Bisbee daily review., 1908-11-29
LACK Of WATER
ALONE STANDS
AS A BARRIER
GreaterviIIe Placer Camp,
Thirty Years Old, Contains
Riches That Can Moi Now
Be Taken BY Miners.
cTueson starr

Whenever times are duh and bust
ness out of joint the old placer miner
invariably returns to mis- first love and
with pick, pan, rocker and stu &c box,
earns enough of the yellow metal 10
keep the wolf from the family door.
The Greaterville piacers were dis
covered sometime in the spring OF
1875. At that time George o. Hand,
Alva smith and d. B. Rae We're pros
pecting in the Santa Rita mountains
for qqartz Lodges. They we're Joined
by Fred G. Hughes shortly after their
discovery of the placer ground and
his was tae first claim staked on in
the now famous camp. As soon as
the discovery became known miners
and prospectors ftocked in that direc-
ticn, coming from California as wei
as from the northern states OF Next
60. That was thirty-three years ago
ard the camp has been worked con;
tinuousIy ever since, and it is estimat'
cd that more than two million dol
lars nave been taken out.
There are similar placers on the
Colorado, both on the California ana
Arizona sides. When the big mines
are working. labor plentiful and wages
good, the placer districts are prac-
ticaIly abandoned, and the busy hive
of today will be deserted camp to-
morrow. But it is known that these
mines will always afford living, win
always pay from one to two dollars a
day the year round, so when less ia
boricus and more remunerative work
is not TO be had, the deserted camp
once more takes on life and better
times can be waited for without suf-
fering the pinch of poverty.
The Greateryille placers have never
been abandoned. There are men in
that camp who nave been there for
thirty or more gears. Sometimes they
do not make a great deal. but pay
dirt" is always 70 lie had. At tats
time there are about fifty men In
camp and all are reported to be do
ng very well, not making big wages,
hut making fair wages. Repeated eff
forts have been made TO work this
ground by machinery, and much mon
ey has been spent in that direction,
but apparently without success. The
latest scheme involved an outlay or
, about 100000 1t consisted in de-
veloping water and conveying it TO the
ground from the distant canyons, and
| a dredger or rather a steam shovel
I to handle the dirt. On the compile
| ton of this last project cons derable
ground was worked over, but the sup
iply of water being insufficient, the
project had TO be abandoned So far
as known the pay dirt" covers about
five square miles and at the present
manner of working cannot be ex-
hausted IN a hundred years.
Some years ago a Pennsylvania
/ company spent considerable money il
an attempt at sluicing, but lack o.
water, as with all other extensive eli
forts, proved an unsurmountable bai
to success. Fred G. Hughes, who has
never lost his interest in the camJ
since its discovery, estimates taat
There is from four to five feet o.
ground that will work about two dol
liars and fifty cents to the ton. Il
| is easy to see that with sufficient
water supply a world of money could
be taken out The camp is situated jus
lover the ridge of the Santa Rita
mountains, south OF Helvetia, ant
about forty miles southeast o. this
city.