The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-09-14

standard of tungsten production. is q
; pounds, or one per cent OF ton. Eol
several months after the outbreak o.
the war there was no change in the
condition in the Colorado tungsten
field. Then the price began to rise
and then came sensational advances
Word came from the big steel com
panies In Pittsburgh to secure tung.
stem at any price, Agents were sen
into the field with orders to keep the
tungsten supply coming no matter
what the expense. The $40 quotation
was doubled and then trebled. Then
tungsten jumped past $40 unit, an6
steady and swift advances were made
until in some instances more than 500
unit was paid. For several months
the average price maintained was
over $40 a unit. Then 1t began t6
drop slowly until not long ago quota
tons ranged from So to SIS.
The stories of fortunes wrested
from the Colorado tungsten fields rival
those tales which thrilled men In the
days of the early gold discoveries In
California and Nevada. Men who
knew nothing of mining took pick and
shovel into the tungsten district at the
high tide of prices, and found fortune
waiting for them at the grass roots.
Their good fortune cannot . be re-
peated today. They were rewarded
for their promptness in answering OPP
portunity's rap at their doors. Even
college students, boys. and women
joined the rush from Boulder and
Denver and other places in Colorado,
and were numbered among the lucky.
Occasionally an old-time miner has
saved his class from disgrace, but 1t
is said that at least three fourths of
those who have made fortunes in the
tungsten fields have been tenderfeet.
The largest personal holdings belong
to former Mayor Platt Rogers Of Den
ver who bought the land at odd times
for a summer estate. He had no idea
that the land had any mineral value.
Boys Making Fortunes.
As in every mining camp fortune
has played some strange tricks In the
Colorado tungsten fields. Mere boys
who have come into the district with
their fathers, or as Independent leas-
ers on their own account, have taken
out small fortunes. One lad fror
Boulder, who took lease with hi
father Is said to have received $3.50
as his share of the first shipment.
Two boys of fourteen or fifteen secur-
ed lease on tract near Lakewood
a few miles from Nederland. Observ-
ing the boys at work passerby stop
ped his car and jokingly asked them
what they were finding.
well, we got $500 today as out
share of the first shipment we made to
the MILL" said one of the boys.
Not all the leasers hit it. Their
never has been a mining boom in his
tory that has made everybody rich
Many leasers have trenched vainly OF
what seemed to be promising proper
ties, without result.
Probably the nearest approach to a
tungsten millionaire is j. CT Clark of
one of the pioneers in the
field. For nearly a score of years
Clark has been a familiar figure in the
Boulder county mining field, as a days
wage man. He worked with pick
shovel and drill through the silver ex
element at Eldora and at Caribou and
other camps in the county. He saw
hose booms dwindle but he never lost
MS faith in the district. In 1907 he
to sell a tungsten property |
or $4,000. With this money he bought |
'ther likely looking tungsten proper
les. Then came an industrial slump. |
md steel was the big sufferer. When
teel suffers, tungsten suffers also, and |
t looked as if Clark would have to
% back to days wages again, with
is one little stake swept away. Fin
lily came the war and the tungsten
plift which has long been described.
Very one of Clark's holdings proved
0 be rich in the black metal 1t Is
urrently reported in the tungsten
cid that Jack Clark can smell tung-
ten. At any rate he has never. open
d up property which has not paid
liz returns. He built a big mill some- {
hing over year ago below Neder-
md, and the property which cost
10000. is said to have paid for itself {
| 80 days. Jack Clark's success in
10 tungsten field Is talked of just as
Yintield s. STATIONS success has been :
liked over in the Cripple Creek field I
Most of the strikes that have been e
ade In the district. however have '
zen in figures ranging from $1,000 to
10000 Dave Smith of the Primes G
'mpany is said to have found mine
hich yielded him a comfortable for
ne in just one month. He secured
ase on an old prospect that looked
omising, and set two Mexicans at
ork. They began getting out high A
ade tungsten right at the start. The
Use was subject to the sale of the
ne. and Smiths discovery FASTENED q
e sale. He had just a month to
Ike his cleanup and get out. and
made such good use of his time a,