Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1896-01-10

of the ledge will be sluiced off. as the
strongest and richest part of the vein
| Is below the tunnel.
At a point as near the creek level as
will permit of handling the ores by
gravity from the mine to the mill per-
manent working tunnel has been driven,
cutting the vein at distance of IT'S feet.
The intention is now to drive this
tunnel on the vein and tap at depth of
600 feet the rich ore chute shown in the
sluice cut and upper tunnel.
This group of mines is well fortified
by the control of the water rights and
bitches for all purposes. Next to the
Buster mine 1 consider this property
| the best ever known in the Bitter Root
country. There may be. and doubtless
are, other and better lodges in and near
Elk City, but they have not been de-
veloped up to date.
Other promising quartz properties in
the neighborhood are the Blue Dragon,
| Denver. Blanco, Red Horse and many
others on which more or less attempts
at development have been made. With
further work many of them will de-
velop into standard mining properties.
Lack of mining facilities is now the
/
| THE PLACERS.
| In placers Elk City has this year
made a phenomenal showing of activity
and progress. The Idaho Development
Company, Of Chicago, have put in a
hydraulic elevator plant on American
hill for the purpose of working the old
channels Of the American river, discov-
cred last year. 1t is a splendid equip,
ment and while only a short run was
made this fall the returns were very
| gratifying to the owners and they are
impatiently awaiting the event of
| spring to renew work on a vastly in
creased scale. A party of Butte people
have also just purchased the Buffalo
hill claim and have started a crew to
put the property in shape this winter
for the purpose of installing hydraulic
elevator plant. This property Is also
underlaid by the old channel of Ameri-
can river and is probably the most ex-
tensive and rich deposit of auriferous
| gravel in the camp.
| The principal water supply Is brought
| from the west fork of the Relief creek
| and the ditch crosses the Cleveland
| quartz mine spoken of above. Various
improvements have also been inaugur-
ated on several other placer claims near
Elk City during the past season.
| In Dixie district, ~ miles southeast
| of Elk City, there are several large
lodges of very rich gold bearing ore
on which considerable work has been
| done in the past few months This is
an old placer camp, but it's quartz inter-
ests are so extensive as to justify the
belief freely expressed by every prac-
| teal mining man who has visited the
district and inspected it's lodges that
| 1t will make the banner gold quartz
| camp of the state of Idaho. An arrastra
has been built this year and consider
able ore crushed therein, giving values
ranging from $17 to $40 per ton in gold.
with good gold prospects still left in
the tails. This is known as the Dillin-
| ger property. On another claim, the
Golden Age, 30 feet of tunnel was run
last month. from which 80 tons of fine
ore was extracted in the simple course
| of construction.
In the same district a mammoth ledge
OF white quartz has been located which
gives some amazing prospects in free
| gold. A 2O-foot shaft has been sunk
| perpendicularly on this vein, the bot
tom or which just reaches the footwall
How wide the vein really is, is at prs
ent unknown, but the mountain on
which 1t Is located is called blowout
| mountain" as it looks like huge blow
out or white quartz, many thousands of
| tons of which are deposited on every
slope AT one point the ledge stands up
two or three feet high above the surface
ike the walls of a house. There are
other veins in the near vicinity which
| are literally plastered with free gold
plainly visible to the naked eye. Dixie
district lies on the north side of Salmon
| river, east of Buffalo Hump, and has a
southern aspect, so that the seasons are
much longer than in the other camps of
the same altitude. 1t would require a
page or two of The Spokesman-Review
to particularize on the names and own
ership of the several claims in this and
the other mining districts in old Idaho
county herein briefly reviewed, but it
may be set down as foregone conclu-
sion that they embrace the richest gold
belts in the Pacific northwest Some
placer mining operations are still con-
Quoted in Dixie. chief of which is a bed
] rock fiume enterprise inaugurated by
Blaine & Cummings to open up a series
of claims on Crooked creek, the water
shed of the district
AN EMPIRE ITSELF.
Idaho county is an empire in ilseif 1t
Is the largest county in the state of Idaho
and one of the largest in the United
States. 1t covers four degrees of latitude
and takes in the heart of the state, run
ming from the Oregon boundary on the
west to Montana on the east 1t is drained
by the Clearwater and Salmon rivers, two