The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-04-13

there was no reserve, the lodges pene
trated being only from four to six fee
in width, admitting only limited opera
tons.
King Company Quits.
Finally the changed conditions mad,
it impossible to keep the big mill SUP.
piled with feed. A temporary suspen.
sion allowed the introduction of three
Duncan concentrating machines. These
things were constructed in the form OF
a circular vat. with amalgamatine
plates at the bottom of an extremely
heavy iron frame. In the center was
a shaft. from which cross-arms ex-
tended. These had pendant steel
plates, and as the machine revolved
these plates scraped the coarse sand
from the pulp as it developed. AS the
plates in the bottom of the machine
were constantly subject to the grinding
of the pulp no amalgam lost from the
battery plates could adhere, and the
pulp itself could not be reduced down
to marketable sulphides or concen-
trates. The clumsy machines had to
be discarded after the most patient ex-
periments. Shortly afterward the COM
pany was prevailed upon by the in
ventOr to buy and send to Murray two
enormous iron barrels rlvetted to
stand great pressure. These barrels
(they are still here) are about eight
feet in diameter. and were intended
for steam chests to try or boil the val
ues out of the pulp as it came from the
amalgamating plates. Only one was
experimental with. and as it was
promptly drawn away from the mill,
the test could not have given the re-
suits claimed for it before shipment.
1t is not known either whether chemi-
calls were used, or whether salt was to
be employed with the steam to Oxidize
the sand and free the gold from the
sulphides.
The company gradually got tired of
adding to their investment and closed
down both mill and mines The two
tunnels had been driven in about 700
feet each, leaving considerable sui
phde ore in the roof and Sides and a
good showing in the faces. The Skoo-
KUN tunnel was driven on the creek
level and the Small Hopes, 200 feet
west. Is feet above water level No
sinking was done, except by some les |
sees about ten years ago in front of
the portal of the SkOOkum. Here a !
shaft was put down on the ledge for a |
distance of 80 feet, all the way in |
quartz showing free gold literally, and |
at the bottom the quartz was connect
ed with six inches of gold galena"
with visible gold. Under another lease
Ito Blaine Ward and his brother)
cut was run on some quite rich quartz
higher on the ridge, but as the power
at the mill had ceased to function the
lease was given up.
Swaine Mill Pays.
Directly across the creek the com
pany had done some development work
On the Achievement claim that gave
great promise at the time of the shut
Town. This claim was leased later by
Charles Swaine a local merchant, who
erected a five stamp mill, with water
power, close by. This proved to be the
most perfect labor saving and success
ul mill ever erected on the North Side,
Is long as it was allowed to stand. 1t
became the publisher of the
Press for several years. Mr..
Swaine without means, contracted for ]
he mill on the showing in the mine,
Employed about Is men with promise
# bedrock pay" that is pay taken out
f the mine, but the men were not
promptly rewarded for their faith The
utput was applied to the payment of
he mill and machinery. This caused
riction and the men seized the lease
worked the property and paid them
elves Mr.. Swaine thereupon dis
harged the entire crew. A month {
lter during a wet, murky night the
nil was destroyed by fire, although t
OF even a stove had been placed in a
he building Spontaneous cOmbus-
ion" was assigned as the cause of the (
laze It was the greatest industrial a
)ss ever suffered by the North Side. 1
OF alone on account of the intrinsic =
alue. but because it was the only {
ommon- sense illustration of a perfect b
'ater power quartz mill the camp had q
yer been blessed with, a real pattern a
} insure successful operation of prac- b
cally every gold quartz mine in the o
-atershed of Prichard creek Would !
not have been conducive to more
rosperity to have had ten five stamp b
Iater- power mills operating continu \
lily than the diversified ten-stamp q
ills with steam power idle, wrecked 3
nd decaying in fact mere junk piles, e
18th their heavy first cost totally lost? I
"Arrastre" Smith reared Spanish l
Id above the ashes of the model mill. +
nd later scrapped the old process of the S
DOR miner and installed Huntington I.
heels in it's place, adding a Whitley =
nd Frue vanner. and a large rotary n
usher all driven by water power. 1t Il
as necessary to cut this power when \
10 dredge passed over the ground, -