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 Ir'OLIRAUO MUSEInU UF APPLIED GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 
 
 ' I Subscription Edition Distributed io,ooo. 
 
 Author's Edition 5,000. - - Price 50c. Post Paid. 
 
 DKNVER, COLORADO. 
 .883. 
 
 C. 1 Kelly. Printer, 406 Hollada>» Street, Denver. Colo. 
 
I 
 
 L 
 
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 \^. 
 
 Entered according to act of Congress, iVi the year 1S83, by John K. Hallowell, in 
 the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 No excuse or apology is considered to be be in order for the 
 appearance of the following pages before my readers. It is some- 
 thing that was found to be needed, the object being to give real 
 and practical information regarding one of the richest sections of 
 Colorado, a territory about which much has been said through the 
 papers and by rumor during the last three years, but until the ap- 
 ])earance of the following, there did not seem to be sufficient 
 actual knowledge of this described section shown by any writer. 
 
 The appearance of the work in two editions simultaneously, 
 is owing to the manner in which means was raised for its pubhca- 
 tion, and is as follows : Before leaving Gunnison^ in the fall of 
 1882, I was approached to know if I could not embody the in- 
 formation I had gained in some shape that would do the county 
 good, and asked what I would do. It resulted in the following 
 proposition, that my tune and expenses for five months' work, my 
 ten years' experience in geological work, and the time required to 
 prepare the manuscript for a pamphlet would be my contribution, 
 if the residents of Gunnison County would raise the money to 
 print and distribute free, 10,000 copies of the books. I to mail 
 8, 000 copies throughout the United States, the other 2,000 copies 
 to go to the subscribers, pro-rated according to the individual 
 sums paid, and thev to send such copies, personally, where they 
 thought the most good would be done. 
 
 This proposition appeared to met with more than favor every 
 where, and I felt encouraged to complete my work ; but, wdien the 
 time came to require the cash, I found from various causes that I 
 must, to make a success, go to the additional expense and time of 
 visiting all parts of the county and soHcit these subscriptions 
 myself. This I shrank from, and I can frankly say, that were I 
 able, this part would never have been asked for, as I would cheer- 
 fully pay and give the whole myself rather than take the time, and 
 meet what I did, but I am not cowardly and was not going to 
 back out on the last round, even if it did require a part from me 
 that should not have been mine. 
 
 To have this work accomplish all of the good possible, it 
 needed to be distributed before the opening of the Exposition at 
 Denver. This would require prompt and energetic work. Well, 
 I have given that much too, but at the end find I will have to pay 
 several hundred dollars to make the amount of printing and post- 
 age good, as I took certain responsibilities myself in order to save 
 time. I find no fault with any one, w^ishing to believe that all 
 have done all that they could, as I tried to do. 
 
 At the last moment 1 accepted a proposition that will either 
 make the above good, or make me more expense, that is to have 
 
 ?;Qnir;Q 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 an extra edition of 5,000 copies, printed as an author's edition, 
 and placed on sale at the low price of 50c per copy. 
 
 This gives fifty per cent, more books than I agreed to pub- 
 lish, but I hope gives me a small chance to be reimbursed for the 
 extra cash I have had to pay out. 
 
 I feel that the reciting of the foregoing facts are due, under all 
 of the circumstances to myself, as from private reports already 
 given, very many thousands of dollars have already been brought 
 into Gunnison County, and that very many more thousands will 
 follow such investments when the knowledge I gave in private re- 
 ports, is thus made widely public. 
 
 To give such information in as practical a method as I could 
 think of, I have tried to make these pages a hand-book of the 
 described territory, so that the reader, if he so desired, could go 
 from mining camp to mining camp, and have recorded facts as I 
 found them, to judge by, and from his own observations as a prac- 
 tical business man realize himself, whether, in any part of Gunni- 
 son County, there was an opportunity for a fair profit for him 
 with the legitimate use of capital. 
 
 That I think there is, is proved by what I have herein said, 
 that others think there is, is proved already by what has been in- 
 vested on what I have already reported, and if the ratio should 
 keep up for three years more, Gunnison County will truly be 
 proved to be Colorado's Bonanza County. 
 
 To have this proved by the work of one man principally, 
 might be considered glory enough, perhaps it is, but the air is to 
 rare at these altitudes to live upon "glory" alone, hence the strong 
 advertising I give myself, that I may get my share of the branch 
 of mining that I follow for a living, viz : reports, purchases and 
 sales of mining property. Cash from this source means addi- 
 tional work of this kind in future years of my residence in Col- 
 orado. 
 
 There is one thing in connection with all this, that I sin- 
 cerely regret, but could not help now, although I do hope to be 
 able to remedy it in the future, by publishing a supplement to 
 this. That is, I could not add Tin Cup and the Taylor Park 
 country to the present work, it was utterly impossible. In five 
 months I traveled over 1,500 miles on foot and on horseback, to 
 accomplish what was done. I thoroughly examined 3,000 square 
 miles, and certainly am not to blame that Gunnison County is so 
 large and so rich. 
 
 To amend this as much as possible, I insert here the Tin 
 Cup product, which talks for itself Within a year I think rje 
 will have an outlet to Gunnison City, thus making more of her ore 
 products available. 
 
 The following is taken from the Denver Tribune of April 16, 
 1883, and while I cannot say that of my own knowledge, I can 
 verify all that is stated. I am quite confident that it represents 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 in a compact and clear manner the value of Tin Cup as a mining 
 district, and as before stated hope to be able to prove it per- 
 sonally. 
 
 Tin Cup, Colorado, April lo. — About thirty miles east and 
 north of Gunnison City, within Gunnison County, lies the Taylor 
 River basin. This basin is formed by the Continental range to 
 the east, the Taylor range to the north. Elk range to the west and 
 Fossil range or Gold hill range to the south. It is forty miles 
 north and south, with a mean breadth of fifteen miles. The con- 
 tour of the basin is open and level. Within this basin is the head- 
 waters of Taylor River, quite a large stream of water the year 
 round. Ties and sawlogs can be floated down in the spring. 
 The entire basin is very heavily timbered, except a strip along the 
 river from two to five miles in breadth. The body of the basin is 
 of fine gravel formation. Taylor River proper, Texas and Willow 
 Creeks, unite near the point where Taylor River enters the canon, 
 forming a large stream of water. Seventeen miles west of where 
 Taylor River breaks through the Elk range, running west, Taylor 
 and East Rivers unite and form Gunnison River (near Fisher's)- 
 Every part of the several ranges that form the basin are rich in 
 silver, gold, iron, plumbago and lead. The formation of Elk 
 range is principally lime, with porphyry dykes running through it. 
 Within this range (Elk) we have the mining camps of Spring 
 Creek, Italian Mountain, Forrest Hill, Head of Taylor River or 
 Emma. Ashcroft is near the junction of Elk and Taylor ranges, 
 but its present and most accessible inlet and outlet is through 
 Taylor basin. Along the Taylor range we have the camps of 
 Beauman and Telluride. The formation of Taylor range is lime, 
 porphyry and granite. Telluride lies at the junction of Taylor 
 and Continental ranges and extends from this junction south to 
 the intersception of Fossil or Gold Hill range. Just south of 
 Telluride, following the divide for ten or twelve miles, is a broad 
 gold belt, in granite formation. This has very little development, 
 on account of being under a heavy deposit of gravel. But all 
 gulches coming down from it, some eight or ten in number, show 
 up very well in free or placer gold, several of which have been 
 worked, and are paying well. South of this gold belt, still follow- 
 ing the range, is Chin's camp, or main district. The gold belt 
 and Chin's camp are both of granite formation. Texas Creek 
 Mining District lies south of Chin's camp. The formation there 
 is granite with Hme dykes or ledges. South of this we have the 
 American Mountain District of granite and gneiss formation. This 
 brings us to the Tin Cup Mining District. All of these districts 
 are well timbered, well watered and of easy approach, from the 
 basin by firm gravel wagon roads. 
 
 While these camps are all easy to get at from within the 
 basin, they are hardly accessible from the outside. The Cotton- 
 wood, Alpine and Pitkin passes all cross a rough and rugged road, 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Alpine pass being the best of the three. The most natural and 
 easiest approach is down Taylor River to Gunnison, thirty miles 
 to the nearest part of the basin, and from thirty five to fifty miles 
 to any of the districts herein mentioned. The grade up Taylor 
 River will average from Fisher's, where Taylor and East River 
 unite, to the canon, where Taylor enters the Elk range, or outlet 
 of the park or basin, about 126 feet to the mile, as shown by the 
 grade stakes of the Denver & Rio Grande railway survey. The 
 river makes a canon where it leaves the basin for nearly four 
 miles. Then the canon opens out to considerable breadth on 
 each side of the river. A railroad can easily and cheaply be 
 built up through this canon, with a cost not greater than $3,500 to 
 $4,500 per mile, from where the track now lies at Fisher's to 
 within the basin (seventeen miles). The grading is principally 
 gravel work. There is no danger of snow slides and no danger 
 of the river ever "gorging" to interfere with the road bed. Where 
 the river enters the canon (seventeen miles from Fisher's) is the 
 town site of Taylorville, on magnificent placer ground. From 
 Taylorville all the above named mining claims are of easy ap- 
 proach, and for the railroad to reach any of these only a road bed 
 need be thrown up, little or no grading being required. By re- 
 ferring to the accompanying hst of mining claims, the revenue to 
 the railroad can be easily seen. It is twenty-eight miles from 
 Taylorville to Gunnison City. Below I give the distances from 
 Taylorville to the different camps within the basin; the popula- 
 tion of last season, in which will be doubled this; also the output 
 last season, which was secured by only doing the required assess- 
 ment for the year, and which output can be increased five to ten 
 fold this year, if these camps have the outlet given them by a 
 railroad. Ashcroft is not within the basin, but her inlet and out- 
 let is through it 
 
 1 . Taylorville to Spring Creek 
 
 2. Taylorville to Italian Mountain 
 
 3. Taylorville to Forrest Hill. 
 
 4. Taylorville to Head of Taylor River 
 
 5. Taylorville to Ashcroft 
 
 6. Taylorville to Beauman 
 
 7. Taylorville toTelluride 
 
 8. Taylorville to Gold Belt 
 
 o Taylorville to Chin's camp -. 
 
 10 Taylorville to Texas Creek District 
 II. Taylorville to Tin Cup 
 
 7^2 
 
 13 
 9 
 IS 
 18 
 
 i3>^ 
 
 200 to 300 25 20 to 
 125 to 150I 8120 to 
 
 lOD to 1251 S130 to 
 
 180 to 250 io'30 to 
 200 to 350 30125 to 
 
 100 to 180 
 100 to 125 
 75 to 100 
 
 TOO to 125 
 
 CHARACTER OF 
 OKES. 
 
 10 25 to 10 
 
 3 35 to 4c 
 513° to 12 
 
 25 to 1751 8J25 to 
 :So to 40040.35 to 
 
 Galena & carbonates 
 
 Galena 
 
 Free gold and galena 
 
 Galena and chlorides 
 
 Sulphides, carbonates 
 
 chlorides, galena 
 Galena 
 Tellurium 
 Placer 
 
 Chlorides and galena 
 Galena and <;ulphides 
 Sulphurets, chlorides, 
 
 galena and free gold 
 
PREFACF. VII 
 
 ^^'hat a railroad wants to know in projecting a branch or line 
 is, what it will cost and what revenue it will have. The answer 
 here is evident. 
 
 A branch line from Fisher's up into this basin would be less 
 that eighteen miles in length with no hea^y grades, and a safe and 
 solid road bed all the way, with no blockades in winter from snow. 
 It would enter a country that would demand supplies, at the 
 lowest calculation, for 1,500 to 3,000 miners, and it would have 
 the handling of from 100 to 150 tons of ore per day. If a railroad 
 was built within reach of the ten camps here shown, in less than 
 three months 5,000 persons woiild be added to their population 
 and the output of ore would rise to from 800 to 1,200 tons per 
 day. Within this basin there is all character of ores — lime, plum- 
 bago, iron, lead and copper. The entire basin is covered with 
 good saw-timber and timber for ties, etc. There would be more 
 revenue to a railroad that would build to it, which is within the 
 near reach of both the Denver & Rio Grande railroad and the 
 Denver, South Park & Pacific railroad, than any other line they 
 can build of 100 miles in extent. 
 
 I further promise that, if I can get sufficient encouragement 
 to make a special work of the Tin Cup, Taylor Park, Ashcroftand 
 Aspin sections, during the year 18S3, and let the results of such ex- 
 aminations be known next winter. 
 
 I can only add, that very much work has been done during 
 the past winter and since my personal visits to sections, and in 
 every instance, the results so far surpass anything that the most 
 sanguine could have expected in these few^ months. 
 
 To Mr. John H. McCoy this work is respectfully dedicated, 
 as he is doing more than any other one man for Gunnison City 
 and county, and to him, personally, I owe much for encourage- 
 ment and aid, to enable me to accomplish what I have done. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 JOHN K. HALLOWELL. 
 
 Denver, Colo., June i, 1883. 
 
vrn 
 
 4 
 
 . INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 Former Ideas of Gunnison County — View from Marshall Pass, Etc., Etc. 
 
 Chapter II 13 
 
 Evans' Basin — Ideas on Prospecting— Colorado Anthracite Coal Co , Etc. 
 
 Chapter III 18 
 
 Fourth of July, 1882— Washington Gulch and Placer Mines of 1859, 'Etc. 
 
 Chapter IV 22 
 
 Poverty Gulch — Crest of Elk Mountain Range — Little Nell Mining Claim. 
 
 Chapter V 28 
 
 Iron Swamp. Irwin. Pioneer Mill Forest Queen Mine, 
 
 Chapter VI 40 
 
 Elk Basin. Geology. Elk and Micawber Claims. Anthracite Coals of 
 Irwin. Bitun.inous Coals of Ohio Creek. Gunnison City, Etc., Etc. 
 
 Chapter VII 55 
 
 Durango and Mexico Claims. Iron Basin. Silver Basin. Swan Basin. Etc. 
 
 Chapter VIII 64 
 
 Anthracite Range and other Mountains. Description ol Coal Measures, Etc 
 
 Chapter IX 73 
 
 Coal Creek and Redwell Basin Divide. Cause of Iron Swamp and Iron 
 Spring Peculiarities of the Ruby Silver Belt. Concentration, Etc. 
 
 Chapter X : 77 
 
 Return to Crested Butte. Mining Claims in 0-be-Joyful Basin, Etc., Etc. 
 
 Chapter XI 86 
 
 Slate River. Geology of Treasury Mt. and Vicinity. Hawk-Eye Mine, Etc. 
 
 Chapter XII 92 
 
 Elko a Cash Market for Ores. Copper Creek. Pass to Conundrum Gulch 
 
 Chapter XIII 104 
 
 Crooke's Station. Tomichi Dome. Hot Springs Park. White Pine, Etc. 
 
 Chapter XIV 116 
 
 Good-Bye to Crested Butte. From Howville into Gunnison City, Etc., Etc. 
 
 Chapter XV 125 
 
 A prettily Situated Town. A Superior Railroad Outlet. The Mineral 
 Farm, a Geological Puzzle. The Silver Islet and Fairview Mines. 
 
 Chapter XVI 131 
 
 First Knowledge of Tomichi. Fissure Veins of Gold and Silver, Etc., Etc. 
 
 Chapter XVII 137 
 
 "Misled" Capitalists. Soft and Hard Coal Found in Gunnison. Defini- 
 tion of "Anthracite," "What Is It?" Beautiful Building Stone, Etc. 
 
 Chapter XVIII 15.S 
 
 The Final Summing Up of the Work Done. 
 
Gunnison, the Bonanza County. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Former Ideas of Gunnison County — View from Mar- 
 shall Pass — Gravels at Gunnison City — 
 Crested Butte — Tertiary Fos- 
 sils — Crested Butte 
 Mt — A Dream. 
 
 Had anyone said to me in the year 1881 that in 1882 
 you will be in the Gunnison country, looking it over, the 
 same as you have done other portions of Colorado, I 
 would have laughed at them, and replied three to five 
 years from now will be time enough for that. For the 
 reason that heretofore it has taken five to ten years to prove 
 practically the worth of a mining country, that capital 
 might be induced to invest in means of transportation ; have 
 mines enough opened to prove to capitalists that there was 
 sure returns for their investments, as well as possible large 
 profits ; and on that basis I have always maintained that 
 the older counties of Colorado were much the best for the 
 investment of large capital, as they had the following ad- 
 vantages, viz : mines opened, so that the country was 
 proved to a point, that the investor could judge, relatively, 
 what expenditure on an undeveloped property would re- 
 sult in ; transportation by rail, making in most instances a 
 cash market at the railroad shipping point ; also a perma- 
 nent mining population in numbers enough that labor 
 could be depended upon at fair wages, and last, but not 
 least, organized sources of supplies, which are brought to 
 the mining camps and through competition vended at the 
 lowest possible profits. 
 
 Such were my personal ideas and I was free to so express 
 
4 •'••.' ■'- GUNlflSOiVT'HE'' BONANZA COUNTY.- 
 
 them ; but this spring I had to acknowledge, that what it 
 used to take ten years to accomplish in the State of 
 Colorado is now done in three. That the Gunnison coun- 
 try has railroad transportation and cash markets for 
 ores produced; that already it has developed mines proving 
 the different mining camps; that this year will see it teeming 
 with a permanent resident mining population; that competi- 
 tion in the sale of supplies will naturally follow, and the prob- 
 abilities are,that the next three years will see a greater propor- 
 tionate demand for Gunnison County mines by capitalists 
 than any other section of the State. 
 
 That at least seven years' time has been saved to the 
 miners and prospectors of this county is almost wholly due 
 to the energy, foresight, and business capacity of the mana- 
 gers of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company. Their 
 energy is shown in the fact that there is not a mountain canon 
 that they needed to go up, but they said to their engineers, 
 "find us a way through," and no matter what the difficul- 
 ties, it was done. No mountain range has been too high 
 for their workmen to find a way over. Their foresight is 
 evidenced by the fact, that their surve}'ing parties passed 
 into each portion of the State along with, and sometim^es 
 ahead of the prospectors, so that when they built into a 
 new country, it was with an almost absolute knowledge of 
 its resources. Their business capacity is recorded in the 
 fact, that they have organized and maintained a large and 
 successful corporation, independendent of any Eastern 
 clique, but which belongs to the State of, and really repre- 
 sents Colorado as a railroad organization, and is not the 
 tail of anything else. To these men much is due in honor 
 and esteem, as well as profit, by the people of Colorado as 
 a whole. This is no paid tribute to men who hold promi- 
 nent positions in the State, for no man nor company pays 
 me for this kind of work ; and I claim the right to find 
 fault where I think I can point out the better way, as well 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 5 
 
 as express my admiration and esteem of men whom I be- 
 lieve are worthy of it, and have, as I can see, done well. 
 
 I came to this part of the country partly on business 
 for others, with a faint idea I could do a little for myself, 
 and to get a personal knowledge, as I could work it up, of 
 the geology of the mining districts on this side of the range. 
 This part I desire to make public as fast as I can learn it 
 myself, hoping it may be of benefit to others, of good to 
 the State as a whole, and a portion of the results fall to me 
 individually. 
 
 At Marshall Pass one gets the first view of the country 
 west of the Continental Divide. On a fine, balmy morn- 
 ing, a few day since, I stood on the depot platform look- 
 ing over miles upon miles of country ; diversified by large 
 valleys, smaller enclosed parks, beautiful winding streams, 
 far-stretching woodlands, open grass-covered grazing sec- 
 tions, softly-rounded elevations among the foothills, all 
 with snow-clad mountain peaks rising heavenward for a 
 back-ground. 
 
 To stand on the edge of all this at an elevation of over 
 10,800 feet, in such a clear bracing atmosphere, with such 
 sunlight and gentle breezes as only Colorado can have ; to 
 look outward and beyond with the feeling that here was a 
 new country where much was to be learned and told ; to 
 feel what it possibly might be to the world at large, was to 
 be overcome with an awe that was mingled with a rever- 
 ence devoutly thanking God that one was alive, able and 
 willing to do in this day and year of the Nineteenth 
 Century. 
 
 The first thing observed in the decent into the valley 
 below was its apparent abruptness ; as instead of the long 
 laborious ascent from the eastern foothills over miles of 
 uptilted, hard metamorphic rocks, to get to the central 
 axis, or primitive granite nucleus of the Continental Divide, 
 here the more recent formations, such as post cretaceous 
 
6 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY.' 
 
 and tertiary, appear to abut directly against the primitive 
 granite. These rocks being generally built up of strata of 
 soft friable sandstone and shale, with intermingled strata of 
 limestone, most of them not very compact. The rocks 
 being of this character, the great erosion of these 
 valleys is accounted for, as well as the low, rounded, 
 heavily timbered hills making the dividing ridges of the 
 numerous small valleys of this geologic section. The coun- 
 try along the railroad appeared to have much of a same- 
 ness, as to its geology, after descending the mountain slope 
 through to Gunnison City. Nowhere could I be sure that 
 I recognized the heavy bedded metamorphic rocks of the 
 eastern slope, although studying geology on a railroad 
 train at the rate of fifteen miles an hour is not a method 
 that insures accuracy. 
 
 Having to wait at Gunnison nearly two hours, I took 
 time to examine the open gravel bed near the depot, feel- 
 ing sure that here I would find an accumulation of samples 
 of the country rocks brought down from the heads of the 
 streams centering here. What struck me first was the great 
 variety of the boulders representing eruptive rocks, making 
 fully nine-tenths of the whole, from the earliest granite 
 porphries, down through the rhyolytes to the most recent 
 lavas, represented by black vesicular boulders, with very 
 large air cells, or blebs, in fact a very coarse pomice stone. 
 Intermingled with these were some of the sandstones evi- 
 dently only moved a short distance, and occasionally a 
 black limestone pebble saying, "at my home we have layers 
 of coal." 
 
 All of these samples to me meant business, and were 
 the first alphabetical letters of my future knowledge, and 
 gave me the idea of what I ought to find, which would be 
 outlined in this manner. In places the granite porphyry 
 outcropping through eroded sedimentary rocks, with pos- 
 sibly more recent volcanic rocks beyond and higher, caus- 
 
GUNNISON, VHK BONANZA COUNTY. / 
 
 ing- b\' their eruption fissures through the earHer eruptive 
 as well as the sedimentary rocks. The filling" of these 
 fissures would be like the ore bodies and mineral veins of 
 tht)se at present known in other sections, the granite-por- 
 phyr\' being really the countr)- rock, and only lightly over- 
 laid with sedimentar}' material. I ought to find these 
 veins large, continuous, with abundance of mineral, and the 
 ore possibly of an average high-grade. That is what the 
 pebbles of the gravel pit said to me ; it remains for future 
 work to prove how near I read them aright. 
 
 Leaving Gunnison Junction, the. railroad follows Slate 
 river westward for about thirty miles, gradually climbing in 
 that distance nearl}' 3,000 feet, and having for its terminus 
 on this branch, the town of Crested Butte, the place taking 
 its name from the most prominent landmark at the 
 entrance to this geological basin. This town is located in 
 one of the finest Colorado valleys that I have seen, Avith 
 every evidence of natural wealth second to none, to be re- 
 alized upon by the labor and capital of the future. Just 
 back of the town are the coal beds, known to be three diff- 
 erent stratas, not many feet apart, and ranging from four to 
 eleven feet thick, of as fine fuel as is known anywhere. 
 The strata apparently undisturbed by the gradual elevation 
 of the whole country from at, or near sea level to its 
 present heighth. I had asked many if they knew of any 
 fossils connected with these sedimentary deposits at this 
 place ; no one of many had seen them. The first thing I 
 done was to look for them, as their presence or absence 
 meant much, as well as the kind of fossils, in telling the 
 story. I had no difficulty in getting the most beautiful 
 impressions of the leaves of deciduous trees, and the one 
 that had the most to say was a palm-leaf, for it said, "when 
 I grew on lands near by, where you find me, there was a 
 scorching sun, a moist climate, hot, murky vapors arising 
 from rank decaving vegetation, a sea not far off with fresh 
 
8 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 water streams running to it through lowlands, sluggish and 
 tortuous in their course, great marshes bordering the coast, in 
 fact, to be only compared with the rankest tropical climate 
 of to-day." 
 
 The books said that here was the closing of the post- 
 cretaceous age, and the sandstones overlaying were possi- 
 bly the commencement of the tertiary period. 
 
 A botanist would go into ecstacies over the Flora of 
 these sedimentary hills, flowers in bloom without number, 
 and some that I never had seen before. 
 
 Of fossils I could. not find here any sea life, not a shell, 
 fish-tooth, or cast of one. Now this to me means a great 
 deal, as when the condition of an ocean or sea depositing 
 sediments, afterward rock, is such that there can be noth- 
 ing living that moves and has an individuality of its own, 
 there must be peculiar causes. Those causes must come 
 from the lands adjacent, and where there has been such an 
 effect as here, I hope in time to be able to show the cause. 
 
 My next effort was to climb Crested Butte Mountain,, 
 to see what it was made of, as well as to get a view of the 
 surrounding country. Striking straight across the vallejr 
 from the Elk Mountain Hotel, and noting the immense 
 amount of erosion done in past time by the Slate river,, 
 which here follows a winding, tortuous course through 
 grassy meadows. I learned as I approached the other 
 side that the strata was cut down below the known coal- 
 beds, and that if any more than the three known were in 
 existence they would show outcrops or signs further down 
 the Slate. The change in the Flora on this side of the val- 
 ley is remarkable, the plants and flowers of the coal meas- 
 ure side outnumbering this side ofthe valley more than ten to 
 one. I found Crested Butte Mountain to be a homogenous 
 mass of eruptive rock, with feldspar and silica for a base, 
 enclosing crystals of feldspar, crystals of hornblende, also 
 of sanidine and some small scales of mica, evidently a black 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 9 
 
 amphibole ; in fact, the whole mass was granite porphyry, 
 the oldest rock I shall find in this country I expect, but 
 not so old itself but that I found it enclosing small frag- 
 ments of a still older rock. Could these fragments only 
 talk what a history they could relate. 
 
 Leisurely picking my way up, up, and ever up, I 
 finally arrived at the highest growth of trees of this moun- 
 tain. Here was a patch of snow, from which a clear stream 
 of water, such as you read about, ran, and here I rested 
 and dined — a chew of horse -shoe plug, a drink of snow- 
 water with a cigar for desert comprised the frugal meal. 
 But when a grand glorious panorama was spread at my 
 feet (now that is as near being aesthetic as I consider it 
 necessary for a Coloradoan to get); back of and above me 
 still towered some hundreds of feet of the bare rocky crags 
 of Crested Butte ; to the south and southeast were the 
 heavily timbered sedimentary rocks, with their wealth of 
 coals, backed by snow-clad mountains of apparently 
 the same formation and age as the one I was on. While 
 north, northwest, west and southwest, were huge snow- 
 clad pinnicals, showing in some places the sedimentary 
 rocks carried up and covering their tops, with horrizontal 
 strata appearing on their sides, diversified in the northwest 
 by the strata being tilted on one mountain apparently dip- 
 ping southeast, or another inclined to the northwest, show- 
 ing thin-bedded strata over this locality and a fold over a 
 possible granite porphry axis below. 
 
 At my feet to the south was the town of Crested 
 Butte, beautifully located ; to the west Gothic, nestling in 
 a green valley ; wagon roads winding in various directions 
 up the valleys ; overhead the blue vault of heaven ; at my 
 side the breeze gently murmering through the evergreens, 
 giving the soothing gentle touch that only a mountain 
 breeze through the pines knows how to_ give. It was a 
 spot and scene for the poet and painter. 
 
