Gilpin observer., 1906-09-20
NEWS FROM The MINES and MILLS
Great Cripple Creek Tunnel.

Great Cripple Creek Tunnel.
With the Incorporation of the Grip.
pie Creek Drainage & Tunnel Company
a new era is inaugurated in tho worlds
greateet gold camp, the practical assur-
ance that the drainage tunnel to be
constructed will carry away all the
SURFACE and Subterranean water for the
entire Cripple Creek district having re-
suited already In a rise in the market
value OF mining stocks and a notice
able air of improved business condi-
tions.
All the prominent mining machinery
houses in the state are preparing bids
on the machinery contract which, it is
said, will be let within short time,
and from present indications it is prob
able that active operations will begin
about January LIST.
AT the portal of the tunnel COM
pleto plant for generating electricity
will be installed, that having been de-
c1de1 upon as the power for operating
the drills, but for transporting the ore
from the face to the portal it is prob
able that mules will be employed, as
experience has shown that it is diff
cult TO maintain an electric tramway,
owing to the problem of insulation pre-
sShtSi w thS WHICH dCCuIllu-
lates beneath the tracks. The install
lation of the electric plant and other
requisite machinery will take about
four months and a half, after which
active operations will commence at
once.
The company which will drive the
tunnel Is capitalized for 81 900, 900,
| and will issue 100000 shares of stock
| at PAR value of 81 share. This
stock iG to be subscribed for by the
| various mining companies of the dis
trict, and, according to an agreement
| among the mine owners, no work will
be commenced until $4,000 worth of
stock has been formally subscribed
and there is nothing to prevent imme-
| diate arrangements being made to be.
| gin operations.
The men who will pilot the destinies
| of the company for the first year are
Sherwood Aldrich, Frank G. Peck,
Frank j. Campbell, w. j. Chinn. Frank
F. Costello, J. T. Milliken and A. E.
Carlton. All of these men are well
known throughout the district and
most of them have interests in the
| mines which have made the camp IA
| nous. Their headquarters will be in
Colorado Springs where majority
| vi thcLl lSSlut, II Idlh d. SdInpDell De-
| ing the only Denver man on the board.
Out of the three tunnel plans sug-
| sested, the one chosen is known as the
| Catch Park tunnel, intermediate be-
tween the Cape Horn and the Window
| Rock propositions. 1t will have it's
| portal at an elevation of 5000 no
| feet below the Ell Paso tunnel, which
| drains the district at present, and 800
faaf 1hnvn ha
| tunnel. which was the deepest one con-
| sidered.
In choosing the intermediate canal
| the hackers of the proposition endeav-
| cred to strike a balance between the
deep level tunnel with its long life
and certainty of drainage of the entire
! district. and the necessities of some of
the mines which at present are work
ing al or near the water level. The
| deep level tunnel, 1t was estimated.
would require something like a year
more time for completion than the
Catch Park tunnel which at the pres
| ent stage of the workings in some of
| the principal mines was too long to
wait for the desired results. The Catch
| Park tunnel being 1000 feet shorter
than the Window Rock tunnel, it can
be completed in 81 years, according to
| the estimate in the report made by
David w. Brunton, the consulting en-
| gineer, and this, in connection with a
consideration of enhanced difficulties
| of ventilation in the deep level tun-
mel, was one of the chief influences
| which. led to the selection of The inter
| mediate course.
Another prime factor in influencing
! the final decision was the fact that the
| portal of the proposed Window Rock
tunnel would lie so near the level OF
| the valley of the creek that the flow of
water would become useless as n
| source of power. AS it is there will
| be sufficient fall so that the electric
| plant which operates the drills can
| be run by water power with a conse-
quently enormous saving of expense.
A ditch had already been surveyed
by the El Paso company and water
| rights taken out at point below the
Catch Park tunnel site before the fl
| ing of the incorporation papers. with
] the idea of transferring the watcl
| rights to the new corporation as soon
as 1t was officially in existence. 1t Is
| expected that as soon as the new drain.
age tunnel is completed the power
| from the old Cripple Creek drainage
tunnel will find ready sale in the
| district.
The Catch Park tunnel will be the fifth
which has been driven for drainage
purposes In the Cripple Creek district
| the others, In the order they were run,
being the Blue Bell. the Ophelia. the
Standard and the Ell Paso. or Cripple
Creek. AS each successive tunnel
crossed the fissures which are know i
among the miners as water courses"
1t drained the tunnel above 1t, and at
| the present time the El Paso tunnel is
the only one discharging water Its
rate OF flow varies between 1900 ami
| $500 gallons per minute, or about A.
900 gallons per minute less than what