The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1895-04-13

mill was used as a saw mill and has
furnished about 1870, 900 feet of lumber
per year. During this summer a steel,
wire cable gravity tramway was COM
pleted connecting the mine and mill a
distance of $500 feet, but it proved to
be a complete failure, the site for the
line having been lily selected, the force
of gravity being insufficient to carry
the bucket over a slight intervening
raise between the mine and mill This
was a bitter disappointment as well as
a source of great expense. as it not on
ly involved the reconstruction of the
entire line. but the hauling of % tons
of ore daily over II and one half miles
of a rough mountain road.
In November. Mr.. Dave McCranor.
on account of i'll health. which en-
phatically demanded a change, resign
ed his position and sold his interest to
L. Z. Letter where upon Mir. T. Benton
Letter took charge of the property.
AS the new management assumed
control it vas by no means a brilliant
prospect that was laid out before him.
The work had only been started and it
was necessary to do some of 1t over
again. the tramway was a failure the
water power insufficient to u the mill
during the winter. and there were no
buildings for the accommodation of the
men employed. The property was
open on all sides to parasites who invar-
ably infest a new enterprise. taking up
claims of no value adjacent to the
property for the purpose of hindering
the work and extorting money. His
first care was to protect the COmpany's
interest. which was done by %patenting
ten new mining and one placer claim,
thereby adding much valuable mineral
and surface ground to the property.
The following year, the tramway was
rebuilt, the intervening hill cut down,
several towers over 100 feet high erect
ed in the hollow and on July 4th. the
first bucket of ore was successfully run
over the new line. since which time it
has steadily furnished from so to 1870
buckets OF ore daily. averaging in
weight about 1900 pounds. The same
year two more batteries of five stamps
each were added to the mill. making a
complement of twenty stamps with a
capacity of of 60 tons of ore per day.
The uncertainty of the water supply
which at the best was insufficient to
run the stamps at the proper speed,
impressed upon the manager the nee
essity of steam power. so accordingly a
100 horse power Atlas engine. run by
two 60 horse power boilers was pur-
chased and an engine house 5OX35,
erected for it's accommodation. The
water wheel was discarded during the
winter months. but the power utilized
during warm weather and the expense
OF n boiler dispensed with. The ore
BINS were enlarged to a capacity Of
2GGo tons and every detail in and about
the mill was made as near perfect as
possible, the work at the mill being
practically completed. Mr.. Letters at
t~ention was then concentrated on the
mine and Improvements made in every
direction.
The ore bodies on the Sheridan were
neither as rich nor extensive as early
developments had indicated. The Grey
Eagle. which had heretofore been con-
sidered a secondary mine was then de-
veloped by a shaft from a point about
1000 feet from the mouth of the tunnel.
the manager placing ~unbounded conf
dence cin this property and steadily
maintaining that it would yet prove the
best. how we'll his calculations we're
based ard the wisdom of his Judgement
is andy proven from the fact that this
miro h&s furnished nearly four-fifths
of all the ore milled during the past
two years. The ore bodies below the
level are large and continuous. varying
in value from SO to $50 per ton. east of
the shaft at the junction of the Shcri-
dan lode, the pay streak was about II
feet wide and on the west, nearly as
wide and almost of equal grade. The
Sheridan vein was followed through
POO feet Of barren ground when the
pay chute was encountered, the extent
OF which has not yet been determined,
although 100 feet has already been
driven through rich ore. on the 200