10 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 As I lay outstretched, filling myself with the miles of 
 wonders before me and perhaps gradually dropping into un- 
 consciousness, I seemed to hear a voice speaking in thiswise: 
 "Ah, me! my friend,you are only looking upon a wreck of what 
 was. Could you only have seen me in my glory and pride, 
 when I was and island in the midst of a glorious sea. At 
 my feet were shorelands covered with tropical vegetation, 
 up my sides grew such grand trees as you never saw. I 
 stopped the passing clouds and down my sides ran the 
 tumbling waters, while with my head above all, I laughed 
 in the sunlight as I enjoyed my bath. How long this time 
 went on I cannot tell as you count time, but it was 
 ages. Then came a change. I do not know the cause, but 
 the waters rose around my sides. I could not see the 
 shore lines, the boundaries of this sea, and occasionally 
 some massive head like mine, was struggling above the 
 watery waste. I say waste, for no life appeared now in 
 this sea, but a nasty, slimy mud alternating with sands was 
 laid around the lower part of my body, shallowing the 
 waters until what was once deep sea, became wet, boggy 
 marshes, full of rank, rapid growing vegetation, vast 
 beds of it, as far as the eye could reach. It was what 
 makes your coal beds now. Again the waters rose, and 
 with the clayey sediment washed from adjoining lands 
 came floating patches of leaves to sink and be buried at 
 my feet, grieving me as I recalled the life and light that 
 once were mine. This was repeated many times. The 
 waters kept rising — you would say I kept sinking. It 
 matters not, the result was the same. The last glimpse I 
 had of my comrades was to the southeast, where they still 
 kept above the waters. Look at that mountain directly 
 west, with the mining village at its feet. He is my brother 
 and went down with me. To the northwest the water was 
 still deeper, and vaster beds of these muds were laid down. 
 I was near the sea border. Finally over my head the 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I I 
 
 waters passed, and I could only guess at what was being 
 done. I was bound in the tightest of dungeon fetters, and 
 felt the masses of mud still growing above me. From 
 their oppressive weight, I knew I was carrying hundreds of 
 feet, and all hope of ever seeing the blessed sunlight was 
 gone from me, I felt forever. Ages upon ages passed, 
 then came the rumbling of earthquakes, strange move- 
 ments I felt, and stranger sounds I heard. Everything 
 appeared to be breaking and smashing but a short distance 
 off. I was sensible of a movement up, up, and still up- 
 wards, slowly but always moving ; would I never stop ? I 
 was bound and blinded, yet, surrounded by the hardened 
 mud-masses of the old sea, and at last I seemed to rest. 
 Gradually I heard noises of rushing, roaring waters ; these 
 mud-masses appeared to be torn from my head and sides 
 by an irresistible force; gradually I saw the. light, then the 
 sun again. By my sides were swift running waters, of a 
 kind new to me, for they were cold, and chilled me through 
 and through. I noticed the rains of former times were now 
 white fleecy masses. Surrounding me were new acquaint- 
 ances, great towering fellows, covered with conjealed 
 waters that came rushing down, as melted in the summer's 
 sun, tearing and grinding about me, laying my sides and 
 ribs bare to the snows and wintry blasts. These new 
 friends are unlike anything I knew before ; reaching high 
 above me, I can see they are different from myself, evi- 
 dently built of the muds of the deepest part of the old 
 sea, and their heighth above me showed how deep was my 
 burial place. My brother there to the west shook off his 
 grave clothes as I did, and together we have been through all 
 these ages of change I tell you of. But I do not like it 
 now. Your snows, frosts and falling waters are slowlybut 
 surely working my ruin ; gradually I am wearing away, 
 and can only look forward in the future realms of time, to 
 become as naught, or existing only in fragments along 
 
12 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 miles upon miles of running waters, who still break me up 
 to smaller fragaments and particles, atomiS of which go 
 down to the great sea, there to make parts of a new rock 
 and perhaps in time a new world. It is this looking 
 forward to the unknowable I dread, and cannot help my- 
 self; these rude elements are stronger than I am." 
 
 "But, hark ye, my friend; could you see the marvelous 
 changes that I have witnessed, in all of its minutiae, you 
 might then talk of your knowledge as a science. But keep 
 on working, for those who come after you, will profit by 
 what you learn, and many shall come after you and I are 
 gone, gone." 
 
 I awoke with a start to find that old Crested Butte had 
 set me to dreaming, and that I had only two hours to get 
 back over ground that had taken six to come. I made it 
 though in time for supper, as a second aesthetical meal I 
 had no ambition for. 
 
 Of this town of Crested Butte, its present and possible 
 future, I will have something to say in another letter, as 
 well as sundry future letters, regarding the surrounding 
 mining camps, as I have opportunity to see them. As I 
 fear that I have made this letter unreasonably long, I will 
 merely add that the Elk Mountain House is managed by 
 the town company, and if they will always keep as good a 
 hotel in the future as now, may it be my lot to spend a 
 portion of each summer with them. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTV. I 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Evans' Basin — Ideas on Prospecting — Sulphur Spring 
 
 — Hayden Lake — Pittsburg— Colorado 
 
 Anthricite Company's Lands — 
 
 Tertiary Coal Measures. 
 
 Since writing you before, the weather has been quite 
 showery, and somewhat interferred with my getting around 
 as much as I wished to. However, I have done some work 
 and herewith is a synopsis of what I have seen, and as I 
 understand it. 
 
 My next climb was up to Evans' Basin, from a place 
 on the Irwin road, about three miles from Crested Butte; 
 what the elevation was I do not exactly know, but after 
 a laborous climb through swarms of mosquitos, over fallen 
 timber, through brush and other obstacles, I found my- 
 self past where timber grew and patches of snow lying 
 around, (I see the thermometer is over 90° in Denver) 
 here I found an immense outcrop of porphyry, well stained 
 with iron oxide, and a great deal of good looking quartz 
 float lying around, some in large masses, all indicating the 
 presence of an ore body in connection with this porphyry. 
 This mountain is composed of sedimentary rocks from bot- 
 tom to summit which belong to the Crested Butte coal 
 basin. Provisionally I must keep these coal measures b\' 
 themselves, until I can find something I can compare them 
 to, as I know nothing recorded that agrees with the forma- 
 tions here, in their details ; consequently I have to be ver}- 
 careful in generalizing at all, and wish to be very sure of 
 my facts here before I draw deductions, that might turn 
 out to be erronous in the future ; but I have seen some 
 stransre thino-s. 
 
14 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 Evans' Basin illustrates very well a portion ofthe min- 
 eral bearing districts of this section, and the difficulties a 
 prospector labors under. There is on the mountain side, 
 two to three thousand feet of wash and slide, before I 
 came to this porphyry outcrop, which breaks up through 
 the coal measures, and comes through so nicely that the 
 horizontal strata of the coal measures are merely fissured, 
 no other disturbance apparent, and there is no change in 
 the country rock. It is just possible that the porphyry 
 was there before the coal measures, I am not certain yet. 
 
 It is at such exposed places as these, high up near the 
 mountain summit, that the mineral bearing rocks are ex- 
 posed by erosion ; up here is where the prospector finds 
 his surface float nearest in place, finds his vein, makes his 
 location and does his work. 
 
 There were two gangs of prospectors at work on 
 each side of the basin the day I was up, and working in 
 most inaccessible places. If the ore was worth $i,ooo per 
 ton it would take large capital to make it practically avail- 
 able. They were up over 200 feet above me, and from the 
 stuff rolled down, they had not got as good material as lay 
 at my feet, and which evidently came from nearer by. The 
 average prospector is a marvel of a biped, but I do not 
 know that the average mine purchaser is any less of an 
 anomaly. 
 
 From what I have seen here I am inclined to the be- 
 lief, that there are larger and better veins lower down the 
 slopes of these mountains, but so covered by the detritus 
 that no ordinary surface indications are. visible. I say 
 larger and better because if they do exist at all, the top of 
 the original vein has been loaded down with the rest ofthe 
 country rock, cutting it down many hundreds of feet, and 
 bringing the present vein top nearer the source of supply 
 for the fissure filling, resulting in a larger crevice at such 
 places, and larger bodies of mineral. The gangue or crevice 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I 5 
 
 matter of this country is generally with the best ores and 
 largest bodies of mineral, a much softer material than 
 quartz, a composition that would disintegrate more readily 
 in winters' frosts, and wash out by melting snows and rains, 
 than the surrounding layers of sandstones. This action 
 would leave a sag in the ground surface, which the disin- 
 tegrating country rock would wash into and finally fill ; the 
 result being that the whole mountain slope for a couple of 
 thousand feet, appears to be a mass of broken sandstones, 
 fine soil and rank growing vegetation, and the best veins 
 are thus buried, making the prospector climb 3,000 feet 
 higher and get less. 
 
 Right here I feel that the w^orthy prospector has the 
 right to remark, "what is the good of all this palaver if we 
 cannot find the veins?" Have patience my friend, knowing 
 the causes that have produced obstacles, rather than any- 
 thing else, there certainly may be found a way to overcome 
 them, and knowing these causes, we can work more inteli- 
 gently, especially if satisfied that the result will be pay ore. 
 
 My next trip was seven miles up the Slate river to the 
 town of Pittsburg, I went in company with Mr. Geo. W. 
 Cole, manager of the Colorado Anthracite Coal Co. On 
 the road about three miles from Crested Butte we stopped 
 at a large spring of sulpher water, and filled up with the 
 only mineral water I ever tasted fit to drink ; clear, cold, 
 pure and soft ; just sulpher enough to give it a fair taste, it 
 really was delicious. There must be considerable sulpher 
 in the water too, as the grass through which the water ran 
 from the spring was heavily coated with a white sulphur 
 deposit. Within half a mile of the spring is Hayden lake, 
 \vhich has some peculiarities that I have been told of, and 
 which I hope to be able to investigate during the season. 
 
 We only stopped long enough in Pittsburg to see that 
 here is an opportunity in time to make a mining town ; but 
 it would seem to an outsider that if the men most inter-- 
 
1 6 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 ested in making a town and selling lots, had much confidence 
 in it themselves, that they would make a good road to it. 
 The drive from Crested Butte is execrable, while a little 
 money expended would make a good road, as the grade is 
 not difficult, while of the material to be moved plows, and 
 a road scraper will do it all. 
 
 On the way back we stopped to visit the above men- 
 tioned Company's coal lands, 2,500 acres, and located on each 
 side of Slate river. The taking up of the land on each side of 
 the river, certainly evidences commendable foresight, as it 
 practically makes all of their land available for develop- 
 ment. On the portion located, on the dividing ridge 
 between Washington gulch and Slate river, we climbed up 
 the trail nearly 1,000 feet to the first opening, and then did 
 not appear to be more than half way up the slope, which 
 is quite steep. We found the men were drifting in through 
 the slide, near by which there was the appearance of coal 
 float, showing well. As they had not got through the 
 slide to solid formation yet, it was impossible to tell how 
 near they were going to strike the vein they were after ; but 
 from appearances, a few feet further would bring them to 
 solid formation of some kind. Mr. Cole, the gentleman in 
 charge, having had large experience in Pennsylvania coal 
 fields, is just the man to open up a territor}-' like this, as 
 past experience enables him to make the work done show, 
 at the last expense, whether there is coal in this territory 
 in paying quantities or not. From what he does, others 
 owning coal lands in this section, but not having the ex- 
 perience in opening up of such mines, will be able to learn 
 much. 
 
 I went without a drink all day, to be able to fill up of 
 that sulphur water on our way back to town. I cannot say 
 more in favor of any water than that. 
 
 There are some things in connection with these coal 
 measures, that I am not fully satisfied of, and will have a 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 1 7 
 
 full description of them, as I can learn them, for a future 
 letter. 
 
 This much I can say, however, they are of immense 
 commercial value. While only three seams have been opened 
 and really tested, I am satisfied from what I know already, 
 that there are five if not six veins all told, in these coal 
 measure formations. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Fourth of July, 1882 — Washington Gulch and Placer 
 Mines of 1859 — Elktown — Painter Boy and 
 Silver Jewell Claims — Character 
 of Veins — Elk Moun- 
 tain House. 
 
 Crested Butte, Gunnison County, Colorado, July 4. — 
 This is the day we celebrate, and this is how I celebrate, as 
 I saw enough powder and smoke years ago to last the bal- 
 ance of my life. On being told that there was gold placer 
 mining between six and eicrht miles from this town, near 
 the head of Washington gulch, I thought it might be of 
 interest to myself and your readers if I looked it over; es- 
 pecially as report said the placer was worked as early as 
 i859-'6o, and more or less continuously since. Passing 
 along the Gothic road nearly two miles from town, and 
 through the first toll-gate, then taking the first road north, 
 you enter Washington gulch. It is one of the mountain 
 valleys with the characteristics peculiar to this section, and 
 which are such a constant supprise to one only accustomed 
 to the eastern slope of the Rocky mountain system. 
 Imagine yourself driving along a fertile valley for six or 
 seven miles, over and around large mounds of detritus 
 from the coal measures, covered with luxuriant mountain 
 grass, over a foot high, at an elevation of about 9,000 feet 
 above sea level. To the west is the dividing ridge between 
 Slate river and Washington gulch, covered with a heavy 
 growth of timber on this side, suitable for mining purposes 
 from bottom to summit, and covering the seams of coal, 
 beds of sandstone and slate, of which this ridge is com 
 posed. To the east is the connecting link between Gothic? 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I^ 
 
 and Crested Butte mountains, an outcropping ridge of 
 granite porphyry, which is broken through in two places 
 into the next \-alley east, and which breaks are filled with 
 low wet ground, making a rich grassy swale. In places, 
 one could see the uneroded shales lying against the erup- 
 tive rock, their soft bluish tinge making a pleasing contrast 
 to the colfd, grayish-looking, hard rock outcropping above 
 them. \ . fif :, .1 
 
 Driving along an excellent road, as one approaches 
 the head of the gulch, one sees buildings, saw-mills and 
 other improvements. Amongst these I shortly arrived, to 
 learn that I had driven to Elktown, the headquarters of the 
 Elk Mountain Consolidated Mining Company, and to find 
 out, to my disgust, that I had paid toll to travel over a 
 road on which the toll-road company had not expended 
 one dollar, but the excellence and entire making of the 
 road was due to this mining company. I consoled myself 
 with the fact that the toll-road is owned by down-East 
 parties. I hope no Colorado man would do such a thing 
 as this, but for sweet charity's sake let us think that the 
 toll-gate keeper has misunderstood his instructions, that 
 the matter will be corrected, and that this kind of road- 
 agent's work will be stopped. They certainly had no 
 right to charge for more than the distance between Crested 
 Butte and the tpll-gate, a short two miles. 
 
 Having run on to something I did not expect and in 
 my line, I speedily introduced myself to Mr. M. J. Gray, 
 manager, finding a pleasant, genial gentleman indeed, and 
 one who took every pains to give me all the information I 
 desired. 
 
 I learned that the town, saw-mills, and the mines, 
 seventeen mines in number, with about ^200,000 expended 
 in development and surface improvements, belongs to the 
 mining company. Their property is now brought up to a 
 condition, when another years' careful work and economical 
 
20 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 management ought to place the property on a dividend- 
 paying basis, with two to three years' working expenses 
 and dividends ahead in sight, as stoping ground opened. The 
 elevation being only 10,000 feet, there should be no diffi- 
 culty in arranging to work the whole year through. 
 
 The Painter Boy and Silver Jewell claims, both on the 
 one vein, show the most ore for the development. They 
 have good mine buildings, in which is placed the hoisting 
 power, furnished by Hendrie & Bolthofif, of Denver. 
 
 Developments consist of a main hoisting shaft 100 
 feet deep, with a level in one direction of 100 feet, and in 
 the other 300 feet, connecting with an air shaft 130 feet to 
 the surface on the next claim. Considerable ore has been 
 taken from this development, as the vein is fifteen to 
 twenty feet wide, with well defined walls, porphyry on one 
 side, a feldsite with some silica showing, and containing 
 considerable fine iron sulphides, a rock I like to see, as I 
 know what it means. The pay streak is twenty-two to 
 twenty-four inches in width, and I was informed that this 
 width would average ^200 per ton as it was mined ; that 
 they are selecting and shipping now from this a grade that 
 will average ;^500 per ton in milling. I should think it 
 might, as I found plenty of native and ruby silver, with 
 silver-glance, and high grade galena in what had been 
 thrown out as third-class ore. I should Estimate there is 
 at least 100 tons of this on hand. 
 
 The gangue of this vein is something that would 
 make the heart of the average Cornish miner leap for joy 
 on contract work, being calc-spar — the easiest, nicest rock 
 to work that ever a drill was pounded into. 
 
 The difference of hardness between calc-spar and 
 quartz gangue being as three is to seven in the mineralogi- 
 cal scale. 
 
 From what I saw of the undeveloped claims, surface 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 21 
 
 indications mark as good properties yet to be opened as 
 the ones I have described. 
 
 There has been some 1,900 feet of tunnel work done, 
 but if with any practical results, I think, it is yet to be 
 learned. However, this little spot controlled by capitalists 
 of Topeka, Kansas, shows a geological structure that is 
 right, and appears to have such a promising future that I 
 most heartily congratulate the owners. I drove away with 
 the feeling that I had seen and learned something, that it 
 was a real pleasure to come across. 
 
 I learned that I had passed the placer ground, and 
 that work had not been commenced yet this season. Was 
 informed that the gold was quite coarse, easily saved, and 
 that a great deal of value had been obtained in past years, 
 without the ground being yet exhausted. 
 
 I could not learn that any gold bearing veins had yet 
 been discovered in the locality, the fissures yielding only 
 silver so far as opened, and not to exceed a half ounce of 
 gold to the ton. I cannot conceive that the wearing 
 away of such veins could give the quantity of placer gold 
 reported. 
 
 Since the foregoing trip, I made a flying visit to the 
 town of Irwin, and the Forest Queen mine ; but found this 
 vicinity so much more developed, so much more to see and 
 know than I anticipated, that I concluded it best to leave 
 it for a few days, until I could give it the time and care 
 that I ought to, and which the locality deserves. 
 
 Really this Elk Mountain House surpasses all of the 
 mountain hotels that I have ever stopped at. I have just 
 got up from as good a Fourth of July dinner as I ever ate 
 anywhere, and although a day on which more license is 
 generally used and not noticed, than on most other days, 
 here every thing, with a crowded house is so orderly, run- 
 ning so smoothly, and withal, such care and attention given 
 to each guest, that it is a real pleasure to speak of it. 
 
22 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Poverty Gulch — Crest of Elk Mountain Range — Little 
 
 Nell Mining Claim — Nearly an Accident — 
 
 Lunch — Rainy Weather. 
 
 Crested Butte, Gunnison County, Colorado, July 
 7, 1882. — Since my last letter, I have had an oppor- 
 tunity to visit another mining section, tributary to 
 Crested Butte as a shipping point. 
 
 On July 5, on the invitation of Mr. J. J. Ellingham, 
 formerly sheriff of Boulder County, Colorado, and in com- 
 pany with Mr. F. Dillingham, of the Denver Sampling Works, 
 we started from this town on horseback to see the wealth, 
 present and prospective, of Poverty gulch and basin. The 
 names of localities in this section, like all other new 
 places in Colorado, are quite euphonious. 
 
 We rode up the Slate river valley to Pittsburg — this 
 part of the country I have already described — but from 
 Pittsburg on up the gulch the territory was new to me. 
 A good wagon road winds up the rising ground of the 
 gulch, as far as it is practical to make a road at present. 
 Then after crossing the stream in Poverty gulch the trail 
 ascends quite rapidly, until we had climbed up amongst 
 patches of snow. Selecting a spot where the grass had 
 got nicely started, we picketed our horses, concluding that 
 here navigation ended, and that the rest of the way must 
 be made on foot. 
 
 A ten minutes' further climb to an elevation of 
 1 1,500 feet brought us to the tent occupied by Mr. John T. 
 Williams, prospector and claim owner, who was formerly in 
 charge of the Bull Domingo mine, of Custer County, 
 Colorado, a man well and favorably known in several sec- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 23 
 
 tions of Colorado. He, with his men, occupied this tent, 
 and not far from this elevation he had put in the winter. 
 
 Taking a heart}' lunch, for we had 500 feet higher yet 
 to climb, and a snow field of at least a third of a mile to 
 cross, four of us set out, and after' one got at it and used to 
 digging the toes and heels into the soft snow, it was not so 
 bad, as we angled along a slope of at least 45°, where if 
 one slipped, the descent would be more rapid than pleasant 
 and the stopping point — I cannot tell whether one would 
 halt in. this world or keep right on to the next. They told 
 of a burro making the trip with a load on him, and halting 
 all right this side of glory. That may do for a burro, 
 especially if he enjoys it, but as for me, I prefer to keep 
 the trail. 
 
 Over the snow and a few feet up, what a sight and 
 what a place. I stood upon a crest of the Elk Mountain 
 range, not over twelve feet wide and, perhaps, three-fourths 
 of a mile long. Under my feet was the beginning of the 
 world ; that is archaen granite ; within a stones throw was 
 the most recent formation known ; what an eventful history 
 between the two. I stood at an elevation of certainly 12,000 
 feet above sea level, down from me, on each side, were 
 sheer precipices of 300 feet on the east and 700 feet to the 
 west. 
 
 Raising my eyes and looking westward, I viewed a vast 
 reach of country, of valleys, of hills, of mountains ; grass- 
 clothed, forest-covered and snow-capped, bounded in the 
 distance by the grand-looking Wahsatch range of Utah, 
 and all of the unknown wealth of a new country between 
 us. Turning to the east. Crested Butte town, nine miles 
 distant, seemed at my feet ; on down the Slate river, with 
 its tributaries, to its junction with the East river, up the 
 valley of the Tomichi, and my eyes rested upon that monu- 
 ment of the world, the Colorado Continental Divide. 
 
 We did not come entirely to look at scenery, or for 
 
24 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 the benefit of our health ; so at the word from WilHams,, 
 who took the lead, we went over the west side, and along: 
 the edge, on what was meant for a trail, and which can be 
 made into one. Sometimes down, then scrambling up,, 
 finally arriving at a dump of vein or crevice material, over 
 which we climbed, stirring up the loose, friable stuff, which 
 as we tramped upon it gave out a strong smell of sulphur,, 
 and no bad sign dther was this dump, for it showed from 
 quantity evidence of a large vein, and in composition an 
 easy material to work. 
 
 At last we stood at the entrance to the Little Nell 
 mining claim, a property that is attracting considerable 
 attention in this locality just now. 
 
 This claim was located in i88i and has several open- 
 ings on it, all showing ore in place, principally galena, run- 
 ning well in silver, and some of what I should judge was 
 magnetic iron pyrites, but cannot be positive without a 
 test. We visited all of the openings, and at each place 
 found a large showing of solid ore piled out. I mean a 
 large amount of ore compared to the amount of develop- 
 ment, and of a quality on which I was assured there was a 
 round profit over and above cost of mining, shipping and 
 reducing, which, I confess, is remarkable, as it is very sel- 
 dom that such a grade is obtained in the quantity showing 
 here with so little development. 
 
 As it was thought necessary for me to go over the 
 vein surface showing, that I might give a competent opin- 
 ion as to the permanency of it and its prospective possi- 
 bilities, we prepared to start. I looked up an angle of 70° 
 for 250 feet to the mountain crest, along a sag in the moun- 
 tain side marking the course of the vein, with its granite 
 walls standing up on each side ; then turned and looked down 
 the continuation of the vein, gradually widening between 
 walls as shown on the surface, for over 400 feet, until the 
 vein course, and walls were covered in the detritus below. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 2$ 
 
 I had selected about twenty-five pounds of the representa- 
 tive material of this vein ; the sack containing it I slung on 
 my back and up we started, Ellingham ahead, myself next, 
 with Mr. Dillingham and Williams following. We could 
 only scramble a few feet when our wind would give out, 
 and we had to stop and breathe ; somehow or other, the 
 capacity of one's lungs in such places seems to be too 
 limited. As we stopped we could examine the crevice 
 matter, seeing solid galena out-cropping, accompanied by 
 the decomposed ores, such as carbonates, and a showing 
 of chloride. 
 
 About half way up, I was nearly the cause of an acci- 
 dent that at the time made my heart leap into my throat. 
 I was quite heavily loaded, and using the projecting rocks 
 to assist me all that I could, I reached up and put my hand 
 on one apparently firm, of many pounds weight, when it 
 started. I had just time to brace myself, try to hold it, and 
 call out to those below, wdio succeeded in getting to one 
 side, as I had to let it go, crashing many hundred feet down 
 the mountain. I tremble now to think what might have 
 happened had I not had the presence of mind and strength 
 to do as I did at the moment. 
 
 At last we stood upon the crest again, and quite thank- 
 ful all of us to get there once more, except Williams, who 
 appeared to take everything as a matter of course. 
 
 I can assure the owners of this mining claim that they 
 have a crevice which is a true fissure, cutting the granite 
 crest through and through ; that its possibilities are not 
 shown yet, as I could not see that either wall had been 
 reached in the work done, but an out-cropping ore streak 
 had been followed in the development. 
 
 When a vein of this strength shows a pay-streak, with 
 crevice material on each side, my experience says that with 
 development other and additional pay-streaks will also be 
 found. They assure me that the grade now is profitable 
 
26 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 pay. I know from what I saw, quantity enough could be 
 procured. While this is not a developed country, so that 
 there is anything in the neighborhood to compare possi- 
 bilities of development with, I can, in this country rock, feel 
 safe in saying that from what I know of similar veins in 
 other parts of Colorado ; the owners need not be afraid of 
 pushing development, as I do not think, from what I saw, 
 that they will be troubled with pinches that will be any 
 detriment, or with, what is known in. miners' phraseology, 
 a "horse," that will cut off the pay-streak entirely, as oc- 
 curs in some formations. This property has every evi- 
 dence, as far as surface showing and development goes at 
 present, of being made in the future a valuable producing 
 mine. 
 
 Having a little time left in which to gratify my natural 
 curiosity, I espied some rocks which I wanted to examine, 
 Williams saying they were only about 300 feet off, and, 
 offering to go with me, we started. I will bet — not money 
 — that it was a fourth of a mile, and as we went below 
 the crest, we had afterwards to climb 200 feet to get to what 
 I wanted. 
 
 I found it was contact between the granite and another 
 rock, so weathered and stained that I am not sure yet of its 
 name in geology; also a large dike of feldsitic porphyry 
 filling the place of contact. It really did me good to see 
 here the porphyry the same, as I find it in Clear Creek 
 County, and the granite the same as Boulder County. 
 These rocks seemed to me to be a connecting link between 
 what I already knew and that which I am striving to learn. 
 
 We went back along the crest, and in a nook sheltered 
 by angular masses of granite, were two men with bellows 
 and the requirements of an out-door blacksmith shop, 
 sharpening tools. I am not surprised at anything any 
 more. Of course, they were the kind of men that have 
 done most to make Colorado what she is, worthy memberg 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONAN;iA COUNTY. 2/ 
 
 of the great fraternity of prospectors. May success attend 
 their efforts. 
 
 We found that the rest of our party, tired of waiting, 
 had started for the tent. That meant "grub." We were 
 hungry, too, and hurried along the crest rapidly, stepping 
 on angular fragments of granite, of all shapes and average 
 sizes of cooking-stoves, where a mis-step or slip would — 
 well, it made no difference which way you fell, you was 
 sure to go down many feet. 
 
