The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-04-28
THE WONDERFUL PORTLAND.
Ore By the Carload That Is Worth
S3S. 900 In Gold to the Ton.

PSO,OOO LII W Lie IOA-
The west is able to boast of the pos
session of many wonderfully rich
mines. Utah has had its great produc-
ers and properties which have pro-
| duced their millions, and she still has
some mines that are truly bonanZas,
but it would be difficult in this inter
mountain region to find a more mar
velous producer of the yellow metal
than the Portland. at Cripple Creek,
/ Colo, which is largely owned by W. S.
! Stratton, the erstwhile impecunious
| carpenter of Colorado Springs, who is
now one of the mining magnates of the
/ United States, and all because of his
good fortune in discovering the indie
! pendence and Portland mines, in what
is now one of the greatest and best
known mining camps of the west.
The Portland has always been
phenomenal producer, but developments
in this property of late are almost be-
yond belief. according to the Cripple
Creek News, which says:
The Hidden Treasure, one of the
Portland company's claims, was right
ly named. On this ground one of the
biggest and richest strikes made in the
district for years, and may be the best
ever made, was uncovered two weeks
ago, says a Victor correspondent. The
new ore body is fabulously rich. and
there is plenty of it. 1t was cut at
depth of $50 feet below the surface,
which makes the drift the second deep
est in, the camp. What is more impor-
tant, the ore is richer than any that
ever saw the light of day in any mine
in the camp. 1t proves that ore chutes
go down in Cripple Creek, and even
richer mineral can be looked for as
depth is gained and below the water
level than near the surface. The dis
covery has at least doubled the earning
capacity of the great and only Port
land. 1t places the mine at the head
of any gold proposition in the state
without particle of doubt.
Rumors of the rich find have been
floating around the camp for the past
two weeks. Ten days ago the News
representative was given the facts
about the bonanza on condition that it
would not be given public at that time.
The ore was found in a cross-cut
driven east $50 feet from the 700-foot
drift, run from the Burns shaft at a
point about 300 feet north of the old
Anna Lee abandoned shaft. The vein
appears to run parallel to the Anna
Lee fissure, and the Portland company
will have fully 1000 feet of it on their
territory. tt has been drifted on a dis
lance of 20 feet. and has averaged Az
feet between two smooth walls. There
is very little waste rock in the IS feet. |
The high grade streak has been !
stripped and left standing on the hang /!
ing wall, and the low grade shipped is
running from three to five ounces to /
the ton. The work of breaking the "a |
inches of sand quartz and fluorine left /
standing was commenced a few days |
ago. It appears to be divided equally, |
as far as inches are concerned, in sand |
quartz and solid huorine rock. One
inch of the latter would weigh as much |
as four of the sand quartz, which is
very light and porus.
Picked specimens of it appear to be
half gold and an assay of ten inches OF
it, the full height of the drift, a few
days ago, went at the rate of S3S, 900
pie taken there was at least four
pounds of the rock. The fiuorine-stained
ore alongside it is not as rich, but is
covered with sylvanite in the shape of
fakes, seams and crystals, and assays
as high as $4,000 to the ton.
a large wooden safe has been con-
structed in one of the drifts, and the
1re is now being stored in it under a
heavy paddock and carefully guarded.
The greatest care is being taken in
mining the rich streak, and only trust
I'd miners are working on this ore. BY
he end of next week a Droad-guage
carload of sand quartz and another
IF the sylvanite will be sent to Denver.
It is safe to make two predictions in
'egard to it. One is that it will be ac-
by armed guards; the other
S that either one of the cars will be
worth more money than any carload
ever sent to any smelter in
he state from any gold or silver mine
n the Rocky mountain country. One
viii be worth at least 5000 900, and the
,ther 800, 600.