Semi-weekly herald., 1915-07-29


Mary, Shenandoah, North Star and
Trilby mines have been and are still
heavy shippers of high grade gray
copper ore. Their chief values, how
ever are in silver About two miles
to the northeast, the Buffalo Boy
on Stony pass, near the crest of
the divide, has quite extensively de-
veloped one of the richest gold and
silver bearing veins ever found in the
state. Developed upwards of 1900
feet along the vein at greath depth
and by levels a greater depth from
winze, it shows vein of remark
able strength, size, uniformity and
continuity with some fabulous values,
and a general average that is equal
to Ouray's famous Campbird. I'm
fortunately, however, just as it reach
ed the stage of development that clas-
sed- it as nine, it became involved
in litigation, which has prevented its
operation and deprived San Juan coun-
ty Of boasting of one of the greatest
gold producers in the state.
From Stony pass, a branch of the
| belt seems to run to the southeast
taking in the Bear creek district in
which the Gold Bug and Kankakee
group have shipped ore that ran as
high as $50 per pound in gold.
Btween the Intersection and the
Buffalo Boy, E. J. IL. Amy of New
York is developing several promis-
ing veins in the b. b. b. group with
a big bore. Close by are the Mil
dred, Banner of Hope, Aggie and En-
pire- Mascot groups, all containing
large veins of the sulpho- o-teluride
kind. The Banner of Hope and Aggie
are being worked by lessees. About
a mile northwest several groups of
veins, near the center being the Ridg-
way which has a record of 100000
worth of gold ore olCained by the
costly method of cobbing the richer
streaks from the quartz of the vein.
| 1t is estimated by the lessees who
shipped this ore that there is an equal
amount in the cobbing that were cast
| on the dump. On the northern eX-
tension are the Columbne, White
City, Gold Nugget, all former ship
pers from surface and shallow work
ing. a short distance to the east of
the Gold Nugget, the Little Maud has
good record of gold shipments. The
Bunker Hill, Hidden Treasure, Bull
lion Bar, Silent Friend and many other
groups cover scores of telluride veins,
in this gulch. This great series of
veins seem to converge and draw
closer to each other as they cross
Middle mountain into Minnie gulch to
the north, where they are found in
The Esmeralda, with a good shipping
record, in the Mountain Egal ,Searcy
and Strobel groups in the south fork
of the gulch. On the south slope of
| Crown mountain
Some idea of the remarkable
strength and enormity of these veins
may be formed from the fact that
they can easily be traced from Stony
pass, all the way through to Bunrs'
gulch on the north, a distance of
nearly ten miles.
| a northwest branch embrases such
old time gold producers as the San
Juan Chief, Scotia and others near
Animas Forks.
The high cost of smelling and trans
portation has made it practically i'm
possible for these mines to ship any
part of their lower grade product and
thus only the higher grade streaks
after hand cobbing from the lower
grade ores could be shipped at a
profit. These facts have retarded the
development of the claims located on
the various veins TO very great ex-
tent. But scores of tests have prov
en- beyond question that they are all
ideal cyaniding ores and without any
preparatory treatment whatever, will
readily yield their values in the vats,
as easily, comparatively as sugar dis
solves in coffee. The highest cost
that any test has shown based on San
Juan prices; is $2.67 per ton, with an
average saving Of 92 per cent of bold
ana ol per cent Oh tne silver.
With these great undeveloped gold
fields to work on, and abiding faith
in their great possibilities and proof
of all that is claimed for them, crop
ping in a thousand places from the
surface Of old mother earth, giving
evidence of sufficient gold to pay our
national debt, is there any wonder why
Silverton is building its hopes high for
The future on the development of
the mines and prospects of the East
ern San Juan gold belt.