 About half-wa}' across the snow field one of our com- 
 rades who had preceded us, evidently, had suddently con- 
 ceived the idea that he was a boy again, and had went 
 down the snow-slope the same as he had used the cellar- 
 door in boyhood days; there was his mark in the snow. 
 He said afterward he did it for fun. He has been in Colo- 
 rado over twenty years, and those of my readers who per- 
 sonally know him, will know how much reliance can be 
 placed in his statement. 
 
 At the tent we found hot coffee, hot bread and ham, 
 and a dish of — I am not up in cookery and cannot name it, 
 but it was mighty good anyhow, and to it all we did ample 
 justice. Williams' cellar is in the snow-bank, just across 
 from the tent. As the snow melts he keeps moving the 
 door of the cellar across the gulch after the snow-bank. 
 
 I must go up to this locality again, as, in a space of 
 less than a mile square, I saw more varieties of rock than I 
 ever before saw crowded into the same space ; and when 
 Nature starts in to make a geological museum, I want to 
 paw over the rocks. 
 
 As we saddled and started homewards, it began to 
 rain heavily. (They say this is the dry season here). It 
 has rained hard some part of each twenty-four hours that I 
 have been here, and we did get soaking wet. Arriving at 
 the hotel at 8:30 p. M.,as I tumbled off my horse, cold, wet 
 through, sore and stiff, I was conscious that I had seen and 
 learned something new, and in my way had enjoyed a good 
 time. 
 
28 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Iron Swamp — Irwin — Pioneer Mill — Forest Queen 
 
 Mine. 
 
 Irwin, Gunnison County, July 14. — Since writing my 
 last letter, I have been under the weather a couple of days, 
 probably the result of over-exertion, and was compelled to 
 keep quiet. However, on the afternoon of the nth instant, 
 I felt like trying myself, and struck out for a three-mile 
 walk on the Irwin road, to what is locally known as the 
 "Iron Swamp." Across this swamp the road has been 
 made, by laying down heavy sticks, and corduroy wagon 
 way on top of them. The geological formation shows con- 
 tact between the sedimentary rocks, or coal measures, and 
 the granite porphyry. Possibly an eroded basin, with an 
 ore body filling the place of contact, showing near the up- 
 per part of the basin, while the lower part, toward Coal 
 creek, the line of drainage is filled with gravel. In most 
 recent times waters flowing from the upper part of the 
 swamp have been very heavily charged with iron, which is 
 deposited over the gravel three to four feet thick. Some 
 of this is claimed to give, in laboratory tests, 60 per cent, 
 of iron. I could not learn if it carried other value or not. 
 The running water draining from this swamp, now stains 
 the logs and stones of the dull red color of some mineral 
 paints. If this property is ever worked and properly de- 
 veloped, I rather imagine a different ore body, of very dif- 
 ferent material and value, will be found in place than what 
 the surface shows at present. 
 
 I had collected about forty pounds of specimens, and 
 felt rather played out, when a wagon came along that gave 
 me the chance of a ride to Irwin. As it was a question of 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 29 
 
 walking back to Crested Butte, tired out as I was, or rid- 
 ing to where there was something I wanted to see, and 
 where I could spend four or five days to advantage, it did 
 not take me long to decide, and, of course, in favor of the 
 ride. 
 
 Arriving here about supper time, I found several ac- 
 quaintances, whom I have known more or less of since I 
 have been in the State, and especially the gentlemen con- 
 nected with the Forest Queen mine, the bonanza of the 
 Ruby Mining District. 
 
 Irwin is a mining town, pleasantly situated at an ele- 
 vation of 9,750 feet above sea level, a place which, if 
 there was a little more attention paid to the streets and 
 their condition, could be made a handsome mountain town. 
 Comparatively speaking, it is young yet, being wholly the 
 out-growth of the discovery and out-put of the Forest 
 Queen in 1879, with many subsequent rich discoveries in 
 a radius of five miles, helping to make up the whole. It is 
 the supply point of as rich a mining district as is known 
 anywhere over the range, with a population at present of 
 over 2,000, and which, in the next thirty days, I am as- 
 sured will be doubled. Owing to the lateness of the season 
 this year, very many who put in the season here actively 
 working, have not returned yet, but will put in an appear- 
 ance soon, besides bringing many new men with them, so 
 that a few weeks' time will make every difference in work 
 done, and in that time the surrounding mountain basins 
 will be resounding with the explosions of powder and 
 rending rocks, while Irwin, as a supply point for a rich 
 mining district, will show the bustle and activity of busi- 
 ness that it deserves. 
 
 There are two or three good hotels here, chief among 
 them being the Windsor. 
 
 There are school houses, a neat little church, and more 
 business houses by far than Crested Butte, although that 
 
30 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 is the shipping point that Irwin is tributary to. My first 
 visit was to the mill built by the Goodenough Mining 
 Company, under the supervision of Professor (?) Jacobs, and 
 like many of the Professors 's (?) experiments, turned out 
 to be an expensive one for the men who furnished the 
 money. It does seem too bad that such men do (and 
 always will) find men with means who will advance 
 money for the most impracticable operations in connec- 
 tion with mining, the result of which is failure and loss. 
 If the whole loss fell upon the men conducting such 
 enterprises, it would not be so bad ; but, the worst part lies 
 in the fact that the failure acts disastrously on' the sur- 
 rounding camp and other investnients. It is also used 
 as a means of ill to the locality by the very men who 
 have caused the failure, and whose only claim to public 
 notice is their burden of conceit, ignorance and stupidity. 
 Graduating with these talents, they may rightly be styled 
 "Professors." 
 
 This mill is now represented in ownership by Mr. 
 Marshall Webb, of New York City; and one must really 
 admire this gentleman's pluck in trying to make the 
 best of what has been done. The mill is now being re- 
 modeled so that sampling can be done and ores pur- 
 chased, making a cash market at home for ores produced 
 in this neighborhood. This is what all mining camps need 
 first, a cash market at home, so that a prospector with only 
 his labor and locations for capital, can turn the results pro- 
 duced into cash, be it 500 or 5,000 pounds of ore, and with 
 that money can hire labor and so produce the larger 
 amounts afterwards, thus making a steady, direct and bene- 
 ficial result to a mining section. The very money that 
 is often tied up in impracticable reduction works, in par- 
 tially developed districts, will more than furnish the 
 capital for the business, and the chances of profit to the 
 capitalist, with only a sampling mill, are very great, as the 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 3 I 
 
 business is cash throughout. His margins of profit are 
 three to five dollars per ton for crushing and sampling, 
 and an inside rate of freight that the single shipper of small 
 amounts cannot get. Also, he can, on large contracts 
 with the heavier plants for reduction, get a fair reduction 
 in cost of treating the ores he purchases. It does make 
 me sore as I visit different parts of the State and see 
 capital tied up, that, in other channels, might be used 
 profitably for the capitalist and for the benefit of the dis- 
 trict as a whole. 
 
 Mr. Webb is to be congratulated that he has taken a 
 step in the right direction, and deserves the thanks of this 
 district in showing that he is trying to meet the real needs 
 of the locality. 
 
 The mill is a fine large one, well arranged in some 
 particulars, and furnished with far better machinery than I 
 expected to find. Under the guidance of Mr. Charles But- 
 ters, who is in charge, I went through the building. To 
 his kindness I am indebted for the following particulars : 
 The mill is furnished with a stationary engine, double cyl- 
 inder, capacity of lOO horse power, manufactured by the 
 Buckeye Engine Company, of Salem, Ohio. It is a model 
 of workmanship. The boiler, with more than the power 
 of the engine, is one of Babcock & Wilcox's best make, 
 one of Blake's largest size ore breakers, capacity of five 
 tons per hour, a ten-stamp battery for dry stamping, a re- 
 volving cylinder for drying ore, furnished by the Frazer «& 
 Chalmers, of Chicago, two revolving chloridizing furnaces, 
 capacity four tons each per twenty-four hours built by 
 Morey & Sperry, improved Union Amalgamating Pans, 
 capacity twenty-five tons per twenty-four hours, make up 
 the bulk of the plant. 
 
 The modus operandi, as I understand it, is briefly this : 
 From the ore-bins to the crusher, then to the rolls where 
 the ore is sampled and paid for. After that to the revolv- 
 
. 32 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 ing drying kiln, thence to the stamps automatically fed, 
 where it is reduced to a grade of forty mesh or finer, from 
 there along an ore channel to an elevator. The powdered 
 material is carried up and dumped into ore-bins over the 
 chloridizing furnaces, into which the material passes with 
 a sufficient amount of salt to make the silver contained in 
 the ore, free milling. These furnaces revolve and a strong 
 draft passes through them (I do not like that ; there is too 
 rnuch chance for loss) ; being sufficiently roasted here, the 
 charge is dumped upon an open hearth, there to remain 
 several hours, then shoveled into ore cars furnished with a 
 track across the mill floor, out of them to the amalgamat- 
 ing pans. From these the amalgam will be collected and 
 reduced in a furnace recently constructed under the direc- 
 tion of Mr. Butters. It is capable of receiving a charge of 
 over 1,500 pounds of amalgam. Attached is a model 
 furnace with muffles for assay purposes. 
 
 We visited the weighing room, which is a type of neat- 
 ness, well lighted and furnished with a number of improved 
 scales and balances of various sizes. 
 
 Mr. Butters tells me that he takes the mill as he finds 
 it, and will do the best he can with what is at hand, adding 
 as little expense as possible. One can see the difficulties 
 he labors under in getting started, as owing to the in- 
 capacity of former men, the foundations of parts of the mill 
 were not made substantial enough, so that some of the 
 machinery has to be re-set, shafting relined and adjusted, 
 to say nothing of the vexatious delay of receiving parts of 
 machinery ordered, which are to be used in the sampling 
 of the ores, and which machinery is now being put to place 
 and adjusted, with a prospect of starting in a few days. 
 
 Mr. Butters is confident that he can treat the ores pro- 
 duced here successfully in the above described method. I 
 sincerely hope he will, .as it will solve one of the knotty 
 questions of ore reduction, and his success will reflect much 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 33 
 
 honor and credit upon him. The sampling and purchase 
 of the ores, I know, can be made a profitable success. 
 
 The ore bins of this mill are now full of ore, princi- 
 pally from the Forest Queen, which is making a large out- 
 put; ore is being produced in quantities from five different 
 places in the mine. 
 
 From the mill to the Forest Queen is not much of a 
 walk, and being the best developed as well as the oldest 
 mine of the camp, it, of course, merited attention first. I 
 learn its history to be briefly this: The property was 
 discovered in 1879, purchased by the brothers, Harold and 
 L. R. Thompson, for ;$40,ooo, who organized a private 
 company, associating with themselves such men as D. C. 
 Dodge, R. W. Woodbury, Mr. Woodward, of Denver; 
 William T. Holt and other gentlemen of like reputation 
 and means. The first year's product of the Forest Queen 
 was over ^40,000, the shipping ores netting ^350 to ;^ 1,080 
 per ton in Denver and Pueblo, over and above the very ex- 
 pensive cost of transportation and treating of those days. 
 This gave the mine a reputation the country over, aside 
 from the remarkable specimens of ruby and native silver 
 that were distributed all through the East in various ways. 
 
 The winter of '79 and '80 found the country new and 
 still unprepared for active prosecution of work during the 
 winter season. What work could be done, however, was 
 vigorously pushed, drifts run from the bottom of a sixty- 
 foot surface shaft each way, some of the pay stoped out ; 
 while at the same time a tunnel was started on the ore 
 face, at the end and lowest part of the claim. Here they 
 had excellent pay for a time, but passed it. In the sixty- 
 foot shaft it was apparently gone, cut off; at the end of one 
 drift it was pinched, at the other the ore had apparently dis- 
 appeared, and from this the story went abroad for a time 
 that the Forest Queen had lost her vein, and gave the 
 Ruby Mining District a temporary "black eye." It cer- 
 
34 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 tainly has been temporary, for the mine now is taking out 
 an average often tons'per day, which amount in the next 
 sixty days can be trebled if it is desirable, proving that the 
 vein and ore is there all right, and in larger quantities, as 
 well as of more value per ton than the owners allowed 
 themselves to hope for. 
 
 As I was allowed free run of everything, I prefer to 
 state what I have seen myself, draw my own deductions of 
 the future, and try to plainly place before my readers 
 things as they are now, rather than to take up and point 
 out the errors that have occurred, and which all realize 
 and can understand now. For it must be remembered that 
 here was a formation of country rock that was entirely new 
 to all miners, a rock, the formation and characteristics of 
 which are peculiar to itself 
 
 The mine is now working something over forty men, 
 under the direction of the lessees of the surface ores, under 
 contracts for driving levels in connection with the tunnel, 
 and others in the direct employ of the company at so much 
 per day. 
 
 The surface of the claim measures i,ooo feet along the 
 course of the vein, by 265 feet in width, and whenever I 
 could get on to a part of the walls in place, I found it car- 
 ried a regular dip approximating 45° to the southeast, the 
 course of the vein being about northeast and southwest. 
 
 At the time of my visit I found Mr. L. R. Thompson, 
 part owner and lessee from the company of the surface 
 ores, seated alongside of a ten-foot hole, out of which a 
 couple of men were handing out large chunks of ore, on 
 which Thompson was exercising himself with a hammer, 
 breaking the ore in sizes suitable for sacking. I saw him 
 break lumps of 150 pounds and over full of ruby silver, 
 that would go anywhere from ^500 to $5,000 per ton, and 
 as he rammed the pieces into a sack, he appeared to be full 
 of remarks suitable to the occasion. To a "specimen fiend" 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 35 
 
 like myself, it was awful to see such beautiful specimens 
 about to go through a mill ; but what does the average 
 mine-owner know about the ^sthetical part of the busi- 
 ness? The stuff that he threw to one side, as of not high 
 enough grade to have treated at present, would make the 
 .average mine-owner green with envy. 
 
 Just above this spot is an old opening of 1879 from 
 which surface pay ore was taken. I looked at it. The ore 
 was east of the porphyry, and the other opening I speak of, 
 had the same formation. I went down the sixty-foot shaft, 
 along the south drift seventy-five feet, over piles of ore 
 waiting to be hoisted up, to the end where the pinch oc- 
 curred, and found the ore streak about four inches wide, 
 the ore west of the porphyry. Within fifteen feet of this, 
 understoping was being done on the face of over three 
 feet of ore. I looked at the eighty-five foot drift west 
 from this level into the barren sandstone or country 
 rock ; right opposite is the thirty-eight foot cross-cut, 
 which was finally started in the right direction, east, going 
 through crevnce matter more or less mineralized, until the 
 mineral became strong enough to be a regular pay streak. 
 This has been drifted upon 130 feet north, and the ore is 
 west of the porphyry. I went into the old north drift from 
 this shaft eighty feet, and saw where the pay still stood 
 along the east line of the drift. This shaft was sunk 
 down 120 feet further, and not sufficient allowance being 
 made for the dip of the vein, every foot of depth carried it 
 that much further from the pay. After the re-discovery in 
 the east cross-cut above mentioned, another cross-cut was 
 run from the shaft at a depth of* 120 feet from the surface, 
 a distance of sixty-five feet, and nearly twenty feet of pay 
 ore was cut. The ore is west of the porphyry. At the 
 bottom of the shaft, 180 feet from the surface, it took 
 5eventy-two feet to cross-cut to the ore, and the ore is still 
 ^vest of the porphyry. 
 
36 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 In company with Mr. Frank Winters, whom I have 
 known for some time, and who now has charge of the con- 
 tract work, etc., in the lower or tunnel workings, I visited 
 this part of the ground. 
 
 Frank is a practical miner and a hard worker, one 
 who sees much that escapes the notice of others, evidently 
 the right man in the right place, and also has the honor of 
 firing the first shots in the right direction, viz: in the upper 
 east cross-cut. 
 
 When this tunnel was started much and good pay was 
 taken out, and it is now being done from the surface over 
 the tunnel entrance, where over four feet of ore is being 
 stripped, and showing a large percentage of ruby silver. 
 The tunnel, when necessary, is well timbered, a nice grade 
 and track makes the complement for working. It is in a 
 distance of 535 feet; a cross-cut from here reaches the ore 
 body, which has been drifted south on for a distance of 130 
 feet, and the work still going; also drifted north on for 
 fifty feet, a cross-cut here west in crevice material of twenty 
 feet brought them to the real sandstone footwall, showing 
 regular and in place, with its dip of 45°. Following a 
 large pay streak north along this wall for 135 feet, regular 
 almost the whole of the way as a line, it gives the impres- 
 sion that here everything is in place. From the workings 
 here the whole vein formation can in time be proved. The 
 last few feet in this drift shows a sandstone "horse," which 
 has caused the ore body to leave the footwall and deflect 
 into the crevice material eastward. At this point a cross- 
 cut has been started east through the porphyry, now in 
 twenty feet, and which, if carried right on through the 
 porphyry, I consider the most valuable piece of develop- 
 ment in the whole mine, as it will prove everything, and 
 show that the only fault in working was occasioned by 
 those in charge not realizing, until very recently, the enor- 
 mous size of this fissure, and its possible showing in value. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTV. 3/ 
 
 To the kindness of Mr. Ira Brown, superintendent and 
 in charge for some time past of the active working of the 
 mine for the company, I am indebted for the permission to 
 sketch the workings, and who kindly corrected the meas- 
 urements that I might construct the geology of this vein, 
 and which I find to be as follows: 
 
 The country rock is granite-porphyry, overlaid with 
 sedimentary rocks, or recent coal-measures, many hundreds 
 of feet in thickness. Following this were recent volcanic 
 eruptions (I am informed of lava outcrops a few miles 
 southwest showing in place), which fissured this country 
 rock, the fissures breaking through the over-lying sedimen- 
 tary rocks. Their composition being alternating layers of 
 shales, coals and sandstones, all soft and friable, they fis- 
 sured without any resistance that would displace them. 
 Some of these fissures were of large size, allowing the pas- 
 sage to the surface of the eruptive paste, which makes a 
 portion now of the true-fissure vein filling, is recognized as 
 feldsitic porphyry, and which is always more or less min- 
 eralized. So much for generalities; now we come to the 
 Forest Queen surface. Where large bodies of mineral 
 occur, a trough along the vein will show, or if large enough 
 over the largest bodies of ore in the vein, a basin will be 
 formed. This occurs from the oxidization of the sulphides, 
 and the subsequent erosion of the surface material from 
 meteoric agencies. The Forest Queen basin of this kind 
 is the largest I have ever seen. Now take into considera- 
 tion the character of the country rock along this crevice; 
 it is soft, friable and easily eroded, w^iich would lead one to 
 look for fragments of sandstone, metamorphosed to a 
 quartzite in the vein material, also pieces of shale changed 
 to a slate ; both of these are found, and their breaking off 
 has contributed to the surface enlargement of the fissure. 
 It will not be surprising, as the workings gain depth, to 
 
38 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 find fragments of coal with native silver attached in the 
 crevice matter. I am confident there will be. 
 
 Now, having learned the structure of the fissure and 
 the country rock, it is not surprising that several slips, 
 slides and displacements of the ore bodies have occurred 
 for a depth of sixty to lOO feet, and in large bodies, as the 
 surrounding country rock was eroded to a greater or less 
 extent along the vein or crevice in places. That in a vein 
 of this width it would be reasonable to expect a good-pay 
 ore body along each wall in place, and several ore streaks 
 or stringers of large size will also be contained in the por- 
 phyry, and that the whole of the crevice material, after 300 
 feet in depth, will pay to treat by some method. In fact,, 
 it would require careful picking now to find rock that will 
 not assay ;^20 per ton. 
 
 Part of the above statement has already been proved 
 to be true, and any one can see it now. 
 
 The present cross-cut in the north drift at tunnel level 
 will prove the width of the crevice, and, which I believe 
 from what I have seen, to be over 100 feet. It will also 
 prove the existence of an east ore body which has never 
 been seen in the lower workings, and which, I maintain in 
 a crevice of this width ought to be there, and which exists 
 in similar veins that I have examined in other parts of the 
 State. 
 
 As depth is gained, from what I have learned of the 
 surrounding country, between 600 and 1,000 feet the crev- 
 ice will pass out of the sedimentary rocks into the true 
 country rock — granite porphyry — here it may be expected 
 the fissure will narrow, but with no diminution in quantity 
 or quality of ore. The quality, I firmly believe, will in- 
 crease, as in the change of country rock the gangue ought 
 to change from silica to calc-spar. This will carry more 
 native silver and silver glance than now shows, as well as 
 the ruby silver holding its own. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 39 
 
 This mine now shows more ore of high grade in silver 
 than any other mine in the State. Mr. Dilhngham told me 
 after a visit here a few days ago, that he had seen more 
 ruby silver together at once than in the whole of his exper- 
 ience before in purchasing ores. . I can say the same, and 
 I am assured that the showing now is far beyond what it 
 was a few days ago. As I write I can look out of the door 
 and see two lumps of ore of several hundred pounds weight, 
 intended by Mr. Thompson for the Denver Exposition, 
 full of rub}- and native silver, and in such quantity as the 
 bulk of mankind never saw before. 
 
 No man can compute the value ot the future output of 
 this mine, in this piece of ground 265x1,000 feet of surface 
 and unknown depth. That a large percentage in value of 
 the National debt will come out of this space I fully realize. 
 
 To the courtesy of the gentlemen here in charge I am 
 under great obligations for the opportunity to examine and 
 lay before my readers a description as above, of what I 
 believe will prove to be the largest producing silver fissure 
 vein now known in the State. 
 
 There is much more to be learned and said of the 
 mines of this district, of which Irwin is the centre, and as I 
 learn it I shall take pleasure in laying facts, as I know them 
 personally, before my readers. 
 
40 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Elk Basin — Geology — Elk and Micawber Claim — Ruby 
 Gulch— Oaks Claim— O-be-Joyful Gulch— A Pecu- 
 liar Vein — Conglomerate — Anthracite Coals of 
 Irwin — Flowers — Bituminous Coals of 
 Ohio Creek — Lava Eruption — Castle 
 Rocks — Gunnison City — Gypsum 
 — Senator Hill's Ute Reserva- 
 tion Bill— Natural Wealth 
 of Irwin— Justice Basin 
 — Redwell Basin — 
 Peculiar Spring 
 and Results, 
 Etc.. Etc. 
 
 Irwin, Gunnison County, Colo., July 30. — It is just 
 two weeks to-day since I mailed my letter, in which the 
 Forest Queen was described. In that time I have traveled 
 over considerable territory in this immediate neighbor- 
 hood, seeing much that is good, but, of course, not meeting 
 with mining properties showing the development of the 
 mine named above, nor having indications of as large ore 
 bodies. Even in this universally rich district the mines on 
 development cannot all be Forest Queens. 
 
 I was very much interested in my first short trip, after 
 my last letter, in visiting Elk basin, within three miles of 
 Irwin, where I went under the guidance of Mr. T. Owen, 
 who located the Elk lode claim and named the basin. The 
 approach from Irwin is up past the Forest Queen, through 
 the woods north, past a small lake, around by the Venango 
 mine and Belmont Consolidated Company's work, then up 
 the gulch with an easy ascent, until a height of 1 1,000 feet 
 above sea level is reached, and you are in one of the repre- 
 sentative mining localities that this region abounds in, viz: 
 Elk basin. Here the geology of the territory is beauti- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 4 1 
 
 fully illustrated, as surrounding in all directions is 
 the real country rock, granite porpln-ry; except in the 
 direction of the basin's outlet, nearly east, towering up 
 several hundred feet high in places, some parts of it 
 still covered with the strata of sedimentary rocks, build- 
 ing up higher still. These two kinds of illustrative rocks 
 here, show the great depths of the gorges existing at 
 one time among mountains of utterly barren eruptive 
 rock, which shortly after forming must have been elevated 
 above the waters. I cannot reason otherwise, from what 
 appears to have occurred, but that this enormous eruption 
 of granite porphyry took place at great depths in the 
 ocean. Then at the feet of these rough, jagged crests, 
 in quite shallow waters, commenced the building of the 
 coal measures of this Crested Butte basin. The real 
 foundation was not settled yet, but gradually and verj- 
 slowly sank, making but slight changes at a time in shore 
 depths, but each change of level is now distinctly drawn 
 by the alternating strata of coal, shales, or sandstones, 
 repeated many times. The territory occupied by this 
 coal basin represents a local and limited area, as I can 
 find no change made in the material used in building 
 these sedimentar}' rocks until about 1,500 feet in thick- 
 ness of these coal measure sediments had been deposited. 
 Then came a change, showing that a larger area of sur- 
 face was being acted upon ; as here in Elk basin, for the 
 first tirtie in place, I found sandstone conglomerate 
 at an elevation of 11,000 feet. I reasoned that 
 the subsidence to this depth was confined to a 
 limited area, as when this conglomerate appears, in 
 addition to containing pebbles from the rocks near by, 
 it also has in one horizon a beautiful red jasper peb- 
 ble, very hard, but worn perfectly smooth, some of 
 them quite small, showing that they had beat about a 
 long time in the ocean's waters and traveled very much 
 
42 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 farther than the other fragments associated with them. 
 Here also with this conglomerate, in place, I found frag- 
 ments of petrified woods. In one large piece the replac- 
 ing material is iron instead of silica. It was here that 
 I realized that the total depth of these sedimentary^ rocks 
 now approaches 2,500 feet in thickness, building up over 
 all of the mountains of granite porphyry to a total height 
 that we cannot measure now, as doubtless very much has 
 been eroded beyond what still remains. 
 
 After this came the Assuring of all of the rocks, which 
 openings are now represented by true fissures, and con- 
 taining the rich mineral of this section. Now, as the rocks 
 would break along lines of greatest weakness, the strong 
 veins followed the course of the original gorges to a great 
 extent. This occurred in Elk basin, three large fissures 
 opened parallel to each other, now named as the Micawber, 
 Elk and Silver Deal mining claims; also many cross 
 fissures occured at the same time, and they too, carry pay 
 ore as well as the larger crevices. This breaking or Assuring 
 of the sedimerttary rocks along the old gorges gave the 
 start for the present courses of drainage and erosion. 
 
 Here, too, I believe is proved another fact, which has 
 been held of late years, by leading geologists and mineral- 
 ologists, viz. : That the contents of fissure veins 
 are the accumulated atoms derived from the adjoining 
 country rocks; because here I find where these strong 
 veins outcrop in the conglomerate, the ore is of very much 
 lower grade, with zinc and iron sulphides predominating ; 
 while on the same veins apparently, but worked at places 
 where greater surface erosion ha.'^ taken effect, such ores as 
 ruby and native silver appear. Then again, where a vein 
 is found in the granite porphyry, the gangue, is principally 
 calc-spar instead of quartz. 
 
 Such evidence, as the facts just stated, would lead to 
 the inference that the vein material would be modified 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 43 
 
 b}' each different strata of rock passed through, and show 
 the change in the same horizon. It would be interesting 
 to have careful chemical analysis of country rock and vein 
 matter from the same horizons of some of the veins here, 
 when the mines are regularly and sytematically opened, so 
 that one could select material and be sure of depth enough 
 to pass all surface changes. 
 
 I wish to have my readers remember, and try to 
 thoroughly impress on their minds, that what I say about 
 this country is derived from the facts as I see them ; that I 
 am working in a formation, the like of which has never 
 been described in any work on geology; therefore, in 
 making deductions from these facts, they must not be 
 taken as generalities, that will apply to other sections. 
 This is the only real generality that I find everywhere, 
 viz: Each locality must be worked up by itself, without 
 reference to what appears to be similar elsewhere. 
 
