Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1897-10-30
THE HILL TOP MINE.
raging Proposition-den Are Paid
the Ton Produced.

raging Proposition-Men Are Paid by
the Ton Produced.
The Hill Top is the name of the latest
colorado wonder In the way Of a pro-
uuclng mine. 1t deserves its name
Tor II is located at an altitude of be-
tween 1900 and I3.oD feet. It is
about twelve miles from Fairplay. and
from II birdseye view of LeadyilIe
can be obtained. Nathaniel Robertson
or the Robertson-Doll Company, re-
Gently visited the property and this is
what he said of ii yesterday:
10 me the Hill Top seems a wonder
ful mine. The owners invited me to
go through the property, and | feel
well repaid for having done so. 1t is
silver and lead proposition. and if
silver was now worth what it was
some years ago, the owners would all
be milli0naires. AS it is the lead val
ues are such that good profit is real
lzed from taking out the ore. What
the value Of the ore is / cannot say.
as did not ask, but there are such i'm
mense bodies of it, and ii is so easily
handled that most anybody would be
satisfied with the net results.
The shaft is 800 feet deep. and from
us bottom the workings extend in all
directions.
TO give you an idea of the size of
the ore bodies. ] need only mention
that i was taken into one chamber
which was made by excayating the
ore. and this chamber was twenty-five
rect wide. 800 feet long and seventy
rect nigh. OF course. all the excava-
lions were not so large as this one.
There are other bodies which / passed.
but which we did not enter. probably
because the manager did not wish me
TO see the amount of treasure avail
able. They are probably the kind of
miners who do not exhaust an oreI
body Immediately after ii is discovered,
but go on looking for something else.
meanwhile using the ore held in re-
serve so that the property will pay div
idends constantly.
The mine gives employment to be
tween sixty and seventy men. and
bigger. stronger. better looking set of
men | never saw. They do not work
for wages. but all do piece work Two
or four men viii work together. ard
when they have filled a car with ore
II is wheeled to the shaft. placed on
the cage and drawn to the surface.
There ii is weighed and the weight is
registered and credited 10 the men who
excayated the ore and put II on the
car. Each set of men fastens a ticket
10 the car. and it is by ffiis means that
the man on top knows 10 whom to
credit the ore. The men receive 90
cents a Ton. When working by the
piece this way they do more work than
when working by the day When it
is desirable TO drift. make an upraise.
sink the shaft or do any kind of dead
work. contract is made with rfle
men to do the work at a fixed price |
per foot. Many Of the men make as
much as 81 day at the rate paid for |
taking out ore
THE owners confidently expect to |
find gold values in a lower contact. |
The ore is in blanket veins and the |
formation seems to be fine same as that |
at Leadyille. The operators went |
through 300 feet Of porphyry before |
finding any ore. so they think they are |
In the first contact. When the shaft |
is SINK until ii reaches quartz. etc,
they expect to find gold In this ex-
pectation they are supported by EN- |
mons. the geological expert. whose |
maps show all this territory to be gold
bearing.
Like many another good mine. this
property has passed through the hands
Df several people II was first worked
many years ago, and at least two par-
hes whom I know went broke on II.
rhe present owners are the first people |
who ever took ore out Of the mine.
one strange feature of this property
s that there is no water in the mine
o prove troublesome. This is because
he ground is frozen. 70 depth OF be.
ween 400 and 200 feet
The Hill Top mine Is nrincinally
'wned in Denver. the Du Bots brothers
md officers Of the Denver & Gulf rail-
oad being among the Stockholders
Denver Republican.