The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1906-08-23
Americas New Silver City.
BY STARR BULLOCK.

city, called Cobalt, $40 miles almost
due north of Toronto, in the icy
stretches OF Ontario, but 5000 men
from all North Observation-Disclosures
California placer-miners, pioneers
from the Yukon, Canadian lumber
jacks, and mining experts from the
East-are rubbing elbows there as
they toll over the wealth of ore. The
city is booming indeed, and every
train which runs anywhere near it
sets down a new crowd to add to
the population. Of the richness of
logists have proclaimed it the most
remarkable silver camp in north
America, so far as ore values are
concerned.
A distinguishing feature of the
camp is its orderliness. In this it
is unlike most of its kind. There is
no gun-play here, nor has there been
since the virgin forest gave way to
the first few shacks of the present
city in the spring of 1904. when a
blacksmith made the initial find in
this new Ell Dorado of the Western
Hemisphere.
Cobalt is nothing if not cosmopoli-
tan. Everything comes its way, even
to dynamite explosions which resem-
BILE earthquakes. On May Is nine
tons of the explosive went off within
a quarter of a mile of town, wreck
ing fifty or sixty shacks and startling
a fire which was subdued with diff
Guilty after fight in which the en-
tire population joined. Fortunately,
the fire was near the north end of
Cobalt Lake, and the volunteer buck
ct brigade got into action and put
it out.
1t would take several acres of
Coleman township, in which Cobalt
lies, to pasture an able-bodied goat.
1t is wild country, perhaps as wild
as any in the Canadian provinces.
1t is country of beautiful lakes,
well stocked by nature with pike and
pickerel, bass and catfish. The for
ests are spruce and pine, white birch
and tamarack. But the most strik-
ing thing to the tenderfoot and the
geologist alike is the marvellous
abundance of rock. You find it ev-
erywhere. 1t is IN the bush through
out the swamp-land, on the lake
shore. Dig for it in the woods and
you will hardly go three feet before
you strike it. Perhaps we may have
here the breast-bone of the con-
tinent.
In this rock has lain for centuries
some of the richest ore and minerals
yet discovered by man. Here, min
gled with the rich magenta of the
cobalt bloom and the peculiar lizard
green of nickel bloom, are bismuth,
pyrite, anthony, native and ruby
silver, and traces even of copper
and gold. Some of the ores are rich
in cobalt, nikel and arsenic, but
while these values are taken into
account, fully ninety per cent is
silver
1t was Frenchman named La Rose
who literary "put his foot in it" at
Cobalt. He was blacksmith with
the gang which was pushing the new
Ontario government railway through
the wilderness to connect North Bay,
the junction of the Canadian Pacific
and Grand Trunk lines, with the
Transc ontinental road now building
a hundred miles south of Hudson
Bay. Since he stubbed his toe over
nugget OF almost pure silver in the
cut near Cobalt Lake, the railroad,
the Temiskaming and Northern On
tario, has carried out, in ore values,
more than 100000 of silver.
Cobalt is emphathically a "poor
mans camp" Rich veins of silver
are very near the surface-in some
cases actually in sight. Little ma
; chinery is required to get the values
out or prepare the ore for shipment.
: Old silver-miners say that there is
not silver camp on earth where
the cost of a cleanup" is such a
small percentage of the values.
Some of the ore has assayed $500 per
ton. Of course, this is far above the
average, but the "Number 10" ledge
of the Nipissing group has cleaned
up carloads running fully that high
in assey value. 1t seems almost
like taking dollars out of the GROUND,
fresh minted and ready for circu-
lation. This particular ledge on the
Nipissing is developed only one
hundred feet in its length, and is
down less than sixty feet below the
surface. More than $500, 900 has been
shipped to date from "Number 49,
and the vein grows wider and truer
at the bottom.
This is only one of twenty-five or
thirty veins which have been opened
on this single property, and almost
every vein shows rich in value. This
group-the Nipissing in the
very heart of the ore-bearing dis
trict, and has an area of nearly 900
acres. 1t is known locally as the
Earle property, and is owned largely
by NEWCOMERS. AS an indication
: of the class of investors that FIJI