Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-03-09

James G. Wilder, Of st. George,
Utah. has the following interesting
article in the Advocate, Of that place.
descriptive Of the silver.bearing sand
stone at Silver Reef:
'Silver occurs in rocks of all ages,
but in some of them very sparingly;
and it is but seldom it occurs in pay
ing quantities in sandstone. The most
conspicuous place in which argentif-
ercus sandstone occurs in paying guam.
titles is at Silver Reef, in Washington
county, Utah, which place has produc.
ed over 100000 in silver up to 1900.
It was in this locality of Utah that
John Barbee, in the year 1873, discov-
cred silver in a sandstone reef near
the town of Leeds, about IL miles nor
theast Of st. George, the county seat
of Washingtin county. John Barbee
was an old-time prospector of Cali
fornia, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and
Utah. He had taken part in every
great mining excitement for the pre-
vious 25 years. In 1872 he had dis
covered the silver lead mines Of Deep
creek in western Utah, only to make
a failure of smelling the ores of that
region at Clifton. His next move was
to southern Utah, and one morning
while he was preparing his breakfast
at a camp fire near Leeds, he observ-
ed metallic substance in the surface
OF one of the sandstone masses against
which his fire had been built, which
he found to be silver, and investigation
proved to him that the region round
about for distance Of five miles in
length and three miles in width, was
made up of successive sandstone reefs,
each of which carried more or less
silver, some of them being too low in
value to pay, while others ran as high
as 1000 ounces per ton.
Mr.. Barbee located a large area of
land near the scene of his first discov-
cry at Leeds and farther west on what
are known as the Buckeye and White
Reefs. He was without money at the
time, but it was but short time be-
| fore he found the man with the money
and as result small mill was con-
structed and set to work in a very
short time and was producing silver
bullion. At the end of the year 1874
! iot, no rNf
yer Reef extended over Nevada, Utah
and Montana; great numbers of min
ers flocked in from those territories
and in the year 1875 the town of Sill
yer Reef on upper Leeds creek was a
thrifty camp. Five mills were employ
ed in treating the ores and about 1000
men found employment in mining and
milling the ore of the district. The
principal mines of those halcyon days
We're the California, Maggie, Buckeye
Tecumseh, Barbee and Walker, Stor
mont, Thompson, Last Chance and the
Leeds mine. The silver occurred al
black sulphides, chlorides, horn silver
and native silver, in thin sheets; bu1
the largest bodies in the deeper work
ings. AS to the source of origin We
know but little about the silver of th<
reef. The problem is difficult of so
luton and only the student who il
able to patiently work his way through
natures laboratory will be able to givt
Us the true solution.
The history of Silver Reef as ,
mining camp is a strange one. 1
arose to prosperity rapidly and TO
, eight years continued to produce larg'
volumes of silver. In the year 1885,
/ IL had grown to be handsome littl
mining city of about $500 people. Il
, that year a strike called by the min
| ers' union shut down most of the prir
: cipal mines, and the decline in tn
l price of silver occurring soon ate
= completed the work. Now only fe,
: leasers are at work and the output il
/. the wear 1904 had declined to 16O0