 The Elk lode was the strongest vein that I saw in the 
 basin, though I am told the Micawber is showing splendidly 
 in development, but could not get into it on account of 
 water in the workings. This Elk lode is, in places, twenty- 
 five feet wide on the surface, some high grade ore has been 
 got at grass roots, also in a forty-foot shaft a little ruby 
 silver occurred; but the best showing is in recent work and 
 only twelve feet from the surface. Here over three feet of 
 ore is seen, evidenly low grade, but for the reason given 
 above, regarding change of quality with depth, is perfectly 
 safe to go down on. Mr. T. Owen had taken two large 
 pieces out at the time of my visit, aggregating i,ooo pounds 
 weight. They are now in Denver as part of the Mining 
 Exposition. Were there work enough being done in this 
 basin, the cost for a wagon road would be comparatively 
 small from any of the claims to Irwin. At present, how- 
 ever, all that I could learn of was, that assessment work 
 was kept up. 
 
44 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 The next place was up Ruby Gulch, to see the 
 Oaks lode, recently leased and bonded by R. R. Dun- 
 can. I went there in company with W. E. Grov^er and 
 T. H. Wheeler, the latter gentleman only three weeks 
 from Boston and the sea coast. He appeared to take to 
 mountain life as naturally as a duck to water. Pay ore was 
 discovered at grass roots on this claim, and surface strip- 
 ping was the work being done. The quartz-carrying min- 
 eral is from one to three feet wide. What this ore will 
 average in value I cannot tell, but while I was on the 
 ground three shots were put off in the mineral streak, and 
 all of the rock thrown out contained a good showing of 
 ruby and native silver. Mr. Duncan has sent a very hand- 
 some piece to the Exposition. One could not help but 
 draw the conclusion that the Oaks mine from its surface 
 showing has a real basis that will warrant development, 
 and with careful management in time be a good paying 
 property. I obtained some fine specimens here, one of 
 them a real gem in mineralogy, a crystal of ruby silver 
 inside of a crystal of quartz. 
 
 The next day, in- company with two of the gentlemen 
 named, I went into 0-Be-Joyful basin, about eight miles 
 from Crested Butte. A good wagon road grade is found 
 all of the way up to the head of the basin from Slate River. 
 
 I saw one claim here that is a veritable curiosity in 
 geolog}^ or fissure vein filling. It is a true fissure 
 and about 900 feet up the mountain side, a fine outcrop of 
 galena shows for 160 feet along the surface, ranging in the 
 surface outcrop from five to nine inches in width; the 
 galena partly changed to anglesite, and of an average value 
 of about ^60 per ton. The total heighth from the basin 
 level to the top of the ridge, that this vein cuts through, is 
 about 1,200 feet, and divides Poverty gulch from O-Be- 
 Joyful basin. Some 400 feet below the mineral outcrop a 
 tunnel has been run in 150 feet, on a fine crevice, but no 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 45 
 
 mineral shows as above. A little soft gouge occurs in 
 places, but the crevice is principally filled with a material 
 fallen in from the surface and shows a dry crevice. This 
 was so strange that I set about finding a cause for it and 
 climbed clear to the top of the ridge. From there looking 
 down nearly 1,200 feet, very steep, over a snowbank, into 
 the next gulch. On climbing up past the 160 feet of min- 
 eral showing named, the line of the crevice still appears to 
 the top, but no indication of ore. On the crest, about 
 twenty-five feet wide, I went 500 feet east and saw 
 nothing that gave any clue to what had occurred, but 
 in examining the surface west I found it. Here was, 
 outcropping 300 feet wide, quartz porphyry, evi- 
 dently the filling of an older fissure than those now 
 worked for pay ore, and which existed previous to the 
 forming of the sedimentary strata, which everywhere occurs 
 here. Now we have it again, where the recent fissures 
 occurred they followed lines of weakness in the country 
 rock, and here were old fissures marked out, which easily 
 opened. On the west side of this quartz porphyry is a 
 very large recent fissure, filled to the top of the crest with 
 crevice matter strongly mineralized. The conclusion in 
 this case was obvious ; the west fissure from some local 
 cause not now visible, took the bulk of the crevice or vein- 
 filling matter, and left the east crevice partly dry of any 
 vein filling at all, and quite uncertain as to what results 
 might be on development. It is a real curiosity in vein 
 making, but fully illustrates the folly of laying out large 
 plans for the working of a mine until after the ground 
 within the boundaries of a claim, as well as all of the adja- 
 cent rocks have been examined thoroughly by some one 
 who has made the formation of rocks and mineral veins a 
 study, and whose experience would be able to point out the 
 causes of what appears now as effect. 
 
 On this crest I found the conglomerate in place, the 
 
46 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 same as in Elk basin, and the first locality to have it show- 
 ing on the Slate River slope. 
 
 On the way back we stopped to look at the Spar Chief 
 claim, which near the surface has eighteen inches of min- 
 eralized calc-spar, assaying from ^50 to ^2,000 per ton. 
 One day is hardly enough for a basin like this, and I expect 
 to go there again and find many good things — not devel- 
 oped mines, but opportunity to make them. 
 
 About one and a half miles from Irwin is the anthracite 
 coal basin. For the last two years I had disputed the 
 existence of real anthracite in Colorado, because no one 
 could give me any evidences of changes in the neighboring 
 rocks with the coal that would show the geological change 
 from bituminous coal to anthracite. On seeing this ground 
 I had to acknowledge that I was wrong, because I could 
 see where and how the changes occurred. They have an- 
 thracite coal here, a four-foot vein of it, said by Pennsyl- 
 vania experts to be equal to anything in the East; in fact, 
 chemical analysis show an average of two per cent more 
 fixed carbon than the best Lehigh Valley coals. It is being 
 mined now for fuel to be used at the Pioneer mill, also for 
 making the steam for power used in the mines here, as 
 well as the local demand as a stove coal, for which purpose 
 it never can be excelled in this State. The two railroads 
 have graded — viz: the Denver & Rio Grande and the 
 Denver & South Park — into this basin, and were it not that 
 the officers of both of these corporations are extensively 
 interested in coal lands personally elsewhere, I opine track 
 would have been laid over these grades and Denver have 
 the opportunity to use the finest stove coal in America. 
 This city alone could use twenty cars per day. It could be 
 sold there at a profit, with reasonable freight rates, and 
 then be cheaper and much nicer than any fuel now used in 
 Denver. These properties now being worked are owned 
 by Mr. L. R. Thompson and associates, who have shipped 
 
GUNNISOX, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 47 
 
 some fine pieces of this anthracite, which, when seen by 
 Denver people at the Exposition, will cause them to wish 
 they had it to use in their stoves, instead of the soft coal 
 that slacks so readil}-, and dirties everything it comes in 
 contact with, causing constant vexation and annoyance to 
 the neat housekeeper. 
 
 The occurrence of this anthracite is very interesting 
 geologically. Originally the coal strata laid flat, but in this 
 section a small mountain range of granite-porphyry, from 
 some local cause, moved upwards, raising the strata resting 
 on the flanks of the mountains until they now stand at an 
 angle of 21°. 
 
 It was this movement of the adjoining rocks that gave 
 the heat and pressure to make the change in the coals, 
 from soft coal to an anthracite. W'here the sedimentary- 
 strata broke, one of the drainage valleys of this section 
 occurs, letting the surface waters out now through what is 
 known as the South Fork of Anthracite Creek, and through 
 that to the Gunnison River. The coal seam now opened 
 has a splendid roof of solid sandstone; the inclination of 
 the vein places it in excellent position to work, as it drains 
 itself, and from levels run, it makes the coal in place, stop- 
 ing ground, the same as a fissure vein, thus naturally giving 
 the most economical facilities for working. Were this an- 
 thracite coal field of the same extent, comparatively, as the 
 Eastern coal fields of like character, petroleum oils in pay- 
 ing quantities might be looked for and found in this 
 neighborhood. 
 
 In comparing the position of the opened vein, I thought 
 I saw evidences of its being in the same horizon as the vein 
 of semi-bituminous coals opened at Crested Butte, and of 
 the same thickness. If this evidence should in time prove 
 to be correct, then between this opened vein of anthracite 
 and the mountains east, there ought to be two more, veins 
 
48 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 of anthracite, and one of them approaching a thickness of 
 eleven feet. 
 
 As will be seen further, on subsequent knowledge 
 proves this deduction to be erroneous, from the fact that 
 the coal measures here do not extend deep enough to allow 
 these other two veins to exist. 
 
 Learning that there were large beds of semi-bitumin- 
 ous coal southeast of this last described locality, along the 
 Ohio Creek, I embraced an opportunity of accompanying 
 Mr. F. W. Fuller, on a horseback trip, to Gunnison City. 
 Following the wagon road over the small dividing ridge 
 that separates the heads of Ohio and Anthracite Creeks. 
 As one approaches the coal measures again in place, 
 the vegetation becomes very luxuriant. In one place 
 of about fifty acres, I saw a natural flower garden by 
 the road side that surpassed in variety and gorgeous- 
 ness of colors, anything I have ever seen outside 
 often acres of lilies I once beheld in bloom, in the grounds 
 of a florist on Long Island, a short distance from New York 
 City. It would be worth the while of some of those Eastern 
 flower-growers to spend one or more seasons in this coun- 
 try; they would find very many new plants that they could 
 make of practical use in their business. 
 
 We stopped for dinner at Mount Carbon, where the 
 Denver & South Park Railroad people have extensive coal 
 land locations, now being worked, and the coal delivered by 
 wagon at Gunnison City. From here, in company with T. 
 Owen, I made a side trip of a few hours' ride to see the re- 
 sult of some work that he had been doing as my agent. 
 This ride would be a treat to a stockman, for I rode through 
 miles of mountain grass that came up over my feet as I sat 
 on horseback, plenty of water and timber, with coal under- 
 neath the whole of it. I rather think Owen tried to feel of 
 my nerves ; as we rode along he pointed out a place where 
 he had shot a mountain lion a few days before. Nice in- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 49 
 
 formation for a tenderfoot, only armed with a penknife. I 
 hadn't lost any mountain lions and did not want to find 
 any. 
 
 I found considerable work done on these coal loca- 
 tions. I went into one opening showing a seven-foot vein 
 for 400 feet of drift, of excellent coal, and saw other open- 
 ings on coal seams in place that led me to think there was 
 at least three separate veins here now opened, with perhaps 
 more to be found in depth. 
 
 This wagon road to Gunnison City is excellent. As 
 we rode along I thought I could see where the coal basin 
 formation ended on this east and southeast side, with the 
 marked change in the boundary rocks. 
 
 On one of the hills north of Ohio Creek is an outcrop 
 of recent lava, which must have had an enormous outflow 
 (want to go to it next), evidences of which I had already 
 seen in the gravels at Gunnison City. This volcanic erup- 
 tion must have been one of the causes of the recent Assur- 
 ing of this coal basin, so that the silver veins could occur 
 through coal strata, an anomaly that I think does not occur 
 elsewhere to be known on the face of the globe. South of 
 Ohio Creek is a natural picture — castle rocks — which stand 
 up many hundreds of feet in height, and is an exact repre- 
 sentation on a huge scale of the pictures one sees illustrating 
 ancient castles of the middle centuries of European civiliza- 
 tion. Here I want to go also. One of my greatest desires 
 now is to learn the area of this whole coal basin and see what 
 the geology of its surrounding rocks is. I realize now 
 that this area will represent one of the most marvelous sec- 
 tions, in many respects, of Colorado, 
 
 Ohio Creek flows southeast through a broad and evi- 
 dently fertile valley, mostly taken up with stock ranches, 
 fenced on the bottom lands, with the rising or hilly ground, 
 extending back for miles from the creek, open, making a 
 first-class grazing ground. 
 
50 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 
 
 We arrived in Gunnison City about midnight and left 
 the next day at noon, so that I had not time to learn much 
 here personally. I saw some good building sandstone 
 from near the city, now being used in the new bank build- 
 ing, also some gypsum, some of which had been burned 
 making the whitest plaster I have ever seen, as well as sam- 
 ples of fire clay which was stated to exist in a bed nearly 
 ten feet thick. If I did not see much, I heard of many 
 things that I do want to see, and will make an opportunity 
 to do so as soon as I can. 
 
 We returned to Irwin in good order, myself especially, 
 with the feeling that I had seen and learned something. 
 I was at this place the evening that the dispatch came say- 
 ing Senator Hill's Ute Reservation bill had passed the 
 House. Irwin, of course, broke loose, and the Senator's 
 health was drank many a time and often. That bill means 
 to this locality and people just what the original Declara- 
 tion of Independence and peace meant to the men who first 
 celebrated the Fourth of July, one hundred years ago. 
 Now that President Arthur has signed the bill, this coun- 
 try is a part of the United States, instead of being relatively, 
 as it has been for the last three years in the position of a 
 foreign territory. That is the view that capitalists and in- 
 vestors have taken of this part of Gunnison County. Now 
 that — thanks to the efforts of Senator Hill — this barrier is 
 removed, and actual titles can be obtained to lands here, 
 these people that have so patiently waited can go to work 
 with renewed energy and confidence that the capital will 
 come even on the showing that can be made this year. Its 
 effect is to be seen already, as the Windsor House tables 
 are full every meal, the Pioneer mill is running day and 
 night, while on every hand one hears of new work started 
 or about to be commenced. 
 
 I have already seen much of this section, and can 
 frankly say that I have seen more evidences of natural 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 5 I 
 
 wealth, with fewer barren prospect lode^, than any section 
 that I have seen of the older mining regions of the Eastern 
 slope. This being an off-)'ear in mine selling for Colo- 
 rado, now is the time to buy prospects, especially with the 
 .showing that these have here, and at the prices and terms 
 on which they can be purchased. With judicious selection, 
 adding to them the work that can be done between now 
 and spring, the man with a few thousand dollars to use can 
 make many hundreds of per cent, profit in the next year 
 or two. This is an easy country to work in, has advanced 
 far enough to prove that there is an abundance of rich 
 ores; it also has transportation near by to carry ores to 
 market, as well as bring supplies in. In addition to which 
 is the home cash market made by the Pioneer mill, and 
 Messrs. Rose, Reed & Co., ore samplers and purchasers. 
 
 About three miles north of Irwin is Justice basin, de- 
 viation about 1 1, GOO feet; can be made readily accessible by 
 wagon road at small cost of money and labor. Up there I 
 went in company with Messrs. H. C. Thompson and F. W. 
 Fuller. Here only prospect and assessment work has been 
 done. It is a duplicate, on a smaller scale, of Elk basin, 
 but contains very large veins with good mineral showing 
 near to the surface. We saw the Justice, Homestake, 
 Alaska and Tacomah mining claims, any of which, when 
 worked, ought to turn out large amounts of ore. In this 
 basin I think the gorge was not so deep as in that of the 
 Elk, the granite porphyry coming nearer to the surface and 
 a less thickness of sedimentary rocks appearing. I do not 
 consider that this will be found to be any detriment to the fis- 
 sure veins, but rather a benefit, from the fact that the veins 
 will sooner, as depth is gained in working, be found to 
 pass within smooth solid walls, containing an easy gangue 
 to work but holding their own in size of ore bodies as well 
 as richness. The veins here showed surface croppings of 
 ten to over fifty feet wide. 
 
52 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 Hearing much regarding Redwell basin, about five 
 miles from here, on the Slate River slope, I went over 
 there a few days ago. The approach from Irwin is made- 
 through Elk basin, already described, up out of this basin, 
 over a rapdily rising grassy slope of about 3,000 feet — top 
 of the crest about 12,000 feet above sea level — and then — 
 it took my breath away for a time — I found myself suddenly 
 looking down to a depth of fully 1,000 feet into Redwell 
 basin, with a spider line marked out along the side, ending 
 just acro&s a snow-bank from me, which, on examination, 
 proved to be a trail. Having tied my horse where the grass 
 was most abundant, and taken in my second wind, as well 
 as getting my nerves steadied after the first surprise, I slid 
 over that snow-bank and fetched up on the trail all right. 
 It did seem for a few moments as if it would be an easy 
 thing to expedite the descent and go head foremost down 
 the side for 1,000 feet. However, following the trail was 
 much the better way. As I neared the bottom I heard the 
 sound of hammers on an anvil. There I went, finding Mr. 
 A. S. Stover and partners encamped. They have taken up 
 some good claims here, one especially, the Little Addie, in 
 surface cut shows over seven feet of mineralized rock, and 
 not acoss the vein jet. It is claimed to be the same vein as 
 the Micawber, in Elk basin, and can be traced the whole 
 way across the dividing ridge that I had just come down. 
 Also saw the St. George, with a five foot crevice, and good 
 solid ore in it. Stopped at the Rebecca ; on which work is 
 now being done, showing strong possibilities of good ore 
 near by. From a claim known as the Boston, with an 
 eighteen-inch mineral streak, I obtained good specimens 
 near the grass roots; value per ton I do not know, as in 
 most of these basins only prospect holes have as yet been 
 worked. 
 
 About the middle of the basin a very strong ledge of 
 iron stained quartz appears. Over this breaks a small 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 53 
 
 stream of fresh water, next to it a smaller stream, highly 
 charged with sulphur, then another stream of fresh water, 
 beyond which is the iron spring, from which the name Red- 
 well is given to the basin. This spring is over ten feet 
 deep, nearly twelve feet square, with waters so clear and 
 pure that it seems as if you could pick stones off the bot- 
 tom with your hand from the edge. The water contains 
 so much iron that a rim of that material is built up around 
 the spring as well as staining the whole of the rocks for 
 hundreds of feet down the basin. The sulphur, fresh, and 
 iron waters all mingle together, running onwards to the 
 Slate River. Mr. Stover had^kindly accompanied me that I 
 might see and learn as much as possible in one day. I 
 found his knowledge of localities of much value to me. 
 From the spring we went down the basin, following the 
 water-course in the bed of the stream. I saw the iron was 
 being precipitated and cementing the loose stones into an 
 iron conglomerate. I realized then that I was in one of 
 Nature's workshops and was on the lookout for everything 
 that was going on. We had not far to go, when we came 
 to the croppings of a coal seam; just below that, in time 
 past, was evidently a small basin. Into this basin the 
 mingled iron and sulphur waters had poured, but the vege- 
 table matter, taken up in solution from the coal seam, had 
 acted as a precipitant, and here the manufacture of minerals 
 had been and is still going on. For, in an excavation made 
 into a flat deposit apparently, was large cubes of iron 
 pyrites, with a fair showing of zinc and some galena. 
 
 Now, if my deductions of what I saw in this spot are 
 correct, it is ahead of any laboratory experiments ever 
 made, for here nature is doing the work and on a scale that 
 is comprehensive. Further, if my reading is right, it is 
 the most wonderful spot now known, for it shows how 
 easily, quietly and perfectly nature does work, and, as one 
 examines what is being done, the marvel is that the old 
 
54 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 straining theories of fire to make minerals were ever held as 
 tenable at all. 
 
 I spent just five hours in Redwell basin, and now feel 
 that I saw and learned more in that space of time than I 
 ever accomplished in a similar period of my life. It is a 
 most interesting spot. I could spend days there and not 
 tire of it. 
 
 As I read the notices in the Republican of the ap- 
 proaching meeting of the association of mining engineers in 
 Denver, I cannot help but wish that I had the means per- 
 sonally to invite them into this country for a week or ten 
 days, that they might enjoy it with me. What is to be 
 seen that relates directly to their business is simply marvel- 
 ous. Nowhere else in the world, that I ever read of, can 
 rich silver veins be found breaking through recent coal 
 measures, all to be seen and realized as occurring in place. 
 They could learn more here, that is really new, in ten days,. 
 than in almost a life-time anywhere else that I know of 
 
 The curiosity of it is not all ; nowhere else have I seen 
 a territory so naturally blocked out for the use of and ac- 
 tive working by large corporations. 
 
 Everyone of these mountain basins contain veins worth 
 working. If organized capitalists would secure single 
 basins for their own use, at the prices that they can now be 
 obtained at, with cash enough in hand for a couple of years 
 development and expenses, I know places that can be made 
 to pay dividends of one per cent, per month on ;$3,ooo,ooo 
 to ;^5,000,000 capitalization, and keep it up for years. It 
 It would not take so many thousands to do it, either. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 55 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Durango and Mexico Claims — Venango Properties- 
 Comstock — Iron Basin — Silver Basin — Swan 
 Basin — A Perilous Position. 
 
 Just after my last letter I had an opportunity to exam- 
 ime the Durango and Mexico mining claims of Ruby 
 gulch, represented by Mr. Wilder as principal owner and 
 active manager. These veins cross each other, and as the 
 Mexico is much the stronger crevice, it holds its course 
 across the Durango, the crevice material of both intermin- 
 gling at the junction, but the ore body at this point really 
 is governed by the course of the Mexico. The first-named 
 has the most development, a tunnel having been run in 
 past the intersection, good ore taken out up to the Mexico 
 ore body and then lost. My examination showed that the 
 miners had worked over and into the hanging wall, and if 
 a cross-cut is now run for the foot wall, I am very certain 
 a good, continuous ore -body will be found on that side of 
 the crevice; as in this mine the foot-wall is the one that 
 should carry the largest body of pay ore. The surface of 
 this mine has good shipping ore all along past the junction 
 of the two veins for some hundreds of feet, and there is 
 nothing to indicate but that the same should continue 
 below. 
 
 This mine is equipped with a neat little hoisting engine 
 manufactured by Hendey & Meyer, of Denver. It is used 
 for hoisting the rock from a shaft lOO feet deep. This 
 shaft is sunk on the hanging wall, some good ore obtained 
 but not the continuous ore-body that the foot-wall ought 
 to show. 
 
 The crevice of the Durango is fully fifteen feet wide. 
 
56 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 and in addition to the quartz carrying ore is filled with 
 feldsitic porphyry, which I consider the best vein filling 
 known, always finding it with strong and rich ore bodies. 
 
 Not much development has been done on the Mexico 
 as yet; surface stripping is now going on, as they have 
 ^lOO ore for 700 feet along the vein out-crop, from twelve 
 to eighteen inches wide. Its chances ought to be excel- 
 lent for developing in time, into a first-class paying mine. 
 
 After this I examined the workings of a block of prop- 
 erty (I have forgotten the name of the company), situated 
 near Elk Creek, and managed by Mr. Copley. There is 
 one principal vein — the Venango — and two cross lodes, 
 the Souri and Tioga. Good ore was obtained by sinking 
 in the Venango. This was left when tunneling was 
 thought to be the order of the day. The opportunity for 
 tunneling here is good, as considerable depth can be 
 gained. A tunnel to cut the Venango, has been run 400 
 feet in solid rock, expensive dead work. When within fifty 
 feet of the vein the work was turned at right angles, and 
 has been continued 200 feet to catch the Tioga, and is now 
 just upon the edge of it. There is something singular 
 about such work as this, for here is at least ;^20,ooo ex- 
 pended in dead work on this property, that practically is 
 not worth one dollar, from the fact that the tunnel starts 
 within twenty feet of and parallel to the Souri vein. 
 
 Had the work of tunneling been done on either the 
 Tioga or the Souri veins from the surface, the ground 
 would have been developed to show what the veins con- 
 tained, and the Venango could be worked all right from 
 either point of intersection. Such work as I saw on these 
 properties is evidence of gross mismanagement somewhere, 
 and when I see money that is meant by the parties advanc- 
 ing it to [do the most good, spent in this way, I cannot 
 wonder at Eastern investors cursing mining as a losing 
 business. Whose fault this is I do not know. I take 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 57 
 
 things as I see them and judge for myself. These people 
 really have good properties, and it would make a practical 
 mine manager ache all over in the desire to take hold of 
 them and show the owners what they really have got. 
 These veins are close upon the real country rock; are 
 large crevices, and should soon pass within smooth, good 
 walls, with an abundance of good shipping ore, besides an 
 easy gangue to work, viz : calc-spar. 
 
 It was the calc-spar appearing in the lower workings 
 of the Durango claim, mentioned above, that helped to 
 give me such a firm belief that there is good ore below as 
 well as on the surface of this vein, and will be found to 
 hold its own in quality, especially if searched for the right 
 side of the crevice. They are sacking some very fine ore 
 in the surface stripping of this mine. 
 
 It was in the Venango claim that I first got copper 
 pyrites, while among the ores of the Mexico claim a little 
 copper stain appears. 
 
 The absence of both lead and copper in this Ruby 
 mining district is something remarkable, as, of the ores 
 produced, the average of galena is less than three per cent., 
 and of copper less than one per cent. These facts alone, 
 are sufficient for a thinking man, even if he does not know 
 much about ore reduction practically; to realize that the 
 way to do with these ores is to ship them to the larger 
 smelters for treatment; the principle of ore reduction being 
 to produce an artificial ore most economically from a com- 
 bination of natural products ; and from it in its turn the 
 gold and silver can be easily separated. This being the 
 fact, I do not believe that any known means of reduction 
 can be applied to these Ruby District ores and be locally 
 successful, but they must be shipped to smelters who are 
 also purchasers of galena and copper ores ; these latter 
 making the best matte, or artificial ore product. In the 
 smelting process it is by the judicious mingling of the high 
 
58 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 grade gold or silver ore, with those containing a large per- 
 centage of either copper or galena that the greatest value 
 of the first is saved. There is no quick process by which 
 silver ores can be chlorodized, or made free milling; and I 
 am certain the Pioneer mill of Irwin is proving this to be a 
 fact, as they must be losing money on every ton of ore that 
 they treat, and the mill will soon be an idle monument of 
 Professor Jacob's ignorance. 
 
 The mill shut down October i, 1882, and the manager 
 published a statement that the loss was even thirty per cent., 
 may other investors take warning. 
 
 To fully connect the geology of Ruby gulch with the 
 other mineral basins, I must mention the Comstock, which 
 is a very strong vein, the northwest extremity of one of the 
 largest veins of the gulch. Only a ten-foot hole has been 
 sunk, beside the granite-porphyry hanging wall, with calc- 
 spar already appearing and showing mineral. Twenty-five 
 feet more ought to bring them into a good showing. The 
 vein is a very large crevice, filled with feldsitic porphyry, 
 strongly impregnated with oxide of manganese, also con- 
 taining concentrated spots of ore in the surface float, show- 
 ing what the crevice matter ought to be when depth is 
 gained. As the vein breaks through the ridge that makes 
 the divide between Ruby gulch and Iron and Silver basins, 
 I climbed to the top of this ridge to examine the other 
 side, and could not find that the same strength of crevice 
 material appeared there. On searching for the cause of 
 this, I found that the crest of the ridge was a strong mass 
 of porphyry, and continuing on up to Ruby Peak. This 
 probably cuts off the supply of mineral, and makes a very 
 great difference in the value of the veins on the Anthracite 
 Creek slope. 
 
 The basins along this Anthracite Creek were next in 
 order for me to see. Finding T. Owen and a Mr. Berry 
 were going to Iron basin, to do some assessment work, I 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 59 
 
 accompanied them. The route was up Ruby gulch, with 
 fine grass-covered slopes to the east of Ruby Peak. Prom 
 the top of the ridge, elevation, about 12,000 feet, a fine view 
 of Peeler and O-be-Joyful basins is obtained. The trail 
 skirts the rim of the last-named basin many hundred feet 
 above the level parts of it. Part of the trail passes over 
 large fragments of rock filling a deep rift in the mountain 
 side, and underneath this a strong stream of water flows, 
 giving one a peculiar sensation as he walks over it — the 
 impression being that you are in the midst of a thunder 
 storm, with the noise all about you, and the sun still shin- 
 ing brightly overhead. Then we crossed a snow-field of 
 nearly 500 feet from there to the gap, where the descent is 
 commenced on the other side the trail is really dangerous, 
 known instances being authentically related of horses and 
 "burros" having gone over the precipices. We had two 
 loaded burros with us, and at one place where steps were 
 cut in the rock, close to the precipice, the leading burro 
 lost hold with his fore-feet and began to make motions for 
 back somersaults. Once started, he would have made many 
 of them; but, fortunately, the burro had on the eatables, 
 and Berry and Owen, realizing on the instant that some- 
 thing to eat was more convenient right there than 1,000 
 feet below, sprang forward in time to give the animal a 
 boost that set him safely on his feet. 
 
