Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1911-05-10


as good mining camp. After short
talk Clark allowed the Alasxans to
leave without making ally further ref,
erence to the property. He did not
believe their story
Clark thought they were crazy.
In Montana bornite and copper
glance are not found on the surface,
but at depth. The formation in Alaska
is entirely different. The Bonanza
outcrop is freak in way. 1t is
like a great blowout from subter-
ranean forces, a dome built upon the
cathedral range of such imposing ap-
pearance, with its weather-stained
green sides glistening in the sun, that
it can be seen for great distance.
The copper is found in other parts
of Alaska at the contact, where
layer of limestone rests upon a sup
porting basis of greensboro.
Senator Clark afterward sent an ex-
pert copper mining engineer to look
over the field, but the Bonanza mao
been sold meantime to the Havemey-
ers of New York and Norman Schultz
and James H Ralph Of Pittsburg, VINO
made a fortune in oil and steel. smith,
Warner and their associates received
about $4,000 each for their inter
est
The Bonanza was now becoming the
wonder of the copper world. Experts
for the Guggenheims made repeated
examinations and those copper mag
mates bought the property, paying, It
was said, about one million dollars.
Then the transportation problem was
tackled in earnest. The last spike III
the railroad from Cordova to Kennl-
cult, was driven this spring
Contractor Heaney, who built the
White Pass & Yukon railroad, carried
out the plans for the Copper River
railroad under the direction of Chief
Engineer Hawkins. The difficulties to
be overcome were stupendous.
To avoid the two huge glaciers
which form ice walls for miles along
the Copper river, it was necessary to
cross the river twice by bridges OF
steel costing millions of dollars to
build. In places the cliffs of rock
were blown out and leveled to make
a roadbed for the rails, and the track
runs along the edge Of deep canyons
through which the river waters rush
in mad torrents or fall in boiling rap
ids to lower level.
The scenery along the Copper river
is continual surprise. From glis-
tening glaciers to snow-capped peaks,
and from brown forests of cedar,
rusty from exposure, to brilliant fields
Of flowers of every color, thick as but
tercups in a meadow and covering
vast expanses of the mountainside,
the travellers eyes turn in wonder
ment The melting SHOWS fall in
great bridal wells of shimmering
beauty from precipitous cliffs. The
mild temperature of July and August,
in the valleys and along the rivers, is
sure to draw the sightseeing traveller
from every quarter of the world, with
the same fascination that Switzerland
holds for the sojourners abroad
The superintendent of the Bonanza
saws the assay values of the ore will
amaze the mining world. When it is
understood that copper ore yielding
two per cent. in pure metal is good
enough to induce capitalists to invest
millions, ore assaying go to 70 per
cent. copper justifles the name Bo-
nanZa.
Jack Smith, the original discoverer
with Clarence Warner, retired some
years ago to live in small town near
Albany, NJ Y, which was his home in
his early youth. But the Alaska fever
seized him again, and he went to Sc.
attic to be once more with his old
associates who cannot resist the al
Iurements of the trail and camp
Warner spends most of his time in
Chicago, but he, too, makes a trir
every year to the Copper river bell
and camps at the familiar streams
along the government trail where he
met and conquered hardship