The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1898-11-16

LONELY SpRfN6VEtE.
The Deserted Mining Town IN the
Minnesota Valley.

on the banks of the Minnesota, nine
miles northwest of Redwood Falls. to-
day presents as good q picture of some
of the deserted mining camps of the
west as the photographer, with ell the
modern appliances, can transfer to tho
mind of man and woman who are con-
tinually looking for the "has beens. !"
A huge tank, sitting sentry-like on
the gigantic granite formation, rising
cone like from it's massive base, is the
first sign of the "has been" that the
eye sees as one winds around the
curve of the little gulley through
which the road passes to and from the
lovely and picturesque Minnesota val
ley. A little further and the shaft
house comes into view, and by the
side of the typical mining building
one commences to see thousands upon
thousands of tons of quartz-all taken
from the bowels of mother earth be-
meath the shaft house, and practically
all ready for the crusher, located sew
eral rods away from the dump and to
reach which one must pass over q
rough piece of property. Then the
Springville Hotel comes into view.
Il have seen many mining camps,
where the mines produced ton after
ton of valuable ore, that did not have q
building compared to that structure"
remarked Frank A. Evans, as the team
was driven up toward the mine. at
is good building for any mining
town." The building was completely
deserted. A bucket, a barrel and q
stove we're the only relics of possible
habitation that could be seen as one
peeped through the window to see
whether or not some straggler was
taking an afternoon nap in the desert
ed structure.
Mr.. Evans. mentioned above, as our
readers will recall, is brother of
George L. Evans of this city. He has
spent the major portion of his life in
the mines of Colorado and Utah, and
the Royal Gorge of the Grand Can
yon, as we'll as the Snake and Green
river canyons, are as familiar to him as
is the air we breathe. He has spent
most of the time during the past year
in and around Dawson City, where he
holds or is interested in mining claims
which have yielded something, but
the real wealth of which is unknown.
Mr.. Evans has been visiting George
for the past month, and last Thursday
the Redwood brother, with a GAZETTE
representative and E. G. Greene, &C.
companied the mining brother to
Springville or rather the non est town
of Springville.
Mr.. Evans was greatly pleased over
the machinery that the company had
at the place. He said that it was
typical mining machinery, and enough
to certainly acertain whether there
was gold in the valley. The only ex-
ception he made, in comparison with
western mining camps, was that the
mill was too far away from the shaft
house, but track and dump cars
would cover this objection. The vein
that was being worked was quickly
picked out by Mr.. Evans, who made .
close examination of some of the sur
face quartz, which, he said, was q very
good specimen of the gold producing
article. At the dump, where so much
of the quartz was laying just as it
came from the shaft, he made various
selections, and thought that any one
of them might contain the yellow met
al. The silica, be observed, was ex-
ceptionally hard and would wear steel
very quickly, thus making the quartz
hard milling ore. Mr.. Evans refused
to commit himself, but he thought
that a mistake might have been made
by the company in mining the silica,
or white portion of the quartz for the
gold, when, it was his opinion, the
gold would be found in the msgnesia,
or the darker portion of the quartz.
Small black spots in the rock, he
thought, were the iron in which the
gold would b found, If found ct ell,
and whore there were some varieties
of iron, he thought tho gold produc-
ing probabilities would be strength
ened.
The vein, according to Mr.. Evans,
runs from the southeast to the north
west, and the indications were favor