 Down from the gap on the ridge, over quite a long but 
 good trail, we passed into Silver basin. Here we found 
 some men encamped who had a contract on a cross-cut 
 tunnel ; but they did not appear to be very well posted on 
 the geography of the section, as I found that my compan- 
 ions had never been that route before, and could not learn 
 anything from those whom we had just met. However, we 
 knew where Iron basin ought to be, so we skirted the 
 dividing ridge vainly, seeking for a trail ; going through 
 wet, marshy ground and brush, over fallen trees and rocks, 
 
6o GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 raining, too, to help out the misery, mosquitoes thicker at 
 times than bees swarming, but finally arriving after nearly 
 five hours' tramp, dinnerless, at the first claim to be worked. 
 While the men were getting supper and putting up the 
 tent, I set to work to examine the vein, extending down a 
 rift in 500 feet of precipice. 
 
 I found that what, at that depth, appeared to be min- 
 eralized quartz and very strong vein matter, was in fact only 
 country rock, iron stained from oxidization of pyrites con- 
 tained in a very narrow streak of quartz. Up at the divid- 
 ing ridge I looked, and there was the porphyry dike that I 
 had seen when examining the Comstock, and this showed 
 how well it had done its work, both for Iron and Silver 
 basins. 
 
 As I climbed back up the 500 feet I had just come 
 down, I found that in many places the rocks leaned the 
 wrong way, so that I had to exert myself to the utmost to 
 get up, as well as to keep from falling. On arriving at the 
 tent I was, from over-exertion, trembling like an aspen leaf. 
 However, a good, hearty supper and a restful sleep made 
 all right, so that I was off by sunrise the next morning. 
 Taking my own course, I went up a grassy slope, and down 
 a similar one on the other side, and I was in Silver basin in 
 less than one hour, that had taken nearly five hours to go 
 round from the day before. 
 
 I looked at some of the holes in Silver basin, but find- 
 ing that they were apparently governed by the same in- 
 fluences as in Iron basin, it did not seem to me that any 
 quantity of pay ore could ever be got, no matter how^ much 
 work might be done. 
 
 This being the case I hurried along to Swan basin, 
 starting up a couple of mountain grouse on the road, the 
 nearest approach I saw to game anywhere. 
 
 At 8 A. M. I was in Swan basin, eight miles from Ir- 
 win. As I came down the trail into this basin — a small 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 6 1 
 
 one, but beautifully located — I saw that there was a radical 
 change in things, and something new had come in as a 
 governing influence. 
 
 I visited some sixteen claims with strong veins from 
 five to ten feet wide, finding an entire change in the char- 
 acter of quartz filling the crevices, and the mineralizing ele- 
 ment being principally arsenical iron pyrites, the quartz 
 having the appearance of gold quartz; and knowing that 
 gold, arsenic, iron and sulphur make one of the strong com- 
 binations for that precious metal, I immediately began a 
 search amongst the oxidized pyrites for free gold, and found 
 a little. The next move was to find a cause of such a 
 change in the whole of the mineral showing, for it was very 
 evident to me that if any of these veins are worked down to 
 pay ore the product would be gold, while the prospectors 
 were looking for silver. 
 
 After some search I found the rock that does the 
 whole business — a large outcrop of Archaen granite in 
 place, with the granite porphyry flowing over it, and the 
 sedimentary strata built up against both. Now, when the 
 veins are worked down into this kind of country rock, the 
 ores produced ought to be tellurides, the same as in Boul- 
 der County. In fact, on the Little Indian claim, owned by 
 Swan Bros., I was shown some dark looking streaks in the 
 quartz produced, and from such as this they claimed to 
 have different test assays of 200 ounces in gold per ton. 
 These dark streaks have all of the appearance of a telluride 
 ore, and depth may prove them to be the upper parts of 
 petzite streaks and very rich. 
 
 This basin not having produced any surface shipping ore, 
 and all of the quartz containing arsenical iron pyrites up to 
 the grass roots, it is impossible to say, with the present 
 developments, that they will be paying veins, even at rea- 
 sonable depths. 
 
 There is nothing proved and nothing in this part of 
 
62 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 
 
 the country to compare them with. Personally I have the 
 highest opinion of what I saw here, but work must be done 
 to prove that these veins enclose ore that contains profita- 
 ble pay; and I most earnestly advise the owners of these 
 claims to go down upon them at the lowest surface places 
 that they can find to work to advantage. 
 
 I have had the pleasure of dining with Mr. and Mrs. 
 Stevens, who are occupying a new and comfortable log 
 cabin. They are the owners of some of the best of the 
 prospects in the basin; and Mrs. Stevens, who came over 
 from Irwin the day before I did, has the honor of being the 
 first white lady in that part of the country, and certainly is 
 entitled to the credit of displaying great courage and nerve 
 in coming over the trail that she did. 
 
 Mineral and Kansas basins make up the remaining 
 two on the north fork of Anthracite Creek. As I had 
 found a gold-bearing sections which may prove to be very 
 rich in time, and in such close proximity to a very rich 
 silver district, I was anxious to see more of it. I could not 
 help but connect the primitive granite found on the divid- 
 ing crest of Poverty gulch with what I found here, and it 
 ought to underlie both of these last-named basins, govern- 
 ing the character of ores accordingly. Having but three 
 hours to spare, after making some inquiries, I started for a 
 short cut over the dividing ridge from Swan basin. This 
 ridge is about 600 feet high, and where I attempted to pass 
 is built up of sedimentary strata, held in place by two large 
 cross-dykes of porphyry, about 1,000 feet apart. The 
 climb was very steep from the bottom up ; the last fifty feet 
 was as steep as the roof of a house, covered with a couple 
 of inches of loose shale, not giving any secure foothold. 
 Up this I scrambled like a cat, and then lay down faint and 
 sick, for I was looking straight down 800 feet into Mineral 
 basin, from a ridge only five or six feet wide, and no chance 
 of getting there except by one jump. 
 
GUNNISON, TIIF. BONANZA COUNTY. 63 
 
 As I looked back my head swam, for it appeared as 
 steep where I came up, and to return that way was impos- 
 sible, unless I wished to arrive at the bottom in a condition 
 that would not realize much practically of thini^s pertaining- 
 to this mundane sphere. 
 
 After a time my head cleared somewhat, so that I 
 could see that Mineral basin was much larger than Swan, 
 and from some indications that I could make out, might 
 have a little better chance for surface pay ore. 
 
 The next move was to get down. After moving back- 
 wards and forwards several times, to accustom myself to 
 the place, and motion on such a narrow ledge, I finally 
 crept, on my hands and knees, to one of the porphyry 
 ledges named. Holding to the projecting points of this, 
 that I might not slide away from myself, I gradually slid 
 down for 300 feet to a jumping off place of fifteen or twenty 
 feet high. Here, fortunately, a spruce tree was growing, 
 and by the aid of it I clambered down to terra firma, and 
 thankful to have got around safely .^^ Concluding that this 
 part of the country would not get out of the hands of the 
 prospectors for some time yet, I packed up to return, leav- 
 ing the other basins for future years. 
 
 As I started I came across a party more tired and 
 worn out as well as older than myself To him I gave the 
 use of my horse, when it was practicable to ride, and on 
 top of the hardest trip I have had yet, I footed it eight 
 miles into Irwin ; but not at all sorry that I had been and 
 .seen what is herein described. 
 
64 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Anthracite Range and Other Mountains — Description 
 of Coal Measures — Story of a Pebble-Cochetopa 
 Gold Belt — Lubricator Mine — Gage's Camp 
 — Volcanic Ashes — Physical Ap- 
 pearance of the Gold Belt — 
 "What Ought to be Looked 
 For — Gypsum. 
 
 Irvin, Aug. 26, 1882. — Since writing my last letter, 
 appearing in your paper, {Denver Republican) on the 20th 
 Inst., I have been to busy to do any writing ; am away be- 
 hind with my notes; and really beginning to be afraid that 
 snow will come before I can get the section, north and east 
 of the Slate River, examined ; that I may fit its geology on 
 to what I have already done. 
 
 However, to connect my recent observations, with the 
 last recorded, I must commence with the Anthracite 
 range, where I camped two days to examine the Anthracite 
 coal-beds ; and to try and find out, how it was that only 
 about 2,000 acres of the finest Anthracite coal on the'con- 
 tinent should occur here in a little locality, and be sur- 
 rounded with such a wide extent of bituminous and semi- 
 bituminous coals, and all of the same age and geological 
 horizons. 
 
 The Anthracite range is something over six miles in 
 length, stands nearly east and west, and composed of gran- 
 ite-porphyry. Further west, single peaks of the same 
 material stand up, known as Mts. Edgely, Beckwith and 
 Marcellina; filling the gap to another mass of granite- 
 porphry, known as Ragged mountains, and here the Elk 
 Mountain range joins on. From the east of the Anthra- 
 cite range, after passing a gap, this eruptive granite makes 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 65 
 
 another short mountain range, — the Wheatstone group — 
 to the south of which stands Mt. Carbon. The Wheat- 
 stone group makes the connection through to the Slate 
 River, dividing the coal basin of Crested Butte from that of 
 Ohio Creek on the south. The coal measures build 
 around, and upon the sides of Mt. Carbon. I am thus 
 particular in locating these mountains, that I may more 
 plainly show what has occurred. 
 
 Beyond the Wheatstone group, and on the Divide be- 
 tween East River and Ohio Creek is the large outcrop of 
 recent lava, covering both slopes with detritus down to 
 each stream. 
 
 When I had climbed to the top of Anthracite range, 
 so that I could see all of this described country; I found 
 the slope gradual towards the north, but very abrupt, and 
 approximating 2,500 feet down to Ohio Creek, on the 
 south. 
 
 Rising up from a forest of pines, was the Castle Rocks 
 but how different in appearance, now that I was above 
 them, and seeing them from a different position than the 
 Ohio Creek road. Instead of the massive front showing 
 there, with its battlements, towers, and turrets, here it had 
 the appearance of a sham, or castle of cards, perhaps a bet- 
 ter simile would be, that it appeared as a stage representa- 
 tion of a castle. 
 
 Standing on top of this range and looking east to the 
 place where this volcanic eruption occurred, on the east 
 border of this tertiary coal basin, I could see that a large 
 crevice or gorge had opened from that westward; passing 
 north of Mt. Carbon but striking the end of Anthracite 
 range. Opening a gorge into that, and setting off a portion 
 of it, as a mountain north. This effect can only be realized 
 from the places where on I stood. 
 
 Now the conclusion must not be jumped to that I am 
 describing the result of any sudden action, or quick move- 
 
66 * GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 ment of the rocks for I cannot realize that such action oc- 
 curred. The movement was slow, but the result of a vastly 
 powerful force, making this fragment of a mountain range, 
 move slowly northward, until the sedimentary rocks lying 
 on the north base, were crowded so against, that they 
 gradually slid upwards, against the pressure of the granite- 
 porphyry, until they now stand at an angle of 21° as 
 described in a former chapter. This movement must have 
 been slow, or the sedimentary rocks would have been 
 crushed into innumerable fragments, and subsequent ero- 
 ding agencies would have cleared away the whole of what 
 remains to-day of the coal measures. Now we have locally 
 2,cxx) acres of these rocks moved from horizontal strata to 
 the inclination given, the heat and pressure generated by 
 this rock movement, metamorphosed these originally bi- 
 tuminous coals, to the finest lot of anthracite now known. 
 This 2,000 acres is all I can find of it in this part of the 
 basin, and I feel very certain that I have coirrectly described 
 the manner of its occurrence. 
 
 As I came down the side of the Anthracite range, I 
 picked up a couple of red jasper pebbles, sole remnants of 
 over 1,000 feet of tertiary conglomerate that formerly cov- 
 ered the upper part of the sides, and over the top of this 
 granite-porphyry range. 
 
 Could these pebbles talk what a history they could 
 relate; they could tell of their early life and residence ; how 
 at one time they jutted out, the portion of a large whole, 
 on some mountain side; how below them was swift run- 
 ning waters; how the mountain top was snow-capped; 
 how the frosts split and set loose large fragments of the 
 formations above them ; how one of these crashing and 
 tumbling down the mountain side, broke off fragments of 
 this jasper; how as sharp cornered, angular stones, these 
 pebbles formed part of the detritus of the mountain side ; 
 how thfe swift running waters at the mountain foot, kept 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 6/ 
 
 clearing away the masses below, so that each season found 
 them nearer and hearer to these waters; how slow this 
 part of the journey was, compared to the traveling that 
 followed when they reached this madly rushing mountain 
 stream; how after a time, into these waters they fell, and 
 commenced their journey seaward; how in this journey 
 they were knocked against other rocks, all rolling through 
 an unknown country to an unknown end; how here a cor- 
 ner was chipped off, there a rough spot ground smooth ; 
 how they gradually diminished in size under nature's rough 
 handling, until from many pounds weight, a few ounces 
 would out-balance them ; how at last, they, with many 
 others, reached a sea shore; was there caught up in the 
 waves on a shallow beach and thrown hither and thither 
 with the crowd, rubbing and jostling against each other 
 still wearing, on the sands, smoother and smaller; how they 
 gradually worked their way by ocean's currents to deeper 
 waters, and there had the rest their long wearisome journey 
 entitled them to; how in this sea was no animal life utiliz- 
 ing its waters ; how the waters of this ocean also received 
 floating masses of wood from the streams coursing through 
 its border land covered with the trees of the tropics ; how 
 these went their weary course hither and yon, never resting 
 except as they rotted and sunk ; how these woods revenged 
 themselves on what was their master, for as a particle of wood 
 left the larger whole it took from these waters an atom of 
 silica; how this atom of silica attached itself to the woody 
 mass, and so the exchange went on until what was once a 
 portion of a growing tree, became a stone still re- 
 taining its identity in form, but nevertheless was 
 stone and stone only ; how this teaches that na- 
 ture uses what she has at hand for her purposes ; 
 how these petrified woods helped also to make the sea bot- 
 ton; how all of these changes were ages upon ages going 
 on ; how these same pebbles were buried hundreds of feet 
 
68 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 deep by the material brought from the lands, by swift 
 running fresh waters, to this hungry maw, that never could 
 seem to be satisfied; how a seemingly endless time passed 
 in this grave, never expecting to meet fresh waters again, 
 nor see that bright sun which had daily shown on them in 
 the long gone times; how there came a change, a gradual 
 upward movement, and with it the rendingof rocks, strange 
 sounds, and the waters gradually draining out from among 
 them as a mass ; how another long, long period of rest fol- 
 lowed ; how after a time they again heard the mad whirling 
 of waters, but this time above, instead of below them ; how 
 these waters appeard, in their rage and spite, to be tearing 
 away all that had been so long building, getting nearer and 
 nearer to them ; how at last they too were caught in its 
 rough swirl, but only for a short time. So hard did these 
 new waters work that, in far less space of time, all that had 
 been so laboriously accumulated, was again torn from their 
 last home, and swept away, where to, these pebbles know 
 not, how quickly these waters got below them again ; how 
 they, with a very few others, were left stranded upon the 
 mountain side to wonder what had become of the millions upon 
 millions of their fellows ; how the sun shone upon this moun- 
 tain ; how in one season the frost attacked its barren sides, at 
 another season warm showers fell upon the frost detached 
 atoms; how after a time the green plant life came to them; 
 how this lived and died year after year, adding by its death 
 new elements to the Tock dust, which each year became 
 stronger to do that which nature wanted, that is, give sup- 
 port to more and more life ; how at last another character 
 of life appeared, that could move about, animals of all 
 kinds, with two feet and four, clawed or hoofed; with birds 
 among all that at times disdained the ground and flew 
 hither and thither; how, strangest of all, one bright sunny 
 day one of a new kind of animal passed them by, stopped 
 and came to them, gathered them up, sent them to his 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 69 
 
 museum in Denver; how this being tried to write their 
 story, in a few short pages, when the largest hbrary could 
 not contain the volumes that could be filled with all they 
 might say of their old, old, story. 
 
 Such is a faint sketch of what these two insignificant 
 stones might tell us of, could they only talk. 
 
 From this locality across to Jack's Cabin, or Howville 
 on the Slate River, to be sure of the connecting links in the 
 rocks that I have been trying to study and describe, was the 
 next trip. 
 
 Then I had to go to Denver on some business needing 
 immediate attention, was kept there only three days, when 
 back I came to Gunnison City ; at this place I was detained 
 some days during the culmination of matters of personal 
 interest, and took the opportunity to practically examine 
 the Cochetopa gold belt, south and southwest of Gunnison. 
 
 The rocks of this belt appear to be Archa^n granite, 
 showing an average surface of ten miles wide and thirty- 
 five miles in length, or an area of 350 square miles, and 
 only prospected in places and evidently not at all in the 
 best parts of it. Gold was first discovered, on August 5, 
 1880, in the Lubricator claim and considerable excitement 
 occassioned, which rapidly died out, as the most of the dis- 
 coveries were made in a trachyte formation that I found 
 bordering each side of the granite belt; in some place this 
 trachyte gives way to the older metamorphic rocks. 
 
 In this trachyte the veins have all of the appearance 
 of gash veins filled with a very hard white quartz, oc- 
 casionally containing remarkably fine specimens of free gold, 
 just sufficient to lead the prospector on, but do not appear 
 to carry their value as depth is gained. In fact, all of those 
 that I saw, with but one or two exceptions, invariably 
 pinched out a few feet from the surface. This trachyte 
 country rock the prospector wants to avoid. 
 
 About six miles from Gunnison City is Gage's camp. 
 
70 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 near here some of the finest gold specimens have been ob- 
 tained. A short distance from this camp, bedded upon the 
 country rock, is a large deposit of white volcanic ash, loosely 
 cemented to a rock with a small percentage of lime. It is 
 very interesting, as it contains angular fragments of coun- 
 tr}' rock, which must have been ejected by the volcano 
 while active, at the same time as the ashes. This eruption 
 must have been very strong and continuous for a time, as 
 the ashes fell thick and fast enough to fill the waters to an 
 amount, which made the whole a thick mud, resulting in a 
 homogenous mass of volcanic ash rock now very Arable. 
 
 Had the eruption of ashes been lighter, or intermit- 
 tent, the result would have been that the sedimentary 
 material would have been washed and sifted by the waves, 
 leaving horizontal strata instead of the present homogenous 
 mass. 
 
 • This ash bed also has another peculiarity, within it is 
 found egg-shaped geodes from an inch or two in diameter, 
 to one I saw of fifteen inches longest diameter, and nine 
 inches through the thickest part of the short diameter of 
 the oval. These are evidently the linings by infiltration of 
 cavities in the rock, formed by the removal of some easily 
 decomposed substances buried in the ashes, but what, I do 
 not know. 
 
 I spent three days in this section, the last day riding 
 some forty miles with three others, one of the gentlemen 
 being Judge D. L. Murdock, of Fairbury, Illinois. 
 
 The whole country is covered with sage brush, and 
 for game has an abundance of sage hens. It is most deso- 
 late in appearance, looking like an old worn out countrj'-, 
 and such it really is. The monotonous appearance of the 
 Colorado Divide, south of Denver, being the nearest to it 
 for comparison of any section that I have examined. But 
 its mineral wealth may turn out to be something wonder- 
 ful, I certainly saw one or two evidences of what may be. 
 
GUNNISON. THE BONANZA COUNTY. /I 
 
 and as it is my business in this work to give information 
 that ma)- be of value to mining men, whether I get any im- 
 mediate returns or not; I feel very much Hke placing my- 
 self on record as to this section by outlining what ought to 
 be found. 
 
 The best veins will be found in the granite itself, and 
 will show a true crevice of five to ten feet, or even wider ; 
 filled with a gangue composed principally of feldspar, at 
 times a little lime, and occasionally streaks or spots of white 
 quartz. This gangue would be originally filled with ar- 
 senical iron pyrites rich in gold, now decomposed or oxi- 
 dized leaving the ore product free milling, and a value can 
 be expected of from $15.00 per ton upwards. This 
 vein material will be almost picking ground for manj- feet 
 down, and the entire mass filled with gold finely but evenly 
 distributed. The depth of free milling ore will be from 300 
 to 1,000 feet. This estimate is based upon the fact, that 
 this section has no springs or running water and the con- 
 sequent decomposition of the arsenical iron pyrites down 
 to the real water level of this section \vhich will vary as 
 above estimated. 
 
 The finding of rich specimen pieces of gold in such 
 veins will be the exception ; in fact gold visible to the 
 eye may hardly be expected, but it will show readily 
 enough in panning or testing in a horn. 
 
 Now such veins as these would naturally erode on the 
 surface, leaving a trough or sag along the course of the 
 vein, into which would be washed small boulders, pebbles 
 and sand ; covering all evidences of any vein at all. As 
 no white quartz is in these veins of any amount, there will 
 be no float abundant on the surface near them, as seen in 
 the gash veins appearing in the bordering trach}-te. Con- 
 sequently the best veins and the only ones to be relied on 
 for continuous pay, will be more difficult to find and will 
 
72 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 have to be prospected for in a manner very different from 
 the finding of most mineral veins. « 
 
 That this granite has been very much fissured, so as to 
 allow such veins to form, there is abundance of evidence in 
 the surrounding eruptive rocks, showing so near by. In fact 
 I know that such has been the case for I found a large dike 
 of an eruptive, porphyrytic paste, which only occurs in 
 fissured granite country rock; and where encountered be- 
 fore, there is an abundance of free gold to be had. 
 
 I feel almost certain that in time many such veins as 
 I have described will be found in this 350 square miles of 
 gold territory. 
 
 The above are the deductions I have made regarding 
 this section as a geologist, and I know that I am right; 
 may those who can take advantage of the knowledge I am 
 able to give, and prove that I have read these rocks aright, 
 and the result be of profit to themselves as a reward of 
 their labors and faith in what I have said. 
 
 I might go one step farther and add, that if there is 
 any geological section of Colorado, where there is a possi- 
 bility of finding those rarer metals, known as Osmiridium, 
 Palladium and Platinum, it would be in connection with 
 the ores produced from such a locality as this Cochetopa 
 gold belt. 
 
 In this granite formation and near to Gunnison is also 
 found large deposits of gypsum (sulphate of lime), making, 
 when calcined the finest plaster of Paris I know, as it has a 
 brilliant white lustre equal to zinc white when used as a 
 paint. 
 
 To this point was as far as I had time to put my notes 
 in order, and make them public through the Denver 
 Republican. Winter was coming, I had much work yet to 
 do and I could not take the time to write, therefore what 
 follows in this volume has never before been published. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 73 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Coal Creek and Redwell Basin Divide — Snow — Cause 
 
 of Iron Swamp and Iron Spring — Leaving Irwin 
 
 — Peculiarities of the Ruby Silver Belt 
 
 Prospective Product of Ores — 
 
 Concentration — Specimens 
 
 Collected. 
 
 On my return to Irwin, I was called upon to examine 
 certain claims situated on the dividing ridge between Coal 
 Creek and Redwell basin, about three miles from Crested 
 Butte. 
 
 The route from Irwin was up through Elk basin, by 
 trail around to the Coal Creek side, and into Coon basin. 
 I found a large vein, twenty-five feet between walls, with a 
 body of mineralized quartz, three to six feet wide, con- 
 taining, originally, iron pyrites, now oxidized and leaving 
 most brilliant colors of irrisdescent iron in the surface 
 material. The owners claimed as high as ^50 in gold per 
 ton, for this quartz ; it certainly appeared to be a gold quartz. 
 Unfortunately at the time of my visit there w^as not devel- 
 opment enough done to prove anything further than that here 
 was one of the very strong veins ofthe section, and well worth 
 an expenditure of cash and labor to develop it. I climbed 
 up to the dividing crest, and had a most noble view. Red- 
 well basin, I could look down into, also 0-be-Joyfull, up 
 the valley of the Slate, over into Washington gulch, out 
 and beyond Gothic and Cressed Butte mountains ; down 
 Coal Creak, pa.st Crested Butte town, down the valley of 
 the Slate, in and amongst the Wheatstone ^group, over the 
 points of Wheatstone and Anthracite ranges to the great 
 Uncompahgre range beyond. 
 
74 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 It snowed (August 24, 1882), a few minutes, while we 
 were up there. 
 
 I saw something else, of more personal interest to me, 
 than the above described, magnificent panorama. I saw 
 that I had been examining the vein, which crossed Red- 
 well basin, and from which is leached the material contained 
 in the iron spring, and produces the other curious results de- 
 scribed in my visit to Redwell. I saw that this same vein 
 came through to the Coal Creek side, and here, by leach- 
 ing, it furnishes the material for the bog iron ore of the 
 iron swamp, on Irwin and Crested Butte road. 
 
 ■ Seeing these results the question naturally arose, was 
 not this vein of greater age than the other veins of the 
 same locality, which carry the ruby silver ores? I think it 
 is, and actually existed as a fissure vein, well mineralized 
 before the commencement of the deposit of the tertiary 
 rocks amongst which it occurs, and that subsequent erosion 
 has again exposed it to view. The fact of its containing a 
 gold value, instead of silver, is another local anomaly and 
 would induce the belief that its source of supply here is 
 from primitive granite, and that this country rock at this 
 spot is quite near by. If future working should prove these 
 surmises to be correct, and I feel quite sure that they are, 
 the probabilities will be that here is one of the future 
 bonanzas. It is worth trying, I could assure the owners 
 of that. 
 
 Having spent more weeks than I at first thought, I 
 would have to stop days in this Ruby Mining District ; 
 and, feeling that if any one had seen it thoroughly I cer- 
 tainly had, it was time for me to be moving, as. I had 
 very much yet to do before my season's work as I laid it 
 out, would be accomplished. 
 
 Before leaving Irwin, where I met very many pleas- 
 ant people, I would like to say a few words regarding its 
 possible future, especially as it appears to have been very 
 
GUNNrSON. THE BONANZA COUNTV. 75 
 
 much misunderstood as a mining district, and in some in- 
 stances perhaps willfully misrepresented. 
 
 Its geological structure, as a whole. I must leave until 
 I get through my season's work, that I may have all the 
 real knowledge possible, in order to make correct deduc- 
 tions, and show without error, how it was possible for 
 rich silver veins to occur breaking through tertiary' rocks 
 and in some instances passing up through coal veins. 
 
 Such is the anomaly of this ruby "silver belt, and it is 
 no wonder that errors have been made in mining, and 
 owner of properties threw up their holdings, disgusted and 
 discouraged; but all did not, some held on and worked, 
 partly because of a bull-dog tenacity that sometimes makes 
 or ruins a man; others because they could not but reason, 
 that if such rich sulphide ores were to be found at grass- 
 roots, the ores must keep on down — Prof Jacobs to the 
 contrary notwithstanding — so that at the time of my visit 
 things were looking better than they had for nearly two 
 years. Mines enough were opened and proved to warrant 
 an estimate, that if all that had been proved were worked, 
 and worked as mines should be, a daily output would be 
 had of 300 tons; worth, on an average $'j'i^ per ton of 
 shipping ore, or ;^22,500 gross value per day. To accom- 
 plish this, such mines can be named as the Forest Queen, 
 Bullion King, Buby Chief, Howard Extension, and four 
 more claims in the Ruby Chief group, as well as the 
 Mexico, Durango and Lead Chief 
 
 In addition to this grade of ore, I never knew a mine 
 yet, producing pay ore, but also yielded three to five 
 times as much in tons of a concentrating product. Sup- 
 posing we figure the minimum amount, and we have 900 
 tons per day of concentrating ore. This character of 
 gangue, with mineral, will reduce ten to thirty tons to one, 
 an average would be twenty tons to one, making forty-five 
 tons per day, additional of shipping ore. These concentrates 
 
jd GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 would average $200 per ton, or a gross shipping value of 
 $9,000, making a total product per day of 331,500. 
 
