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

miles from Phoebe. ran at capacity
night and day, paying 75 per cent OF
the assay value of the ores, less $50
per ton for treatment. All the ore
sent to Silver Park had to bear a
transportation cost of Sic per ton.
None was shipped assaying less than
$3.50 per ton in gold and silver. The
transportation problem was partially
met in 1873 by the construction of a
three-foot gauge railroad connecting
Phoebe and Bullionville, running via
Dry valley and Condor canyon. and
thus serving all the principal mills of
the camp. 1t was distinguished
among railroads by the fact that its
engines were hauled in by mules, and,
when the line was finally abandoned,
hauled out the same way. An inter
esting sidelight is thrown upon the
greatness and promise of the early
days of Phoebe by the fact that the
promoters of this Pioche-Bullionville
railroad confidently expected to ex
tend their line both east and west to
connect with and become a part of
the great trans-continental route to
the north On the last day before the
road opened for business, 120 teams
loaded at the Raymond & Ely dumps
with ore for Bullionville.
While these developments were
I, taking place in Phoebe itself. others
not less important, were recorded in
outlying districts which today, brought
near at hand by modern railroad facil-
tiles, are regarded as part of Greater
Phoebe. Highland. Comet, Jackrabbit,
Atlanta, Bristol. Silver Park came in
with rich producers, any of which
would make a good live camp today.
In later years while Phoebe itself was
tied up with seemingly hopeless liti-
cation, it was these outlying districts
some of them producing steadily and
almost without interruption that kept
the camp alive, and pointed to the
better times which have at last come.
| That they are not better known to
the world at large is simply due to the
fact that the Ely mining district, COM
prising Phoebe proper, being little
earlier in the field, had so accustomed
people to reckon in seven figures
when dealing with Lincoln county
mining enterprises, that the addition
of few more millions here and there
had ceased to be novelty. The ac-
tivity spread to remote parts of the
county. The Groom district, far to the
west of Pahranagat valley, on the edge
of the dryest and most waterless area
known to the United States geological
survey, developed one of the largest
deposits of medium and high-grade sill
ver-lead ore in the United States. This
immense orebody, almost untouched
still awaits the development of better
transportation facilitie1 which will
put it into the honor roll of big divi-
dend payers. Some idea of the diff
fculties which attended early day
mining in Lincoln county may be
gained from the fact that the boiler
and engine of an old sawmill. put up
to supply timbers for the Groom
mine, may still be seen at the old
mill site, on a rocky point in the
edge of the big yellow pine belt in
the Charleston mountains, seventy
five miles south of Groom, whence
timbers were freighted over some of
the worst roads in the west The
road to the sawmill up the slope of
the Charleston range, is so steep and
rough that one wonders how a two
wheeled cart could ever be dragged
over it, let alone heavy machinery
Yet the old engine still bears the
shipping marks, distinctly legible
with which it left the factory in San
Francisco. 1t was consigned to Elko
in the northeastern part of the state
and was thence freighted overland
hundreds of miles to it's final destina
ton, 5000 feet up in the air.
First Bristol Discoveries.
The first discovery in what is no
the Bristol district was in 1870 whe
} Charles Row located the Cave mir
(now the GYPSY, and shortly afte'
ward the May Day (now the Ma.
flower). In 1871 Row sold the Cav
} May Day and Tempest to A. S. Ar