The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-10-20

Made Rich Strike.
Colonel and Mrs. II. NJ. Boies. Miss
Ethel Boies, Attorney and Mrs. Charles
II. Welles, Henry b. Bein, jr., Miss
Alice Belin and Miss Anna Mcleod are
home from their fifteen days trip to
New Mexico, delighted with their Jour
ney and enthusiastic over the wonder
ful country in and about Alamogordo,
for which Scranton capital is doing so
much in the way of Improvement.
Colonel Boies, who was there one
year ago last April, when the place was
vast stretch of sage brush, expressed
himself as fairly amazed at the trans
formation. On his previous visit he
made the journey from El Paso in a
four-mule wagon. This time he went
out in Vice-President Eddy's special
car, "Paso del Norte," over a one hun
dred and siXty-three mile railroad un-
surpassed in excellence of construction
by any road in the country, and on ar
riVing at Alamogordo, which was a
paper-town on his first visit found
thriving village of 1900 inhabitants,
having modern, not to say handsome,
residences, two water works, one for
irrigation purposes, a bank with
capitalization of $4,000. located in a
marble-fro building, an electric light
plant. two immense saw-mills. four
churches, a weekly paper, n large first
class hotel and park, besides numer-
Gus industries under way, including car
shops and like accessories of the rail-
road.
IT HAS A FUTURE.
'It is a country with a great future"
said Colonel Boies. Il do not know of
any place that offers better opportun-
tiles for investment If were a young
man, bent on making fortune, would
go to Alamogordo."
Colonel Boies brought home with him
some specimens of gold, copper and
coal, secured in that region. The coal
is of the bitunrinous variety and is
found in a nine-foot vein that seems
practically ineXhaustible. The lumber,
controlled by the improvement COM
| pany is estimated to last fifty years
at the present rate of cutting.
AS to what gold there is in the coun-
| try, nothing definite is known. Twelve
| or fifteen years ago some prospecting
was done by miners from Ell Paso, but
| the difficulty of procuring water caused
| them to give up. There is some digging
| going on there now and it proves very
| profitable. The Scranton party came
/ across three men who were extracting
| gold from dirt lodged in a gorge and
| which had been washed down from the
| mountains. They We're taking out $3.50
| worth of gold a day, with only a prim-
tive tanning machine and a small
| cradle as their implements. Colonel
Boies bought one washing as it lay in
| the cradle for $50 and upon gathering
| 1t up found it weighed two and one.
| half ounces.
The prospectors invited the ladies OF
| the party to help themselves to some
! gold and they accepted the invitation
! Miss Boies, who proved the most in.
, dustriOus of the quartette. dug and
washed over S. worth of "24k," while
| the men of the party were climbing
about the gorge, looking into the pos.
sibilities Of the place.
EAST TRANSPLANTED.
Mr.. Welles echoes Colonel Boies' sen.
timents regarding the opportunities OF
the place. 1T is a section of the East
set down in a southwestern desert,
! was his way of expressing it.
The new railroad was what particu
! larly impressed Mr.. Welles. That suct
an admirably built road was to bt
found in a country of that kind was
as much a matter of surprise to him a,
the engineering feats in it's construc,
tiOn We're a matter of wonder. In tht
first eighty-siX miles of the road there
are two straight stretches, one o.
forty-three miles and the other twenty.
two. These stretches are as straigh
trains make fifty miles an hour on thi!
road.
When the road begins to ascend The
} Sacramento mountains to CloulcroCr
in the lumber region, it first encircle
a cOnical mountain and then zig-zagi
up the side of a canyon a distance o
a full mile. From the foo of he noun
tain one can see the railroad parallel
ing itself four times on the mounta.l
side. Cloudcroft is 1900 Feet above th
sea level and 5000 feet above the plain
: Colonel BOies and Mr.. Welles both sa,
it is the grandest view they ever be
held, and both are extensive travellers
, Th trip to and from lei Paso wa
; made from st. Louis over the Irol
Mountain and Texas and Pacific roads
The route follows the line of fish
I hook with the barb pointing back to
q wards Scranton.
: Beechams Pills cure sick headache