Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1897-10-08
THE HILL TOP MINE.
A Paying Proposition-Men Are Paid by
the Ton Produced.

Paying Proposition-Men Are Paid by
the Ton Produced.
The Hill Top is the name Of the latest
Colorado wonder in the way of pro-
ducing mine. it deserves its name,
for it is located at an altitude of be-
tween 1900 and 1900 feet. 1t is
about twelve miles from Fairplay. and
from it a birdseye view of Leadville
can be obtained. Nathaniel Robertson
of the RObertsOn-Doll Company, re-
Gently visited the propsrty and this rs
what he said of it yesterday:
ITO me the Hill Top seems a wonder
full mine. The owners invited me 10
90 through the property, and l feel
well repaid for having done so. 1t is
a silver and lead proposition, and if
silver was now worth what it was
some years ago, the owners would all
be millionaires. As it is the lead val
ues are such that good profit is real
lied from taking out the ore. What
the value of the ore is l cannot say.
as did not ask. but there are such i'm
mense bodies of it, and it is 50 easily
handled that most anybody would be
satisfied with the net results.
''The shaft is 800 feet deep. and from
it's bottom the workings extend in all
directions.
ITO give you an idea Of the size Of
the ore bodies. I need only mention
that I was taken into one chamber.
which was made by eXcavating the
ore. and this chamber was twenty-five
feet wide, 200 feet long and seventy
feet high. OF course. all the eXcaya-
tions were not so large as this one.
There are other bodies which l 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 ore
body Immediately after it is discovered,
but 90 on looking for something else,
meanwhile using the ore held in re-
serve so that the property will pay div
idends constantly.
"T1ie mine gives employment to be
tween sixty and seventy men. and
bigger. stronger, better looking set OF
men I never saw. They do not work
for wages. but all do piece work. Two
or four men viii work together. and
when they have filed car with ore
it is wheeled to the shaft. placed on
the cage and drawn to the surface.
There it is weighed and the weight is
registered and credited to the men who
excavated the ore and put ii on the
car. Each SET of men fastens ticket
to the car, and it is by this means that
the man on top knows to whom to
credit the ore. The men receive 30
cents a Ton When working by the
piece this way they do more work than
when working by the day. When 1t
is desirable TO drift make an uDraise.
o:nk the shaft or do any kind of dead
work. a contract is made with the
zen to do the work at fixed price
Der foot. Many Of the men make as
much as 81 a day at the rate paid for
taking out ore.
''The owners confidently expect TO
find gold values in lower contact
The ore is in blanket veins and the
formation seems To be fine same as that
at Leadville. The operators went
300 feet of pOrDhyry before
finding any ore. so they think they are
IN the first contact. When the shaft
is sunk until it 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
has passed through the hands
Of several people. 1t was first worked
many years ago. and at least two par
ties whom I know went broke on ir.
The present owners are the first people
who ever took ore out of the mine.
"One strange feature of this property
is that there is no water in the mine
to prove troublesome. This is because
the ground is frozen to a depth of be-
tween 400 and 500 feet"
The Hill Top mine is principally
owned in Denver. the Du Bots brothers
and officers of the Denver & Gulf rail
road being among the Stockholders
Denver Republican.
IMPROVED THE CYANIDE PROC