The Irish standard., 1896-10-03
III America the JohaunesburglI
Of Africa is Found in III
Utah. Y
Near Salt Lake City the Richest
Gold Fields in the United
States. &
Marcus Daily of Hontana Got Dis
gusted One Time and Gave
Them Up.

ing developed within three hours by rail
| Of Salt Lake City, writes Frank G. Car
penter. 1t is only 80 miles away. as the
crow flies, and its treasures have until
now lain undisturbed within almost
walking distance of one of the Iiveliest
centers of the West. For years some of
the most expert miners in the United
States have worked in or near it, IT is
known as the Mercur mining district,
and it is on the site where Gen. Albert
Sidney johnson had his camp at the
time Of the Utah war. Between 1870 and
| 1880 it was known as a silver region,
and in one time a single pocket of silver
produced $126, 900, some OF the ore av-
eraging 1000 to the ton. At this time
the late Senator Hearst and Marcus Daily
were among the mine owners The as
sayers told them that the district con-
tanned gold, but they could find no color
| in the rock an no paying means of get
ting out the gold. Marcus DAILY reduced
the ore to powder, and day after day
panned and washed it looking for gold.
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 re-
gion Of the world.
And still this district is now said to
contain more than enough gold to pay
the national debt. / have gone through
one mine which as already produced
more than $1,000,000 worth OF gold, and
with has paid it's stockholders $5O0,OOO
/ in dividends. Other mines have been
opened which have gold ore in sight of
an estimated value of more than $10,-
100000, and within the past 1S months
more than $500 mining claims have been
taken UP within it. 1t is now producing
about $4,000 worth of gold a day, and l
see it is estimated that its product this
year may amount to S3,000,00G The
camp as far as pay work is concerned,
Lis only about four years old, and it has +
been possible only by the invention of
| the new cyanide processes for getting
gold out of the rock. AS it is, the gold
is being mined at less COST in all proba-
! bility, than in any other mining district
in the world? It's ore is so much like
that of the Rand mining district of
South Africa that the people have
named it the johannesburg Of America.
| The ore can be mined and treated. how-
ever, at less than half the cost Of the
| Cripple Creek gold. The charge Tor re-
| ducing gold at Cripple Creek is $3.50 a
ton. Here the chemist of the great Mer-
| cur mine tells me that the cost OF min
! ing and reducing does not exceed 81 per
ton while in the Sunshine mine, about
four miles away, the ore can be dug cut
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
| But let me give you some idea of this
| last great gold discovery of the world.
The story is so wonderful that I fear to
write what l believe to be the truth, lest
be charged with exaggeration. lmag-
| inc, If you can, 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 a distance
of a mile and a half above the sea, and
| let them slope off in the shape OF an IN
cMned plane, cropping O,lt here and there
| through the mountains and valleys for
distance of eight miles. Let the blank
| cts be nearly a mile wide and let
1.-THE golden treasures within them be I
worth all the way from SIS to $4,000 per
| ton, and you have some idea OF this
! wonderful camp. The gold does not lie
| in little veins between walls OF granite,
as in other mines. It is distributed with
much regularity through these enormous
blankets, so that you may start your
mine in places where the vein shows
cut of the sides of the mountain ana
dig on and on taking nothing but ore h
bearing rock for miles. a
! Tho district as defined by its working
! mines is known to be at least eigh: miles
| long and at least 5000 feet in width. 1t 1
! is supposed to be much larger, and
claims have been taken up and holes have i
| been sunk for miles around. One man III
! a well known miner of Leadville, Maj.
Bohn. believes that the blankets extend
more than seven miles in width and he /
! is sinking shaft away over the moun- g
tain, almost half mile further down in Y
altitude and seven miles away, IN the
Utah valley, on a sage brush prairie. He
says that he will go downsat ], 600 feet,
and he expects to strike the golden blsn--7sgs
ket. Many of the miners are, however
skepticaI as to his success, but should his
theory prove correct the riches OF this
district will be beyond human coneep-i
tion and the relations of gold and silver
| the world over may be changed by the
result AS it is, at the most cOrservattveM5
estimate the probabilities are enornto,1syss
Three bdankets OF gold ore eight miles s
long and 8, 900 feet wide will turn OUT
riches hitherto unknown IN gold MINING 55s
The ore seems to grow richer az tne7sSs
blankets dip down into the earth. and l99
the Golden Gate mines, which begin - 5s 81
Is 3 valley Ii, which the town OF 1lercifS
ia situated. !. Utah nbiaers say, aCei t0s be9 u e9a
the biggest mines Of the world. Al AlTeadygssff ygsf
SIS, 900 ,O0O worth Of ore has been blocAssdissss
cut within them, and within q sl1oF atllnAas
their mi will be reducing his stosss
I lsS sBut let US nay q visit 10 5Mercnr "
only fifty-five miles by rail from Nh
Iake city. and We ride DOWN the sas
IspaIley. either over the Unions Paci s ihcseEs
1.-The aDenyer Grapde g Westegn Ealasl