The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-28

! troubles, he has always been the same
courteous gentleman, genial and pleas
ant to all whom he met, and to the end
he was never heard to murmur against
his lot
AS we have said already. Judge Bar
bee, at the time of his death, was out
in Tooele county prospecting for E. G.
! Rognon of this city who yesterday re-
ceived the following letter:
DIED AT HIS TENT.
Vernon, Tooele County, Utah.
March %, 1896.
E. G. Rognon, Esq,
Dear Sir-Last night at 1:2s o'clock
Judge Barbee died in his tent in the
Blue Belt mining district. Today we
drove up and brought him down here
and buried him here. / find in his pa
pers the enclosed letter to you. l hold
| his papers and valise, which you can
have. His tent and what was left in
it 1 lott, not knowing what belonged to
! him, he having partner, by name H.
{. Snyder. Yours respectfully,
OWEN BENNION,
Justice of the Peace, Vernon Precinct.
| For two months past the judge has
been missed in his old Salt Lake haunts
and but very few OF his friends knew
that he was out in the hills looking
| for the precious metals, and fewer still
knew that he believed that he had dis
covered a new mineral district, in
which he was Sanguine that he would
retrieve his lost fortunes; but that this
1 is the case is proven from the letter
found in his tent, in which he speaks
highly of the outlook of the new dis
trict which he had assisted in organ
izing. This is probably the last letter
ever written by the judge, and in read
ing it no one can help depressing a
sigh for the fate of a noble man who
has forever departed this lAfe. The let
ter reads as follows:
JUDGE BARBEE's LAST LETTER.
Blue Bell Mining District, Tooele
County, Utah, March %, 1896.
E. G. Rognon, Esq, Salt Lake City,
Utah.
Dear sir-Blue Bell is the name of
the mining district. We organized here
February II. 1t covers eight by twelve
miles of the southeast corner of Tooele
county; is about twenty-five miles
southwesterly of Camp Floyd district
(Mercur); ten miles south of Vernon, a
small settlement, and about seven miles
west of Doremus, station on the Tin
tic railroad-that is, from our camp.
So you can form a correct idea of just
where we are at
The country rock, so far as I have
examined. seems to be divided into
three belts-lime, shale and quartzite. l
do not think the qUartzite~ carries any
paying mineral values. My investiga-
lions have been confined to the lime
and shale, and especially to the shale.
The lime is inteTspersed with upheavals
Of iron quartz, which carries small
values in gold. little or no silver and
no lead. There are also quartzite and
porphyry dykes cutting the lime. The
values of this belt may increase as
depth is attained, especially in the con-
facts.
l have made very careful and critical
examinations of the shale belt, and
find that there is a variety CT shales.
Some seem to be a conglomeration of
slate porphyry quartz (crystallizedD,
quartzite and wash gravel The vari-
ETY. is made up by the preponderance
of the slate quartz or porphyry as the
case may be, hence we have parphyrit
ic, silicious and slate shales.
We also have lime shales, which, in
my opinion, are what carry the gold
values in the district. There have been
numerous tests made on the shale,
nearly all of which showed gold from
trace up to from 81 to S.. In one
piece of the lime shale 1 discovered a
few spots Of cinnahar (red oxide
l have only recently discovered-or,
rather, found out by acid tests-the
existence of the lime shale, and have
had no tests made on them for gold.
l am going to make rigid and thorough
tests and examinations of the lime
shaIe belt in order to be able to form
more intelligent idea of it.
About one or one and one-haf miles
west of the lime shale there are some
boys prospecting and mining They
are, as near as ] can find out, near the
lime shale contact, as they bring down
black lime and shale and have tests
made on them. Nearly every test
shows up more or less gold.
Brown and Murphy, who have a
promising mine that they are work
ing about a mile north of our camp,
have an assay outfit, but they have no
button scales, hence can only make
qualitative tests. They have made
over one hundred tests on rock from
different parts of the district, and in
large majority of them they found
precipitation of gold when they cut
their silver button with acid. Although
they are not practical assayers think
their tests as qualitative tests can be
relied on. l watched them work one
day and 1 found they produced a clean
Stag and that they coupled their leau
button properly, and when the silver,
which was put in to catch the gold,
was cut with acid, there was a black
metallic precipitation, which was gold.
These precipitations varied in guam
tity, according to the amount of gold
in the rock, | suppose.
Near where these boys are mining
there is an unheaval of quartzlte, IN
which there are deposits of lead-sllVer
ore, carrying from % to SO per cent
lead and from twenty to fifty ounces
silver. and some little gold.
The shale belt is an anomaly to me.
1t is full of upheavals of porphyEy,
uuartzite, quartz, various kinds OF
slate. and occasionally small
belt of lime will be observed.
These upheavals are irregular
in course, running at almost
every point of the compass, and
in many cases are mere chimneys. All
these upheavals are more or less i'm
nreenated with iron, as is the shale
also.
/ have endeavored to give you such
a description Of the country as will
enable you and your friends to form
some idea of it as to its possibilities
and probabilities of being mineral
belt of paying values.
There is an abundance of water in
Vernon creek and Little valley creek
and numerous springs in different
parts of the district. There is ample
wood in the adjacent hills to build
up a lively camp, and run it as long
as | want to spend time roughing 1t in
a mining camp A feasible route for
a railroad can be obtained from our
camp to Doremus-
My impression of the district so lar