The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1906-12-18

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the proceeds used to prospect
for quartz claims in the vicinity.
A few years ago George Bowdea
took out a ditch from Grouse
creek and commenced to ground
sluice the bar, or higher ground
with a view of prospecting the
same.
This was the first work of the
kind done, and while he did not
encounter any values as pre-
viously found in the main chan
mel, his cleanup was very salts
factory. His work for the season
gave him an average actual saw
ing of 282 cents per cubic yard,
basing his gold at S18 an ounce
for ground moved. About this
time the present company took
the ground and since then have
been aiming to entirely cross the
bar by sluice, or cut. To en-
able them to accomplish this a
ditch was taken out of Grouse
creek which gave them approx
imately 300 feet head for pipe
purposes and the property was
equipped with 1900 feet of hyd-
raulic pipe joint, etc. During
this time cut was run into the
bar, but owing to lack of suffi-
cient water for a sluiee head the
work was slow and the amount
of gravel removed comparatively
small. The gravel removed dur
ing this time yielded approx
mately 25 cents per cubic yard.
Most of the gold is coarse, and
some pieces taken out of the
works weighed as high as $500.
The creek has a fall of six de-
grees for the entire length of
the bar, and almost water fall
after entering the canyon.
The company owns the waters
of Grouse creek, Whites creek
and a sixty second feet of the
. water of Loon creek. They have
at present completed bitches
from Grouse creek and Whites
creek and surveyed a ditch to
be taken out of Loon creek.
They also own a quantity of
good yellow pine timber suitable
for sluice boxes, etc.
The climate is mild and eleva-
tion about $500 feet. Practical
ly no snow lies on the bar from
! March to December, and opera
tions could be carried on most of
the year A good wagon road
has been constructed by the Lost
Z Packer company, from Custer,
making it possible to freight all
supplies and equipment econom-
ically.
r The richness of the old chan
n mel can be verified by a number
: of prominent citizens who work
f ed there in the early days, and
# enumerable instances of pans of
dirt yielding as high as $500 are
n quoted. AS one instance, Geo.
h Clemow, resident of this city,
z took out $187 in one pan of dirt.
a Development to date has de-
n monstrated to the satisfaction of
a the directors of the company the
e value of their holdings and the
/ necessity of equipping the prop
IT erty at an early date as possible,
k and are at present arranging to
: commence the construction of
d their large ditch to be taken out
). of Loon creek.
2 The riches of Loon creek as a
;e placer camp is known far and
IT near. In the early days of plac-
1T er mining the ground as long as
it paid extremely high results
y was worked vigorously, but with
k modern mining machinery we
lie are of the opinion that there is
" plenty of ground at the old camp
h that can be worked at good
le profit, and the Loon Greek Plac-
D. er & Hydraulic company own
of one of the very best group OF
ce placer claims in that district,
i'd and with hydraulic the ground
in can be made to pay on the bars