The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1901-02-14
ups AND DOWNS OF MERcUK


he. Career Only Typical Of . thousand
500 Mining Campe.
The story Of Mercur, Utah, IL striks
ne illustration Of the ups and Gowns
II a typical mining camp. Many years
40 the Indians there were supreme.
Arrowheads and other relics picked up
lear the site Of Mercur indicate that
the tribes have at times contested
among themselves for that supremacy
with these hills as 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
eaped to it's height. Lewiston sprang
ND almost in a day where Mercur now
stands. The town was In FEVER.
There were rich strikes, shootings, Wild
.arousals and claim jumpings. The
Mormon Chief mine was transformed
into a fort and battles for Its posses
sion were frequent.
Then the bottom dropped out Inc
camp was deserted. The sounds or
pick and blast were gone from the deep
recesses. Bats futtered unmolested
about the rotting timbers. Coyotes
skunk into the tunnels and from this
vantage ground howled defiance at the
fierce wind of winter. For time the
spectral buildings stood gloomily on
their stills, their paneless windows
staring vacantly. Then decay made
them sink gradually 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 a few claims. In 1881 Arle
Pinedo thought he had found quick
silver in the old camp. He staked out
a claim and named 1t Mercur. But the
mercury never paid to develop the
claim. In 1883 gold was found in as
saws, but it could not be extracted. A
few men became interested and car
ried on mining in desultOry way with
out success. The Mercur claim was
sold as "gold brick" to a party OF Ne
braska ..'tenderfeet." For years 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 eX-
tracing the precious metal. They ex-
hausted 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 description OF
the cyanide process, then new In Amer
lea. With his druggists experience
Peyton had no difficulty in mixing a
cyanide solution and testing 1t 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 cupel a solution with which he
had been making tests until 1t was
much diluted, and went to bed. The
next morning he noticed that the weak
ened 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 So
luton 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
$15, 900. The town Of Mercur sprang
up, phoenix-like, and Is to-day one OF
the richest gold camps in the United
States.-Eugene B. Palmer in Ainslee's.