Fergus County Democrat., 1908-11-24
MINING
Return From Little Rockies.

R. B. Thompson, M. L. Woodman
and Oswald Lehman returned last
Tuesday evening from trip to the
Little Rocky mountain mining dis
trict, of which Zortman is the chief
town. The gentlemen left here Thurs
day noon, and arrived in Great Falls
at 8 o'clock, being one hour late.
They left Great Falls at 2 o'clock in
the morning, going to Dodson, from
which place they boarded a stag,
coach for the 27-inile trip over the
mountains to Zortman. On the way
over, the team became fractious and
all of the passengers except Mr..
Thompson jumped out That gentle
man stayed with the rig and after
vainly trying for several minutes to
run away with such a weight handicap
against them, the cayuses laid down
and when the other passengers came
up, they found the big banker sitting
calmly and unafraid behind couple
of thoroughly tanned and somewhat
disgusted bronchos. According to
the gentlemen from Lewistown, the
Zortman district has every promise
OF becoming one of the biggest gold
bullion producers in the United States.
The Ruby Gulch Mining company. OF
which B. D. Phillips is the chief stock
holder, have a modern cyaniding mill
Of 5OO-ton daily capacity and is kept
running up to its capacity This COM
pany has fine plant throughout, hav-
ing but recently completed a new
power plant on big spring twelve
miles away and from which all the
power necessary will be transmitted
to the mine and mill. Many offers
have been made for this property but
the owners have placed price Of
$7,000,0OO on the mine and refuse tc
take any smaller sum. They have
vast reserves of ore, the greater part
of it low grade but all of which car,
be worked at good profit They are
securing their ore almost exclusively
from open cuts The mill of the Lii
tile Rockies Exploration company has
been temporarily closed down. This
is the property formerly owned BY
F. W. King and associates and from
which several hundred thousand dol
lars worth of bullion has been taken
For several months, the greater par,
Of the work has been done on the
Alabama claim which is about mile
from the mill Thousands of tons O.
ore running from $14 to $50 per tor
have been opened up on this claim
and, until recently, it was hauled BY
wagon to the mill and treated at 4
good porft The directors recently
decided, however, that it will be wiser
to shut down the mill until an aeria
tramway, 5000 feet long, can be put
in. It is expected that this tramway
will be put in early in the spring a.
latest after which the mill will b.
enlarged and started up again. Messrs
Woodman and Thompson are botf
largely interested in this property ant
their inspection thoroughly convinced
them that with the completion Of Z
tramWay, it can be made into one o.
the biggest and most profitable golf
producers in the state Among othe'
properties in the district which arr
showing up we'll is the Wilson grour
owned almost exclusively by Lewis
town men. Mr. Lehman is interestee
in this company and looked over tn
work being done. They have some
splendid showings and it is the
opinion of we'll posted mining mer
that the local men who took over T.;
property are certain to realize hand
som ely within the next few years.