Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-05-23
A SPRINGER LETTER.
What Is Going On In and About
the County Seat of Colfax.

To the Editor of the Optic.
SPRINGER, N. M May 22-No
rains yet, up this way, and the ranges
are getting almost bare. A prairie fire,
Wednesday night, burned a large area
of pasturage, a few miles north OF this
place.
The Springer cement works will be
started up next Monday, in charge of
AL Garter, after an ldleness of some
months.
The Cherry cattle company, the
&C. G. c." outli', with about a dozen
men, are here to meet a large consigu-
ment OF Arizona cattle, which they
will drive to Oklahoma ranges. The
outfit halls from Optima, Okla.
Springer is enjoying a building
boom unprecedented in years. County
Treasurer James Cory is erecting a
two-story business block, and, in an
other location, has a neat one-story
building well under way. Bert Hut-
bard, the 'svillage blacksmith" and all
around mechanic, has q neat business
room almost completed. Hugo Sea-
berg is having a new building for bust
ness purposes put up on the site of a
building destroyed by fire some time
ago. M. Heck is having, or twill
soon be done, an old frame baildiLg
torn out, and will erect two splendid
business rooms, 25x75. Hugo Seaberg
will have a second story added to his
already large residence. John Granger,
manager OF the II. NJ. Porter Mercan-
tile company, is having a number OF
improvements made on his resid, nee,
as a surprise to his wife, who is now
visiting relatives in Kansas. 'sAnd
there are Others"
SpriDger's boom days are no doubt
over, but the steady, healthful growth
now being made,Is assurance sufficient
to those who have staid by the town,
of what it will be. The mineral dis
coVery near town, the farmers now
locating in this neighborhood, under
the splendid ditch sy stems of the grant
and the immense business
that should be done by the merchants
here with the mining camps at Hem
attic and Ellzabethtown, are encour-
aging signs for the town. That the
merchants of this place do not supply
the mining camps in and around the
Badly district, is undoubtedly the
fault of the merchants themselves, and
the sooner they realize this, the better
for themselves. Surely, there is no
sufficient reason why goods can be
shipped from Ration, Uia Springer, any
cheaper than they could be shipped
from here direct.
OF the new mining district now being
opened right at the edge Of town, but
title need bs said, rs most of the val
land has already been staked
Yesterday morning, p%rospectors, who
Undoubtedly know their business, an
bounced the discovery Of a placer field,
ust across the Cimarron from this
,oint, and all day yesterday and to-
lay, people have been banning the
there, which is a black sand, sim.
lar to the California placer fields, and
o far every pan shows well, from six
0 twenty-five colorsa visible to the
Iaked eye being disclosed. Two av-
rage pans, yesterday, with the use of
Iuicssi.ver and a retort, gave q result
ftwo cents per pan in gold. While
bis might not pay for panning, it GER
ainly will pay by using a sluIce of some
sngtb, which is easily available, as
plenty of water near at hand.
he gold IS very light, being in fakes,
OF nuggets, SO far as found, and this
,akes it very hard 10 save, by the or
mary banning process. Camps have
cen established, over there, and work
being pushed, and a few days will
the value OF the find. The
cid Is quite extensive, the limits at {
resent being unknown. ***.