The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-03-31
AND ORE MINES
New and Old Mills to Be in Oper-
alton on Lower Rock Creek.
OPENING OF THE SEASON
Gravel Prospecting to Be Resumed With
More Dissemination Next Summer.
Reduction Works al Moose Lake.
Plenty Of Water Promised.

Clerk Of the Court Corcoran of this
city, Rex Lindsay and others are assoc
ciated in h development of what
promises to be a valuable free milling
gold quarts lode claim in the Lower
Rock creek mining district. o IS
miles west Of Anaconda. There are
five development incline shafts on the
lead and in n of them very fair
showings are made. So promising
does the lead Dol that the owners are
encouraged to proceed with the erec-
ton of a five-stamp mill. This mill
will be crushing rock next month. as
all the machinery and boiler m en-
CINE are on the ground n much of IL
is in position. II is intended to add
five more stamps some time during the
summer or fall. When additional
stamps are added the power will be
changed from steam to water wheel,
plenty of water for such purposes be-
ing at hand. The most important end
uIcn the owners hope to ultimately
reach is the boring of a 2.000-foot tun
mel to tap the vein at a great depth
and thus be in position to profitably
and conveniently extract the ore in
large quantities. This will be done il
further development by the present
means n process shall prove that
such an undertaking would be war
rantable. and every indication now
leads the owners to believe that their
hopes will be realized, for the rock as
says well and there is n good-sized
lead of 1t. There are other mills in that
district.
There will undoubtedly be more
prospecting for placers this season in
western Montana than ever before
since the palmy days of "a and So.
During the last quarter of a century
in Montana, since the gold quartz
strikes in Highland. U%nionville. Madi-
son county and elsewhere. prospectors
seem to have lost their desire for
placers and gone completely Over to
the search for gold in rock. This evil
dent turn in affairs has left practically
unprospected hundreds of gulches and
coulees. bars and benches all over the
gold belt of the state. 1t Is well known
among prospectors that men have
found good colors' in gravel that they
dug up in their search for float but
the gravel was left undisturbed while
the hunt for float continued along up
the gulch or on the hillside. Another
striking bit of evidence of the indiffer-
ence of gold seekers to the possibilities
of placer mining is the fact that many
men start for new fields with nothing
but a single-hand pole pick. mortar
and pestle. a grub sack. frying pan,
and a pocketful of quartz location
blanks If they should happen onto
a piece of good looking placer
ground n want to sink a hole to bed
rock to prospect IL, they couldn't do il.
because they have 10 shovel, pick or,
in many cases, a pan. They are after
quartz and don't go prepared to pros
pect bedrock gravel.
Georgetown is an old town. a camp
that has been in existence for years.
There's gold ore nearly all around it.
Last summer some one sank a hole a
short distance west of il and to-day,
Wellington and Pierce nav as alu
able a piece of placer ground as one
can find in the whole list of developed
mines in the state. That there are 9TH
ers will be demonstrated before fall,
if the general sentiment of prospectors
isn't turned by more rich gold ore
strikes or by the call to arms of every
available man in Montana for the pro-
lection of the national honor against
the insulting acts of that old decayed
hag. Spain.
Recent discussion of the Big Hole
roa repairing proposition by men of
this city has disclosed the fact, not
generally KNOWN. that mineral exists i'm
paying quantities at intervals along
the route to Gibbonsville. 1t is known.
however, that gold has been taken
from French gulch and its tributaries
and neighboring gulches and bars. and
also that gold quartz has been found
there, but that copper assaying high
had been discovered was known To but
a few outside of that immediate vi
cinity. 1t is more than probable that
that region will be among the more
thoroughly explored by next fall.
Before the water plant was estab-
lished in this city many wells were in
use and in several was found gravel
that prospected fairly well. Bedrock
was never reached in any of the wells.
and it may be that Anaconda, like Hell
ena, rests on an immense bed of rich
aVel.
Two mills. at least, will be pounding
away on gold ore in the Moose Lake
district this summer n on Birran's
property and the other recently start
ed up by Hopkins and others. The
deal on the big copper leads above the
lake is understood to be still pending.
The transfer of that property to a
large corporation would mean much
for the camp at the lake. n the peo-
pie up there would hail with delight
the news that the sale had been made.
gravel.
Now that March has been so very
generous in its distribution of snow.
IL is predicted that there will be plenty
of water next summer in the placer
regions. Up to the LIST of March IL
looked very discouraging for miners
who have to depend upon the water
supply to work their claims. The
snow in the mountains now is deeper
than il vas a rear ago.
Filed for Record.