The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-07
BIG MOUNTAIN OF GOLD
ORE FOUND IN WYOMING THAT As
SAYS $1,000 PER TON.
Grand Encampmcnt the Center of the
New Mining District, which lis sixty
Miles from Railroad.

mere yesterday or the discovery OF gOIu at
Grand Encampment in such quantities as
staggers belief. Mining experts who have
looked over the ground believe that devel-
opments Will uncover an entire mountain
of gold which will relegate all other gold
districts TO insignificance. Wyoming has
suddenly blazed up as the possible, even
probable, richest country in the world. Peo-
pie here and all around are mad. Every
body is rushing to Grand Encampment in
spite of snow and cold. The excitement is
higher than anything within the memory
OF the Oldest miner, not excepting the days
Of forty-nine. Grand Encampment is sixty
miles from the nearest railroad. 1t is sit
uated in the heart of the Sierra Madre
mountains. 1t lies west of the Platte river.
The nearest towns are Rawlins, Saratoga,
Walcott and Fort Steele
The district is one Of the most rugged
and widest in the West. but there is no
klondike desolation there, for the resources
are ample. 1t was a honey-combed rock,
scarcely larger in diameter than the wheel
of an ordinary farm wagon, that has pre-
cipitated the gold boom, started a gold
camp and made the residents of Wyoming
gold mad. A white quartz surface float in
Purgatory gulch, unheeded there, perhaps,
for centuries, has been found TO hold with
amounting to $24,5S4 or $S,512, in round
numbers, for each ton of it's weight
If Klondil1e and Cripple Creek had both
suddenly been transferred to Carbon coun-
~, Wyoming, and all the gold fields of the
Transvaal had settled in the mountain
gulches along the Grand Encampment river
1t would be difficult to conceive a greater
excitement that has been wrought among
the natives by the golden wonder and its
less productive neighbors upon the sur
rounding hills.
Where less than a month ago not fifty
people resided in an area of more than three
hundred square miles, to-day hundreds of
anxious prospectors are securing mountain
and canyon in the hope of finding the golden
vein from which these immense powders
must have been eroded ages ago. 1t seems
Leadville in the early sos and Cripple Creek
in the early '90S. And no matter what may
be the ultimate outcome of it ALL for the
present, at least, the eyes of Wyoming are
turned from Klondilxe, and the big Western
State is nursing a child OF it's own.
Nor is WyomingS gold excitement SEEM
ingly unwarranted. Mining experts of high
standing pronounce the surface indications
of the new district to be far greater than
those of either Cripple Creek or Leadvlle
in depth alone can the mineral wealth of
a lode claim be actually determined, and as
no shaft or prospect hole in the district has
as yet been sunk to greater depth than
fifteen to twenty feet, surface indications
remain the only means of estimating the
wealth of the camp
Four miles southwest of the new town of
Grand Encampment is a mountain largely
covered with golden float. 1t is looked upon
as being one of the wonders of the camp,
and has been called the Mountain of
Gold" 1t is, perhaps, 1900 by 5000 feet in
diameter and at its crest is $500 feet above
the level of the sea. Nine great parallel
bikes of heavily mineralized quartz traverse
it from northeast to southwest. These bikes
are all cropping and stand out as plain
the rows of corn in a field. Quartzite and
mica schist separate them from e;ech other
and experienced miners believe that with
depth the dikes will all converge and form
one mammoth body of ore The float on
this mountain is by far the richest yet dis
covered in the camp. Pieces no larger than
a hens egg have been found to run from
fifty cents 10 81 pure gold, and chosen
chunks from the dykes have assayed as
high as $I1000 a ton.
All this is new to the mining expert, for
gold is found here in a kind of quartz here
tofore considered nonproductve. Great
dikeS of white quartz rising often four or
five feet above the surface show particles
of free gold even to the naked eye, while
assays from the grass roots have often Civ
en- wonderful results.
The Golden Eagle a property in Purga-
tory gulch, has the deepest shaft in the dis
trict. This is down but twenty feet The
VEN here is white quartz and has widened
from six inches at the surface to three and
prospect hole The ore in this mine has as
sayed average $4,321.16 a ton. If the
vein here should continue to widen or even
maintain its present visible width it would
be one of the richest producers in the
United States. Mining men, however, are
not all pleased with the indications at the
Golden Eagle and many think that with
depth the vein may pinch out or lose itself
in some nonproductive formation.
This fear of the ore pinching out and the
veins disappearing or merging into rock
productive of either metal is manifest
among many old miners, although def
mite reason for such fear can be gained.
At both Leadville and Cripple Creek in the
early days of those camps the same fear
was expressed by the old prospectors and
md tic tlsn
thusiastic at Grand Encampment give little
heed. The formations here are so different
from the ordinary gold-producing quartz
shat the old and experienced miner is
scarcely more competent of expressing an
opinion than is the most callow tender
foot at the camp.
a number of men prominent in Colorado
mining circles have visited the camp during
the week, and among them two mining eX-
perts of international reputation. These are
Claude Sachs, editor of the Mining Investor,
and w. Weston, civil mining engineer, of
London, who is said to have but one SUI
perior in the world in interpreting natures
metallic hierogliphicS and dividing the value
OF mineralized rock. The reports OF both
of these men are favora ble-eyen en-
fhusiastic. Out of over one hundred assays
OF float picked up promiscuously through
the hills and general averages of white
Tddfh-none bonanzas-Mr. Sachs reports
~ Average
per ton.
Ten-1oot depth ............. .........-.... zo.S9
AS for Mr. Weston, he has shown his
faith in the new discoveries by sending out
from Cripple Creek two prospectOrs to make
claims for him. In an interview Mr.. WeS-
ton said Il am greatly pleased with the
outlook of Wyomings newly discovered gold
fields The surface. indications are indeed
iattering but depth alone will tell. The
general character of the ore is simply a
white quartz more or less stained with iron
oxides and containing pockets of honey
combed cavities in the veins of iron oxide,
some of il containing pockets OF free gold.
The appearance of the ore leads me to sup
nose that with deDth it will show iron sui
phides At present. however the gold is
free / have also found much quartz por-
phyry permeated with iron oxide and con-
tanning much low-grade value. No one can
tell the extent of the new district until
depth Is reached but that many great mines
will he discovered here have no doubt.
The New Alaskan Steamship Line.
PHILADELPHIA. Nov. 6.-The an
nouncement that a company has been or
ranized with Charles II. Cramp as presi-
dent to carry passengers from the Pacific
coast to the Alaskan gold fields has re-
ceived an interesting supplement in the
statement that four of the boats to be used