The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-08-31
LUCK IN MINING.
Great Strikes Not Due Entirely to
Chance


Clew York Times)
People have q notion that success In
mining Is due entirely to luck This is
true perhaps, TO q greater extent 1nan
in any other business. but IL never eX-
plains the whole thing There are always
other causes involved
For instance, old H. A. w. Tabor one
OF the first men in Colorado TO acquire
fame as mining man and United
states senator, was popularity supposed to
have got his money by bul-head luck. Il
IS true he was AN ignorant man in a good
many ways, DuI ne was splen0lQ Judge
OF ore, one of the very best. He was
walking with a friend once in the out
skirts of LeadVille. in the early days of
that hustling camp They came to "a
prospect hole. heaned with ore around
the edge Tabor stopped ana examined
the rocks Then he called down the hole
TO the prospector, VINO was working below
and asked MIN how much he. would take
for his claim. The prospector called back
that he would take SlOG5. Tabor closed
the bargain on the spot. The mine after
dollars.
Nest people think, because winfield
Scott StrattOn was carpenter. and
never heard of until the Independence
made him a millionaire In twenty
eight DAYS. that ne had nothing what
ever to do with his own good fortune.
But Strattou had beer an indomitab BILE
prOspector for years before he struck it.
he lived at Colorado Springs, and in the
winter he would work at his trade. and
in the summer he would pack a burrO
foot over the hills until the storms drove
him into winter quarters again Several
years he tramped 1t from Colorado
Springs to the San Juan country in this
way. His first venture in mining was
down in the san Juan A miner had
come up from there the previous winter.
ellu SIioNlt SttsttOit solLie pedutlttl ore
from an alleged CLAIM OF his, which, ac-
cOrding to his story. he had discovered.
but hadn { money enough to work. and
therefore had to sell for what he could
hard earned dollars from his labor with
the hammer and the saw. He put every
one of them into that claim. The next
spring he cinched up his old burro and
walked to the San Juan He found his
mine a plain. simple hole in the ground ;
not even saitec5 not trace OF color in it..
He lost every dollar he had put into il a
thing sufficient TO utterly discourage any
ordinary man.
these summer trips Year after year he
prOspected, in the San Juan. at Lead
vile, and in other sections but found
nothing But he was ali the time acquir-
ing an unrivaled knowledge of the ore
bearing ground of Colorado And he
was no common prospectOr or miner.
After while he took course in geology,
mincralOgy and asSaylnE at Colorado
college After that he went armed with
a D!9MPlpc, t4e onlg Igocess ot Essay w
available TO the prosp2ctor IN the tleld.
lie also went and worked in mill at
Brcckinridge. as a common laborer, so
as TO acquire the process of treating ores
as this that made him able to under
stand the ground at Cripple Creek, and
it was his little old bloWpipe that found
the first gold in that great camp. The
territory where he located the Indepen-
deuce July I. 1891, had been deserted by
even the few prospectors who had staked
claims there. as being entirely outside
the gold bet StrattOn was left alone.
aQd they called him THE Hermit of
Battle Mountain" The Independence
began TO produce I'm 1888. and by 1899.
when he sold il to the Tendon company.
Il had produced s4.509o00. He got $1,000
00o in cash for it. After he had got It into
shape 60 sell with $3.50 900 worth Of ore
reserves in sight. no such spectacle was
ever seen in any mine For miles along
its walls Won could walk in the constant
glitter of sylvanite. free gold. wire gold,
and all other combinations of the Yellow
metal
90 course, the element of luck entered
into his discovery. but the long years of
preparation and his indomitable perSever-
ance. counted for more than the luck
The biggest gift that Stratt0n has made
since he struck i was $4,000 to Colorado
college. where he learned TO use the blow
pipe that founded Cripple Creek He
also testified TO his belief in the educate
miner. by a gift of s25.oe0 to the Colorado
School of Mines.