Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1903-12-25
STRIKE AT THE HERCULES
One Of the Biggest Mineral Deposits
in These Parts.

UerO;lN morning 10 MS IlllneS tlSHL
miles from Morristown, on the Castle
Creek Hot Springs road. reports what
he considers one of the biggest mining
strikes that has been made in Arizona
for many a long day, on the Hercules
property that adjoins the Humphrey
group Of twenty-five claims. He knows
what he is talking about, for he made
the strike himself and it concerns him
for the reason that while he does not
own the property, the new mineral
bodies extend beyond the lines of the
Hercules and into his own ground. He
has, in fact, opened up the veins
somewhat on his own ground, as he has
lodges on all his claims, but never to
the extent of making plain the immen-
sty of this deposit, which ne had not
hitherto considered larger than many
others, he had. He is the oldest contin-
uous prospector in that district, hav-
ing spent the last eight years there,
and has always claimed that his own
claims, the Hercules, and others that
might be mentioned, lie along a par
ticular formation that he believes to
be the mother lode, and naturally he
located what he thought was the best
of it. The recent discovery he thinks
tends very much TO confirm his opin-
the district.
Respecting the Hercules. an incline
shaft has been sunk a considerable
distance on the property, which was
once well equipped and a part of
which equipment was destroyed by fire
a year or so ago. Some prospecting has
already been done with a diamond drill
In the shaft the ore showing has not
been satisfactory, as no large, rich or
continuous body was developed though
some ore was found. During the last
year the company had done but little
and was without local manager when
the season approached for doing as
sessment work. The company employed
Mr.. Humphrey as its nearest neigh
Dor. and familiar with conditions, to do
the assessment work, and left il to
his judgment to do it as he saw fit.
He at once cleaned away the old
dump from the shaft and discovered
the groupings he knew was there, and
which he had always maintained
should have been followed down, in
stead of the formation in which the
shaft was sunk and which was main
ly country rock. Going down ten feet
on this cropping he developed what he
terms not so much a ledge as a stope
of from six to eight feet of the finest
kind of copper and gold ore. Then he
went a short distance above the in
cline shaft and opened up u similar
cropping and with similar results. The
body below the shaft is nearly a YER
teal formation, the shaft is more of
an incline and the upper body is on a
! still greater incline. or rather more
nearly horizontal. the surface ends of
/ tI4I
very close together. Therefore, Mr.
Humphrey says. the sinking of the
/ shaft is as pretty piece Of engineer
| ing work as one could find anywhere,
assuming of course that the engineer
was trying to avoid disturbing any
ore. That the upper deposit exists at
! depth ne thinks is well proven by the
/ fact that a long time ago a diamond
| drill was sunk 400 feet deep al a point
| 900 feet above the shaft and that the
| core showed the same formation he
| has opened on the surface. 1t was that
| body perhaps the company hoped to
! strike, but unless the angle of the for
| nation changed the shaft never would
! have met it and the only way it can
| now reach the ore is by vertical up
raise 20 the upper ore body ra wild
| ening crOss-cut to the lower body Mr.
| Humphreys theory is that when that
| mountain was formed the ore body was
! showed up to the surface by the coun-
| try rock as a magician would shove UP
q handkerchief from below with his
wand before doing a trick The coun-
| try rock had broken through at the
! surface the ore settling back on either
! side and in this little barren spot rep
| resented in the Illustration by the
wand, the Hercules shaft was sunk
To the northwest and toward his own
property, a distance of 700 feet on the
| bank of the gulch that divides their
| holdings. Mr.. Humphrey sunk another
! hole and developed ore that he says is
| simply q world beaten Then he run
open cuts fifteen feet long at intervals
| along the intervening space and found
| them to be all in ore and without cut
! ting a wall at either side. This ore he
! says, will much OF it go % per cent
! copper and from one dollar to twenty
| dollars in gold, and he has shipped
enough ore from points within a half
! mile to have a pretty good idea of
! values in the rock of that sectiCn
The Hercules company is an organi-
cation of Cleveland men. F. l.. Fuller.
Cleveland banker, being the presi-
| dent. AS soon as possible Mr.. Hum
| phrey informed them. of the strike
made on their property and urged them
to come and look at it. He expects that
they will be here early in the year and
it is quite likely they will soon there
! after, begin new operations in the ex-
| plotting of their ground.
| Of his own group Mr.. Humphrey says
| he has only pleasing things to say and
| the assessment work of 500 for each
of his twenty-five claims, recently per-
! formed, has improved their appearance
wonderfully. He is now running tun-
| mel, designed to show up the most
promising formation, or was till few
! days ago, when he closed down for the
holidays, after which he proposes to
| continue development work q He
thought his property was all right be-
| fore. but as it is holding up one end
Of the big Hercules vein he considers
himself just that more to the good.
+ PER .CONAT !