The Topeka state journal., 1897-11-08
Over the Greatest Gold Strike
of the Century.
HONEY COMBED ROCK
The Size of a Cart Wheel Holds
$24,584.
Indications That the Country
AbOunds in Rock as Rich.

gers belief.
It is thought the true EI Dorado has
been found.
Mining experts who have looked over
the ground believe that development will
uncover an entire mountain of gold, which
viii relegate all other gold districts to
insiguificance.
Wyoming has suddenly blazed up as the
possible, even probable, richest country in
the world
People here and all around are mad.
Everybody is rushing to Grand Encamp-
ment in spite of snow and cold.
The excitement is higher than anything
within the memory of the Oldest miner,
not excepting the days of '49.
Grand Encampment is sixty miles from
the nearest railroad. 1t is situated 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 re-
sources are ample.
1t was a hOney-combed rock, scarcely
larger in diameter than the wheel of an
ordinary farm wagon, that has precipitat-
ed gold boom, started a gold camp and
made the residents of wyoming gold mad.
4 X
tory Gulch, unheeded there, perhaps for
centuries, has been found to hold within
its hint-like walls golden treasure
amounting to S245S4 or s3,512 in round
number, for each ton of its weight.
If Klondike and Cripple Greek had both
suddenly been transferred to Carbon
county, Wyoming. and all the gold fields
of the Transvaal had settled in the noun
tain gulches along the Grand Encamp-
ceive a greater excitement than has been
wrought among the natives by this golden
wonder and its less productive neighbOrs
upon the surrounding hills.
Where less than a month ago not fifty
people resided in an area of more than
800 square miles, today hundreds of anx-
ious prospectOrs are securing mountain
and canon in the hope of finding the
golden vein from which these immense
boulders must have been eroded ages ago.
1t seems to be the old story over again
-49 revived, Leadville in the early sos
and Cripple Creek in the early SOS. And
no mater what may be the ultimate out
come of it all, for the present at least
the eyes of Wyoming are turned from
KIondike, and the big western state is
nursing a child of its own.
Nor is Wyomings gold excitement
seemingly unwarranted. Mining experts
of high standing pronounce the surface
indications of the new district to be far
greater than either those of Cripple Greek
or LeadvilIe. In depth alone can the
mineral wealth of a lode claim be actu-
ally determined, and as no shaft or pros
pect hole in the district has yet been sunk
TO greater depth than fifteen or twenty
feet, surface indications remain the only
means of estimating the wealth of the
camp.
Four miles southwest of the new town
of Grand Eucampment is a mountain
largely covered with golden float. It is
looked upon as being one of the wonders
of the camp and is called the Mountain
of Cold 1t lis, perhaps, 5000 by 5000
feet in diameter. and its crest is $500 feet
above the level of the sea. Nine great
parallel dikes OF heavily mineralized
quartz traverse it from northeast to
southwest. These dikes are all cropping
and stand out as plain as the rows of
corn in field. Quartzite and mica
schist separate them from each other,
and experienced miners believe that with
depth the dil1es will all converge and
form one mammoth body of ore. The float
on this mountain is by far the richest yet
discovered in the camp. Pieces no larger
than a hens egg have been found to run
from so cents to 81 pure gold, and chosen
chunks from the dikes have assayed as
high as S71.OOO a ton.
All this is new to the mining expert,
for gold is found here in kind of quartz
heretofore considered nOn-prOductive.
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 given wonderful results.
The Golden Eagle, property in Pur-
gatory Gulch, has the deepest shaft in
the district. This is down but twenty
feet. The vein here is white quartz and
has widened from six inches at the sur
face to three and one-half feet at the bot
tom of the shat or prospect hole. The
ore in this mine has assayed on an aver
age S4,321.16 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 it.
self in some non-productive formation.
This fear of the ore pinching out, and
the veins disappearing or merging into
rock productive of other metal, is mani
fest among many old miners, although no
definite reason for such a 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
Drospectors and miners, and for this rea-
son the more enthusiastic at Grand En-
campment give little heed The forma-
tions here are so different from the or
binary gold producing quartz that the Old
and experienced miner is scarcely more
competent of expressing an opinion than
is the most calIOw 'tenderfoot' at the
camp.
A number of men prominent in Colorado
mining circles have visited the camp dur