The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-12
AMONG OUR MINING CAMPS

and many a dump there has been
looted of its precious contents during
( the night. Eureka. in the early days,
was also invested by ore thieves, and
around Silver City, where the ore was
exceedingly rich, and a sackful was
! worth from SO to $20 it did not take
many of them to make a small for
tune. Frisco was also a favorite scene
OF action of ore stealers, and more than
one man has taken swag enough ou.
oI that camp in an unlawful manner.
IN Butte, Montana, ore and bullion
thieves have been having a picnic on
late, but they were finally run to earth
ana now the ore producers of the camp
are resting easy and the smelters are
losing no more bullion. The arrest
and conviction of the thieves caused
considerable excitement in Butte, and
the citizens of that place are still talk
ing about it, and the interesting theme
reads to "reminiscences of what occurred
IN other camps in the way of ore
stealing, or Of what has transpired in
this direction in various districts with
IN the past few months.
Inc Butte Inter-Mountain, in relat-
lng some of these incidents, says:
Talk about ore thieves" said John
L. McCluskey in the presence of a little
gathering in the Butte Undertaking
rooms last evening. when the subject
was mentioned by che of the party,
the Cripple Creek crowd takes the
cake was in Cripple Creek during
the summer and | do not believe [ ever
before heard of such raw work as was
peing carried on there in the way OF
stealing valuable rock Why, many
men We're getting rich at the BUSINESS
and others there were doing quite well,
you Know. | had an ore stealing prCpo-
sltlon made to me by a man L had
known for eighteen years and who l
always thought as honest as a man
could be. Some men had stolen from
one OF the rich ore producing mines
1000 pounds of rock that assayed $75,-
600 per ton in gold and sold it at a sam
ping works for $4,000 After the ore
had been delivered my old acquaint-
ance, who also had a sampler, sent for
me and l went up to see him. He told
me all about the deal and wanted me
TO go and steal the ore from the man
who had bought it. He said we could
take the rock, ship it to Denver and
make a good stake, but l told him
that If he wanted the rock he would
either have to steal it himself or get
someone else to do it; that l was not
in that class of business. Then 1 quit
him.
''One sampler there did not do
thing to old Stratton, the owner of the
Independence. When the old man first
struck the rich ore in the independence
he sold it at the sampling works for
all the way from $4,000 to $4,000 per
ton. He thought he was getting all 1t
was worth, too. One day d man who
was pretty well posted on the value of
ore. said to him: Stratton, why do you
not send a ton of that rock to the gov
eminent assay Office art Chicago and
ascertain its actual value?" StrattOn
acted on the suggestion and the ton
Melted him S15O,OOO. That settled it
with the Cripple Creek Sampling
Works, for the old man closed down
the mine and would not take out an
other pound of the rich stuff Until
after he had built a mill of his own. /
He had, prior to that time, been losing |
about $4,000 on each ton of ore.
Eyes. ore stealing at Cripple Greek /
is a regular business with number /
Of men, but the rich rock is becoming /
harder to get at now, as it is guarded (
more closely"
A press dispatch from Victor, Colo
RADIO. says that the ore house at the
celebrated May Bell mine, on Straub
was broken into last night
and sixty-f1ve sacks of ore, worth
about $780, 600, were stolen. There is no
slew to the thieves. Every workman
about the property was today dis
charged.