Mohave County miner., 1916-12-23
THINKS WELL OF FUTURE OF COPPER
 CAMP OF JEROME
By WILLIAM P. De WOLF

Montana and the Lake Superior coun- try, stood with me a few days ago on the highest point of the iron outcrop on the property of the Verde Copper Development company, in the closing hours of a day spent in the hills sur rounding Jerome. On either side, as far as the eye could see, similar out crops thrust themselves upward through the lime and sandstone sedi- mentaries and encroached upon the country in huge masses of amorphous rock-gigantic beacons, marking un- deriving bodies of copper ore.
 Below us the Verde river, destined to turn the wheels of mighty power plants and to supply water for exten- sive smelting operations ,streamed across the bottoms like a streak of quicksilver. Nearer by the smoke plumed stacks of the Clarksdale smell ter lifted skyward for 500 feet, anc at its fiery base clustered the white brick houses of the model town of Clarksdale as though seeking warmth against the chill of December's air.
 To the right the mining camp of Je- rome chung precariously to it's precipi- tous hillside like the overgrown village of some cliff dwelling race of prehis- toric times. In it's vicinity bulked the dump of the United Verde mine. Below the camp the Unit ed Verde Extension mine unearthed treasure of high grade copper ore, and the hacienda of Manager-Owner James S. Douglas loomed whitely on its iso- lated butte. The circling hills echoed the heavy boom of the dynamite blasts which voiced the tale of the mining ac- tivity surrounding us. Turning from this scene of animation, my compan- ion said:
 'The copper ore bodies underlying the Verde mining district are, in my opinion, the most extensive as well as the richest ever discovered. The un- usually high copper content of your local ores was demonstrated years ago in the old Wade Hampton stope of the United Verde mine and more recently in the winze of that most remarkable of cooper mines, the United Verde Ex- tension. No discovery of copper ore of recent years, if ever, has cause so much stir and comment in mining cir cles as that made of late in the United Verde Extension. It has emphasized the value of the copper ore bodies ot the Verde district-frst demonstrated in the United Verde mine-and, in my opinion, it demonstrates as well what may reasonably be expected to attend development in general throughout the district.
 "When the news of the high grade copper ore body opened in the United Verde Extension first became current it was received with considerable in mining and investment circles. The claims made were so startling, were so out of the ordinary they challenged belief. People in gen eral were slow to accept the fact that ore carrying from 15 to p per cent conner was the rule and not the ex- cert7un at the United Vg-1a Exten- sion mine, and were at first disposed to discount it at least one-half. When the shelter returns were pubhshed' however, there was a change of senu- ment in even the most conservative circles. That change is reflected by the large sums of money which are now available for mining research here and by the mining activity all about us.
 "With the expansion of mining op- erations in the local field and the of development work at levels below the sedlmentarles, De- lieve other copper ore bodies of value will be opened at widely divergent points. There is no sound reason upon which to base the hypothesis that the only copper ore bodies of value in the Verde district are confined to a cir cumscribed area in the vicinity of the United Verde and the United Verde Extension mines. The iron capping uponl which we stand is identical in with the one that crowns the United Verde's rich deposit; and, in my opinion, it offers an equally fa- vorable mining opportunity. My ob- servation leads me to believe that here, as elsewhere throughout the district, depth and development will disclose large bodies of commercial copper ore"