The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1897-09-07
YELLOW JACKET.

Challis to the Yellog Jacket
mines is to get aboard Of Dewitt
& Altham's stage. They twill
get you through all righ5." The
road to the Morgan creek summit
is good and kept in order; al
though on the Salmon side it is
not kept in as good shape, still
some work has been thereby
the stage men probably. The
grades are good for the noun
tains we climb all the way; but,
surely, it would have been better
to have made these roads on a
good railroad grade as they
might have been, even at little
more expense. We have had by
far too many schemes in building
the roads in this county. 'Tis a
pity some of our schemer =;
wouldn't die. They burden man
kind. But, then, some people
like to be schemed; and others
can't do anything if there is not
a little bit of a steal in it.
We go through in a day and
get in before night. This makes
the trip very pleasant. Dinner
is at the stage proprietor's sta
ton on Morgan creek, about 25
miles from Challis, MRS. Chas.
Dewitt" prepares it-never mind
hes a pretty good cook, after
all; and after that much ride
amid such grand mountain seen
cry one enjoys MRS. Dewitt"
dinner, splendid. You do not get
supper until you get through.
We stopped at G. A. Sawyer's
in the Jacket, and were treated
like prince-no better than the
rest, though. Mrs. Sawyer is
an excellent cook and knows Just
how to keep hotel.
Our first day was spent in ex-
amining the Yellow Jacket mine
and we have our opinion, al
though the world don't see it
that way. We do not claim any
expert skill in mines; but if you
will just wait until the owners
to be-get their sights all set. it
will appear to your surprise that
the Yellow Jacket is a mine with
an almost unlimited amount of
ore in it; and high grade enough
to be worked at small profit,
when run with great economy
and good skill. The Yellow
Jacket will be worked many a
year after this; although it nigh t
be necessary to close it awhile
just to get things arranged. We
hope not. The top workings of
this mine, on account of the i'm
mense body of ore, look as if
the owners had concluded to
work the whole mountain, but
the under tunnel shows consid.
cradle regularity, if we could
see Alright in short a time. The
company has run third tunnel,
and, in that. all parties tell us
they have struck the vein, or
lode. in regular shape and that
it is immense in size and looking
to be of as good grade as at the
top. The company speak now
of running tunnel from near
the mill to strike it much deeper.
This will enable them to save
much expense and will probably
make a great and continued sue
cess. We have a good deal more
faith in the Yellow Jacket region
than we had before we took a
look at it. They have a sixty
two stamp mill run by water, of
which they have plenty, having
great fall. The quartz and saw
mills are propelled by two Pelton
wheels. The process of reduc-
tion is wet crushing, and free
milling. This we understand
does not save an extremely high
per cent. of battery assay. 1t
may be that some other process
may be deemed better after
awhile. But then they are mill
men-we are not. They will find
the right way-if not in it now.
Mr.. Thompson has charge of the
mine and is putting it in better
shape than it was when he came.
Mrs. Thompson and their four
children came in from Denver
while we were there. We met
Supt. Cirkel and DR.. Wright,
who has charge of the books;and
we must say that we could not
have met with more courteous
treatment from any company
than we did both at the mill and
mine. Success-when all is
ready for it's our poor judg-
ment.
One of the trans (they have
two) got on a rampage while we
were there and tore things up