 This is hot an over-estimate at all, in fact, I think some 
 of those locally interested will say I am considerably be- 
 low the mark. This, however, I felt I had obtained suf- 
 ficient data for, and that a very short time, say two years, 
 would actually show an excess over my figures, for 
 there is very many more prospects to be developed into 
 mines, within a radius of three miles of Irwin, and which 
 prospects show just as good at the surface as most of 
 those that I have named, it is only a question of practical 
 knowledge and work. 
 
 It obtained, personally, nearly 1,000 lbs. of the geo- 
 logical and mineralogical representations of this district, 
 perhaps a better representation than has ever before been 
 collected for practical use, by anyone to have them all to- 
 gether, that the relation of the different rocks may be seen 
 in connection with the various ores, which occur in these 
 mineral veins. There is no doubt in rny mind, but that I 
 have actually obtained sufficient data and evidences, to 
 prove the actual age of these ruby silver veins, and that 
 when I come to sum up the whole, they will be found to 
 have occurred at a more recent date in the geological his- 
 tory of the world than has been before supposed, and very 
 much later than the occurrence of most vein formations. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. "jy 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Return to Crested Butte — Mining Claims in O-Be- 
 
 Joyful Basin — How Knowledge is Needed — Work 
 
 Required to Obtain Practical Knowledge — 
 
 Geology of O-Be-Joyful Basin — North 
 
 Fork of Anthracite Creek — Silver 
 
 King and Bay Billy Claims — 
 
 Fossils — A Hard Day's Work — 
 
 Elko— Gothic Road— Bellevue 
 
 Mt. — Central Mining and 
 
 Milling Co — Crested 
 
 Butte Again. 
 
 On August 26, 1882, I returned to Crested Butte, and 
 the Elk Mountain House, to make that point the starting 
 place again of future work. I was called upon almost at 
 once to examine some ten prospects that had been located 
 and a little worked by an Eastern company. We were off 
 the next morning early for a long day's work, as these 
 claims were scattered along the course of O-Be-Joyful 
 gulch, and while it does not take long to decide upon a 
 prospect hole, after the surrounding country rocks com- 
 prising the geological formation is learned, still ten for one 
 day's work — Sunday at that — was considerable. I am 
 thankful to say they turned out a little better than the 
 average of such groups, as six of them showed evidences 
 enough to prosecute work upon further, and only four 
 utterly worthless. 
 
 A circumstance occurred between myself and the 
 superintendent of the property, whicli I cannot help rela- 
 ting, as it illustrates one of the phases of mining, and how 
 prone men are to lead themselves astray. Amongst the 
 last claims seen, was one situated very high up on the 
 mountain top, entailing a climb of some 1,200 feet up, to 
 see where the discovery was made and the work done. I 
 
78 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, ■ * 
 
 was taken to an opening on another claim at the foot of 
 the hill, from which some high assays had been obtamed, 
 and informed that as the claim I was to report on was the ex- 
 tension on the same vein, I could use what I saw here as the 
 basis of a report. I looked at the dump and then enquired 
 if "they were interested in this property." 
 
 "No we are not, but ours is just the same as this." 
 
 "Well" I replied "I only know in this kind of work 
 "the ground that I actually examine. I am going up to 
 "your claim and expect you to come with me." 
 
 "All right" he said, "but it is a very hard climb." 
 
 "That makes no difference to me." 
 
 We started having a good trail two-thirds of the way, 
 and the rest — until a trail is made — would bother a "burro." 
 Arrived at the discovery shaft I found a well mineralized 
 true fissure vein, and a showing that caused me to say, 
 "this is not the same vein as that where we stopped." 
 
 I saw my man's face elongate as he replied: 
 
 "Why we always thought so, it seems to be the same 
 "course, and since they have obtained such good assays, we 
 "have thought this to be one of our best properties." 
 
 "So it is" I replied "barring its present inaccessibility, 
 "it is very much better than the one below, for here you 
 "have twelve inches of gold quartz, well enough mineral- 
 "ized to be pay if there was a stamp mill near by." 
 
 "Ah!" said he, "I remember now, two years ago I 
 "had an assay of ^40 per ton in gold from near the top; 
 "but all of this country carries silver, so I did not believe 
 "that the returns were right." 
 
 "They were right" I said, "and here is the reason, on 
 "the other side of this mountain or ridge is Swan basin, 
 "the country rock changes there and the fissures carry gold 
 "ores, the same country rock must come under this ridge 
 "to this side, and the crevice of this claim reaches down 
 "into it. It is from that rock that your vein filling and ore 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTV. 79 
 
 "supply comes, and if I am correct we can get furtlier 
 "proof, as \vc go down the mountain we will follow the 
 "outcrop, and as the erosion allows us to get deeper down 
 "on the vein formation it will probably widen and there is 
 "a possibility of finding a telluride quartz with this vein." 
 
 About 700 feet down we found where the vein widened 
 to over ten feet between walls, and I obtained some nice 
 quartz specimens showing the presence of tellurium. 
 
 With this result my party was well satisfied; but sup- 
 posing I had taken his word that the vein below was the 
 same as the one belonging to this company, as another 
 expert did who followed me a few weeks after, and en- 
 dorsed my report throughout except this claim, and stated 
 that he did not understand how I could call that gold bear- 
 ing quartz; but he did not tell the party to whom the re- 
 port was made that he did not take the trouble to climb 
 up and actually examine their claim, but accepted the 
 statement that the claim at the foot of the hill was identical 
 with the one he should have seen. 
 
 The gangue in this lower claim is calc-spar with a 
 little galena and some fine particles of gray copper that 
 runs high and is, of course, a silver bearing vein; but has 
 no more to do with the vein on the mountain top than if it 
 was a fissure filled \\ith blue mud. 
 
 We cannot be too careful and painstaking in this kimd 
 of work ; very frequently there is the expenditure of many 
 thousands of dollars and perhaps the probity and honor of 
 a mining company's officers, depending on the statement 
 made by an expert. With such weights in the balance of 
 careful or careless work, it seems to me always best to 
 climb the hill, even if it happens to be three times 1,200 
 feet, than to allow a chance for error. 
 
 The men in actual charge of properties do not have the 
 opportunity for a practical knowledge by comparison over 
 large tracts of country, and many different mining sections, 
 
8o GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 the same as men following the professional part of the 
 trade ; and v^ery frequently, as was the case here, the super- 
 intendent honestly believed that their vein was the same as 
 the other, merely because a line could be drawn beiu>ee?i two 
 points, and knew nothing about the difference in the rock 
 formations, which really would govern the character of 
 ores even if the crevices were the same, which I ver}' much 
 doubt, as the course taken from the top of the hill carries 
 the gold vein several hundred feet away from the one con- 
 taining the calc-spar. 
 
 It is such facts as the above and those recorded in 
 previous chapters, isolated instances though they are, that 
 are the keynotes to geological sections, and enables one 
 afterwards to fit the different points together into one har- 
 monious whole, and reason out the structure of very many 
 square miles of rocks; and I can assure my readers that it is 
 no childs play, but requires years of toil, close study of what 
 others have done, and constant practice, never losing sight 
 of the principles of — shall I say — world making, and care- 
 fully working out each locality by itself upon such princi- 
 ples. Avoiding, of all things, being biased, or having your 
 judgment warped by the knowledge of some other section 
 that you are already perfectly familiar with, and be inclined 
 to try and force the present to what you knew before. 
 
 It is this that causes more loss in mining than any- 
 thing else, aside from out and out rascality, and why so 
 many mining men successful in one part of the country, 
 which they had to thoroughly understand to start with, 
 fail, and miserably fail when they change to a new mining 
 section. 
 
 I hope this kind of preaching will do some practical 
 good ; these are facts that cannot be stated too often or 
 too forcibly for the good of all concerned; as what is for 
 the good of the individual is for the good of the community, 
 the good of the community is the good of the State, the 
 
GUNNISON. THE BONANZA COUNTV. 8 1 
 
 good of the State results in benefit to the nation, and na- 
 tions make the world. 
 
 There is not much more to be said about O-be-Joyful 
 basin, as prospectors appear to be bothered with what they 
 find, and do not push work. There is primitive and erup- 
 tive «jranites, there is cretaceous quartzites and slates, with 
 tertiary sandstones, shales and conglomerate, all having 
 mineral veins breaking through them, and the ores gov- 
 erned by the countrj' rocks through which they pass. 
 All of this in a space of three miles square, it is not to 
 be wondered at that prospectors become mixed, to say 
 nothing about a mine expert fresh from Boston. 
 
 We were back to the hotel at lo p. m., to learn 
 that there was a call for a longer, and what proved to , 
 be a harder trip early next day. 
 
 This morning found three of us on the road, with the 
 head of the North Fork of Anthracite Creek as the des- 
 tination. The route was up Slate River to Pittsburg, 
 hence up Poverty gulch, to the dividing ridge, near the 
 "Little Nell" mining claim, and which route and locality 
 was partially described in a former chapter. 
 
 From the crest we had a very steep trail to descend, 
 made zig-zag down an eroded gully on the mountain side, 
 not making more than twenty-five feet descent on each 
 turn, for nearly 800 feet down. 
 
 The country was new to me. and to our guide also, 
 as we found out; but all things, mining business as well as 
 others must have a "first time;" within half a mile of the 
 prospects the trail — such as it wa.s — ended, as far as the 
 use of our horses were concerned. I had an excellent 
 one, light weight, quick as a cat, good for trails, speedy 
 when necessary, and withal gentle as a house pet. Fanny 
 and I had many a climb afterwards, and she never re- 
 fused to follow anywhere, I led. 
 
 After leaving the horses we soon lost the trail entirely 
 
82 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. • 
 
 and divided to try and find the property, I taking the 
 upper side or mountain top, that I might have all of the 
 view possible. 
 
 1 saw the workings on the claims first and fi-om where 
 I was could direct the others to it and soon was on the 
 ground of the Silver King claim also. A couple of years' 
 assessment work comprised the development, made to 
 show the most by having an open cut on the hill side, and 
 exposing the ore body three to four feet wide, principally 
 composed of galena. Some carbonates also, resulting from 
 oxidization of the sulphides, and with a calc-spar gangue. 
 This ore stood up twelve feet on each side of the opening, 
 while the surface showed galena croppings forty feet north- 
 .west and 250 feet southwest, with a continuation on the 
 surface of 150 feet more of vein material. The outcrop is 
 in cretaceous shale, and it was on this mountain side that I 
 first obtained any evidences of fossils, here finding casts of 
 the fossil shell-fish bwccravius. This shale had been par- 
 tially changed to a slate by metamorphism, afterwards I 
 found the granite showing further down the mountain. 
 
 The Silver King made a much better showing for the 
 amount of work done than I anticipated, and when prop- 
 erly developed ought to be one of the regular producing 
 mines of the section, with a surprise ahead for the owners 
 as depth is gained; for the ores will certainly increase in 
 quality and character, soon after depth is made below the 
 shale, and where the vein enters the granite. 
 
 Five hundred feet below the "Silver King" is the "Bay 
 Billy" mining claim which shows outcrops of six to eight 
 feet of calc-spar well mineralized, carrying a value across 
 the vein of ^22 per ton, an excellent ore to mine and con- 
 centrate; test on the latter gave by a crude process over 
 $160 per ton. In practical work this ore ought to concen- 
 trate ten tons into one and have a milling value of over 
 ^200 per ton. These are prospectively more valuable 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. . 83 
 
 properties than the surface material shows, owing to the 
 near proximity of a better country rock, into which the 
 veins must pass. It is only a question of practical intelli- 
 gent work to make these properties of large producing 
 value. 
 
 Since my visit good trails have been made and addi- 
 tional work shows the property ahead already of what I 
 intimated in my report. 
 
 Examining these Silver King and Bay Billy mining 
 claims resulted in being the hardest trip that I made the 
 whole season, as having missed the trail coming we did not 
 find it going out. I struck out for where I thought it ought 
 to be and fetched up at the head of a rift in the mountain, 
 standing on a narrow ledge that I could not turn around 
 on ; I did not have hands and feet enough, being loaded 
 with some forty pounds of mine samples and country rock. 
 Below me was the rift running down 800 feet, filled with 
 small stones, and an eight-foot jump into it. There was 
 no help for it I had to jump and alighted upright starting 
 an avalanche of small rocks, in company with which I 
 went down that 800 feet in less than two minutes. As I 
 neared the bottom, I thought it looked as if the rift sud- 
 denly ended, and was fortunate enough to catch a small 
 pine branch and work onto solid rock in time to look down 
 forty feet straight. Over this small precipice, tons of loose 
 stones were pouring that my rapid descent had put in 
 motion. It seemed a narrow escape after I had climbed 
 down to the bottom by roots of bushes and clefts in the 
 rock. 
 
 Thirsty, hungry and tired I could look up 3,OCK) feet 
 that I had to climb to get back to the Poverty gulch side . 
 it was four o'clock in the afternoon, and not a mouthful 
 since seven a. m. 
 
 Moving along the bottoms in search of a trail I had 
 heard of, I came across my comrades, who had just been 
 
84 ■ GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 through a similar experience and appeared to be more used 
 up than myself. 
 
 The trail was soon found, and nearly i.ooo feet up we 
 came to the first water, drank the little spring dr>', and 
 waited for it to fill up again, this was repeated three or four 
 times. Above this we came to some prospectors tents, 
 where my friends stopped, completely tired out. I had to 
 go on as I must start for a ride early next morning. On 
 reaching my horse I found Fannie had cast herself, receiv- 
 ing a good choking, and was as badly played out as my- 
 self, and unable to carry more than my sacks of rock. 
 This nearly broke me all up, but it would be moonlight and I 
 was not going to lose any ground by going back for some- 
 thing to eat. It was a beautiful moonlight night, so clear 
 that as we reached the crest after nine p. m. I halted to 
 enjoy it. Far west could be seen the borders of Utah, and 
 under the magic influences of the night, the moonlight and 
 surroundings, it seemed then, and now as I write, as a 
 reminiscence of dreamland. From out of this beauty on 
 the one side, I stepped into a cloud on the other side, and 
 could not see ten feet ahead of me. I had to feel my way 
 for 500 feet down the trail, then we were below the cloud 
 and could make fair progress. Before coming to Pittsburg 
 I remembered a prospecting acquaintance, his place I found, 
 told my story and in twenty minutes a supper was read)% 
 although the boys were in bed and asleep after a hard day's 
 work. 
 
 Such a meal — everything was good — as one might 
 expect it would be — seven o'clock a. m. to after ten p. m- 
 without a bite, after all of that climbing. An hour's rest 
 made good for the remaining distance to Crested Butte; 
 here I arrived at three o'clock a. m. feeling completel}- 
 played out; but withal very much satisfied that I had 
 pushed through, and now know nearly what my powers ot 
 endurance are. 
 
eUNNISON, THE BCiNANZA COUNTY. S5 
 
 With the working of these properties that I visited 
 much better and shorter trails have been made, so that the 
 same trials will not have to be encountered on another 
 trip. 
 
 The next day I was off after dinner for a sixteen snile 
 ride to Elko, over a most excellent road from Crested 
 Butte through Elko, along the banks of the East River, 
 which heads at the foot of Bellevue and Baldy Mountains. 
 This river receives its start from a beauty of a little lake 
 just on the divide from the Rock Creek slope. Here is an 
 extremely easy pass and grade for the wagon road — it 
 might be of great advantage to a railroad one of these days 
 when the country beyond is sufficiently developed to warrant 
 the building — and at six p. m. I was at Elko. Here the 
 Central Mining and Milling Company have laid out a town, 
 built a forty ton ore concentrator, sawmill, store and offices. 
 It is all under the direct charge of Mr. J. H. McCoy, he 
 also being one of the principal stockholders. 
 
 I was most pleasantly entertained by Mr. McCoy and 
 lady for three days — snowing and raining most of the time; 
 and only learned that I must come back to stay as soon as 
 possible. For here was a locality that showed evidences 
 of more mineral and fissure vein results than I had dreamed 
 of. 
 
 The evening of September ist found me back at Crested 
 Butte, finishing up local notes, preparatory to seeing all 
 that the Rock Creek country had to show. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Slate River — Geology of Treasury Mt. and Vicinity 
 
 — Ha-wk-Eye Mine — Cretaceous Rocks Here — 
 
 Rocks of the East Slope — Veins of the 
 
 Head of Slate River and Rock Creek 
 
 — Paradise Basin, Bellevue and 
 
 Baldy Mt. — Crystal Basin — 
 
 Eureka Mine--Shakespeare 
 
 Mine and Other Veins — Gov. 
 
 Kearney's Claims — 
 
 Marble. 
 
 As I rode up Slate river on September 4, 1882, re- 
 turning to get a fuller knowledge of Rock Creek country, 
 I was enabled to get a few points in the geological struc- 
 ture, that in the future fitting together of the rocks, I found 
 to mean much. 
 
 Let any one interested in rock structure follow the 
 road to Pittsburg, and in the wagon road cuts, he sees an 
 older sedimentary rock than those occurring with the ter- 
 tiary coal measures at Crested Butte. By the roadside is 
 cretaceous shales, partly metamorphosed to a slate, con- 
 taining casts of Inoccrarniis, the characteristic fossil of that 
 age. These shale beds dip nearly 30° on the average, and 
 can be followed along Slate river for nearly fourteen miles, 
 to the top of Treasury mountain. Above this, for nearly 
 half the distance is a bed of granite porphyry, of varying 
 thickness — six to twelve feet I saw it — and above that 
 again the tertiary coal rocks. Here was food for thought, 
 as it is just possible that this condition of things may very 
 much limit the coal area of the Crested Butte basin, and 
 cut off a short distance from that town, the two lower and 
 most valuable coal seams. 
 
 There was another strange thing I perceived had oc- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTV. 87 
 
 curred; as I examined the coal beds I found that they 
 dipped slif^htly away from the recent lava beds, which had 
 been erupted through them, showing its influence in rais- 
 ing those measures. While on the contrary the beds of the 
 cretaceous rocks dipped toward the granite porphyry cen- 
 tres, that showed strongest the eruption of that rock, 
 through the sedimentary beds of the older age. Evidently 
 opposite results produced b}' similar action in different 
 ages. It might be explained possibly by the fact, that the 
 granite porphyry eruption was so enormous locally, that 
 its weight graduall)' depressed the then plastic sedimentary 
 rocks of the cretaceous age — ^just by mere weight or ton- 
 nage. Should this surmise prove to be correct it would 
 also account for the tertiary strata filling in the depressed 
 cretaceous basins in after ages and building up in the 
 gorges between the mountains of granite porphyry. 
 
 Later on the recent lava eruption could only upraise, 
 it did not overflow enough to depress. 
 
 At Pittsburg we dined with one of the owners of the 
 Hawk-eye mine, a property that has some characteristics 
 worth looking into, I found zinc sulphides that gave 500 
 ounces of silver per ton — pretty high grade zinc for Colo- 
 rado — as well as some other things, that set me to looking 
 more closely as I rode on up the river bank. 
 
 Cretaceous shales, or slates were the country rock, and 
 it is well fissured; very many mineral veins occurring, but 
 of low grade ores. 
 
 To one acquainted only with the mining districts of 
 the east slope, where the fissures carrying mineral break 
 through ; for a time the formations here are more or less 
 a puzzle. There the rocks, are either granites, porphyries, 
 or metamorphic rocks, of an age, ante-dating possibly the 
 carboniferous period — very hard, the fissures much nar- 
 rower, hard quartz gangue, ores varying somewhat, and 
 apparently of a wholly different method of occurrence. 
 
8S GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 Here the country rocks are soft, the fissures break 
 through partly metamorphosed shales; this kind of country 
 rock crumbles, drops into the fissure, mixes country rock 
 and gangue, so that it is almost impossible at times to have 
 a certainty of defined walls. Through such rocks fissures 
 are more or less irregular, much wider than if they occurred 
 through firmer surface rocks, of lower grade ores on an 
 average, as this character of country rock adds no value to 
 vein material; but rather for the reasons stated detracts 
 from it. So that when the prospector gets a good mineral 
 showing here, generally galena ores, and has high hopes 
 of success, all at once his ore is gone, and only pieces ot 
 country rock cemented by silica, or frequently calc-spar 
 gangue, remains as an evidence that he ever had any min- 
 eral showing at all. He cannot understand it and in many 
 instances throws up the prospect and leaves disgusted and 
 discouraged, cursing his luck, and the country'. 
 
 Now it is not the fault of the country; I am not going 
 to apologize for it, but will attempt to explain. These 
 mineral fissures all lead to a harder and better country 
 rock, viz: primitive granite, and when this section is prop- 
 erly worked and proved it will be found that with the 
 change in country rock these veins will pass between 
 smooth walls, narrower crevices, have a larger percentage 
 of mineral in proportion to gangue, and of a much higher 
 grade. The sulphides will change more from galena to a 
 copper, and carry more value in gold. 
 
 The geological formation proves this, and it is a for- 
 unate thing that this is so; I mean that there is some dif- 
 ficulty in getting to the real values of this section, as the 
 rest of the State of Colorado wants some show for exis- 
 tence, and were the gold and silver values as readily ob- 
 tained here as in many other sections, these precious metals 
 would soon depreciate in purchasing power somewhat. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTS'. S9 
 
 The mineralizing action in this country has been simply 
 marvellously enormous. 
 
 There is large returns for the proper employment of 
 capital, it costs money to reach the depths, and it will cost 
 money to take care of the water that will be encountered 
 in these large open fissures. All that is as nothing in these 
 days of enterprise and abundant capital. Show the busi- 
 ness man of means, a certain profit, proportionate to risk, 
 and he will try; and here by the use of inteligence, money 
 and grit, he can succeed beyond anything I dare to put in 
 figures. 
 
 Nature has said, "Here I have done more work in 
 "storing ores, than anywhere else in the world, covered b)- 
 "the same surface of square miles, wrest it from me if you 
 "can and dare." 
 
 Nature does not lie, and man can and dare. 
 
 Fannie and I had company, this trip it is quite a 
 scramble over the Slate divide to the head of Rock Creek, 
 and at times we saw things that we wanted to examine 
 closer, and did not always follow the trail,but went straight 
 for what we wished to see. Looking back once after a 
 hard scramble, the horse keeping close to me, I was some- 
 what surprised to see our friend coming on all fours. I did 
 not realize before that the climb was so steep. 
 
 I had been told to come to Elko and make myself at 
 home. I did so, and enjoyed it thoroughly; who would 
 not? something new to see and learn every day. The 
 head of Rock Creek with its strong mineral veins every few 
 hundred feet, only needing development to prove their im- 
 mense wealth ; Paradise basin the same, Bellevue Moun- 
 tain and Baldy cut through and through in every direction 
 with ore bearing fissures, some of very high grade too. 
 
 A wagon road had just been completed to Crystal 
 basin, three miles from here. At the head of this basin is 
 Treasury Mountain, over 13,200 feet high, on top of it is 
 
90 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 the Eureka properties with fourteen feet of soHd ore, aver- 
 aging $45 per ton net. Galena and copper sulphides from 
 the base of these ores. On one side of the basin is the 
 great Shakespeare vein. I climbed to the dividing ridge 
 from the next basin — the one General Grant named as Carl 
 Schurz — so that I could get the Shakespeare formation in 
 place, and broke mineralized rock across one hundred and 
 fifty feet of surface ground. 
 
 This vein is a flat one, that is, it follows a course of 
 cleavage between stratified rocks, having the same dip as 
 far as can be seen or is developed. In the next basin I 
 could see primitive granite outcropping, so that I knew all 
 of these veins pass soon into that rock. There is almost 
 as positive evidence of this in the gangue and character of 
 ores of these veins, as if it was already a proved fact by de- 
 velopment. 
 
 Across the basin from the Shakespeare is another flat 
 vein, traceable for two and a half miles continuous, with an 
 average of ten feet of ore solid, and all of a shipping grade. 
 It hardly seems credible, but any one can see it, the largest 
 continuous ore body of strong pay ore now known. Its 
 future output is beyond computation. Across these flat 
 veins and their enclosing sedimentary rocks, break many 
 vertical veins, smaller in size of fissure, and in many in- 
 stances, carrying a higher per centage ofsilver value. These 
 probably in depth pass more quickly into the granite, and 
 it was these vertical veins and their ores that helped to con- 
 vince me, that all of the veins of this section and geological 
 age would in depth reach the same underlying country 
 rock, and proportionately increase in value as depth is 
 gained in working. 
 
 I went one day to see some properties managed and 
 partly owned by Gov. Kearney, of Kansas. There is quite 
 a group of them in this Crystal basin on the Galena Moun- 
 tain slope. In one of the vertical veins some very high 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTV. 9! 
 
 grade shipping- ore is being taken out, and considerable 
 work had been done on others of the claims, not with the 
 the very best results, whatex-er the intention was, and mis- 
 takes made just from the lack of a little knowledge of the 
 rock, it often happens, and I suppose always will. 
 
 I thought I was a good climber, but the Governor 
 who showed me around, in spite of his gray hairs, gave me 
 nearly enough. He is the first man I ever met, who 
 seemed fresher than myself, after such a climb as we had 
 that day. 
 
 In this same basin is a bed of marble, it appeared to 
 be originall)^ a conglomerate, composed of small rounded 
 quartz pebbles, cemented by a lime deposit. Subsequent 
 meta-morphism changed it to a marble; it ought to make a 
 beautiful and unique stone when dressed. The quartz peb- 
 bles sparkling, when polished, in the lime matrix, ought to 
 make a finish for inside work, that would give a beauty of 
 finish surpassing many of the marbles that are now used 
 for that purpose. 
 
92 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Elko a Cash Market for Ores — Concentrating Mill- 
 First Day's Run — Such Mills Needed in all Min- 
 ing Camps — Prospects Around Elko — Some 
 Geology — Copper Creek — Pass to Connun- 
 drum Gulch — Observations About — 
 
 Capital Required — Dividing Ridge of Con- 
 
 nundrum and Castle Creek — Bellevue 
 
 Mountain its Possibilities — Lower 
 
 Rock Creek Country — Roads 
 
 of Gunnison County — 
 
 Mines on Road to, 
 
 and Upon Sheep 
 
 Mt., Etc. 
 
 While this Rock Creek .section has not been to this 
 date ranked as an ore producer in any sense of the term, ex- 
 cept perhaps the Eureka mines, and it might be a question, 
 if past shipments from here have not been more as belong- 
 ing to the Slate River section, than to Rock Creek — the 
 wagon road finished into Crystal basin this fall should 
 bring this territory to the front at once on the opening of 
 another season. 
 
 They will have a cash market at Elko at the hands of 
 the Central Mining and Milling Co., where this company 
 have put in a forty-ton concentrator with the avowed pur- 
 pose of making the ores of this district shipping ores, out 
 of all produced below the grade of hand-sorted ores, and 
 that will concentrate. 
 
 I was kept here a number of days to see this new mill 
 start, which I was more than willing to do, from the fact 
 that for three years past I have strenously advocated the 
 use of these mills in all mining camps, rather than the num- 
 berless reduction processes that almost every mining dis- 
 trict, has idle monuments in their midst; standing adver- 
 tisements of incapacity and ignominous failure. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 93 
 
 The mill was to use a patent slimes table, which if 
 proved a success in Colorado ores, would mark a revolu- 
 tion in ore saving. 
 
