The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-31

with other portions of the state in
mining.
The Sheep Mountain district is rich
in silver, but little save development
work has been done this year, owing
to the low price of silver, but with
free coinage, which it is to be hoped
viii win out next year, this camp will
be one Of the most prosperous in the
world
Boise Basin Project.
|. The Boise Basin Mining & Develop
ment company was organized in jan
uary of 1899. General George H. Rob-
erts, who has put through several very
successful mining propositions in this
state, was selected as the manager of
this company and w. o. Taylor, also
man of wide and varied experience
in mining, as superintendent. The aim
of the company was to handle the large
quantities of gold on the bottom More's
creek, stream that has yielded more
gold than any other in the state. 1t was
a carrying out of the famous bedrock
| fiume proposition that IN one form and
another has agitated the mining men
OF Idaho for a quarter of a century.
General Roberts and his co-laborers
have finally reached bedrock on this
proposition and it is now an assured
fact. During the year the company
has expended $3.50 in building the
fiume and its necessary adjuncts. The
company owns 800 acres on Mores
creek. They have built 500 feet of the
largest bedrock f1ume in the world 1t
is 16 feet wide, s feet high, 1880 feet
long, and is built with two conpart-
ments one u feet wide and the other
A. feet wide, so as to utilize either a
large or small quantity of water 1t
was completed Dec. Is. IN addition to
this the company has completed a
ditch for piping purposes two miles
long, with carrying capacity of 1000
miners inches They have also built
fine residence on their property to
De occupied by the superintendent. at
a cost of $1,000. They have built a
bunk house for their employees and
also a boarding house, and have their
own sawmills on their property. They
have put in hydraulic lift with pow
er furnished by Pelton wheel twenty
nine inches in diameter This great
undertaking has at last been accom-
plished and the works will be started
by the middle of March.
Big Irrigation Proposition.
Mrs. Mary Halleck Foote, in her
Chosen Valley" has immortalized an
sirrigation scheme, which, had it not
been for her pen, would have faded
from human sight and been lost among
other unrecorded events. 1t is the cele-
brated New York canal proposition Up
the canyon about ten miles from Boise
still stands the pretty little stone house
story and half high, close by the
site of the great dam that was to cost
$4,000 and which was to be the source
OF the great canal that would irrigate
vast areas of Sagebrush lands near
the metropolis of Idaho. The company
of English people standing behind the
surveys, in digging portions of the pro-
posed canal and in putting thousands
of barrels of cement into the river as
a base for the dam. But the English
people grew weary of putting up for
the business, finally, and the entire
project was abandoned. The New York
canal scheme became the sport of the
shallow wits about Boise and served
as the butt of many joke.
Meantime, the pile of empty cham
payne bottles in the vicinity of the
Foote mansion up the canyon grew
larger and adventurous people bought
the site for a song. Thus it lay for
years, until Err G.. Eagieson a civil
engineer of Boise. sauntered one day
along the site of the proposed canal
and up to the famous dam site and
incidentally threw his level along
there. 1t occurred to him that it was
shame to abandon such good thing
in the face of the fact that some of the
best land within a few miles of Boise
lay there a desert on account of the
lack of water. He set about to in
vestigate the whole problem anew, and
concluded that the dam proposition
could not be carried through on ac-
count of the great cost, but he rea-
soned that it was feasible to go a little
higher up the river and take a smaller
canal out, utilizing all of the canal so
far built and adding more, and thus
winning victory from the jaws of de-
feat, He succeeded in convincing a
number of moneyed men of the prac-
ticability of his scheme, and finally a |
company was organized and the con-
tract let to do the work. 1t was COM |
,nenced last October, the contract be- |
ing let to W. H Thompson & Co.. Mr.. |
Annett of this city being put in charge |
of the work. At present some sixty |
teams are at work in the canyon and