The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-25
W hill WORK ON IElADA..
History Of Developments on THE
Gem Of the Gulf"
LARGE MAGNETIC DEPOSITS.
Forty Thousand Tons Of PIG Iron
Left In stock in Consequence OF
the Duties OF 1s0O-rive Million
Tons OF Rich Iron Ore Estimated
70 BE In sight Discovery of
cold, silver and Copper Mines.

cold, silver and Copper Mines.
sTexada island, In the Gulf Of Georgia.
British Columbia, first took prominent
cart as Il mineral zone when Iwen,y,nve
10 thirty years ago the Puget Sound Iron
Company erected at Irondale. Wash. a
large smelling plant for the purpose OF
treating the large bodies OF manganese oe-
posted upon their Texada properties.
which they had purchased from the late
Capt Cark. ct al. at Victoria. IS u, IN
conjunction with the hemntite one had
acquired n short distance from lrondale.
,rhe company constructed wooden tram
way from what Is known as the Prescott
mine. about half a mile west of their
other larger deposit, the Paxton mine.
ana began to ship the product OF their for
,ner mine from there to Irondiie via
Nanaimo.a g.
The pig iron manufactured by this com
pany has been considered to be. OF the
most tenacious quality obtainable on the
continent, the Union Iron works, or san
francisco, mostly. II not entirely. con
trolling the output for years. With the
rise In duty in the early COS the ~werks
closed down with about 10000 tons of pig
iron In stock. Since then no attempt has
been made to reopen on any commercial
scale, and for about seven years nothing
was done with the valuable iron deposits.
The company decided to dc some explora-
tion work about three years ago upon the
properties TO ascertain If those heavy iron
deposits. which are estimated to have DIP
ware. 1T five millions of tons of very rich
iron ore, were the cap or apex of heavy
bodies of the richer and more valuable
ores of copper. gold and silver.
With this view, supported by the opin-
ion Of prominent mining experts, the COM
pany commenced to sink shaft about
an fnak aIA fba soo nj shortly
afterward augmented by installing an en-
CINE and boiler wi.n hosting gear, and
have already sunk shaft about 175 feet
with numerous levels east, west and north
from the same. Some very nice copper ore
has at times been encountered and 1t Is
fully expected that in short time the
deposits. as predicted, will reward the
oompany's efforts
Discovery Of Gold.
During the fall of 1888 some of the en-
ployes of the company during hunting and
fishing trips through the adjacent portions
of The island discovered numerous outcrops
of mineral south, east and northwest OF
the iron deposits. and Mrs. C. MILAN. wife
Of the blacksmith. during one of these
trips found free gold as float on the sur
face. Mr. MILAN at once took hold of
some mineral claims and for years has
worked those claims and has taken out
hundreds of ounces of the yellow metal.
DurlnS the Iait OF 1888 anu SpT1uB OI loSI
an influx of residents from the Coast CIT
les acquired several hundred claims upon
which mpre or less desultory exploiting
was done, then the stoppage of the iron
works came and Texada dropped back to
quetude.
Slipper Gold Bug, Niggar Baby. Minerva.
Twin Brothers, Nutcracker, and the old
claims stsked by Hugh Kirk--one of those
veteran prospectors who lost his life during
the big blizzard of fN}3
The. following year these people COM
menced their Surprise shaft. The rich ore
encountered decided them to form COM
pany and install double hoistIng engine
on the property. With steam they con-
tinued downward to depth Of about 375
fined walls. This ore body is at times rich
but is chiefly a fine concentrating PROPOSE
tion.
The occasional discovery of free gold by
them again brought the island prominently
forward i'm 1895 as gold producer. when
another wave of excitement flooded the
island. with prosecutors from Vancouver.
of this york was the formation of several
mining companies.
The foremost Of these was the Texada
gold mines at Kirk Lake, where shaft 100
feet deep was sunk, obtaining free gold
from surface to bottom of shaft and good
returns from three shafts begun in differ
cnt parts of the properties. The ,COmox
boys Joined together and sunk shaft. the
Enterprise seventy-ive feet deep with fair
ly good showinSS of copper.
Erection OF q 5O-TOn Shelter.
The Lorndale sunk two shafts on very
well defined assures, one OF which carried
rich deposit Of free gold. The Silver
Tip was begun on the summit OF Millers
mountain in an outcrop OF rich blend No.
] shaft was sunk 100 feet which changed
to a copper, silver and gold vein, then NO.
2 shaft. with goodly plant and all the
heavy buildings was commenced, and sunk
TO about $50 feet in depth. showing some
remarkably fine ore assaying close up to
the 500 mark. The Texada island NJ. &
s. Company sunk upon some. Of the veins
on their property and found fairly good
deposits of copper and silver and other
metals. A Victoria company took out some
extremely rich ores of gold but, unfortup-
ately being too near the salt water, the fret
storm flooded the shaft and t"en filed 1t
up with gravel until is position was unten-
able yet there is free gold strewn over
the bottom of the shaft.
The rich copper mines OF the east coast
have warranted the erection of sineter
plant there. capable of handling fifty tons
home market which a,s long been needed
for the disposal of ores. The old mines
which have not been doing much of late
will In the near future become sources OF
supply TO the Van Anda smelter.
The older mines of ieXaua need better
means of transport from mines to smelter
as those above mention Vi properties could
with reasonable facilities become imp,r-
tant factors to the present smelling plant
as the distance from these works to smclttr
is only some four 20 sin miles. and those
mines may readily ship their products by
water or by team TO the island marked
Some of the old ninsa have of late sent
tons Of ore across the Trunh road to the
local smelling and samrling works at Van
Anda. RAFDRE PEARL