The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-04-27
RICH GOLD POCKET
ON BUCKEYE CLAIM
NETTED OWNER $4,000
Richest Find Ever Made on
Prichard Creek---History
of the Property
NETTED OWNER $4,000
CBy Adam .Aulbaoh, Murray. Idaho)

(By Adam tAulbach, Murray Idaho)
- NE of the most conspicuous
gold quartz groups located in
1884 was the Buckeye Boy al
the head of Dream Gulch, one
mile west of Murray, the locator being
Frank Reed, who had some mining eX-
perience in Arizona before coming to
the Occur d'Alenes. AS a prospectOr
and hard worker he had few equals
and no superiors. As soon as Dream
gulch commenced to yield placer gold,
chiefly coarse to large nuggets, Mr..
Reed, who was engaged in business at
Eagle City, sold out and hiked to
Dream to find the source of the yellow
metal. He had made a number of
ledge discoveries through iron Gaping
before the end of the year, but did
most of his work on the original dis
covery, the Buckeye Boy claim, on
which he erected a log cabin. Just
above the cabin, about 200 feet, he fol-
lowed a small ribbon vein of dark
quartz on it's incline. The vein was
not over four inches thick, but the
quartz prospected very literally in free
gold The vein, however, widened
gradually as progress was made, and
suddenly spread to a width of five
feet of white quartz glittering with
yellow metal, leading to the largest
pocket" of gold ever found Ito this
date) in the Prichard gold belt. The
Mother Lode Slab" was discounted,
and the scene of excitement transfer
red from the Ophir mountain to Dream
gulch Reed did not remain idle or
nurse his luck He employed miners
to extract the quartz. One of these
was Michael Melley, now living at
Murray, and perhaps the only survivor
of the crew that emptied the pocket"
that is dug it out. He has a vivid
recollection of the scene, and alludes
to it as the most wonderful sight he
has seen in his mining career AS
rapidly as the quartz was taken out, it
was sorted. The nuggets of pure gold
were as good as coin of the realm, and
that adhering to silica was hand NOR
tared and freed for currency, readily
purchased by the bank. Mr.. Reed in
formed the writer in June 1885, that
the chamber netted him S25000 The
space from which this came was not
over 25 feet long, 25 feet wide and
feet nigh. A pillar OF quartz about ?
feet in diameter was left in the center
to sustain the roof. No timbers were
necessary, although the ledge was flat.
First Ball Mill.
Prosperity did not spoil Mr.. Reed.
He was neither a gambler, nor a liquor
man. He ordered a mill from the
Dodge Mining Machinery company, of
San Francisco, and erected a mill
building on the lower edge of the
Buckeye claim. The machinery came
in due time and was promptly install
ed. 1t proved to be IAN improved MILL
as the companys circular spoke of it,
consisting of a 10-horse power boiler,
Is horse power Westinghouse engine
and a hexagonal drum or barrel the
latter, of course, being the mill" This
was feet inches in diameter and 4
feet inches long covering about the
same space as a modern ball mill;
weight $4,000 pounds. 1t could be
placed anywhere on solid ground, and /
was alleged to be capable of reducing /
from 40 to 60 tons of quartz every "a !
hours, according to hardness. Other !
claims for the machine were, quick re-
lease of the fine pulp to any mesh |
avoiding all slime, and the compare
tive ease of operation, requiring very
little attention. All claims were justi-
fled, except the main one, the reduc /
ton of from 40 to 60 tons of rock or
quartz in "a hours. This would also /
have been met do doubt if the ma
chinery company had sent proper in
structions with the machinery as to /
the amount of balls necessary to do |
the effective crushing, giving the |
weight in maximum and minimum for |
hard as well as soft or decOmposeG |
material This was guessed at and |
the guessing was wrong. and in not a /
single run was the mill ever given /
fair trial. taking present-day ball mills
as a criterion, for the same size ball |
mill now require 1000 pounds of iron |
balls of different sizes to grind the ore
or quartz properly, according to the /
manufacturers, although expert man
ayers who have made exhaustive tests
claim that 5000 pounds of balls will do
the most effective work. Mr.. Reeds
mill never carried more than about 500
pounds of iron, and even with this
limited crushing force good work was
done, but it was done too slowly to
suit either Mr.. Reed or the local mill
ing experts and biologists. The later,
of course, condemned the mill before
the machinery revolved. A grave mis-