, 1907-09-18
AT
TIE SIDING
THE WALlA FIND BELIEVED TO
BE THE OPENING OF RICH
MINERAL FIELD THERE.
Accidental Discovery of Copper In
Place and Arrangements Made for
Working the Property in an At
tempt to Produce a Rich Field
Immense Lumps Of "Float."


More than thirty years ago, when
the Union Pacific was first built across
wyoming, the pure native copper to
be found neal Tie Siding attracted
much attention, and there were many
speculations advanced as to its origin
and mode of occurrence. Since that
time interest in the district has never
tagged. Prospectors have looked over
every foot of ground for many miles,
and many have been the reports that
the great copper lode from which the
rich Loaf comes had at last been dis
covered. Twenty years ago a carload
and a half of native copper in nodules,
picked up in the neighborhood OF Tie
Siding, was shipped by Laramie peo-
pie and brought in large returns.
Within the past ten years, since cop
per has become so important an ar
ticle of commerce, much money has
been expended in sinking shafts II
in exploration of the ground where
the rich copper float has appeared.
In every case there has beer disap-
pointment; no lode Of copper ore has
been found, and the theory that the
float has beer carried to it's present
position by glaciers, perhaps from a
vast distance, and deposited among
the drift, has been generally accepted.
stain Is Continuous.
Within the past few weeks, how
ever, A. X. Walla, prospecting in the
Immediate n~eighborhood of Tie Siding,
happened to turf over a loose frag-
ment of apparently lean quartz, at the
surface of a well-defned dyke of that
mineral, and observed hat the under
side bore traces of copper ~carbonates.
A very small amount of work with a
pick disclosed the fact that the cop
per stain was continuous and grew
more pronounced with depth. Mr..
| Walla became interested and went to
work in earnest. A shallow trench,
run for a distance of about twelve
feet across the dyke, shows that there
Is actually an outcrop of copper ore.
The dyke in which the ore appears is
composed of felsite and quartz and can
be traced for a Ion gdistance, both
be traced for a long distance, both
There is no drift in the neighborhood.
the discovery being to the east of Tie
Siding, in granite country rock of the
Archaean period, with no indications
of glacial or river deposits.
outcrop Near Surface.
Within two feet of the surface the
outcrop shows ~chalcocite, bornite and
native copper, in addition to the car
donates, and in every way promises
well. That the indications are not the
result of the staining of ground by
rich float, as has been the case IN
other prospects in the same district, is
considered certain by those who have
examined the find.
The country rock is crossed in the
vicinity by many intrusions of erup-
tives, such as diorite and porphyry, all
being m~ineralized with iron, but SO
far as known at present there are no
other indications of copper upon the
surface.
Much Interest Aroused.
In view of the general belief that
Inere must De a rlcn loue OIL copper
ore somewhere, from which the de-
posits near Tie Siding ave originated,
the discovery Of copper ore in place
has aroused much interest and the
ground all around the find has been
located by Laramie people.
The find made by Mr.. Walla is t.
be developed and there appears to be
a good chance that within the next
few months Tie Siding will see a
boom that will be based upon a very
certain foundation. No better location
for a mine could be found than that
of the present find. as it lies within
half a mile of Tie Siding, with the old
roadbed of the railroad making a
ready highway to the station.