The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-01-09
FORTUNES IN OLD CAMPS

From time to time The Mining Re-
view has called attention to the fact
that in the early discovered mining
camps of the west big mines were to be
found and fortunes made
Throughout the west, there are hun
dreds of old camps, whose existance
has been almost forgotten; which have
gone into decay and which stand as
monuments of a period when the early
pioneer penetrated into isolated reg
ions and located the cream of the min
eral showings. AS a matter of fact,
the men who were the forerunners of
the mining of the western states and
territories had the pick of the land.
and their locations were only made
when they had found lodges of rich
mineral and surface propositions which
would cause the mining men of today
to lose their heads at having a chance
at such a proposition. Thirty or forty
years ago the mine owners of the west
made millions from their rich mines,
and even then their work was of the
crudest and the process of ore reduction
the most simple. Why such mines
were deserted and abandoned, it is diff
icult to state. The decentralization of
silver, the small demand for lead and
the fact that there was little, if any,
market for copper, were among the rea-
sons which caused the decay of many
of these old camps, and today they are
idle, although they should prove at
tractive to mining men because of the
fact that they have been but partially
developed, and because of the further
fact that the ore bodies they contain
are larger and richer than is the case
with many of the new mines which
have been opened OF late years. Even
the old dumps are of higher grade than
the shipping product being sent out
from man of our new mining camps,
and now and then we hear Of fortunes
made by men who have ventured into
these old camps and who have gone
over ancient smelter dumps; who have
sent to the market second class ore
which was of too low a g de to oe
profitably handled during the era of
early mining, but which, under present
conditions, is looked upon as a high
grade product.
Such an instance is now being chron-
icled by the press of the country, the
scene of the recital being laid in Dolly
Warden district, White Pine
county, Nevada. Dolly Warden
was one of the pioneer
camps of the old "Sage Brush state,
but it has been abandoned for many a
year. Quite recently, however, it's
splendid naturalization he's appealed
to a number of mining men and pros
p~ectors, and something less than a year
ago these silent mountain ranges and
lonely were invaded by the
ever-alert mining operator. All but
one of these employed their time in
exploring the ancient workings of the
old mines of the district. The excep-
tion wal A. Saline, an Assyrian. who
made an examination of an old smelter
site, where there were several hundred
tons of ore or the dump, which, for
some unexplained reason. had never
been put through the fun zee. Hun
dreds of prospectors had seen this
dump of ere, but regarded it as prac-
tically valueless. Not 80 Saline, who
sampled the lot, purchased it from the
owner for $50, and who has since
shipped the same to the American
Smelling & Refining company, clean
ing up something like $4,000 OF the
deal.
Such opportunities exist in hundreds
of old mining (eamps throughout the
West. The operations of the Pittsburg-
Silver Peak Mining company of Blair,