Mohave County miner., 1901-03-02
Ups and Downs of Mercur.

The story of Mercur, Utah, is a strik.
ing illustration of the ups and downs
of typical mining camp. Many years
ago the Indians there we're supreme.
Arrow heads and other relics picked
up near the site of Mercur indicate
that the tribes have at times contested
among themselves for that supremacy
for these hills as battle ground.
In 1870 silver was discovered OF this
site. aud two years later the Carrie
Steele mine took out S3,OO0S in three
months, and the Camp Floyd boom
leaped to its height. Lewiston sprang
up almost in day where Mercur now
stands. The town was in a fever. There
were rich strikes, shootings, wild ca
rousals and claim jumpings. The
Mormon Chief mines was transformed
into fort and battles for its posses
sion we're frequent.
Then the bottom dropped out. The
camp was deserted. The sounds of
pick and blast we're gone from the deep
reces ses. Bats fluttered unmolested
among the rotting timbers. Coyotes
skunk into the tunnels and from this
vantage ground howled defiance at the
! fierce winds 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 soli-
tary Moses Manning, keeping up as
sessment work on few claims. In
/ 1881 Arie PinedO thought he had found
quick silver in the old camp. He staked
out claim aud named it Mercur. But
| the mercury never came to develop
the claim. In 1888 gold was found in
assays, but it could not be extracted
A few men became interested and car
ried on mining in a desultory way
without success. The Mercur claim
was sold as gold brick" to party
of "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 extracting the
precious metal. They exhausted their
capital and in 1898 they we're 5O,OOOs in
debt and at the end of their rope
Gilbert Payton, one of the owners,
who was Nebraska druggist, visited
the mine. Going through the drawers
of the office desk he came upon
pam phlet 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 bad no difficulty in making a
cyanide solution and testing it in the
cupel with some pulverized ore. But
the solution did not seem to percolate
the powdered ore and the experiments
we're failures. Sick at heart, Peyton
left in the cupel solution with which
he had been making tests until it 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
solution and larger pieces of ore were
tried, and the process worked like
charm.
The owners of the Mercur mine we're
transformed into rich men. Moses
Manning, the patient hermit, made
l5,0O0S. The town of Mercur sprang
up, Phenixlike, and is today one of
the richest gold camps in the United
States.-Eugene b. Palmer in Ainslee's.