Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-04-20
Mining Activities
In Nearby Hills

1dIC ana MAJOR Carter, who have
spent the past three months opening
up the old Wagner mine about mile
west OF the city. This old mine is
on the same ledge that crops out near
the Jackson Hot Sulphur Spring and
extends through the range of hills
west of Ashland on up to where it
was tapped twenty odd years ago by
the old Ashland mine. The Wagner
mine was opened up years ago by
the man whose name it bears and at
that time ninety-two tons of ore were
taken out and milled in Ashland at
We old mill which stood in the vicin-
ity of what is now the Ashland Iron
Works. This ninety-two tons OF ore
averaged from sixteen to twenty-five
dollars per ton. Messrs. Hart and
Carter have now gone in about forty
i've feet on the Wagner property and
have vein six feet wide and are TAX
ing out no ore but what is we'll worth
milling. Some of the ore contains
high values and the average run goes
twelve to fourteen dollars per ton.
The vein on which Messrs. Hart
and Carter are working is of great
length and has a depth that makes
the body of ore a vast one. The
width of the vein-which is six feet
wherever it has been tapped by
Messrs. Hart and Carter--is excel
lent for working as it is not neces-
sary to dig out a lot of worthless
rock, in order 10 follow the vein.
Mr. Hart is an old mining man
who has had thirty years OF expert
ence in the mines of the Pacific coast
country. He is very modest about
talking and says it is little less than
criminal 10 the interests of mining
district for men engaged in the min
ing industry to over-rate their propo-
sitions. They not only discredit
themselves thereby but discredit the
locality as a mining district. In tell
ing the writer about the Wagner
mine and contiguous properties Mr.
Hart states that he and Mr.. Carter
are able to demonstrate and back up
in the presence of the most critical
mining man, everything they say on
the subject.
The tunnel on which these men are
working on the Wagner property is
at least six hundred feet below the
lowest level TO which the old Ashland
shaft was sunk twenty odd years ago
This goes to show that there is tre.
mendOus amount of ore yet to be TAX
en- out on the old Ashland property
as Messrs. Hart and Carter declare
there is no question that the vein on
which they are now working extends
right through the old Ashland.
From the point where they are now
working it is about three thousand
feet-better than half a mile-to the
old Ashland shaft. OF this three
thousand feet along the vein twenty.
two hundred is on the Wagner prop
erty-so that these men have an
abundance of ore to make a mine
even though the great mass of ore
on the Ashland property is not tapped
through their tunnel later.
II is a well-known fact that the
nine hundred-foot shaft of the ole
Ashland mine is practically full OF
water and that pumping it ont is a
proposition which mining men hesi.
tate to tackle. BY pushing the tun-
mel from the Wagner property to the
proximity of the old Ashland shaft
the water could be drained away in
a very short space of time. Drainage
is frequently accomplished in this
manner and it would be a very small
matter-after tunneling to safe dis.
tance from the bottom of the shaft
to drill through the rock and allow
the water to drain away in a small
stream that would not do any dam.
age.
It is not impossible that the ulti-
mate outcome of the mine now being
developed by Messrs. Hart and Carter
will be that the entire Ashland mine
property and other properties adjoin.
ing will be opened through this tun-
mel and one of the biggest mining
propositions of Southern Oregon will
thus be developed.