The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1896-02-20
!. LUCK IN MINING;
PeOpls In tho Business Arc BELIEVES Il
,,-' Good aud Bad Fortune.

3, =. t,- .',. --.- %5ElAg s- ~
People In tho Business Arc Bellevv-s IN
,q-i'. Good aud Bad Fortune.
a An old Leadville mining man who
passed through the great silver carbon
arc boom of ls71-s1 and is now in the
Hack hills anticipating similar wave
OF mining Investment and wealth pro.
d.ction tells number of interesting
stories of his experience in Colorado.
"The biggest mistake ever made, I"
said the, genial white-haired raconteur,
twas in refusing to purchase half In
tercst in little fat-iron shaped piece
of ground lying near the famous Little
Pittsburgh, the great sand-carbonato
deposit which first made Tabor rich
and famous. The claim was the mercst
frat ton, it's longest side measuring
only As feet When the owner offered
me a half interest FOR SIPS almost
laughed at him. / wasn't up to frac-
tions, you see-I wanted the whole
claim or nothing. The prospector was
hard up and he finally sold out to Tabor
for next to nothing. The three-day
ssellator from Colorado got 81 25 900 out
Of this little patch of sand and gravel.
That man Tabor never took hold of any
thing in I.eadvillc that did not pay. IT.
I had bought the ground the chances
are ten to one that should never have
found the big chamber of rich carbon
ates it contained, because the shaft
sunk in. prospecting would have beer
kept closely timbercd. AS it was, tho
carelessness of one of the men led to
the discovery.
1.-THE drift under this little triangle,
as in most of the claims. was made w
Of gravel, clay and tale. This tale rock
would stand in the walls of a shaft for
several feet without timbering if care
fully handled. Well. when the miners
had reached a depth of about 40 feet
and had left tic walls to stand or fall
in for ten or twelve feet one of the
party. while clearing up the work for
timbcring, stuck his pick too vigorous
~ into one side of the shaft and a
great slab of tale, loosened by moisture.
slid down with thud, revealing one
of the richest deposits of carbonates
ever discovered about Leadville. If this
|. chance. stroke had not shown the ore
it's more than probable that Tabor
would have sunk II couple of hundred
feet without finding anything. In the
ordinary affairs of life luck is myth,
bat in mining it often proves 4 positive
factor.
'That was not my only mischance at
Leadville. Ibid some geographical min
ing when 1 first went there, in the fall
Of 1873. Richie had taken Tabor's
quarter of beef, bacon. -four and gro,
ceries-Tabor kept a little grocery then
and grub-staked miners. He had gone
up into the hills some months before.
Iie found the Pittsburgh, and was one
of the early arrivals, while the boom
was gaining impetus. Little was known
of the nature of the formation. it's
geology was problcmatical then, though
the glacial deposit theory has since been
generally accepted. I reasoned that Il
boat-shaped piece of ground surround
ed by such rich claims as the Pitts
burgh. Chrysolite, Vulture ond other
producers ought to catch the beds Of
argentiferous sand somewhere, and so
bought an interest in I'm undeveloped
ground purely because of its location.
The venture proTed disastrous. sunk
shafts Oh all parts Of the ground. one
to a depth of ESQ feet. without securing
more than promising float. Three beds
of what might be termed silver placer
were capped with iron carbonates:
they lay just below the rim rock OH
the terraces of California gulch, and
fhis iron rock was regarded as an al
most certain Indication. One day we
came upon some broken masses of this
cppping-tloat and begun" to feel rich.
We laughed at an offer of $50, 900; con-
sidered it in the nature of an insult.
Those alterations of hope and despond-
ency, normal state of mind in spccu-
lative mining, are, I suppose, respon-
sible for the abundance of my graz
hairs.
1.-THE most beaten, disguised and dis
appointed lot of people ever in Colorado
were, I believe, the partners in the
Law property when the Levi z. Letter
interest secured possession of the mine
and gathered up something like $780,
600 worth of rich carbonates which we
had mined and ready to haul to the
snelter. 1t was a question of the right
to follow a deposit across side lines.
Judge Miller had decided that owners
must confine their underground work
ings to the side lines of their claims, in
test case arising on the Pittsburgh
hill. The law now recognizes the right
of the discovcrer of a lode to follow it
into adjoining ground, but the decisions
were then conflicting. The famous Iron
Silver ground joined the side lines of
the Law. our property. The Iron Sill
YER people had pushed their drift until
it broke into the workings upon our
ground. They were taking out thou
sands daily. and we knew they would
claim the right to follow their lead,
We were, not sure. that the decision
1nGdc would protect our side lines. as
the formation was not blanket or
fat deposit. and so prepared for the
worst.
"Only the richest rock was mined for