The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1922-09-15
GREAT MIN
ERAL WEALTH
OF COUNTY

The great mineral wealth of Chelan
county is but beginning to be realized.
The operations of the Royal Develop
ment Company out in the Red Noun
tain district are responsible for this
awakening and as time goes on the
people here today will contemplate
in wonder the lethargy with which
mining matters were regarded pricr
to this date. For in the mountains
at Red Mountain are the minerals
which eventually, and within the next
few years, will make this district
famous and add untold wealth to those
who are so fortunate as to share in
the mighty undertaking now just get
ting we'll under way
People wherever one goes in the
United States and especially in the
Northwest, in thinking of Butte.
Montana, think of it as the great min
ing center. It is known as The Rich
est Hill on Earth. For forty-seven
years men have been engaged in tax
ing out precious metals and still it is
said that three generations still to
come will not see the end of its pro-
ductivity as mine. 1t has produced
more copper and more silver than any
other district in the world; it has pro
duced one-third of the copper of the
United States and one-sixth of the
copper of the earth. The value of the
minerals taken from this hill exceed
two billion dollars.
The operators, known as the Ana
conda Copper Company, employ 20
900 men and spend $70,000,000 annu-
ally. For timber alone it spends over
S5,000,000 annually.
Those familiar with both the Butte
district and the Red Mountain dis
trict liken one to the other in some
respects, with the difference that at
Red Mountain operations are being
begun at the foot of the mountain
where a tunnel will serve as drain
and as means of bringing the ore
out by gravity whereas in mining in
the Butte district deep shafts are
sunk and the ore lifted from the
depths; water must be pumped out
and air forced down Mining here
will therefore be conducted much more
economically than at Butte To this
we may add the advantage of install
Inr oo1I
the fact that inexhaustible timber
supplies may be taken from adjacent
forests and that abundance of power
may be developed within a few hun
dred yards from the scene of mine
operations.
Some of us stood aghast when we
learned that a tunnel seven miles in
length was to be driven into the noun
tain side In the Butte mines thirty
five miles of tunnel is driven each
year and they now have over seven
hundred miles of tunnel. The seven
mile tunnel Of the Royal Development
Company will, however, with side
Slopes and uplifts. make accessible all
the ore in an area covering thousands
of acres, and the youngest person now
living will probably not see the ore
half exhausted
Then we should not regard this one
property as the only one in the COM
munity. South of us we have the
Blewett mines owned by the Amaga-
mated Gold Mines Company, which.
since recent discoveries We're made, is
considered as of vastly greater i'm
portance than heretofore; and other
bodies of ore are known to exist in
other parts tributary to Leavenworth
among them being those on Niger
Creek and at the headwaters of the
Icicle. The properties of the Royal
Development Company at Red Noun
tain too are only the best-known ore
bodies out that way, others being held
by individuals and lesser companies
with still others on which no one has
a valid claim because up to this time
they have been inaccessible, or nearly
so.
Our fruit, grain and stock interests
must not be lost sight Of in these
times of promising mineral opera
tons, but a proper realization of
what importance the mining industry
is soon TO he. will enchance our other
interests.