The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-10-03
MINES AND MINING
ESCALANTE MINE
CLOSED BY WATER
Vigorous Pumping Forms a
Lake-Big Irrigation Plan
Probable.

on the edge OF the Escalante desert.
fourteen miles southwest of MOdena
is located the property Of the Esca-
iante Mining q Milling company,
which recently broke into its second
flow of water in its second shaft and
At the same water level as the discon-
certing flow was struck months ago
In the old shaft Work is once more
at a standstill, and the management
is said 10 hardly know which way TO
turn.
This is the old Holt property. which
has 10 its credit the production of
some very high-class ore IA days gone
by. Across the property a vein has
been prOspecteG for over a third Of
mile, showing high copper values in
numerous places. on this vein a shaft
165 feet was sunk years ago. On the
loo level a nine-fOot vein OF copper
ore was cut In places ore running
800 ounces silver and % Per cent lead
wac encountered. The shaft was an
incline, giving @ vertical depth OF 1SS
feet. At this depth a water flow was
struck. but although 800-gallon
pump was put on. and on Ons Occa-
sion worked for seventy-twO hours
continuously. the men were not able
10 lower the water more than three
inches. SO indusIriOusly did the man
sgement stick 10 the pump thar IN the
course or time a lake covering fifteen
acres was formed out on the desert
seventy-five feet below the mouth of
the SHAFT. Finally this shaft was
abandoned.
Later an expert was called in and he
gave them written advice how 10 avoid
the water ana yet develop the prop
erty. However. another shaft was
commenced about fifty feet from the
old one, and a Few days ago. when the
depth where water had been encOun-
tered in the old shaft had been at
tanned, the some kind of a flow was
struck again, and the second shaft IS
now abandoned. at least temporarily.
Roy Jay had the contract for sinking
the new shaft. and he recently came
10 Salt Lake. when the work was dis
continued Water was encountered at
a vertical depth of 13S feet in the old
shaft. and at ZAP in the new. There
seems 10 be a later intrusive flow
cutting the granite. and up through
small open contact assures the water
springs
As the opening to the shaft is sew
enty-five feet above the surrounding
Escalante desert, the water is struck
about sixty-five feet below the surface
level of the desert. II Is said IndL
prospective holes sunk in various
parts of the desert have tapped at
only small depth what seems To- be
n great subterranean lake extending
miles in all directions Another pc
culiar feature is that when a gale Is
blowing across the desert il has been
noticed time and again that water in
the old shaft. and. in fact. in all wells
I'm the vicinity. rises from four 20 six
inches Many theories are advanced
as to the cause of this phenomenon.
the most generally accepted being that
the strong wind must penetrate open
assures or other apertures in the
earth's surface and. driving the water
before il, causes it TO rise in these
wells.
Ia now seems 10 be a question
whether or not this Escalante prop
erty should not be turned from the
original purposes Of its owners and
converted into a great irrigation
scheme. A hundred thousand acres
OF rich sagebrush lands stretch out at
the foot of the hill. and by installing
two big pumps in the shafts sufficient
water could be had 10 furnish ten
thousand acres or more. according to
old-timers who thoroughly understand
that part of the state and who have
made examination of the big water
strikes