 The trouble heretofore has been that in the gangue to 
 be concentrated, the greater proportion of value worth 
 saving, existed in the form of rich sulphides, such as gray 
 copper, ruby silver, etc., etc. These minerals are so very 
 brittle that the crushing power used has always reduced 
 such sulphides to slimes, and the machinery heretofore 
 principally used failed to save and separate the slimes. 
 Consequently the object of concentrators has been to make 
 as little slimes as possible, with a practical result giving a 
 wide difference from the theoretical result. That is the ores 
 were not concentrated to as high a grade practically, as 
 theoretical tests showed they could be. 
 
 The patentee of the slimes table, Mr. Jno. B. Wilford, 
 had charge of the building of the mill throughout; all that 
 was required of him was to build a mill that would run, and 
 do its work. This he certainly accomplished to the satis- 
 faction, not only of the owners, but of ev^ery one who has 
 examined the mill as well as myself 
 
 I put it thus strongly from the fact, that the patentee 
 claimed a saving of ninety per cent, of any gray copper in 
 the ore being treated. As this was the point where I knew 
 other concentrating mills failed, I certainl)' had personal 
 doubts, and strong ones ; though I did not feel called upon 
 to express them until the mill had a chance. When the 
 mill started up I was present, and while there was no gray 
 copper or rub}' silver ore, to run upon, I saw those table 
 saving an oxide, that settled it. I had not a word to say 
 except praise, as there was the machinery, doing more than 
 was claimed for it, and if they could save such an o.xide as 
 I saw them doing, they certainly could save and separate 
 the sulphides, no matter how fine they might be crushed. 
 
94 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 
 
 I feel that a full description of the mill would not be 
 out of place here. 
 
 The power is water and ample for three times the mills 
 present plant of machinery. The capacity now is forty 
 tons per twenty-four hours. The mill is furnished with a 
 sixty-ton Blake crusher, twenty-six inch Cornish rolls of 
 the latest and most improved patterns, three sets of Brad- 
 ford's improved ore jigs, and the slimes are saved and 
 separated by a Wilford's slimes table, which, as asserted 
 above, is the most successful machine of the kind I know. 
 
 The power comes from a forty-nine foot head of water 
 through a thirteen and a half inch Lefifel water-wheel with 
 the latest and most improved attachments, such as gover- 
 nor, etc. 
 
 The modus operandi is as follows: the ore is loaded 
 into a car from the ore bins, which have a capacity of over 
 900 tons; from the car to the crusher, thence to the rolls 
 by elevator; from these to the first screen of six meshes tc^ 
 the inch, the ore that will not pass this screen is returned 
 automatically to the rolls; the second screen is ten meshes 
 for the second jig, and the third screen is twenty-four 
 meshes to the inch. 
 
 The success of the whole machinery of course being 
 based on the even sizing of ore particles as shown by the 
 above grades of screens. 
 
 Each jig saves a first and second class grade of con- 
 centrates, as well as sending out the worthless gangue. 
 Never before has there been such a perfect success in 
 the State of Colorado, in a new mill, starting into work as 
 this did the first day the power was applied and running 
 and doing work as if it had always been going. 
 
 The merest tyro in knowledge of mill machinery and 
 ores, cannot help but be impressed with the economical ar- 
 rangement of all about the mill; when he sees that the ore 
 is fed to the crusher, and all is automatic from that point 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTV. 95 
 
 to the ore vats under the jigs and slimes tables. Kven 
 every natural advantage of the ground, upon wliich the 
 building stands is made to count, and nothing forced to a 
 point that made great cost in preparing a mill-site. 
 
 The first day's run was about six tons of very lean 
 ore, of about eight tons raw material to one of concentrates. 
 For one to take a handful of concentrates, then go to the 
 natural ore and compare the two, it did not seem possible 
 that such results could be produced, but there it was. 
 
 It is just such investments as this that all mining 
 camps want, and not reduction works, which in ninety-nine 
 cases out of 100 are merely idle monuments of stupid invest- 
 ments if no worse. 
 
 This was one of the most interesting days 1 have 
 spent in this part of the country; principally because I 
 realize personally what this kind of work means to mining 
 men, and it is of real benefit to me individually to see what 
 I have always advocated, proved a practical success. 
 
 The mill started on September 18, 1882, and run con- 
 stantly until the ore on hand was cleaned up, and of no ore 
 delivered to it could I find, but that a material advantage 
 was gained, although some only went two and a half tons 
 into one, which is very low. The idea of concentration 
 being to arrive at a result by which the freight and treat- 
 ment in cost of reduction, will be saved on the gangue or 
 waste, and even on this lowest quantity of concentration, 
 the saving on one and a ha^f tons was equal to $47.50 on 
 each two and a half tons of raw material less the cost of 
 concentrating. 
 
 In and around this Rock Creek country in the imme- 
 diate neighborhood -of Elko, I examined many prospects 
 which certainly should have a promising future, too numer- 
 ous in fact to mention individually ; but which will soon be 
 able to talk for themselves if pushed by the owners, to the 
 
96 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. " 
 
 development, which the present showings certainly seem to 
 warrant. 
 
 Hearing much from outside rumor, (this Mr. O. R. is 
 a very irresponsible individual), of Conundrum gulch, we 
 concluded to have a look at it. 
 
 On Sunday morning September loth, Mr. McCoy and 
 myself took an early start, fine bracing, clear and beautiful 
 was the air, no where but in Colorado do we have such 
 constant treats. It was such a morning as Theodore Win- 
 throp — that fresh, hearty writer — described when he said 
 he could go out and get drunk on fresh air before break- 
 fast. 
 
 We started early, passing over the divide which sepa- 
 rates Rock Creek from East River. This divide like the 
 one between the Slate and Rock Creek, is principally cre- 
 taceous shales, more or less fissured; but here is a new 
 illustration in the geology of the country. A dike of gran- 
 ite porphyry comes up through these shales by the road- 
 side; and proves what I had advanced as theory on seeing 
 the mountains of this granite porphyry in other localities. 
 A little further down the road tertiary shales, unchanged, 
 rest upon cretaceous shales, partially metamorphosed to 
 slate, without the eruptive rock between as seen along Slate 
 River. 
 
 We breakfasted at Gothic after a ten mile ride; there 
 are many good things in this neighborhood and I regret 
 extremely, that it was impossible to make time to give it 
 the thorough examination which I know the district 
 merits. The finest lumps of native silver I ever saw pro- 
 duced any where in the State came from the Virginia mine 
 at Gothic. 
 
 From Gothic our route lay up Copper Creek, follow- 
 ing the Sylvanite road as far as it kept with the stream, 
 from there on the county was making a wagon road over 
 into Conundruum gulch. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 97 
 
 Our climb was up by trail, and such a trail, it might 
 have been good with ten feet of snow to level up between 
 boulders. How in the name — of the first prospector — 
 material and supplies were ever packed up there, is a con- 
 nundrum with me to this day. The elevation of the pass 
 must verge on 13,000 feet above sea level. In one shel- 
 tered place was last winter's snow, four feet thick yet, 
 through it the trail went. 
 
 The wagon road, now building, will make a good sum- 
 mer road without doubt, but to keep it open in winter will 
 need rich ores to be produced and large quantities of them. 
 
 The descent into Connundrum is not nearly so bad as 
 the ascent from Copper Creek. 
 
 We pulled up at the camp of G. A. Jackson and party, 
 who have comfortable log cabins and appear to be satisfied 
 that they have one of the Bonanza districts of Gunnison 
 County. We looked at several prospects that same after- 
 noon, and while we found strong true fissures, and geological 
 evidences in abundance of possibility of large and rich ore 
 bodies to be opened by dev^elopment ; this work and actual 
 proof was yet lacking. There seemed to be plenty of 
 natural evidences which said "go-ahead," and as this party 
 with the gentleman named had made up their minds to 
 stock up with supplies for the winter and work it through, 
 I sincerely hope that the spring will see all that is needed 
 proved in fact, as well as theoretically, viz: actual ship- 
 ments commenced of ores that will pay. 
 
 I think that they are there, but at greater depths on 
 an average, than the representatives of the district seem to 
 be willing to allow. 
 
 I base my judgment upon the following observations: 
 The claims that I saw either outcrop in primitive rocks, or 
 through their covering of metamorphic rocks. The fissures 
 are very strong and free, the mineral quite evenly dissimin- 
 ated through the gangue, no concentrated pay streaks along 
 
98 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 either walls, nor ore chimneys giving pay ore from or near 
 to the surface. That is what the present development 
 shows. As a whole, I do not consider this character of 
 formation of ore bodies a real objection, from the fact, that 
 when depth does reach the horizons of pay ore, they will 
 be continuous pay throughout nearly the whole length of 
 the veins, and not divided into extremely rich ore pockets 
 or chimneys with a corresponding amount of nearly barren 
 ground. 
 
 Of course, it is impossible to say at what depths 
 such ore horizons will be encountered, but that they 
 do exist I am confident from my knowledge of rocks, and 
 the method of occurrence of the veins here. 
 
 It will take capital to prove all this without remunera- 
 tive returns for many feet down; but there is this hope to 
 fall back upon, when the returns do come, they will be in 
 proportion to the delay and risk encountered in developing 
 them. 
 
 We heard much of better things lower down the val- 
 ley, but it was impossible to see them this trip. 
 
 The dividing mountain range between Conundrum 
 gulch and Castle Creek on this slope, carries such strong, 
 rich veins as the Tam O'Shanter and Montezuma mines, 
 now being worked from the Ashcroft or Castle Creek side. 
 
 The day of our arrival we Avere treated to quite a snow 
 storm, but it had all disappeared when we started next 
 morning at 7 a. m., to arrive in Elko in time for dinner. 
 
 I cannot be quite certain about the mineral formations 
 at the head of Copper Creek, but it appeared that all of the 
 mineral veins occurred in the contact rocks, between or 
 near to the cretaceous formations and granite, while the 
 upper part of the basin showed almost wholly granite, and 
 apparently not fissured at all, thereby giving no opportunity 
 for the formation of ore veins, awa}- from the immediate 
 neighborhood of the lines of contact. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. QQ 
 
 While at I'^lko, I paid particular attention to Bellevuc 
 mountain, partly, I must confess, because an expert had passed 
 his opinion on it eight years before, and stated that it was 
 barren, not worth working upon, and it had to a great ex- 
 tent been left alone. I wanted to find out how my obser- 
 \-ations would agree with those of another. 
 
 This is what I found, and I do not fear to place my.self 
 on record regarding it. That there is a combination of 
 rocks in this mountian, well and strongly fissured, which 
 on development will gi\'e the rich ores of Washington gulch 
 and the Irwin district. 
 
 I think that is a plain enough statement to be under- 
 stood, and if I am deceived it will be the first time that 
 rock combinations have misled me; again it may be time 
 for some of the conceit to be taken out of me, and here is 
 where it may be done. I can and am willing to learn yet, 
 but constant work for ten years in practical field geology 
 may have a tendency to make one overestimate their actual 
 knowledge. If so, I am as anxious as any one to find out 
 when and where I am wrong; but, in the meantime, I will 
 -Stand by my statement of Bellevue mountain. 
 
 Some gentlemen from the east arriving, who were di- 
 rectly interested in Gunnison County by monied invest- 
 ments, I was invited to accompanv' them on a trip to the 
 lower Rock Creek country. 
 
 W'e started the morning ofSeptembei' i6th, five of us, 
 the State of Missouri represented by an overwhelming ma- 
 jority. 
 
 It had rained heavil)- the night before, so that the 
 roads and trails were not in the most pleasant condition. 
 So much did the resident member of the party resent this, 
 that an occasional derogatory remark could be heard com- 
 ing under his breath, and not at all complimentary to tiie 
 weather managers; but, what could not be cured we found 
 
lOO GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 could be endured, and we certainly got through all right, 
 and I, for one, heartily enjoyed the trip. 
 
 We stopped a few minutes at Schofield, one of the fron- 
 tier towns and probably the oldest in this section, where 
 nothing ante-dates three years. 
 
 Here was as far at the wagon road went at present, 
 although graders were at work on down Rock Creek canon, 
 opening a wagon road through a most difficult section to 
 the lower country. 
 
 It is the road making this summer that will help Gun- 
 nison County in the immediate future, as by the time snow 
 comes again, every available and proved mining district 
 will have good wagon roads connecting it with the railroad 
 shipping points. 
 
 To capitalists seeking investment, this is a good point, 
 as it gives the opportunity to economically market the ore 
 produced, and places this country in that respect ahead of 
 some of the districts where mining has been carried on for 
 the last twenty-three years. 
 
 The first and best developed claim that we saw is the 
 Lulu on Mineral Point slope just up from the last named 
 town. 
 
 There was about seventy-five tons of ore on the 
 dump, out of a crevice claimed to be twelve feet wide with 
 pay ore streaks on each wall averaging two feet each. The 
 ore consisted of iron, copper and zinc sulphides with a 
 stated shipping value of $120 to ^$170 per ton. Shaft at the 
 time of my visit about sixty feet deep. 
 
 Next along the trail came the Whopper lode, which 
 had a ten year history, possibly the pioneer location of the 
 district. There was 100 tons of ore on the dump out of a 
 ten-foot crevice. The gangue was silica carrying zinc sul- 
 phides with an accompaniment of iron, galena and copper, 
 stated to have an average value of twenty-one ounces silver 
 per ton, evidently an ore that would pay to concentrate. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. lOI 
 
 Soon after this the trail (?) led down hill into the val- 
 ley of North Rock Creek, part of it was excellent, the rest, 
 — well it was a comfort to know that there was a wagon 
 road being opened around the other way — near the valley 
 we switched off to see the New York mine, having quartz 
 and calc-spar gangue, with a three-foot pay streak, the ore 
 here was the same as the Whopper, only the zinc sulphides 
 predominated, if there is anything to be reaWzed by com- 
 parative looks, these zincs ought to carry well in silver, as 
 it almost duplicated the Hawkeye mine of Slate River, but 
 then the geological formation is different, and as that gov- 
 erns the ores, appearances do not count. 
 
 At the foot of the trail is the town of Snow Mass, we 
 dined here, that is we picnicked, we had a good lunch with 
 us, the storekeeper sold us good sardines, and the water of 
 North Rock Creek, I am ready to affirm, is the best drink 
 in the world. 
 
 From Snow Mass the trail winds up Meadow Moun- 
 tain, branches off to Sheep Mountain, one of the well adver- 
 tised districts of this section. 
 
 The first claim seen on Sheep Mountain was the Irene 
 lode, developed by a sixty-foot shaft and thirty foot level, 
 a perpendicular vein claimed to be opened eleven feet wide 
 and only one wall found. It has two feet of well mineral- 
 ized quartz gangue, and more or less ore disseminated 
 through the whole material showing in the ore house and 
 on the dump, there being about seventy-five tons of con- 
 centrating ore on hand, the mineral was the usual four sul- 
 phides, copper being the least in quantity. The iron py- 
 rites are in some instances a mineralized curiosity as upon 
 breaking some of the cubes, I found them enclosing parti- 
 cles of another sulphide, possibly molybdenite. 
 
 After the above we visited the Sifter, the Forest King, 
 the Grand Republic, all showing more or less similarity 
 according to development, to those already described, the 
 
I02 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 latter claim showing some manganese in addition to the 
 sulphides named. 
 
 The Bonanza lode had a change in the gangue of the 
 crevice, weich caused me to think, comparatively, more 
 favorabl}' of its future possibilities, than of some of the 
 others. 
 
 We rounded up at James' cabin, had a splendid venison 
 supper and slept in the best built log cabin I ever saw. 
 Very much money has been laid out here in some surface 
 improvements on some properties ; but there was an appar- 
 ent hitch in the programme somewhefe, and the ground 
 has not as yet been shown up to produce, what the surface 
 improvements would seem to warrant. 
 
 According to the almanac the next day was Sunday, 
 (in this country that is the principal means of knowing 
 when Sunday comes), and having a fine morning we con- 
 tinued our tour of investigation, visiting such claims as the 
 Mammoth, the Cleopatra, the Gothic Belle, the Home- 
 stake the City of Detroit and the Milwaukee, this last is 
 the only one seen producing ore that can be shipped at 
 once, as mill returns give 293 ounces silver per ton, and 
 tests have been run up to 1,700 ounces per ton. 
 
 A few other prospects were visited but did not show 
 any material difference from most of those named. 
 
 Having decided to go still lower, we went over the 
 north side of Sheep Mountain, taking a short cut until we 
 reached a trail leading down to the valley below. From 
 here we rode on until within sight of the lake on lower 
 Rock Creek, just below Hat Mountain. It rained, it 
 snowed and the sun shone. Here I could see where the 
 tertiary rocks again came in place, and report said that 
 below here was still larger veins of coal than those I had 
 already seen in the Crested Butte and Ohio Creek basins. 
 
 Owing to the weather and perhaps the feeling that we 
 had seen all that there was to be seen at present of interest. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. IO3 
 
 WO determined to return to Elko that afternoon; having all 
 varieties of weather as we ascended or descended the 
 mountains our trail led over. 
 
 Of course as usual I was loaded with rocks, and wet 
 through, so much so that for comfort's sake I walked most 
 of the way back leading Fannie, who was quiet enough 
 until she began to realize the possibilities of a warm barn 
 and oats for the night. Then what a race we had across 
 the flats of Rock Creek below Elko in the face of a driving 
 storm of sleet. 
 
 The highest elevation of Sheep Mountain is 10,975, it 
 is 3,000 feet down to Rock Creek, and all sedimentary 
 rocks. Now the granite below is what is the governing 
 influence upon the ore bodies of all this country, so that 
 here is possibly an exception to the rule, as the granite is 
 too far off to count upon an increase in the actual value of 
 the ores, beyond what now shows in the sulphides obtained 
 at or near the surface of these veins of vSheep Mountain. 
 They are fine strong" fissures and many of them, and 
 even if they do not show richer ores, until very great 
 depths are reached in working, it is jjossible for them to 
 increase in quantity, and so bring up the output to a 
 23rofitable return for working. 
 
 I had spent all of the time in this section 1 could 
 spare, and having shipped over 400 pounds of the rep- 
 resentative rocks and ores of these districts, I returned 
 to Crested Butte with the feeling that my season's work 
 was accomplished, except for some special work that I had 
 engaged to do. 
 
104 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Crooke's Station — Tomichi Dome — Hot Springs Park 
 — White Pine — North Star Mine — Tomichi Min- 
 ing and Concentrating Company — Granite Porphyry Again 
 — Trout Fishing and a Dinner — Cebolla Iron Mines — 
 Colorado Iron and Coal Co. — Iron Product of Col- 
 orado — Brush Creek — Carboniferous Rocks and 
 Fossils — Mt. Teocalli — Brush Creek Mines 
 — Alcyon Mine — Pearl Pass — Sulphate 
 of Baryta Gangue — Tertiary Coal 
 Measures—Cement Creek — Hot 
 Springs — Bowman's—Head 
 of Taylor River— Ital- 
 ian Mt. — Crested 
 Butte, Its 
 Future. 
 
 My next trip was entirely away from the country I 
 had been spending so much time in; and the afternoon of 
 September 19th saw two of us getting off the D. & R. G. 
 train at Crooke's station, twenty-three miles from Gunni- 
 son City. 
 
 We stopped with Mr. C — all night, this gentleman 
 and family were amongst the early settlers of the county, 
 and to judge from the real home comforts surrounding 
 them, and amidst which they were living, they had come 
 with their minds made up to stay. Although but of a fe\r 
 hours' duration my halt there was a delightful change from 
 hotel and camp life. 
 
 The next morning had two inches of snow on the 
 ground, and the atmosphere still lowering and misty. By 
 nine o'clock a. m. we had the promise of a clear day and 
 started. 
 
 Our route was to the south of Tomichi Dome, across 
 one end of Hot Springs park, a delightful summer resort, 
 and which will become one of the noted places for tourists 
 in the near future. Up and over — by good wagon road — 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. IO5 
 
 a divide, on down to the Toniichi valley, arrivinp^ at White 
 Pine in time to dine. 
 
 The principal mine I .saw here wa.s the North Star, 
 developed 115 feet deep, cro.s.s cut.s of thirty-five feet and 
 no walls, the ore is galena with a claimed value of forty-five 
 to seventy per cent lead, and about twenty-eight ounces 
 of silver. Some copper stains showed in places, and an 
 abundance of iron oxides. The gangue is lime or calc- 
 spar, with ore and gangue standing in alternate bands. 
 
 There were a number of prospects in Galena gulch, 
 where the North Star is, but not developed to a point 
 where they showed any pay ore. 
 
 For supper and lodging we went on up the stream 
 three miles to Tomichi. Here the Tomichi Mining and 
 Concentrating company are just completing a large mill, 
 which we went through. If an opinion ma}' be expressed, 
 I am afraid that the ores which we saw in the mill^ will be 
 found quite difficult to handle, and save values, by the ma- 
 chinery that is being placed. 
 
 The ores we saw were principally oxides, and how in 
 the name of a suffering public, these light ores are to be 
 concentrated by any wet process, I am very curious to find 
 out. 
 
 There must be many opportunities for good mines 
 here, we were shown some high grade ores, and a char- 
 acter of country that should yield them abundantly. 
 Arsenical iron pyrites carrying $4,100 in gold and silver is 
 high grade ore. 
 
 I saw more, viz : the granite porphyry of the Slate 
 River country, and began to feel that instead of my sea- 
 son's work being done, perhaps it had only commenced. 
 
 As I rode back alone to Mr. C — 's I had time to think 
 it all over, making up my mind that as I had seen two ex- 
 tremes of a section of a country, I must see that between 
 
I06 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY.' 
 
 those points if it was possible, and so fit my rock sections 
 together from one extreme to the other. 
 
 The Tomichi was a good stream for trout, my friends 
 put in a couple of hours fishing on the 22nd of September, 
 before the train was due. Their success was excellent, for- 
 tunate for us that it was so, the train being seven hours 
 late, but no telegraph station to let us know that; what a 
 wear}' wait it was, and how vexatious to the sportsmen, 
 an elegant trout stream within a few rods of the track, and 
 the train expected every minutes for seven long hours. 
 
 Hunger brought out some resources, C — and I could 
 clean fish and Mr. L. said he could cook them. The sec- 
 tion house was invaded, the stock of ranch butter was se- 
 cured, as well as the use of a stov^e and frying pan. 
 
 We had a meal fit for the gods — it was worth waiting 
 seven hours to learn that trout could be cooked so that 
 they melted in one's mouth, and tasted good hours after 
 they were eaten. 
 
 In a few days a part}' was made up to go from Gun- 
 nison City to visit the iron ores of Cebolla, two carriage 
 loads, a twenty-six mile drive over a first-rate road, the old 
 Lake City stage road. The route was through the granite 
 countr}', a part of which has been already described, when 
 at Gunnison City, eai'lier in the season. 
 
 The Cebolla iron deposit is a peculiar formation unto 
 itself 1 was asked regarding its geology ; I had to weaken ; 
 I never saw anything like it, or read of anything similar. 
 There is iron enough, over a mile square of it. appar- 
 ently overlaid by trachyte at one time. The country 
 rock is granite. The ore is heavy, black magnetite, of 
 fair grade of iron, but carrying, as I \\as afterwards in- 
 formed by one of the representatives of the Colorado 
 Coal and Iron Company, too much titanium to be prac- 
 tically available in iron manufacture. 
 
 That appears to be the great drawback of Colorado 
 
(.iUNNlSON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. IO7 
 
 iron ores, but there are such enormous bodies of iron in 
 such various methods of occurrence throughout the Cen- 
 tennial State, that I for one hope in time to see Colorado 
 furnishing more of tliat metal than either of the states of 
 Pennsv'lvania or Missouri. 
 
 The Colorado Coal and Iron Company have proved 
 this for Colorado ores, that when they can be utilized they 
 beat the world. 
 
 Railroad men say the Bessemer steel rails turned out 
 of the works at Pueblo, are better than those made any- 
 where else in the United States. Foundry men say that 
 their pig iron makes castings as near wrought iron for 
 toughness as it is possible for castings to be; and builders 
 show the nails of the C. C. & I. Co., and claim they are as 
 good as the hot-pressed nails of the east. In four months 
 from the starting of the nail works at Pueblo dealers could 
 not sell an Eastern nail in the State. 
 
 After the foregoing trip I spent a couple of days again 
 going over the coal measures of Ohio Creek and Crested 
 Butte basins, in compan}^ with a gentleman from Pittsburg, 
 Penn., one of the large coke manufacturers there. 
 
 A few days afterwards my friends started east, evi- 
 dentl}- well pleased with what they had seen and learned; 
 leaving me to do what I was aching to accomplish, viz : ex- 
 amination of the country through, from Copper Creek to 
 the head of the Tomichi. 
 
 It seemed a big undertaking to do right, before snow 
 came, but I had this to help me out, past experience in this 
 countr\-, had given me many points, and I could work 
 more rapidly than I had been doing. 
 
 The first trip was from Crested Butte up Brush Creek, 
 starting on the 29th of September. I had the use of a fine, 
 powerful horse, broken to trail and mountain climbing for 
 two years before, one of these knowing horses who would 
 not stand tied, but drop the bridle on his neck loose, and 
 
lOS GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 and he was always to be found where you left him. He 
 would gallop with sacks of rocks on the saddle, and seemed 
 to know that I did not want them to rub, as he hardly 
 shook them; and, before "Nig" and I parted, he had got 
 so far along in my business, that, as far as he could see a 
 freshly broken pile of rocks, he made for them, stopped 
 for me to get off and examine the pile; and, if I did not, 
 he turned his head to me, an apparent look of inquiry would 
 be in his eyes, as much as to ask, "Well! what is the mat- 
 ter with that lot?" 
 
 The route was over the new wagon road, made up 
 Brush Creek. 
 
 Shortly after leaving East River on this road, one 
 soon observes a remarkable change in the geological for- 
 mations, and for some reason which I could not determine 
 at the time, much lower rocks in the geological horizon 
 appear. I found one strata of limestone with carboniferous 
 fossils, and near by was another rock which had every ap- 
 pearance of being useful some time in the future for the 
 manufacture of hydraulic cement. These were the oldest 
 sedimentary rocks that I was certain I identified in the 
 whole of the Gunnison country. 
 
 As the road ascends in its course, the student finds 
 himself climbing through a geological series, as it were. 
 The first of the cretaceous is a red sand stone conglom- 
 erate, and which is possibly at this locality the equivalent 
 of the Dakota red sand stone, or number one of the eastern 
 slope series of the cretaceous rocks ; afterwards a few of 
 the older metamorphic rocks are found, and finally you 
 ride out amongst the primitive. Of course a series of up- 
 heavals and erosions have apparently reversed the forma- 
 tions. In connection with the oldest rocks, I found a beau- 
 tiful fine grained syenite. 
 
 From several places on the road I had an excellent 
 vicM^ of Mt. Teocalli, and regretted much that it was not 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. IO9 
 
 directly on my route, as from where 1 saw it, the structure 
 appeared to be strata of undisturbed sedimentary rocks, 
 which past convulsions of nature, had, from a possible 
 local cause, left alone. But the breaking of strata all 
 p.round, with the aid of subsequent erosion, had left this 
 fragment of vast horizontal beds of sedimentary rocks in 
 the form of an elevated mountain. Apparently there all 
 of the strata were from the latest, except the tertiary, on 
 down through the series for thousands of feet. 
 
 This Mt. Teocalli may stand relatively to the rock his- 
 tory of this country, as the stone discovered in Egypt did to 
 the unknown symbols of a very ancient people and a more 
 modern language, and which enabled the student to unravel 
 the history of ancient and unknown races of mankind. 
 
