The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-31
TUNNELING PALMER MOUNTAIN.

of Washington Many Veins Crossed.
 The most extensive mining operations
 in the state are in progress on Palmer mountain, which rears its head just
 back of Loomis. Into this famous hill,
 which set the whole northwest wild
 with a gold stampede in the early sos,
 a Spokane company is driving mons l ter tunnel to tap the very heart of the mountain That tunnel is 2,S50 feet in l length, and 1t has crossed. seventeen
 veins. That Is to say, it has crossed that number of width of from three to forty feet. A score of other veins, ranging from a few inches to between | two and three feet have also been cut, but the company is engaged upon so great an enterprise that no attention is
 given to these "stringers," as they are
 termed, although many a mine has paid
 dividends from such veins.
 The story of the big tunnel has a 1 tinge of romance. The camp was all
 aetir in 90 and the excitement lasted
 until the financial crash came in 93
 Then extravagant management met its | usual Waterloo. The mines all shut | down. Not one was left working. The | Black Bear and War Eagle, which had | been sending out beautiful gold bricks ! with great regularity, stopped work and soon passed into creditors hands. Desolation took the place of industry | John Boyd had been the merchant at | Loomis. During the boom days he had | the bulk of the camps business and he l laid by nice penny for rainy day, which came all too soon and unexpec- tedly. The camp was deserted Prunes and bacon lay decaying on the shelves. Something had to be done.
 | John Boyd was na miner, but the abundant gold which he had seen from the surface workings of Palmer noun | tain gave him supreme faith in the gray old hill So he sets hffbself to the task of acquiring the claims which the dis couraged holders we're usually glad to drop for a fraction of what they had
 once hoped to receive
 It took almost three years for him to
 get the plan In working order which he had mapped out for himself. It's con- summation was finally reached when he had the whole south side of Palmer mountain in one great group of forty two claims, leaving only two in the hands of other parties, the Black Bear and War Eagle. now being operated by
 a Spokane Toronto syndicate.
 In this great groupe of forty-two claims were some noteworthy ones. Claims were there that had yielded i'm mense values from surface workings.
 Veins ribbed the mountain side from foot to summit All of these showed free gold on the surface, and some of
 them carried bonanza values.
 Boyd was told by the wise ones that
 these free milling veins would turn to
 base suphides at little depth. If he
 had been a miner he might have be- lieved thesN croakers and 1he tunne
 never would have been driven. But he
 was a business man, knowing little of
 veins except that these carried gold and that gold makes dividends if you find enough of 1t. He went to Spokane and elicited the support of some nervy opera tors. D. M Drumheller, president of the Traders National bank, who had herded cattle on Okanogan hills in ear ly days, readily entered into Boyd's plans and shared his enthusiasm. So did c. c. May of the Big Bend National bank at Davenport. And not less in terested was Dr. N. Fred Essig of Spo- kane. It was syndicate of brave hearts, willing bands and ready purses, and so in 1895 the tunnel was started to cut straight through the ven-ribbed side of the old Palmer mountain. Work has never stopped. The packers found assistance necessary, and they carried their enthusiasm to Ohio and Pennsyl- and returned with abun- dant means for carrying forward the enterprise. Ample machinery was in stalled, and progress became more rap id. So it has gone on without a stop or hitch or falter.
 The tunnel is model of engineering. but no mining engineer ever planned or suggested or in any way contributed to the work. John Boyd did it. The mer- chant proved himself equal to the occa- sion. From the beginning he has been the man behind the tunnel Straight | and true as a bullets flight 1t has bored | into the hillside. As perfect a piece of mining work 1t is as one can see in all | the west.
 But the big thing about the tunnel is | hat in the veins which have been cut | 1t depth of one thousand feet in the | farther portions of the tunnel free gold 1 s as abundant as in the surface work l ngs. This proves the continuity of the | rec gold of Palmer mountain and de- the worth of the property.
 Drifting Is In progress on five of the 1eins cut. Ore Is going on to the dump which will go away up in the hundreds luite often but the average of all the Ire encountered by the tunnel, as as- ,ertained by weeks of sampling by one if the most famous experts in the coun- ny, IS twenty-tWo dollars per ton. That sounds eXtravagant, but it is lite ally and absolutely true. Further nore, the investigation of this expert proved that the entire Palmer mountain ormation is impregnated with gold to he extent of between two and three lollars per ton. The whole thing will ,ay as well for milling as does the ore If the Treadwell or Homestake while he many veins intersected will bring he profits up.
 The biggest vein yet encountered is .nown as No. 12 which was cut last July. It proved forty feet wide from vail to wall, and in it is pay streak of i've feet of blue quartz carrying free ,old averaging about one hundred dol ars per ton. The average across the