The herald., 1897-12-27
MINES AND MINERS

The event of the week in Southern
California mining circles has been the
advent of the railroad to the f1ourishine
young camps of johannesburg and
Randsburg. an event that means to them
what the coming of the Florence ano
Cripple Creek road did to Cripple CreeA
and Victor, in Colorado. While the
permanence of those camps was sufii-
ciently established prior to the building
of the road, and of course the road
would not otherwise have been built
the Cripple Creek district did not really
begin to boom until railroad connection
facilitated business. 1t was not mere
question Of getting the people into and
out of the district, and hauling the ore
The railroad made business lively In all
branches and thus stimulated develop
ment and production all over the dis
trict.
The same rule ought to hold good with
respect to the Rand district in Southern
California. 1t is now being established
that 1t is deep mining district. Just so
soon as that fact was established in the
Cripple Creek district there was no
longer any doubt as to the future.
Several years after the completion OF
the Florence and Cripple Creek road was
built the construction of the Midland
Terminal followed. There is now plenty
of business for both lines and some talk
of building a third. These results were
produced by men who had faith in Grip
pie Creek, and who proved their faith by
their works. There must be the same
faith in the Randsburg district, and the
completion of the railroad has provided,
in connection with the present develop
ment, splendid foundation to work on.
Mining Camp Roads
A mining association has been organ
lied at Golden, B. c., the object of
which is to urge upon the province the
construction Of new roads and trails
much needed in many parts of East
Kootenay tributary of Golden. This is
a hint to some Of the county miners as
sociations of this state, which only have
meetings once year to elect delegates
to the annual State Miners convention.
The rest of the time they do little or
nothing, leaving all the work to the
executive committee of the state asso-
citation. If their officers would take the
matter in hand they could doubtless
greatly benefit their local mining con-
ditions by looking after the roads in
their vicinity. OF course, as our gov
ernment does nothing toward building
roads, and neither does our state, they
can do little urging" in that direction;
but they could stir up" the county su
pervisors and the district roadmasters
to some purpose. 1t is noted elsewhere
how three mining companies in Arizona
joined in building road to their camp
and one of them Immediately hauled In
a hundred tons of machinery and a lot
of lumber and supplies. There is scarce
ly anything more needed in our mining
regions than better roads. The poor
ones now used add to the cost of every
thing and really retard the progress Of
a community. Our county miners as
sociations by getting all the miners in
terested, could do more than county off,
cials or individuals in having roads kept
in repair and having new ones laid out
They could look the matter up, lay out
a plan, collect the subscriptions and
facilitate the work. This is
one of those things which everybody
wants, but nobody undertakes. 1t is a
thing which lies within the province of
the local miners associations and which
they have plenty of time to attend to.
A discussion on the subject Of good local
roads would bring out larger attend
ance at the meetings than one on pro-
posed changes in mining laws.-San
Francisco Examiner.