The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-02
THE GOLD BUG MINE.
Interesting Account of the History
of This Promising Producer.

One of the most important discoveries
yet made in the camp. says the News of
Gold Creek. Elko county. Nevada, was the
strike last week in the Gold Bug.
The new tunnel. as was expected and
announced by the News some time pre-
viously, cut the vein the middle of Feb
ruary. at a distance of 1S5 feet from the
mouth, and disclosed two feet of decom-
posed quartz highly charged with free
gold.
AS yet there is no means near at hand
to determine accurately the value of the
ore, but it does not need an assayer' S
is visible to the naked eye. A piece of
the ore, not larger than a walnut, was
brought TO the News office, and the
quantity of yellow metal that hung back
in the horn was enough to excite even
those long accustomed to big strikes.
The News desires to appear conServa-
tive, and yet it has no doubt this sample
would run into the thousands. 1t is only
claimed for the strike that it will show
S1G0 or 500 ore, and yet the piece left
at this office was said to be about an
average sample of the vein.
II is just as well to view the matter
calmly, and yet the citation of j. E. Pen
rod, one of the owners. can well be ex-
cused. He IS out now bucking" six feet
across Mill creek. He has lived in this
country % years and is used to seeing
S5-nuggets in the pan. Though not over
imaginative. he is today dreaming of
six feet of snow.
The history of the Gold Bug is some
what romantic. 1t was discovered ten
or twelve years ago by Henry F-euden-
thai. now sheriff of Lincoln county. He
had come over from Mountain City and
was prospecting near the mouth of Ten
nessee gulch. then called the Golden Gate.
Rich float was found among the bunch
grass on the gentle slope of the hill
side, and a little digging disclosed the
now famous Gold Bug ledge.
Mr.. Prudential ran an open cut sank
a shaft &c feet. and afterward connected
this with an incline run on the ledge, con-
tinuing development work until he went
broke, as the saying is. All the re-
of rock packed over to Mountain City.
% miles, and treated in an old Hunting
ton mill that wasted more than II saved.
This was small compensation considering
the expense he had been TO. and the new
mine owner gave up. accepting position
with Mr.. Ross. the Mountain City mer-
chant.
The mine lay abandoned for a number
of years until Walter Stofei and a. d.
Penrod staked several claims in that dis
trict including the Cold Bug ground.
James z. Penrod took exception to this
move, for he had already served notice
that it was his intention. when conven-
lent to relocate the Gold Bug. So after
some talk his obliging brother and broth
er-in-law said he might have it, James
relinquishing in consideration any claim
he might have on the rest of the Ten
nessee gulch.
Next year. on st. Patrick's day, 1893
James snow-shoed it over to Tennessee
and relocated the Gold Bug in his own
name. He did not merely stake II, but
went 10 work in earnest to make mine
out of it. He sank the old incline several
feet further that year and took out con-
siderable honey-combed quartz and piled
it on the dump.
In 1894 he did no work. but the next
year he had put in two hard months, and
rlaara ho II
informed that the property was claimed
BY s. T. Earl Mr.. Earl and his partner,
Joseph Moran, had been trapping beavers
in that neighborhood, and 1t was said
had jumped the claim in Earls name.
Mr. Penrod says ne believes he could
have held the property as there was no
proof of any stakes. but at that Ane 1t
was thought that the Gold Bug might
prove losing proposition
a ten-foot vein of tale had come in and
cut off the ledge. Samples from this tale
assayed $50 but it was deemed too low TO
pay. An average sample from the two
foot quartz above, from a 2Oe-pound lot
sent to a Mercur mill, gave value OF
esS a per ton. But if the tale had dis
placed the ledge the mine was no big
thing even with this showing
So Penrod and Earl compromised and
gave John r. Bradley. the wealthy cat
tlenan of Deeth, an interest, each taxing
a third Mr.. Bradley thought there
might be stopping ground enough to war
rant the erection of a mill and agreed to
do so as soon as the ore was on the
The three owners each gave up a ninth
interest to NJ. J. Fitzgerald to do ten
months work on ore. the stockman, it is
backing the miner in his con-
tract and the two control the properly
Mr.. Fitzgerald surveyed the old poorly
tinbered workings with dismay and con-
cludad there was not ten months work
m ore anead. He backed his faith in the
mine bv starting a tunnel at his own eX-
pense 10 tap the ledge at considerable
depth and get in under the tale. After
title he gave up and started another
trnneI to cut under the old workings only
L feet. He expressed the situation by
saving that ii was difficult for one man
To sink a WINE alone even 10 feet. but
fhat he could run a tunnel as far as he
pleased. This isn't just the way he ex-
pressed it, but it is this some tunnel
that the plucky miner has run alone lso
feet since the first of last September,
and demonstrated that the ledge is con-
tinuous below the tale The formation.
IF course was favorable. for the disinte-
Grating granite required little blasting.
The character of the ore in the tunnel
has changed from the hard honey
-ock above to decomposed quartz. There
s also 2 foot and half of tale on the
loot wall that was not found above The
edge is strong two feet and has every
Indication of a true assure.
The strike insureS the erection of a |
nil. but il will probably be nearly the |
list of June before it can be brought in |
over the road from EllIo-
STRIKE GETS BIGGER.
The developments in the Gold Bug this |
week since the ledge was first cut prove |
he mine to be far beyond anyones |
highest expectations.