in Canada. Well, l
know man WI had claim there and
got $295,O0O of free gold out of one pocket,
and there is plenty left on the claim yet.
These hills that you see here are a con-
tinuation of the same range in which all
that gold was found.
Look here" and Mr.. Morkell drew from
his pocket small medical phial contain
ing several small nuggets and a lot of
dust THAT is the result" he said. 'of
three pans that | worked myself, and this
Is mere SuTldC" NOIk. W lltli We get hON II
about three or four feet more we shall
strike the old bed of the river. Then
expect to find great deal more gold than
here. But at any rate, | am very well
satisfied as it is.
EXPERIMENTS so FAR.
80 far have only had seven men work
ing because we have been experimenting
more than anything else. But now | am
satisfied l have found the right spot, and
shall bring up a large force of Italians
from Boston and keep the sluices going
all the while As it is We have built three
quarters of a mile of sluicewaY. We have
all our cradles in position, and we have
made satisfactory progress in sinking a
shaft, which already more than pays for
itself on the very surface.
This, | think is doing pretty well for
a starter And, mind you, we are not
claiming all the gold in Vermont. | have
been up along this wide river, and |
never took pan of gold yet that did not
produce some gold at least. / have seen a
whole lot of abandoned claims left 10y
people who, because they had dug down
five or six feet. gave ii up as bad job
whereas, being an old miner, ! saw plenty
of indications of gold in nearly every