The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-04
MILLIONS OF GOLD
REVIVAL OF MINING IN THE WEST
WILL SOON DOUBLE PRO-
DUCTION.
new AND UNTRIED FIELDS.
IDAHO, BRITISH COLUMBIA, COLO
RAD AND ALASKA TEEN
WITH ACTIVITY.
Ore which Was Once Thrown Away
Now Yields "a Handsome
Profit.

1t is a singular MIN tffat, Wnlle all
the have been full of what
the party platforms shall say upon the
question of gold, and while dire
threats of party bolts and ever of
secession have been waited eastward
from the silver states in the far West,
where such matters are Of paramount
Importance, there has been such an
activity in gold mining, such a devel-
try has not seen before in a quarter
of a century, says the New York Her
aid.
The people of New York and of the
East have, indeed, been singularly
obtuse to this remarkable revival of
gold mining and have thus far largely
failed to take advantage of the profit
able field for investment here offered.
The revival has taken place entirely
with the aid Of local capital. Very
little has come from the East. While
the people of England have poured
millions pom millions into the South
African mines the American mines
have been left to shift for themselves.
1t now appears probable hat Eng
lish capital will be the first to be in
vested largely in u new gold fields.
The chief activity at present outside
of Colorado and Utah is in the rich
belt which extends from Northern
Idaho and Northwestern Washington
up into British Columbia, and 1t Is in
British Columbia that the largest
amount Of work has been done. Con-
corning this latter field an expert rep
senting the ~Beir-Barnato syndicate is
reported, after having made his exam
ination, to have said:
There is ten times as much gold in
this district as in all South Africa"
lnasmuch as the gold deposits of
the Witwatersrand about Johanns-
berg are calculated at anywhere from
V hundred millions to a billion
dollars, it will be seen that this is an
extraordinary statement. Neverthe-
less it is certain that with the active
development now going on in this dis
trict it will within another year be-
come n of the chief gold producing
districts in the world.
NEW BONANZA DAYS.
There is indeed a distinct prospect
that the United States, including
British Columbia and Alaska, will
soon be pouring forth such a quantity
of yellow metal as will surpass the
days" when the placer fields
or California gave forth their golden
HOOD. Last year this country pro-
duced nearly forty-seven millions of
goid pulllon-more than any year for
nearly a generation colo
rado turned from a silver
state to a gold state, as based
upon it's production, and took rank as
the first of the gold producing states
at that. This year the product Of this
single state will probably run close to
the entire output of. the whole country
as the output stood for ten years or
more down to the panic.
Alaska doubled it's gold OUTPUT and
will probably do so again this wear
and Utah will in all likelihood do tho
same.
Probably this year the United States
Alaska and British Columbia will turn
out more than sixty millions of this
precious metal, and next year 1t is NOT
unlikely that these sections will t,,rn
out above seventy millions. That Is
double the gold production of This
area during any period since the Com
stock days.
Nor is this all. Recent peolooico1
surveys lave disclosed the proba hiIity
'hdt there are under the great lava
oVernoWs OF Southeastern Idaho and
Northern California gold placer beds
llkely to surpass III value the great
placer fields from whence has come
the great bulk of California's gold ONT
put.
10 you comprehend the meaning of
thls! Up to the present time and since
the discovery of gold in 40 California
mas turned out approximately one and
th~ree-quarters billions of gold bullion
Ihat is three times the present STOCK
OF gold money in the United States and
more than all the stocks of the Tinted
states, England and GERMANY nut 70.
gether. 1t is nearly one-half all tbe
gold money in the wide world. And If
is estimated that more thar three
Iourth's of California's total product
mas come from it's placers-that is. up-
ward of a billion and a half
The extent of the lava gold fields
noted is calculated at above Of oOO
square miles.
THE GREAT LAVA FLOW.
The great lava flow in Idaho. as II
is described by the Engineering and
Mining Journal, confessedly the first
mining authority in America, covers a
section Of country about four hundred
miles in length and about forty to six
ty miles in width. 1t lies IL the south
eastern part of the State, on or along
the course of the Snake river, and
mostly on the north side of that
stream. This great lava bed is the
eastern end of an immense volcanic
belt that extends westerly to the Pa
cific ocean, and the lava is of the same
character as that constituting the vast
lava bed in Modoc county, Cal, In
which, in the Modoc war of 1874, the
Indians so long evaded the United
States troops sent against them. Most
of the belt along its northern side is
dotted with volcanic craters, and
northwest from Blackfoot station, on
the Utah and Northern road, they rise.
Isolated. out of the plain so huge that
they constitute landmarks visible to
a great distance.
The Snake or Shoshone river forms
the great center of the Idaho system.
Both this stream and a large number
of its tributaries were wonderfully rich
IN gold, the original discoveries having
been made as far back as 1862. What
was known as the Boise Basin" was
n Of the richest placer regions ever
found. The total area of this belt is
rot less thai 10000 square miles, and
lying as X does in the very heart of
che auriferous. or gold-bearing. re-