The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-29
P[()(>t II.

hiStOIy IMAM mat OF the PiOch6 district
row attracting the attention Of the
mining world
Situated. in NE eastern extremity of
Lincoln county on thirty-two mile
branch Of tie san Pedro, Los Angeles
d Salt Lake railway recently CON-
'st.ucted north from Caliente, a sta
IN or it, main line Piocne lies ia a
low, Rotated range Of mountains 5000
Iect above sea leVei IN Cambrian
tIart1lte and overlapping limestone
formation, and in = mineral belt ex-
lending north eighty miles TO Ely. in
White Pine county, and west, through
he Big Bristol copper district to Tono-
sh, ninety miles distant and south
through the big De Lamar district
fifty miles away
Discovered. i'm The sixties, an excite
-ent nroze out equal To that of the
omstock III Virginia City. and thou
sands flocized 10 this new Eldorado. A
tfeat assure was discovered i'm the
GCartZite, extending several thousand
rect Ia length and containing ore aver
aging over 500 a ton on which were
-"oatcu the famous Raymond and Ely
a1d Meadow Valley mines. from which
4 orkings over $20.0O0,O00 $4,000, 000)
Wtro produced within the short space
e six years. from 1868 TO 1874. Many a
miner well remembers those paImy
days of old Phoebe, with its high wages.
faro banks and f1ush times generally
Discovery of the "5iack Ledge"
II Was ia the midst of these flourish
ing times when another excitement
broke out and the so-called black
ledge was discovered. an immense body
- rich sulphide ore containing horn
.fsn.f til -st1.
blend, found in big pOrphyry dyke
Q'er 1000 feet below the surface
Stocks on the San Francisco stock
exchange, already high, Immediately
Climbed 70 most dizzy heights, and that
Il 0onaaza fully as great as the Com
ock had been found was freely pre-
cted. Further investigation disclosed
TIE fact that this porphyry dyke, on
which was situated the new ore discov-
cry was over eighty feet i'm width, and
extended several miles in length, run
ming about 400 feet south and nearly
PARALLEL to the large quartzite ledge;
and that the Yuba East, Yuba (former-
~ called the American Flag, Cu,-ren-
g, Silver (thsh known as the Mazep-
PAL, and Independent, were all located
following each other on this same por-
phyry ledge, which was the main ore
bearing channel of the district and
their metallic contents; in other words,
the mother lode of that district
How the Camp Went Down.
Deep shafts were sunk and much de-
NelOpment was done, in proving I'D this
ledge along its course. and enormous
ore bodies were blocked out. but the
unexpected happeled-a sudden drop
occurred in stocks, and a lull prevailed
in that busting mining camp. A dim
Guilty presented itself that could not be
overcome, for the ores in the new dis
coNery and all along the pOrphyry ledge
contained high percentage of lead
along with their silver and gold. and
would not yield their values to the old
time Comstock system of pan amalga-
NATION, the only method then known
mat would successfully extract a fair
PORTION of the metals from the ores
The long wagon haul of $50 miles over
the desert to Palisade. on the old Cen
trail Pacific railroad, the nearest rail-
road point. which was around S45 a ton
rendered shipments abroad impossible.
Meanwhile the ores i'm the quartzite
assure, which was worked down 1000
feet TO water level. changed In charae-
ter from free" milling to a smelling
ore, like that of the porphyry ledge and
became base" as lead ores were then
called, and after thousands were spent
N fruitless attempt to solve this
early day metalluTgical problem, the
mines almost simultaneously were
closed down; the toOt of the whistle
was no longer heard in the Phoebe hills.
the great shafts commenced to cave.
and old Phoebe, like her syin sister.
Ely, soon became deserted camp, and
that, too, with millions in ore reserves |
practically untouched
Changes Wrought by Time.
Since then, thirty years have come
and gone, and Time has wrought many
changes. The concentration process |
now readily separates zinc from lead. /
ard the new magnetic separators so /
purify their product that zinc, once a |
worthless metal and bugbear. Is
now, like copper, an asset in great de-
mand. Smelling has been so perfected
that II is now an exact science and |
many thousands of tons Of low-grade
ores are daily treated in works through
out the west. The cyanide teaching
process has corae TO stay, and the old
amalgamatiOn process of Comstock
style is now relic Of bygone days.
Along geological and mine develop
ment lines, the advancement has been
still greater, and recent disclosures of
the immense wealth found in the por-
phyries of Bingham. Utah: i'm Ely,
New, and elsewhere, show that porphy-
~ dykes-the mother of minerals-is
where bonanzas are found: that they
are reliable. permanent and extend to
untold depths.
Modern methods. therefore, both in
'Letallurgy and mining, and cheap rail
road transportation have solved the
Phoebe problem, like that of many 9TH
er camps of isolated Nevada, and this
district now bids fair TO
eclipse her splendid record of the past.
The Camp of Today.
The mineral values of the Phoebe dis
trict have in recent years been consid-
cred by biologists as due 10 AN igneous
intrusion, the so-called Yuba porphyry ,
dyke, in the vicinity of which most of .
the rich strikes have been made. Asso- !
riated with this at great depth is the
black ledge" an immense body of lead, /
zinc and silver. which runs through the !
of the Nevada UtaFe and the
Ohio Kentucky COMPANIES, and which
s known to be of great importance and ,
value.
The Yuba dyke was formerly thought
20 be purely local, but Professor Pack, 7
n 1906. traced il for ten miles north 7
vest and found what he considered a | Z