The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1914-04-18

and 500 pounds of flour. They con-
WINGED the Burkes that they, the
Burkes, needed these commodities
worse than an option, in the sum of
$S,000 on the claim If Ely and Ray
mond did not come through with the
$4,000 before the option expired, would
not the Burkes still have the watch,
and If they did, would not the flour
in the meantime, keep them alive and
well, in prime condition to enjoy
their wealth to the uttermost when
it should arrive? Would they not be
relieved of the risk and anxiety of
developing their claim, with plenty of
time on their hands-and watch to
tell it by-in which they could make
another fortune somewhere else?
Well, as they say, the Burkes fell
for it," and Ely and Raymond were
happy. The rest was easy. Ely stayed
on the job with shotgun, while Ray
mond went down to interview the
Mormon farmers at Panaca
To them he spoke long and persua-
sively of the merits of piece of min.
eral-bearing ground which he and his
partner, John Ely, owned in the new
camp; of wonderful five-stamp mill,
a triumph of modern mechanism,
which they also owned, and which
could easily transform the rock from
their claim into good round dollars II
only it could be brought over from
Hike, where it was loafing around do
ing nothing much, to Panaca, the
might metropolis of Meadow valley,
which needed only good quartz mill,
employing a few thousand men or So
to make it the Queen City of the
West
The substance of "Billys" song
was:
I'VE don't want your teams;
But by lingo! if we did,
We have the mine;
We have the mill;
And we have the money--hidi'
He promised them hauling for their
teams markets for their crops;
, schools for their children; books and
culture for their homes-all that
money could buy or wealth create
if only they would as one man, hitch
up, drive over to Hike, get that mill.
take it over to Panaca and set it up
in business. All that looked good to
the Mormons. and they, also, fell for
it" First, however, as canny pre-
caution against disappointment, they
drove up to the Burke claim, on which
Raymond and Ely had taken their op-
tion and, under the watchful eye and
shotgun of John Ely, they loaded up
ten tons of the ore and started for
Hike. There they ran their ore
through the mill, and were duly ex-
cited when they saw the nice bar Of
bullion which resulted from it's opera
ton When those Mormon horses and
Mormon men started back, they had
the mill on their wagons-disjoint
but all there. With it came Morti-
mer Fuller, it's superintendent, under
whose direction it was re-assembled
and started on it's new career in
Panaca
The Pioneer Five
There it came to be known as the
Pioneer Five 1t had twenty horse
power boiler twelve feet long and
thirty-eight inches in diameter, five
stamps. weighing $50 pounds apiece,
nNO 'dlS, loul pans duu tWo oSssASAe'
The mill building proper was twenty
four feet square, the boiler and pan
room 30x40. The method of treating
the ore was what was known as the
Washoe process, or pan amalgama-
ton. capacity Of the mill being ten
tons per day.
In February. 1870, the stamps Of
the Pioneer Five" commenced drop
ping on ore which averaged in value
s240 per ton. OF these values $4,000
was lost in the tailings, $50 represent
ed the cost of treatment. and $50 was
profit-not much over one-third Of the
total values. yet even that fraction
meant $500 per day for Raymond and
Ely During the first month of its
operation the proceeds of the mill en-
, abled them to pay up their Panaca
friends in full. who received also $50
per day for hauling ore down from
the Burke mine.
Meanwhile, on Pioche's properties,
, now known as the Meadow valley
: the cost of shipping fuel in and bull
: lion out was eating up all the profits
: from the furnaces, and it was becom-
} ing more and more evident that
smelling would have to give way to
some less expensive process. Late in
1869 toll road had been opened be-
tween Phoebe and White Pine, where
threre were number of mills, employ
h ing the Washoe process. Shortly after