Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-29
UPS AND DOWNS of MERCyR
Its Career Only Typical of IA Thou
sand Mining Camps.

Eugene B. Palmer In AInsees.
The story of Mercur. Utah. is a striking
Illustration of the ups and downs of a typi-
cal mining camp. Many years ago the In
dams there were supreme. Arrowheads and
other relics picked up near the site of Mer
cur indicate that the tribes have at times
contested among themselves for that SUI
premacy with these hills battle-ground.
In 1870 silver was discovered on this site
and two years later the Carrie Steele mine
took out $4,000 in three months. and the
Camp Floyd boom leaped to Its height.
Lewiston sprang up almost in a day where
Mercur now stands. The town was in q
fever. There were rich strikes. shootings,
wild carousals and claim jump.ngs. The
Mormon Chief mine was transformed into a
fort. and battles for Its possession were
frequent
Then the bottom dropped out. The camp
was deserted. The sounds of pick and blast
were gone from the deep recesses. Bats
f1uttered unmolested about the rottng tim
bers. Coyotes skunk INTO the tunnels and
from this vantage ground howled defiance
al the fierce wind of winter. For time the
spectral buildings stood oomily on their
stills. their paneless windows staring va
cantly. Then decay made them sink grad
ually into desolate heaps. to be swept away
later by fire.
In 1880 only one house was left In the
entire canyon. There lived solitary Moses
Manning, keeping up Assessment work on q
few claims. In 1881 Arie Pinedo thought hs
had found quicksilver In the old camp. He
staked out claim and named it Mercur
But the mercury never pa d to develop the
claim. In 1883 gold was found In assays.
but it could not be extracted. A few men
became Interested and carried on mining
in desultory way without success. The
Mercur claim was sold as a gold brick to
a party Of Nebraska 'tenderfeet.' For yearH
they worked away. Ore was to be found In
plenty, and the assays showed large amounts
of gold. But every process they tried
brought no results in extracting the precious
metal. They exhausted their capital, and in
1893 they were $4,000 in debt and at the
end of their rope.
Gilbert Peyton, one of the owners, who
was a Nebraska druggist. visited the mine
Going through the drawers OF the office
desk he came upon a pamphlet which had
been sent to the foreman. 1t was brief de-
scr.ption Of the cyanide process, then new
in America With his druggists experience
Peyton had no difficulty in mixing cyanide
solution and testing it IN a cupel with some
pulverized ore. But the solution did not
seem to percolate the powdered ore and the
experiments were failures. Sick at heart.
Peyton left in the cupe a solution with
which he had been making tests until II
was much diluted. and went to bed. The
next morning he noticed that the weakened
solution had penetrated the clay cupel.
"If the weak solution will go through clay
like that, It ought to go through large pieces
of ore,' he reasoned.
The problem was solved. A weak solution
and larger pieces OF ore were tried. and the
process worked like a charm.
The owners OF the Mercur mine were
transformed into rich men. Moses Manning.
the patient hermit. made $50 The town
of Mercur sprang up. phoen!x-like, and 10
today one of the richest gold camps in the
United States.