The Arizona sentinel., 1900-01-13
A Trip to Fortuna.

A party of elght members ot 1umi Lodge No. ', A. o. U. w., left towr last Saturday morning for a visit tC
 Fortuna to initiate number of can
 didates into the mysteries of the or
 der. The party consisted of Geo. Nj
 Thurlow, r. G. Blaisdell, A Bienk kow
 ski, r. L. Ewing, J. W. Davis, Don aid Mcintyre, Alex Balsz amt 0, II
 Willis.
 The experiences of the party are related by one of the party as follows
 Alighting from the train at Blais- dell we found large stage with four strong horses waiting fer us, and, af- ter few moments spent in sight seeing, we were agaln on our way.
 Yuma county's magnificent Jan uary weather was at its best; the bright sunshine and warm south breeze had a most exhileratIng effect on all, making the 15-mile drive a continuous succession of songs, stories and jokes, marred only by an occa- sional roar from Bros. Thurlow and Willis, who protested that Bro. Bien- kowski, who sat between them, took up more than his share of space and kept crowding them.
 Arriving at the mine about noon, with appetites whetted te the keen est b7 the ride, a nice dinner was awaiting us, and the unsparing hos pitality of the mining people was more than equal to the occasion.
 After lunch the party went on an other sightseeing expedition. Sev- eral of our number had not before vis- tied Fortuna, and one or two had never been down mining shaft. Superintendent J. F. Martin, who had kindly laid aside his work to show us through the place, has seldom had 8 more interested and inquiring party under his care than ours. Down in the mine, through shaft and drift, the perspiring miners were digging cut the rich ore and hoistlng it to the sur face. Here we had to stand aside and flatten ourselves against the wall to allow passage to a loaded car that came rolling slowly along the dark passage. There we found number of men stoping, and further on @ noisy Burleigh was industriously at work, drilling at the end of shaft. Every where was something interesting and instructive-the ore, the timbering, the falls and displacements, the water dripping from the crevices of the rock-everywhere there was some thing to look at and ask questions about.
 Mine Foreman Golden and two or three other candidates met us on one of the levels, and we laughed to our selves as we thought of what we were going to do to them at the initiation in the evening, but we were discreet enough not to mention it to them then, lest they might forestall us and work some job on us down in those dark passages.
 A familiar voice spoke out of the darkness in front of us on the lowest level, and we found Bro Ward Priest working away at some part of the lower end of the hoisting apparatus.
 Returning to the surface we stop ped a moment to enjoy the fresh, cool air which entrusted so pleasant ly with the hot, stifing atmosphere of the mine, when "Hi thereI" from overhead caused us to look up, and there was the dusty, but jolly face cf Con Cronin, smiling upon us from the heights of the rock crusher. We climbed up for a hand shake. and re- mained few moments talking and watching the process of preparing the rock for the stamp mill.
 At the mill we spent some time among the bewildering masses of ma- chinery, watching the process of com- pressing the air for the Burleigh drills in the levels below and that of pound irg the rock into fine powder and pass ing 1t over the plates coated with quicksilver where the larger part of the gold is collected. Mill Foreman Ii. c. Haupt was pleasant and kind, explained to us the workings of the various parts of the machinery and process of working the ore, showed us the amalgam on the plates and made the time spent with him as pleasant and agreeable as one could wish.
 After leaving the mill most of our party returned to the hotel for a rest. but few, more industrious and cur ious, kept on until they had :nvesti- gated the workings of the cyanide plant, where the last of the gold is extracted and the tailings finally turn ed out into the valley below to go where the wind and rain may carry them