Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1895-11-22

Springs, Two railroads now run into
the district. They are the Midland Ter
minal, which connects with the Santa Fe
system, and the Florence & Cripple
Greek, which connects with the Denver &
Rio Grande.
One of the most striking features con-
nected with Developments Of the district was
the independence of tho pioneers of out
side capital. This WAS made possible by
the fact that every man in the district
who was earning wages, from the super
intendent of a mine down to dishwssher
in miners boarding house, put one-half
of his earnings into the development of
some property in which he was interested.
By this means the money paid out in
wages in Cripple Greek is turned over
and over again and made to go as far as
possible. This also accounts for the
many fortunes that have been made by
psor men in the Cripple Creek district.
In no other camp in the world is the
psrmeation of gold-bearing veins so gen
eral. No vein has been discovered in the
district that does not carry some proper
tion of pay material. This is not usually
true. In most districts almost majority
of veins do not carry pay material, at
least near the surface. The largest mines
in the Cripple Creek territory are the In
dependence and the Portland. The latter,
which is made up of group of mines, is
now producing ore at the rate of 100000
worth u month, over half of which is net
profit. They are now working on thirty
five foot vein. The Independence con-
sists of only one claim, but it is very
rich. It's output is $l25,0Oo month, and
this could be easily doubled or even
trebled. W. s. Stratton is the owner of
the Independence. Three years ago he
was poor carpenter and now he has 80
much money he does not know what to
do with it. The stock of the Portland
mine is owned by five men, two of whom
were plumbers three years ago, one was
farmer, another was a carpenter, and the
fifth was miner.
There is no district IN the world, our
informant insists, where such rich ore is
found in such vast quantities, or where
the cost of production of gold per ounce
is SO small. 1t is asserted on high author
ity that large part of the gold is pro-
duced from the Portland ore at cost of
only rs cents per ounce. The average
cost of production from the Independence
is 80 cents an ounce, while it is safe to
say that the average cost per ounce
throughout the district is 81. An instance
of the cheap production in mining and
handling the mineral in the district is
given in the case of the Doctor mine.
This is recent discovery on Raven Hill,
near the Moose, the Raven, the Elkton,
the Ingham and other we'll known prop
critics. Recently $l5O,OOO worth of ore
was taken out of this mine in three days
at cost of 5000 for labor. The cost of
transportation and treatment will not ex-
ceed 5000, making the total cost 81, 200
for $150,000 worth of gold.
We have taken the pains to compile
these interesting and significant facts re-
specting Colorado's phenomenal gold
camp for the purpose of attracting fresh
attention to the fact that "gold is where
you find it" and that the hills of New
Mexico have not been half prospected for
the precious metals. There are many
reasons for believing that the Cripple
Greek gold belt extends south into New
Mexico. 1t should be found in this ter
ritory before twelve months more roll
around. It is by no means improbable
that both the La Belle and Cochiti dis
tricts are in this belt and only need furth-
er exploitation to demonstrate the fact.
We also beg leave earnestly to urge the
newspapers of New Mexico to join the
NEW MEXICAN in systematic endeavors to
attract especial attention to the mineral
resources and mineral possibilities of this
territory. The marvellous discoveries at
Cripple Greek have attracted the eager
eyes of capital to the entire Rocky noun
tain region and are certain greatly to
stimulate both specific development
work and general prospecting. The germs
of the fever caused by Cripple Creek are
sure rapidly to spread. An opportunity
is thus presented which New Mexico can
not afford to neglect.