Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1917-11-01
GeTHE laundering of the stamps il

HTHE laundering of the stamps in !,
Il the big mill up the canyon,
said the prospector to his burro, rs
pleasant music to my ears, and although
we are in an isolated region where
TRANSPORTATION facilities are not of the
hest. there is every reason to believe
that no difficulty will be experienced
in getting the product of the mill to the
nearest railroad, as gold bricks can be
toted down The mountain in pack sa ).
die or even in a gunny sack, for that
matter; and gold brick always locks
like ready money to me and Is never
refused when put over bank counter
or the bar of the Always Welcome
down in the little camp at the mouth,
of the canyon. And miner with
few nuggets of the yellow stuff in his
rocket is never broke and is given the
glad hand wherever he goes.
'SAs YOU have frequently observed, |
am never more happy than when shovel
ing up the gravel in gold placer diggings
or when | am engaged in the running
of little gold mill and, while there
NAV be as much money to be made in
mining for silver, lead or copper, there
is always something so fascinating III
handling the Wall street metal that /
spend the greater portion of my time IN
the search for deposits of either placer
or quartz, in which gold predominates;
and the more free the ore, or the richer
the gravel, the more ! am satisfied and
pleased. And | believe that this feel
ing and preference prevails in the
breast of almost every old-time prospec-
tor, and especially SO where they leave
the haunts of men and penetrate almost
inaccessible regions far back into in
terror ranges. In such places, in many
instances, | have found traces of these
old-timers and while they have never
developed big mines there is no ques-
ton of doubt that they have felnd
rich veins and rich gravel from which
they have taken gold far beyond their
sire for wealth being satisfied, shey
have abandoned its source in order to
turn their footsteps aon"e again toward
the cities and towns where they would
be able to buy what was TO them UNI
obtainable before; for it is OILY with
the miser that the boarding of gold is a
real pleasure. =
but, what is OF great interest to
me is the primitive methods employed
in the recovery of gold from the quartz
or in placer mining operations by these
old-time mining men of the hills. In
many isolated localities one may still
find evidences of the skill and inge-
nuity of prospectors of many years
ago, and in my wandering through the
canyons and mountains / have often
stumbled upon the half buried remains
of crude arrastras or little stamp mills
from which undoubtedly, many thous-
ands in the yellow metal had been
taken, whicle / have frequently found
the remains of old sluiceboxes along the
course of small streams or near some
unknown spring; all of which goes to
show that it is not always necessary to
make a big investment in equipment in
order to receive satisfactory returns.
And, no matter how crude the equip
ment for treatment may be, if the ore
or the gravel is rich enough, the out
put will most always enrich the small
operator.
Some twenty years ago, continued
the prospector, when | was down in
the Mesquite range, | found the aban-
doned camp of earlyday miners. That
there were two of them | could easily
see, as there were two old hunks in the