The Topeka state journal., 1899-11-22
TONS OF WEALTH.
Engineer Discovers a Mountain
of Gold and Copper.
Grand Canon of the Colorado a
Valuable Spot.
SHOOTS THE CHUTES.
Floats Down the Rapids and
Views the Sights.
Found Garnets of All Sizes
Thousands of Them.
SHOOTS THE CHUTES.

Kansas City, Nov. 22.-Frank D. Ran
DAN, a wel1-known civil engineer of this
city, has discovered in the Grand Canon
of the Colorado what he claims will
prove the richest copper mines in the
world. In addition to the vast de-
posits of virgin copper, he saw immense
outcroppings of gold-encrusted rock
and masses of schist, with garnets
sticking out like plums in a pudding,
veins of coal and asbestos, mica, walls
of onyx, columns of serpentine.
Mr.. Randall has documents and relics
and specimens which he shows as proof
of the truth of what he says. He Will
leave next month to visit the copper
mine again and try and form a plan to
take out the ore. With Mr.. Randall
when he made the trip into the Grand
Canon We're bill Huh, a stockman,
and prospector of Arizona; NJ. G
Sharpneck, a mining expert of Council
Bluffs, Iowa, and Frank Lee of Will
iams Arizona, Mr.. Randall tells this
story of the trip:
Z was at work surveying the line OF
a new railroad building north from
Williams, Arizona, to the Grand Canon.
The SHOWS We're so deep that could not
sWork, and in my spare time 1 got to
plating the mines on a map, and L
found that the copper belt was about
a mile wide and ran nearly due north
and south. Senator Clarke'S copper
mines at Verde are on this belt. 1 got
I the idea that the mineral belt ran on
due north beyond the Grand Canon, and
where it would cross the canon the
canon was 900 feet deep.
TRIP FULL OF PERIL.
t'I believed that if we could get into
the canon at that point we would find
the copper vein cropping out of the
canon walls. spoke of my idea to sew
eral friends and found that Bill Hull,
who was one of Lieutenant Stanton s
| guides in his famous government sur
! vey of the Grand Canon, had seen the
hi- trim
/ through the canon, but had sworn then
| that he would never again venture into
| the canon because of the great danger.
| But we kept talking the matter over,
1 and the result was that we decided to
/ go to the canon and look for the mine.
/ The party consisted of NJ. c. Sharpneck,
| Bill Hull, Frank Lee and myself.
I'VE went down into the canon by
/ the Bright Angel trail which is south
/ of the mouth of the Little Colorado
/ river, with a canvas covered boat. 1t
/ took all our nerve and every sense on
/ a constant strain to keep ahOat and
| avoid the whirlpoOls.
! LAS We spent down the current we
/ watched for the copper, and at last we
/ came to it. Our hearts leaped and our
/ eyes stuck out as we dr1tted past 1t
! The bottom stratum of rock there IS
/ granite. There, in what was once g, fs-
| sure in the wall, was the vein of copper
! ore. At the waters edge the vein was
/ 600 feet wide The vein went up quite
/ a distance and then branched off into
! three separate veins, one running
! straight up, the other two spreading
out liks the sticks Of a fan, these veins
! being about 100 feet wide, and running
! up to the summit of the granite. about
800 or 1000 feet above the river surface.
! GREAT WALLS OF ORE.
| f'The veins of copper We're a bright
| green where the mineral had been cor
! roded by air and water for centuries,
/ We tried to get in close to the copper
/ ledge but the current was too swift.
! a Ia a17da6 a Ledge of hOlIldP a. lif-
! tie below it and picked up pieces of
| copper ore that had been broken off
/ and rolled down by the current We
! could not get close enough to the cop
/ per ledge to touch it. OF course we
| could not get to the top of the cliffs
| there-they were too steep. But there
! is enough copper there to keep a 100
/ ton smelter busy for a generation, and
! unlimited water power rushing past to
! keep dynanos going and furnish power
/ for the smelters.
after we had got through picking up
| specimens of the copper ore we spent
an hour or two trying to pick out good
! specimens from a wall of metamOrphic
! schist, in which garnets OF all sizes
were sticking out as thick as plums in
pudding. It was hard to get them out
/ without breaking them with the tools
we had. There are thousands of them
/ there, some of them as large as my
/ fist.
while darting down the river the
next day, looking for a place to land,
| part of the time on the crest of a huge
| breaker and at other times in the hOl-
! low of a whirlpool, with nerves strain
| ed to keep the boat from overturning
! or from being dashed to pieces on the
| powders, we came to a black looking
| cave into which the whole volume of
! the pent-up water seemed to hurl itself
/ with a roaring greater than the loud
| est peal of thunder
| BIG DEPOSITS OF GOLD.
! cit was a, corner where the wall of
| granite compelled the flood to turn, and
| in its obstinate fury the stream had
| been hurting itself against the oppOs-
| ing barrier for ages until it had eaten
| a hole twenty or thirty feet into the
| solid rock and then emerged again. AS
we shot past We saw cleaning a. broad
! belt of brilliant white quartz, and its
/ whole surface was sparkling with
/ seams and cOruscations of yellow gold
/ 1t was only a mOmentaTy glimpse of it.
eve saw in that trip deposits of can
| mel coal, asbestos, of onyx and serpen-
/ tine, of lead and silver and other min
/ erals. We saw and explored rows Of
| the cliff dwellers' houses on the shelves
/ and benches of rock and old irrigating
! bitches used by the prehistoric tribes
| who inhabited the walls of the canon.
/ This fall I will be one of a party
/ which will attempt to reach the cop
per vein from the plateau on the north
/ side of the canon"