Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-11-26
Mining BOOM HAS
STARTED BOOMING
IN ELMORE COUNTY

idea that the extension of the Ell
more vein system will, on further
development, be opened up in idaho
Gold Corporation ground. The Idaho
Gold Corporations acreage almost
surrounds the two Gilmore claims OF
three sides and there are no geo.
logical indications which would favor
determination that the veins are
cut off or faulted within Elmore
territory.
Mineral Resources West of the
Rocky Mountains, published in 1874
by the U. s. geological survey, sets
forth that the course of the Elmore
vein is northeast and southwest. Adj
joining the Ida Elmore claim on the
northeast are situated the Idaho Gold
Corporations Ontario and Neptune
No. claims, and adjoining the Ada
Gilmore claim on the southwest are
the Idaho Gold Corporations Deer
Trail and Lost Indian claims
According to the government rec
ord referred to, the Gilmore in 1874
showed: "Asolid vein of ore two and
one-half feet wide, consisting of hard
blush suartz with some iron pyrite
finely intermixed, and plenty of free
gold visible to the naked eye A
large amaunt off ore has been mined. >"
the report continues, which has yield
ed in a second rate stamp mill, from
$50 to 500 a tom When this
government monograph was written,
back in 1874, the mine was being
operated at great disadvantage. the
nearest railroad connection being at
Walla Walla to the north, distance
of about 700 miles. Wagon haul
from Walla Walla to Rocky Bar cost
in those days, it is said, dollar per
pound. Mining apparatus and equip
ment were then of the crudest kind,
and the cost OF mining supplies laid
down in Rocky Bar was .prohibitive.
Wages were high and the cost and
hardships of substance, in the
Idaho wilderness of that day, almost
unbelievable. Today the mine is
within SO miles of a transcontinen-
tai railroad trunk line, and freight
from the nearest railroad station at
Mountain Home to Rocky Bar costs
II cents per hundred pounds.
The government record already re-
ferred to describes the Idaho Gold
Corporations Vishnu mine thus: I'm
close proximity to the foregoing, and
running parallel to it is the Vishnu
lode 1t dips considerably north. On !
the surface the well defined crevice
is four feet wide, with a pay streak
OF ten inches, which has yielded at |
the rate of 500 per ton. A shaft |
has been sunk in the lode so feet |
deep, and the ore vein has been found |
to widen steadily until it was two |
feet wide in the bottom Of the shaft |
At a depth Of 150 feet below the sur
face, reached by a cross-cut tunnel |
234 feet in length, tie crevice is
fourteen feet wide and the ore vein
about four feet, consisting of decom-
posed crevice matter with seams off
iron pyrites and gray anthony
tbrn1Iph tho NxrhO1n ho
taken from the lower slopes is not |
as rich as that obtained from the
shafts. 1t averages $50 per ton.
In Production of Gold and Silver
in the Uuited States" published in
1882, by the U. S. government, it is
stated that "the Vishnu ranks with
the best gold veins in Idaho" 1t goes
on thus: 'fThe ore that has been
taken out was from a tunnel at a
depth of $50 feet. The vein at that
point averaged about four feet of free
milling ore, yielding about $65 per
ton" 1t concludes: "In exploration
off virgin ground northeast from the
tunnel a vein was found on which
they have drifted for 100 feet. 1t
varies in thickness from eighteen in
ches to three feet and the ore is of
high grade, worth not less than 500
per ton.
From Mineral Resources West of
the Rocky Mountains" published by
the government in 1875, the follow
ing is taken: "Ln the Vishnu lode,
ground has been stopped out 40 feet
long and 80 feet high, the ore vein
averaging three to four feet in
width" .....
In later work it is stated that
It's men were employed in the Rocky
Bar camp at this early period
The sixteenth annual report of the
U. S, geological survey, published
in 1894, states: 1.-THE mineral veins
throughout the Bear Greek district
(Rocky Bari are of quartz carrying
auriferous sulphides below water
level, and their alteration products
and free-gold above In width the
veins occur UP to IL feet or, in some
places where there may be a num-