Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1901-03-20
THE VULTURE MINE.
An Interesting Description of This
 Famous Property.

The following is taken from lettel
 recently written by Lloyd Dameron
 the newspaper correspondent, to the
 Los Angeles Herald, after a personal
 visit to the mine, and will be of inter
 est to those who are not already
 familiar with the history and extent
 of this wonderful mine:
 After a production of fully S25,.
 100000, the old Vulture mine, near
 Wickenburg, on the route of the S
 F., P. x P. railroad, which was closed
 down and almost abandoned twelve
 years ago, will likely be reopened. A
 transfer of the famous property, re-
 gently owned by the Vulture Mining
 company, composed of Chicago capi-
 talists, to Willis B. Troy and New
 York associates, was made recently
 and the new owners contemplate go-
 ing into the enterprise of rehabilitat-
 ing the old mine and working it on an
 extensive scale. The sum involved in
 the purchase and in improvements to
 be made shortly, amounts, without
 doubt, to almost S1,000,000 Willis
 B. Troy, principal owner of the mine
 and W. Willard Stevens, manager of
 Troy's interests in Arizona, were met
 in Wickenburg by a Herald core
 spondent the other day and the party
 visited the Vulture holdings, ten miles
 from the railroad.
 The reopening of the historic Vul-
 ture mine will be one of the most i'm
 portant moves in the mining history of Arizona. The property has been idle, not because it had "pinched out" !" nor because mining men thought so, but because the task of reviving it, installing new machinery and work ing the holdings according to modern methods was too gigantic an enter prise to interest outside capitalists.
 The Vulture was once a great free gold proposition, which in a marvel ously short time enriched a dozen owners. The work was confined to shallow tunneling, reaching down no more than 200 feet, but the workings were so extensive that herds of burros were driven into the drifts, tunnels and excavations to remove packs of ore. The free milling, high grade ores on the surface and down to grass roots have been exhausted. The high grade mine, which was famed for the rich ness of free grade ore, under develop ment is converting itself into a man. moth low grade proposition, which, unless all signs fail, will in the course of time place the mine on a scale of profit equal if not greater than it has ever attained.
 Today the Vulture, veritable cata comb of tunnels, drifts and shafts, an immense monument to the past fail ures and litigation, and a skeleton of one of the greatest Jumps of gold in the world, stands out as changed mine, inviting capitalists to sink down below the shallow depths attained by early miners, who had not yet been taught that Arizona mines go down.
 Quiet development in the past year have exposed by one lead body of low grade ore, principally in copper and gold, 600 feet in length and from p to 150 feet in width. This deposit | becomes richer with depth, but its ex and depth cannot be de until diamond drills com mence exploring. .
 The recorded gold output of the Vulture is approximately Sl6,000O00. An estimated total production of S25- 100000 is likely small. The 5000, 900 unaccounted for in the records | the stealing by employees, which under crude methods of saving gold, could not be prevented. To make up that production, fully 1000, | 900 tons of ore were removed from the | and carelessly run through | an S0-stamp mill, leavinga mass oftail- ings which has been partially ly worked | over. A quantity of free milling ore taken from the Vulture carried be- tween S200 and $500 to the ton. Tail ings from this rich ore have been cyanided at profit of S10 to the ton. The saving on tailings from Sl6 ore amounts to about B, demonstrating the large loss by former operators to the gain of the new owners.
 The first important improvement | will be the construction of a pipe line from the Hassayampa river, at cost | of from Si5,000 to S55,000.
 The Vulture mine, by mere chance, was discovered by Henry Wickenburg in 1863. He was searching for lost | mine, when quite by accident he thrust his pick into a yellow ledge | out of a Assure which has since become famous. Inspired by the appearance of several buzzards en- over his head, he then and there named the prospect the Vulture. He sold it at large figure to the Ari- zona Central Mining company, which coined money for some time. and later the late Senator Tabor, of Colorado, acquired possession of this holding, which made him rich. A litigation followed, the senator met with various reverses and died two years ago a poor man, but to the last he had faith in the Vulture and stated, shortly before his death, that had he let other speculation alone and clung to the Vulture, the mine would have made him one of the richest men in the world.