The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-20
UTAH'S NEW GOLD CAMP
NE
THE MINES OF MERCUR AND THEIR
VAST QUANTITIES OF ORE.
Extent of the District and
It's Enormous Possibilifies-The
johannesburg of America.


wonderful of the new gold regions of the
United States is now being developed with
in three hours by rail of Salt Lake City.
1t is only thirteen miles away the crow
flies and its treasures have until now lain
undisturbed whiting almost walking dis
lance of one of the liveliest centers OF the
West. For years some of the most expert
miners of the United States have worked ir
or near it. 1t is known as the Mercur min
ing district, and it is on the site where Gen.
Albert Sidney Johnston had his camp at
the time of the Utah war. Between 1870
and 1880 it was known as silver region,
and in mine single pocket of silver
proddced $126000 some of the ore ave, aging
s., coo to the ton. At this time the late
Senator Hurst and Marcus DAILY were
among the mine owners. The assayers told
them that the district contained gold. but
they could find no color in the rock, and no
paying means of getting out the gold Mar
Gus Daily reduced the ore to powder, and
day after day panned and washed it look
ing for gold. At last he threw down his
pan in disgust, and said that the assayer
was a fraud. He left Utah and went to
Montana, where he bought the Alice mine,
and from it developed the biggest copper
region of the world.
And still this district is now said to con-
tain more than enough gold to pay the ma
tional debt. I have gone through one mine
which has already produced more than
million dollars worth of gold, and which
has paid to it's stockholders a half million
dollars in dividends. Other mines have
been opened which have gold ore in sight
Of an estimated value of more than $4,000.
Co., and within the past eighteen months
more than $500 mining claims have been
taken up within it. 1t is nov producing
about $1,000 worth of gold a day, and see
it is estimated that its product this year
may amount to $3.000,000 The camp, as
far as pay work is concerned, is only about
four years old, and It has been made pos
sible only by the invention or the new cya-
hide processes for getting gold out of the
rock AS it is the gold is being mined AT
less cost, in all probability, than in any
other mining district in the world. Its ore
is so much like that of the Rand mining
district of South AFRICA that the people
have named it the Johannesburg of Amer-
ca The ore can be mined and treated,
however, at less than half the cost of the
Cripple Creek gold The charge for re-
ducing gold at Cripple Creek is $3.50 a ton.
Here the chemist of the great Mercur mine
tells me that the cost of mining and re-
ducing does not exceed So per ton, while
in the Sunshine mine, about four miles
away the ore can be dug out and turned
into gold for less than 81 per ton. There
are already five cyanide mills in operation
in the district and there are others in
course of construction.
THREE GOLDEN BLANKETS.
But let me give you some idea of this
last great gold discovery of the world. The
story is so wonderful that 1 fear to write
what 1 believe to be the truth, lest 1 be
charged with exaggeration. Imagine, if
you cam three great blankets of golden
rock, each from five to fifty feet thick
lying one above the other, with blankets
of shale between them Let these blankets
begin about four miles above the town of
Mercur, at distance of a mile and a half
above the sea, and let them slope off in
the shape of an inclined plane, cropping
out here and there through the mountains
and valley for a distance of eight miles.
Let the blankets be nearl-r a mile wide,
and let the golden treasures within them
be worth all the way from IS to $1,000 per
ton, and you have some idea of this won
derful camp. The gold does not lie in little
veins between walls of granite, in other
mines. 1t is distributed with much regu-
larity through these enormous blankets, so
that you may start your mine in places
where the vein shows out of the sides of
the mountains and dig on and on, taking
nothing but ore-bearing rock for miles.
The district as defined by its working
mines is known to be at least eight miles
long and at least 5000 feet in width 1t is
supposed to be much larger, and claims
have been taken up and holes have been
sunk for miles around. One man, a WELL
known miner of Leadville, Major Bohn, be-
leves that the blankets extend more than
seven miles in width, and he is sinking a
shaft away over the mountain almost
half mfle further down in altitude and
seven miles away, in the Utah valley, on
sage brush prairie. He says that he will
go down at least 1000 feet. and he then
expects to strike the golden blanket Many
of the miners are, however skeptical to
his success but should his theory prove
correct the riches of this district will be
beyond human conception and the relations
of gold and silver the world over may be
changed by the result. AS it is, at the most
conservative estimate. the proba blities are
enormous. Three blankets of gold ore
eight miles long and 5000 feet wide will
turn out riches hitherto unknown in gold
mining. The ore seems to grow richer
the blankets dip down into the earth, and
the Golden Gate mines, which begin in the
valley in which the town of Mercur is sit
uated. Utah miners say are to be the big
gest mines of the world. Already So 600 coo
worth of ore has been blocked out within
them. and within short time their mills
will be reducing this TO bullion.
IN UTAH'S NEW MINING CAMP
But let pay visit to Mercur. 1t is
only ffty-five miles by rail from Salt Lake
City, and we may ride down the Utah val
ley either over the Union Pacific or the
Denver. Rio Grande & Western railroads
to Fairfield, where get the wonderful
gauge which by many loops and winding
turns drags up the mountains and lands
in the little nest in the hills where the
mining town of Mercur lies. We are
mile and a half above the sea, and sur
rounded by some of the most beautiful
scenery of the United States. The noun
tains gray and silvery the hills
of Greece. The sage brush on their sides
seems to be covered with frost and the
hills are dotted with flowers of all colors
Above us shines a, sky as clear as that of
Italy, and all about rise the great shaft
houses of the working mines. In the nest
or valley, winding about in the shape of a
horseshoe, is the town of Mercur. 1t con-
tains two thousand people, and it consists
of shanties running along the one street
which skirts the gully This street is filled
with men, the most of whom have their
in, +Iaf, and rI1o