Arizona republican., 1902-03-24
MORENCI GOLD BELT
New Strike of Stevens and Baker on
 Eagle River.

A representative of the Copper Era Of Clifton last week visited the new gold strike recently made by Stevens and Porter, about six miles from Mcrenci and near Eagle river. The strike is not exactly a new one, as gold ere was taken from the claim many years ago and worked in an arrastra near by. In the early days of the camp from one thousand to fifteen hundred men found lucrative employment in the pIacers along Gold gulch. Pinckard's gulch. Cottowood and Bonanza gulches. from which for years steady stream of geld flowed into the commerce of the world. Those old timers were rot quartz miners and afte: they had eX- hausted the alluviad deposits, like the Arab. they folded their tents and silently stole away The quartz min CTS came next. and the remains of aTas- tras still line the guiches, but owing to trouble with Indians, scarcity Of water and the enormous expense 0t mining in those days. the section was finally abandoned. In recent years. however. an effort has been made to discover the gold leads by a few pros pectors. who have met with moderate success. and it was upon ore Of these claims that a strike Of considerable fln pOrtanca was made hy Stevens and Porter. The strike was made upon 7. claim for many years owned by Mrs. Baker. now Mrs. Stevens. The vein ;S about three feet in width. cuts through lime lorna tion for some considerable distance. with lime cappinS OVerlyirs it. except in the bottom or the Sulch. where it is exposed for short distance. Work is being prosecuted with q small force, and much of the quartz when broken shows free gold. and il all horns well. Many specimens running into the thousands per ton have been taken cut The ere also runs well iii silver and lead. The gold is in wires ant flakes and assays about SIS per ounce. In early days this some property was worked by Mexican miners. who had aa arrastra down the gulch. and there is a well authenticated report that st depth of two feet in one shaft $3.Jo] wds taken from pocket These legends usually grow in importance as the years roll by. but enough is known Of the property in recent years to SJaran- tee it a future if the development work be continued. It is certainly most
  now on the dump it would net be sur prise if it paid for it's own development On anather lead oa an adjoining claim. owned many years ago by Ben M. Crawford. T specimen was taken out and sent to the worlds fair at Chicago. which was said to be the handsomast | specimen of wire gold on exhibition at that time. Stevens and Porter own fifteen claims. nearly all of which show from one to several leads. all morning gold. but development work mas nos yet been done sufficient to guarantee thei.' value except as promising prospects.
 In the same section the Home Cop per company owns several gold claims upon which they are now preparing tn commence work. Superintendent M"lder has just moved his camp over from the cOmpany's copper claims to the Bug Zard's Shadow. one of the noted claims Of that section. which many years ago produced ore ranging from fifty to scv- eral hundred dollars per ton. The lead horns well it's entire length through the property and is from eight to twelve feet in width. and Mir MoIder is satis- fled that it will average from S6 t0 &S per ton, which would be q big mine i1 any country.
 With all of the placer gold produced in that section in early days. it is only reasonable that some very rich quart veins exist there. and it is only Ques- ton of time until some of them will be discovered. and an excitment will pre- vail which will guarantee thorough prospecting of the gold belt of that section.