The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1914-01-03
THE BALD MOUNTAIN
COPPER MINING DISTRICT
AL Dees, a Well Known Eurekan,
Believes That Development
Work Will Prove 1t
Another Ely

of the county and deputy Recorder
of the Bald Mountain mining district,
spent a few days in Ely last week,
says the Record. Mr.. Dees has been
a resident of Nevada for many years
and ran a stage line through Ely in
the early days when the men who
predicted that Ely would some day
be n of the greatest mining camps
in the world we're laughed at as
crazy enthusiasts. Mr.. Dees is glad
to be here to see their predictions full
filled and gives high credit to Frank
Paul and the little company of stead
fast men who persisted in their eff
forts to raise capital and interest the
outside world in this district, until
after years of Encouragement, sue
cess crowned their endeavors.
Mr.. Dees is fully convinced that in
Bald Mountain there is the making of
another Ely, and has put in eight
years hard work in the demonstra-
ton of his theories so far as they can
be demonstrated without the expen-
diture of a large amount of money.
Bald Mountain, like all other mining
districts, has had its ups and downs.
An English company spent 500, 900
there, but its managers devoted their
attention to gouging out rich glory
holes" where high grade ore was
found in punches close to the surface.
This ore was hauled by wagon rs
miles to the railroad and when the
company wound up in financial dis
aster, nothing but a series of shallow
surface workings was left to tell the
tale, when by the expenditure of the
same amount of money in deep min
ing a permanent camp might have
been established,
Bald Mountain has also had it's ex-
periences as a high-grade camp. One
man took out and shipped ore to the
value of $50, 900 as the official records
at Elko will show. Two old pros
pectors encountered a rich pocket and
took out four sacks of ore worth
$500. In the fight which ensued
over the division of the proceeds,
each man killed the other and an
other tragic chapter was added to
the long story of the camps expert
ences,
In the opinion of many mining
men who have examined the district,
Bald Mountain needs only develop
ment to become a second Ely. The
ore is pronounced to be practically
the same general character with a
slightly higher metal content than
that of the Ely district. The great
difficulty to be overcome is of course
lack of transportation, and even that
is not as great an obstacle as it was
in the early days of Ely, as Elko is
only about rs miles distant from
Bald Mountain while it required 140
miles of new railroad to bring Ely
in touch with the outside world,
Furthermore, Cherry Greek on the
Nevada Northern to the east and
Union Switch on the Eureka-Ne Nevada
railroad to the west are each distant
about 40 miles from the camp.
Churn drilling and lots of it will be
required to demonstrate the ore de-
posts of Bald Mountain to a suffi-
cient extent to justify the expendi-
ture of capital in such amounts as
are required to put a new copper
camp on the map in these days. but
the mine owners of that section are
of the class which believes that stick
ing everlastingly at it brings success
and no doubt their patience and per-
severance will in time be rewarded.
Mr.. Dees tells with great enjoy
ment of the comments of some Of the
old miners who used to work at the
Eureka and at Pilot Knob in the
early days of the Ely district. "Ore?"
they would say, "Sure they've got
ore and plenty of it, but it won't
average v two per cent, and who
Eve heard of ore like that paying
smelling charges? It's all a stock
jobbing scheme. nothing in it at all.
Nobody'll ever make a dollar out of
it except the stock jobbers." Which
is only another proof of the saying
that you can't always generally tell
how things are going to turn out
sometimes.