Daily Kennebec journal., 1900-11-24

knows says the rocks over is just plum
fun of gold
The discovery of gold bearing quartz
on the Pendleton farm is not new
one, and at intervals for the past Ten
years has attracted more OF less atten-
| ton from the public. mostly less. on
account of the skeptical views regard
ing the possibility of the existence of
the yellow treasure in Maine in sutfi-
clent quantities to warrant its eXtrac-
tion from the rock in which it is con
tanned. No one has ever denied that
there WAS gold in Maine. In fact. YOU
can pick a rock from almost any stone
wall and send ii to an assayer. ana he
will tell YOU that he found traces of
gold. But rocks in which are traces of
gold, and that containing gold in sufii- =
cient quantities 10 pay for extracting
it are two different things. The rock
| on the Pendleton farm has been thor
| oughly tested. and is found to belon z
| to the latter class.
1t was with view Of getting a de
Scription of the mine and ascertaining
what was going on that the Journal
sent man over to Pittston, one day
this week. for that purpose. and
| thanks to the courtesy of Mr. j. a.
Mcpherson. the superintendent. we are
enabled TO present an accurate de
| scription of the plant
The discovery of gold in that locality
| is due to Mr. l.. A. Pendleton. the
present owner of the farm on which
the mine is located. The farm is what
used to be known as the Jonathan
Reed place. and is situated on the
Beech Hill road. some four miles from
| the Gardiner and Pittston bridge. Af-
| ter you pass the little brown school
| house on the corner where the road
turns off to the right. on the way to
Nahumkeag pond. the Pendleton farm
| is the second on the left hand side of
| the East Pittston road. The house is
| an old fashioned two story. with low
pitched roof. and the farm is notice
able as being very level and free from
! rock, that is, near the highway.
Mr. Pendleton bought the place
about II years ago. and found in one
| sense OF the term. that he had lots
of rocks" and also large task before
| him of clearing UP the farm 1t was III
| breaking up these rocks that he dis
| covered evidence that led him to be-
! lieye that there was gold in them. He
had seen gold quartz before. and the
rock that he was reducing to frag
mentS bv bone labor. looked to him
very much like it-So much so that ne
sent away some specimens and had
them aSSayed. The result confirmed
his impressions. and. concluding that
| if there was gold in the loose surface
rock there must be more gold i'll the
ledge that trayersed his farm.
The ledge was opened and shaft
sunk to the depth of H. feet. the ore
| being tested as the work progressed,
| and showed the presence OF gold in
paying quantities. as N as some sill
! yer. The owners persistent work at
| length attracted the attention of other
parties in Gardiner. and in 1924. Il
! company was organized to develop the
mine. but did not accomplish its OBJ
iect. Mr.. Pendleton did not, however,
| lose his faith. and even in his dreams
| his thoughts have always been of the
yellow metal. In the past ten years
he has probably talked gold more than
VIM. Jennings Bryan ever talked free
/ silver and is talking il still. He has
dug quartz crushed it. and even
srnelted it. in small quantities. To get
at the gold. that he might have tansi-
bI. proof for his argument. and in a
| measure. his efforts have at last been
crowne5 with success. for in May of
the present year, a company was "r-