White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-09-16
MINER FINDS OLD
Shaft AFTER FIFTY YEARS

DetWeen winch tltfe was all opening
that looked like the work OF cloud-
bursts and of the rock and dirt in
the dump there is but a trace OF it
of probably not 20 exceed 5 per cent.
What waS once a shaft 100 feet
deep is n hole not more than seven
feet beneath the surface at the up
per and four feet at the lower sides.
The sides show that even the caving
down process was ended probably
twenty-five years ago, and inside of
it are ~sagebrush that from size and
appearance must be mere than TWEEN
ty years of age.
See it there-there' the granite"
exclaimed Mr.. Taylor. In the center
of the hole were a couple of crumb-
ling rocks, looking like granite.
Mr.. Taylor said it was the same
material for the 100 feet, the lime
contract was not struck, not a pound
of ore was found and the sole inter
est in the shaft lies in the fact that
it could be located in this remark
able manner by one of the men who
sunk it after an absence of half a
century.
One day we put in a shot on the
surface he remarked, "ard a rock
hit our little blacksmith shop by IL
cabin at the mouth of the draw
That was of the reasons he knew
the other gulches visited could not
be the one.
Mr.. Taylor worked there for wages
for the Ward-Ellis Company. having
no interest in the ground. A windlass
was used. He says the so-called
granite kept sloughing all the while
and some water came in. He does
not remember the names of the men
who worked with him, except that
there were two Canadians who were
good miners and that they quit on
account of the shaft needing to be
limbered and Mr.. Ward refusing to
have it done. At last the remaining
men quit and wen down to Mineral
City, celebrating for a few days.
They warned Mr.. Ward. as they had
done many times, that the shaft was
unsafe, and this time when they
went back it had caved in and was
lost. Mr.. Ward was let down on the
rope and admitted his mistake. say
ing the shaft was hopeless.
They had taken out two carloads
OF silver ore from the blanket vein
After Mr.. Taylor quit this was haul
ed away, probably not having paid
sufficiently to justify further chlor-
iding.
The spot is at the south side OF
Robinson canyon where the lower
yard limit sign stands at Keystone
In the little draw back of hat sign
these and various other things his
torical occurred.
Some years after the departure OF
Mr.. Taylor, probably In the middle
sos, this ground centering at the
blanket vein came into considerable
notice as the keystone mine. 1t be-
longed to Harry Featherstone and
Mr.. Nichols. The east half of it was
bought by John Cupid and Dan c
Mcdonald. Featherstcne and Mich
OILS did q lot of chloriding and took
out more than $4,000. They ship
ped their rock to Eureka and secur-
ed some backing there, built a mill
and ran their property into debt.
Their creditors were Henry Kind ana
Mr.. Jackson, the latter father of
Austin Jackson, at present postmas-
ter at Reno. Kind and Jackson had
to foroclose.
Cupid and Mcdonald did not find
such good ore, doing only moderate
ly we'll for those days. They chlor-
ided over the whole surface Of the
fiat known as the blanket vein and
finally drove a tunnel into the ridge
from the south side, striking the
contact, but found nothing of value
thereon.
Today it is a part of the vasr hold
ings OF the Nevada Consolidated Cop
per Company.
Judge Mcdonald SAYS the sup
posed granite formation on the west
side Of the contract Is biotite por-
phyry or hornblende porphyry, a ma
terial of the crumbling sort looking
for the world like granite, but not
rs hard and il will not stand with