The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-03-08
PROSPECTOR.ENC|NEER
PROPOSED PROFESSION
REQUIRES TECHNICAL kNOWL-
EDGE NOT POSSESSED BY
THE OLD TIMER

Is prospecting a business, pra.
, fessien. an art or a recreation? Per.
; haps II partakes u little of all OF
these characteristics. but it has N
individuality of its own which gives
it not inartistic dstinctiveness, says
The Leadvi!ie Herald Democrat. Min
ing is matter Off fact business that
lends itself neither to romance nor
lightful stories told by the moving pie
lures, and the marvellous flights of
fancy of athose who draw pictures Of
mining camps from their eastern view
point. The gentlemen of imaginative
turn of mind who sometimes write
prospectuses may seek to cover the
mining business with the glamour of
! golden profits that are too often more
that mining itself Is a hard pursuit Ia
which imagination has little play and
which Is constantly down to the hard
pan of dollars and cents.
FroSpector is picturesque.
But mining had to have some ideals,
some phases apart from the strictly
business side, and yte with a dash
of the practical and that is why the
prospector has always played such
4 picturesque part in the history of the
great industry of the west 1t is his
figure that the artist draws, and his
thought and emotions, aspirations and
dreams that the poet sings.
! Prospecting is an instinct not a
| business. The man who comes to the
| hills does so in response to a cals-
the call Of adventure, to the life that
is near nature. and to the rainbow
dream of the future The old breed
that left the cities and the farms for
! the trackless west is now all gone
and prospecting since the days of the
railroad is largely an incidental mat
ter in the life of the practical mining
man. Why should one go into the
mountains with burro when one can
reach the most promising sections in
Pullman car. or carry frying pan
and side of bacon in the tonneau of
a super-six?
Technical knowledge Required.
After all, this search for Indications
of ore. for traces of veins, for min
eral possibilities of any description.
must be based on knowledge Of
/ ooolnUy m, ny, n GRO low The ala y,r,,,
pector followed few well known
rules. He knew his blossom rock"
and his outcrop. He spent much of
his time in panning the gulches for
placer indications, and he was more
frequently in the early day resorts
where men do congregate to interest
the tenderfoot in his claim or to Sc
cure the much coveted grubstake to
develop his ground or to engage in fur
Their prospecting.
One would like to see more young
men take to the business of prospect
ing, and give it the necessary stand
ing and responsibility as distinct
and definite line of endeavor. why
should there not be a profession
known as prospect engineering" de-
voted to the work of discovering and
locating mineral ground? The Colo
RADIO school Of mines has already real
lied the Importance Of this work by
offering course of instruction in
prospecting, designed to equip the
student with the elementary but spe-
cialized knowledge necessary to know
some of the secrets Of the hills We
find men who devote themselves to
the work of developing and operating
mines. others who plan or manage
all kinds of ore dressing plants. These
men take the proposition after the
ore has been discovered why not lift
prospecting out of the clouds of myth
and mere picturesqueness, and dignity
1t as a distinct profession?
Colorado and the west are plated
and mapped and its geology an open
book through the work of the federal
and state surveys. It's mountains have
been walked over and it's canyons ex-
DlOred. Is there anything left for
the wOuld-be discoverer to discover?
The men who are most familiar with
the hills and gulches say yes. The
experts say yes. There Is room for
the scientific prospector, for a new
profession in the west.