 So may you Mt. Teocalli, carved by nature be the key 
 to all of the foregoing history of your small part of earth 
 structure; I would have liked to have made your personal 
 acquaintance anyhow, but I had to do without that this 
 time. 
 
 Clear across the country to the great Uncompahgre 
 range one can have an almost unobstructed view, and 
 amongst the highest of its peaks, there is apparently the 
 duplicate of Mt. Teocalli ; what you both have to say I 
 will know sometime, I promise myself that much. 
 
 The mineral section commences again at the head ot 
 Brush Creek, veins outcropping in cretaceous rocks, flat 
 ones following the dip of the strata. 
 
 Here I found Capt. McCarty and party, and accepted 
 the miners hearty invitation to stay all night and make 
 myself at home. The latch string always hangs out 
 among these men ; and nowhere on earth does one feel he 
 is more heartily welcome, than among the mining men of 
 Colorado, it is in the air they breathe. 
 
 The next forenoon I used in visiting the Alcyon claim, 
 elevation nearly 13,000 feet, and which, while it had not 
 
I lO GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTV. 
 
 much development, showed a strong crevice, in one place 
 ten feet of croppings. Very high assajs are claimed for 
 this property, the extremes being thirty-five ounces to 14,000 
 ounces silver per ton. I also saw the Kansas City claim, 
 this occasionally yields small lumps of horn silver in the 
 surface workings. There were other holes to be seen, but 
 I wanted to see the formation to the top of Pearl Pass. 
 After dinner I started up the road, recently finished as an 
 outlet from the Castle Creek, and Ashcroft sections ; as I 
 neared the top the appearance of the possibility of a min- 
 eral district became much stronger, and although the ele- 
 vation is so great, the road being nearly 13,000 feet above 
 sea level. I saw some evidences that promise good things, 
 and believe work will find them. 
 
 From the Pass late in the afternoon I could look over 
 a vast extent of new and to me unknown countr)', but of 
 which I had heard much, and which I must lea\e until an- 
 other season's work. 
 
 However the causes for veins and ore bodies, on the 
 Ashcroft side of Pearl Pass divide, were in their da}' and 
 generation very much more actively at work than on the 
 Brush Creek side. This I know from the visible results; 
 being belated I rode on down to Ashcroft to stop all night, 
 then obtaining an early start next morning, I took time to 
 ride around somewhat, and found more and larger outcrops 
 of certain kinds of ores than I was accustomed to seeing. 
 
 Some of the veins showed sulphate of baryta (heavy 
 spar) in the croppings. While it is not proved what this 
 may indicate in this part of Colorado, this spar frequently 
 occurs with rich silver ores in Custer, Park, Clear Creek, 
 Gilpin and Boulder Counties. In Clear Creek County the 
 miners from experience call it "mother of silver,", and will 
 go down on it, even if it does not show in startmg an 
 ounce of silver per ton; and have in\ariably run into rich 
 silver ores in paying quantities. 
 
GUNNISON, THK BONANZA COUNTY. F I I 
 
 Now the foregoing; must not be taken as a j^eneral 
 i-ule applicable in all cases, by any means, as it mioht be 
 entirely different in this Pearl Pass countr)-. I advance 
 the statement that the workers of these claims may ha\'e 
 an additional knowledge for practical observation in their 
 individual localit}'. 
 
 Sunday evening found me back to ni)- quarters in the 
 Elk Mountain house. 
 
 A short trip was made to satisfy m)'self regarding the 
 practical result of a theory, I had adx'anced in connection 
 with the Tertiary coal-measures, and finding the proofs of 
 my theory I felt satisfied, it will be noted elsewhere, when I 
 come to sum up the geology and practical values of these 
 coal-measures. 
 
 Eight miles down the valley from Crested Hutte Ce- 
 ment Creek empties into East River. 
 
 One fine morning in October found "Nig" and I out 
 on an exploring expedition up this creek. I could not 
 learn much about it previous to a personal visit, although 
 in an earlier day I was told that a trail went through here 
 on across Taylor Park and over the range to Leadville; 
 but since the building of railroads into Cunnison County, 
 this route had fallen into disuse, and as near as I could 
 learn from those whom I questioned, it is at present more 
 or less of a terra incognita. 
 
 Haifa mile up the creek, out of the East River valley, 
 there is a large spring from which a foot of tepid water is 
 constantly flowing, the largest spring I saw in the county. 
 It is heavily charged with carbonate of lime, and has made 
 a thick deposit of travertine along the bank of the creek. 
 This .spring is quite a place of resort in the summer .season 
 by the Crested Butters for bathing, and might be made an 
 enjoyable summer resort, perhaps will be in time. 
 
 This travertine has been utilized to some extent by 
 burning into lime, but of what quality I do not know. 
 
112 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 Appearances are certainly against the commercial product^ 
 as the kilns and surroundings are now wholly deserted and 
 idle. 
 
 About three miles up, the creek comes through a nar- 
 row gorge with nearly 300 feet of fall, an opportunity for 
 considerable water-power when the day comes for its use. 
 
 The trail turns to the left and winds up another and 
 more accessible gulch, crosses a small open park, then 
 down to the most lovely valley of Cement Creek. 
 
 From here for twelve miles the ascent is quite gradual 
 on the south side of the stream, the north side where the 
 trail goes being broken by abrupt, outstanding ledges of 
 the cretaceous rocks; notably the red sandstone conglom- 
 erate seen up Brush Creek. About two miles from the 
 head of the stream, is a very strong .spring of sulphur water 
 in the bed of the creek. 
 
 Up here on the south bank is Italian Mountain, one of 
 the landmarks of the United States geological survey un- 
 der Prof Hayden. Seeing that the dividing ridge at the 
 head of Cement Creek was low, I rode on up to its crest. 
 There are abundant evidences of minerals here, but no 
 work of any account done, some prospectors had com- 
 menced, as I found their stakes with a date not sixty days 
 before my visit, but they had all left for the winter. 
 
 Seeing some cabins and evidences of work in the other 
 valley from the one I had traversed, my horse and I slowly 
 wended our way down a trail to them. VVe found evi- 
 dences of recent occupation, but the inhabitants were not 
 there, and I had to conclude that with the birds they had 
 migrated until spring. 
 
 I was in somewhat of a quandary, as I did not feel 
 certain of the correctness of my geographical position. It 
 was palpably evident that I was there, but where was I^ 
 and how far was it to the nearest supper and lodging ? It 
 was a conundrum that I had to give up, but soon found 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. II3 
 
 "Nig," thought he could solve it, so giving him his head, 
 off he started down stream of an unknown country. 
 
 The trail was marshy, it was getting very dark, and at 
 times I could feel my horse under me making mighty 
 efforts to keep from being mired. 
 
 A couple of hours brought us within sight of lights, 
 and a little after seven p. m. I was dismounting at the toll- 
 gate, on the road between Ashcroft and Buena Vista, in 
 Taylor Park, locality Bowman's. Here was accommoda- 
 tion for man and beast, and we were glad to find it. A 
 good supper a large open hearth fire to sit by and I was 
 soon recovering from the effects of a really hard day's 
 work. I learned we had come down one of the branches 
 of Taylor River for six miles, and my geography was soon 
 cleared up. 
 
 At seven a. m. of October 4, 1882, we were on the 
 road returning over the route of the night before. I was 
 bound to climb Italian Mountain if it were a possible 
 thing; it proved to be quite a climb too, up a steep slope 
 of uptilted cretaceous rocks, more or less fissured, and 
 showing some evidences of mineral, but not enough to pay 
 as yet has been opened ; a few holes had been scratched in 
 various places, but not a soul appeared to be around, whom 
 I could question, some recently dated stakes showed that 
 prospectors had been there within sixty days, trying their 
 luck, they were all gone however at the time of my visit. 
 
 The view from the top of Italian Mountain is bounded 
 by mountain ranges in every direction, but what thousands 
 of square miles lie within this boundary. One could over- 
 look the whole of Taylor Park, all of the valleys of the 
 streams centering at Gunnison City, and beyond to the 
 boundaries of the San Juan and Uncompahgre Countries; 
 sweeping round to the -eastern borders of Utah, thence 
 onward connected by ranges and mourttain peaks to the 
 grand old Continental Divide nearest to me. 
 
1 14 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. . 
 
 I could not help but think that if the whole of this 
 circumscribed area was proportionately as rich in natural 
 products as the small part I had so carefully seen, why 
 here in time could be produced wealth equal to the present 
 known wealth of the whole world ; and withal it is a coun- 
 try beautiful to live in, and progressive enough to have a 
 feeling of pride ringing in the words of the man who will 
 say "here I live." 
 
 I was pretty well loaded with specimens when I came 
 down the slope. I had learned a trick on the North Fork 
 of Anthracite Creek, so selecting a* wide rift filled with 
 small stones, etc., I went down in less than fifteen minutes 
 a mountain that had taken three hours to climb. 
 
 "Nig" had not been idle while I was absent, for get- 
 ting one of my sacks opened he had made away with ten 
 pounds of oats and looked more than contented with him- 
 self He carried the outfit into the Buttes in time for 
 supper. 
 
 Having thus finished all of the territory that was most 
 convenient to Crested Butte as headquarters, I packed up 
 and shipped to Denver a large amount of ore illustrations 
 of the country which I had seen so far, and made ready to 
 move on to Jack's Cabin. 
 
 Before leaving Crested Butte it ought not to be out 
 of place to say something regarding its future, which prin- 
 cipally lies in its possibility of making a second Connells- 
 ville. Here it is that such excellent coking coals are 
 known, and through the Colorado Coal and Iron Company 
 are being utilized. Heretofore cokes has been manufac- 
 tured from the slack, or fine product of the mines, by being 
 burned in open pits, a wasteful method. Having proved in 
 this way the possibilities of the property, this company is 
 now building fifty coke ovens which ought to be in full 
 operation by the spring of 1883, if not before. The railroad 
 is being continued up the Slate River to the Smith coal- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. II5 
 
 banks, where it is contemplated laying out extensive plants 
 of breakers, etc., for active and large mine working during 
 another season. 
 
 These operations will give employment to large num- 
 bers of men, and be the pioneers perhaps of other and 
 larger industries in the near future. It already appears to 
 be object enough for the South Park Railroad to find a way 
 to get there, and share the freight of the natural output of 
 this basin. 
 
 The town is situated in a lovely part of the Slate River 
 valley,* and plenty, of interesting places for sight-seeing near 
 by, as well as many things yet to be secured and developed 
 by the capitalist. 
 
 Withal it is blessed with a good and well managed 
 hotel, the Elk Mountain House. 
 
Il6 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Good-Bye to Crested Butte— The Doctor Mine— The 
 
 Northern Lava Mesa — From Howville into 
 
 Gunnison City--Geological Changes--Ohio 
 
 City — Mistakes of Mining Men in 
 
 Regard to Smelters — Moving 
 
 Onward to Pitkin. 
 
 On the afternoon of October 6, 1882, I bade good-bye 
 to Crested Butte for the season, and rode on down to 
 Jack's Cabin. At the foot of, and to the north of Round 
 Mountain, Cement Creek joins East River; here I saw a 
 dump and leaving "Nig," I climbed up to examine it. I 
 found a foot of iron stained material in a forty-toot tunnel, 
 evidently of no commercial value. 
 
 As I returned to my horse he had taken a notion that 
 it would be a fine thing to roll with all my traps on his 
 back. I began to scold, when I got within ten feet of him 
 he deliberately trotted off That horse made me wade 
 Cement Creek once and East River three times, before I 
 headed him off at Wallace's Camp near the foot of Crested 
 Butte Mountain. He knew he had done wrong, and car- 
 ried me to Jack's Cabin in little over an hour; then without 
 supper he had leisure to study upon the error of his ways, 
 with a probable conclusion not to do so any more; as that 
 was the first and last trick "Nig" ever played on me. 
 
 The East River valley widens considerably south ot 
 Round Mountain, and here are the houses of Howville, or 
 Jack's Cabin, occupied at the time of my visit by Ben 
 Sherwood, one of the pioneers of Gunnison County. At 
 his house I was entertained for five days, occupying the 
 time in examining the surrounding country. The princi- 
 pal place of interest that I saw was the head of Spring 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 11/ 
 
 Creek and the "Doctor" mine. At this time to get there 
 we crossed the low dividq between East and Taylor Rivers, 
 passing a profitable potato ranch in the Taylor River val- 
 ley, then on up stream past the mouth of Spring Creek, 
 hence by trail up a side gulch to its head, then over a di- 
 vide to the "Doctor" mine or head of Spring Creek. 
 
 On this property I found a tunnel run in 150 feet on 
 ore lying nearly flat, and development of over thirty-five 
 feet in width each side. The ore body ranges four to 
 ten feet thick, and is much liked by smelters on account of 
 easy treatment and high per cent, of lead. This ore is 
 spoken of as carbonates ; but the most of it is rather a sul- 
 phate than a carbonate, as I found a great deal of angle- 
 site, (sulphate of lead) among it. The gross value is about 
 ;$44 per ton, ^10 net is paid by the Hillerton smelter for 
 this ore on the dump, the owners of whic4i pack it by 
 burros to Taylor River road and from there haul by wagons 
 through Union Park to the smelter, where it is used as the 
 lead, or bullion base for the reduction of the higher grade 
 ores of Tin Cup. This mine at the time of my visit had 
 about ;^ 1 60,000 gross in sight with the small amount of 
 development named ; the ore is very easily and cheaply 
 worked. The ore-body has a slight dip east, with the hill- 
 side, and as it is followed in that direction I think it will 
 turn downwards much more rapidly, and with depth 
 change from the present form of ore composition to galena, 
 with possibly a higher value in silver. 
 
 Next to the "Doctor" claim is the King lode, from 
 which in an open cut not over twelve feet deep. I saw 
 masses of galena taken out as large as could be lifted into 
 a wheel-barrow. 
 
 The country rocks are cretaceous and with the granite 
 will make contact walls for ore bodies. 
 
 Up Spring Creek itself, a large force of men were at 
 work opening a county road to its head. Through here 
 
Il8 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 an easy grade down hill will be opened from this mining 
 district, connecting within eighteen miles, with the D. & 
 R. G. Railroad at Taylor station, thus making the outlet 
 and possible cash market for this district at Gunnison City. 
 
 There does not seem to have been as yet the amount 
 of prospecting in this Spring Creek district that the present 
 showing and rock formations seems to warrant; but that 
 will rapidly follow, as soon as transportation (another sea- 
 son) is opened, and there is a strong probability of many 
 more ore bodies being found as good as those already 
 named. 
 
 I spent one day climbing and examining the northern 
 lava mesa on the divide between Ohio Creek and East 
 River, to find that the two mesas were originally one, and 
 that subsequent erosion had cut them in two. The lava was 
 about fifty f^et thick, flat, table like on the top, covered 
 with a growth of pines, not much deadwood or fallen tim- 
 ber, a little over a mile square, and from each edge a mag- 
 nificent view of the surrounding country. 
 
 I started up an elk family while I was there, consisting 
 of a buck, doe and fawn, also saw plenty of wood-grouse. 
 
 The lava flowed over, and is subsequent to the tertiary 
 formation. It was this volcanic eruption that fissured the 
 tertiary rocks, so that the ruby silver veins of Irwin could 
 occur, and makes them the most recent of any in geolog- 
 ical age. 
 
 I came down on the west slope of the mesa examining 
 the tertiary rocks exposed, and on through the eroded 
 basin to East River. I hoped to find evidences of coal 
 seams, and that the heat and pressure of the overlying 
 eruptive rock would have changed such coals to an anthra- 
 cite. I did not find any coal float whatever, only masses 
 of lava which show continuously from the mesa every- 
 where down the slope, the same as on the Ohio Creek side. 
 
 While at this place I climbed Round Mountain, find- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 1 19 
 
 ing it a combination of uptilted sedimentary rocks, with 
 trachyte, eruptive granite and granite-porphyry, represent- 
 ing perhaps three different ages of eruptive rocks in the one 
 mountain. 
 
 This locality is referred to again in the summing up of 
 the season's work, so that it is sufficient to say now that I 
 was somewhat disappointed in what I expected to find; 
 those expectations were wholly based upon the representa- 
 tions of others, and that evidently without sufficient knowl- 
 edge of what they were attempting to describe. 
 
 From Howville I meant to ride up into Union Park, 
 where extensive gold placers are worked each year. I had 
 been quite curious to get into this park all of the summer, 
 that I might learn, if possible, the source of and the method 
 of occurrence of this placer gold. The day I had set upon 
 for going snowed, and I was most forcibly reminded that 
 Gunnison was a very large county, and I had places to go yet 
 that I must have bare ground for examinations, and that 
 what I could not see well now I had better leave for an- 
 other year. 
 
 So on the morning of October nth instead of Union 
 Park, saw "Nig" and I headed for Gunnison City in a snow- 
 storm that had been threatening to catch us for the last two 
 days. 
 
 We followed the toll-road down the East River to its 
 junction with Taylor River, at this place is where Gunnison 
 River commences. 
 
 We appeared also to be descending the geological 
 scale, as soon no more tertiary rocks were to be seen, then 
 passed out from us the cretaceous, the last of the sedimen- 
 tary rocks being a sandstone and which I would place 
 amongst those of a carboniferous age, this was broken 
 through in places by red eruptive, feldspathic granite. 
 
 Then we finally rode out into the flat gravel deposit 
 upon which Gunnison City is built. 
 
120 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. ■ 
 
 A rest here of one day to recuperate, which meant in 
 my case catch up on correspondence, purchase a few neces- 
 saries of clothing, etc., and then I was off for what is locally 
 known as the gold belt near to Ohio City about twenty 
 miles from the City of Gunnison. 
 
 A ride of twelve miles up the Tomichi River to Par- 
 lin's in time for dinner, here Quartz Creek joins the Tom- 
 ichi. This twelve miles is over an excellent road, with the 
 hay ranches along the stream bottoms, the roadside bordered 
 with a strange character of conglomerate, eroded in some 
 instances into fantastical shapes. Upon examination of 
 this conglomerate it appears that the cementing material is 
 volcanic ash. In a former chapter I have mentioned beds 
 of volcanic ash found near to Gunnison City. 
 
 It would seem as if at one time in past ages that the 
 present site of Gunnison City was the bed of an inland lake 
 or sea, into which the drainage of the surrounding country 
 centered, and not so very many ages ago either. Near 
 this body, perhaps to the eastward of it, there was an active 
 volcano, which in its period of life gave out large quanti- 
 tities of ashes. These falling into the lake, were mingled 
 with boulders and pebbles brought down by the stream, 
 thus making the present accumulation. 
 
 I must confess that the above is only a partial theory, 
 as to work the basin out in detail, and be able to make 
 proper deductions from facts found, one must carefully 
 examine the outlet (Dark Canon) through which this body 
 of water was drained, find out if it was the result of 
 long and continuous erosion or the result of a volcanic 
 eruption producing a fissure, afterwards enlarged by ero- 
 sion. The point or locality at which the ejection of ashes 
 occurred must also be found, "the fact determined whether 
 it was of the same age as the lava flows found near 
 jack's Cabin, or later in geological history. I do not 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 121 
 
 think from the present condition of the material it could 
 have been earlier. 
 
 To read this basin aright one must determine whether 
 there was a lava flow first from a crater, followed by ashes 
 without an intermittent period, or determine whether there 
 was only one outbreak to produce the seen results, and 
 that continuous until the volcanic force was spent. It 
 would, on the small examination that I could give this sec- 
 tion, appear to be one continuous pouring forth of hot ashes, 
 this deduction is made from the present appearing result 
 of a homogeneous mass of ashes on what might have been 
 the shore line of the body of water and a similar result in 
 the water, as the whole mass of conglomerate shows the 
 same cementing material. 
 
 I have not time to prove all of that now, and make a 
 note of it, to jog my memory in the future, of something 
 still to do in this part of the country. 
 
 It is eight miles from Parlin's to Ohio City, up the 
 Quartz Creek valley. Through here the Denver & South 
 Park Railroad has found a way to the City of Gunnison, 
 and is now bidding for its share of business with the Den- 
 ver & Rio Grande company. If I have read the country's 
 "title clear," there is, in the near future, business enough 
 for both. 
 
 As one enters what is a new geological field a sharp 
 lookout is kept for changes in the formations. Here we 
 start with a showing of carboniferous sandstones, these 
 give way as we ascend Quartz Creek, then the red granite 
 shows in small patches, as well as occasional spots of the 
 older metamorphic rocks, mica, shists, etc., but about five 
 miles up the stream from Parlin's, all changes to primitive 
 granite. In this last noted change, one sees the possible 
 approach to a mineral section, by the frequent appearance 
 of strong veins of white quartz in the granite. A turn in 
 the road soon brines us within sight of the railroad station 
 
122 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 and collected houses and cabins designated as Ohio City. 
 
 I found a hotel kept here by a genuine Michigan ten- 
 derfoot, slightly adulterated with a year of residence in 
 Kansas, simple and honest, but withal rather inclined to 
 imagine that the investment in mining properties did not 
 require so very much judgment as it would require to buy 
 a mule. This gentleman died of pneumonia shortly 
 after I had left his house, I am sorry to say. 
 
 The mining section about Ohio City is but three 
 years old, the same as all of the rest of the country I had 
 seen so far. The lesser Ohio Creek joins Quartz Creek 
 here, and is some nine miles to its head, cutting through 
 primitive granite, birds-eye porphyry and the older meta- 
 morphic rocks, such as mica and garnet schists, gneiss, etc. 
 
 Through these rocks break very many gold bearing 
 veins, showing free gold ores from the surface to a small 
 depth, then changing to arsenical iron pyrites carrying 
 gold. 
 
 This section is a duplicate of Gilpin County, Colorado, 
 on a smaller scale. 
 
 The usual mistake has been made here to start with, 
 that appears to be a necessity of all mining camps, new as 
 well as old; mills were put up before the properties were 
 sufficiently developed,- to prove what the permanent ores 
 were to be. These mills were for saving free gold by amal- 
 gamation, but as soon as any depth was gained, or develop- 
 ment reached a point where the ores changed from oxides 
 to sulphides, the mills would not, and could not, save the 
 value. Consequence as usual the district condemned, where 
 it is not the fault of the mines, but of the men controlling 
 them. If mining men will only learn that it is necessary 
 to fully prove their properties before building mills, very 
 much of these loses will be saved; but it almost makes me 
 despair when I go into mining camp after mining camp. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I 23 
 
 and see that they all go through the same courses of loss 
 without variation. 
 
 A mining man has no right to believe that any process 
 will treat his ores until it is proved, and it cannot be proved 
 until his mine is developed. 
 
 There are now, and more will be found, very many 
 good prospects in this district, but the kind of mills needed 
 are stamp mills, with improved concentrating machinery 
 to get the sulphides in the ores into a condition that will 
 pay to ship to smelters. That is the only kind of mill that 
 it is safe for a mine owner or mining camp to touch at all ;" 
 as where hand sorted shipping ore can be produced, there 
 is always a much larger quantity that can be made available 
 by concentration ; and the recent improvements in concen- 
 trating machinery are such as to make ;^iO rock pay ore if 
 it exists in quantity enough, and there is sufficient gangue 
 or waste to be got rid of, to let seven tons of natural pro- 
 duct make one ton of concentrates. 
 
 I keep urging the above so strongly, and always at 
 every opportunity, because I am personally interested. 
 That is, the success of my business is based upon success- 
 ful mining in Colorado, and I know what it means to see 
 camps using proper concentrating machinery, rather than 
 sinking money in any contrivances, which are only good 
 on paper, and not much use there. 
 
 Past the head of Ohio Creek the contact formation also 
 goes through towards the direction of Pitkin, which now 
 has the reputation of being the liveliest camp in Gunnison 
 County. 
 
 Considerable prospecting has been done along this 
 contact, but no pay found as yet. 
 
 At the head of the North Fork of Ohio Creek is a 
 very peculiar schist, and an immense dike of birdseye por- 
 phyry crossing in the direction of Chicago Park near 
 Pitkin. At the time of my visit the Midnight claim was 
 
124 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. ■ 
 
 down with a shaft 175 feet, and other similar claims were 
 opened more or less, most of them much less, among which 
 might be named the Dollar Store lode, Dodson Extension, 
 Idaho Girl, Lead Chief, Goldsmith, and very many others, 
 which are as yet mere prospects, but all mines must be 
 prospects first. 
 
 Some very high grade gold ores have been found in 
 this neighborhood, as well as some showings of copper 
 pyrites and galena. 
 
 On the whole I am favorably inclined to the vicinity of 
 Ohio City, and think that development will prove very 
 much more in value than now shows, but work must be 
 done to prove this, and a claim is only worth what it shows 
 itself, without any reference to what occurs near by. 
 
 I spent five days riding around this section, and having 
 given it all of the time I dared to, not as much as \ would 
 like, I moved onwards to Pitkin. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Prettily Situated Town— The "Silent Friend" 
 
 Some Very Promising Properties — A Superior 
 
 Railroad Outlet — The " Porcupine " Group 
 
 — The Mineral Farm, a Geological 
 
 Puzzle— The Silver Islet 
 
 and Fairview 
 
 Mines. 
 
 The town of Pitkin is prettily situated on Quartz 
 Creek, about seven miles above Ohio City; an easy wagon 
 grade existed and the South Park Railroad finds no trouble 
 in building from here to Gunnison. 
 
 Pitkin must have between two and three thousand in- 
 habitants, and during the year 1882, attracted more atten- 
 tion than any other camp in Gunnison County. 
 
 The rock formation for most of the way from my last 
 stopping place was metamorphic, which changes to granite 
 and cretaceous rocks just before one rides into the open 
 flat upon which the town is built. These rocks are in what 
 is the mineral belt of Pitkin, and in many instances give 
 the opportunity for contact veins, very large, strong and 
 well mineralized. Of these at present the finest and best 
 developed is the Silent Friend mine, about four miles from 
 Pitkin. This mine at the time of my visit had acquired a 
 wide-spread reputation for the size and value of its devel- 
 oped ore body. The shaft was seventy-five feet deep, 
 with five feet of solid argentiferous galena in the bottom. 
 In the ore house was 150 tons of the same, that I esti- 
 mated had not 500 pounds of waste in the whole lot. The 
 value claimed was about $80 per ton in silver and lead. 
 Occasionally very nice specimens of grey copper are found 
 that will assay into the hundreds of dollars in a silver 
 
I 26 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY.. 
 
 value. At this time they were placing a hoisting engine 
 on the mine, and would soon be in shape to work double 
 the force of men and treble the output. 
 
 The South Park Railroad comes up this North Fork 
 of Quartz Creek, making a "U" as it climbs out of the val- 
 ley, here a shipping station has been put in, apd makes a 
 great convenience to the present and future mines of North 
 Fork. 
 
 I did much riding about here and visited some very 
 promising properties, showing large bodies of ore in pro- 
 portion to development. Among which might be men- 
 tioned the Silver Islet and Fairview, and later the "Way 
 Up" mine, is acquiring a good deal of prominence. 
 
 Having to visit Pitkin in February, 1883, I found 
 nearly 100 men employed here in mid-winter with three to 
 four feet of snow on the ground. It is a God-send to Col- 
 orado to be able to find out that work here can be carried 
 on all winter; instead of miners and mine owners spending 
 this season in Denver and other cities they have found out 
 in the winter of i882-'83 that their time can be more profit- 
 ably employed at home. 
 
 A good wagon road leads from Pitkin to the head of 
 Ohio Creek, the gold belt, and makes as good an outlet 
 here as down to Ohio City. Another road has been made 
 up the North Fork of Quartz Creek crossing the divide of 
 Taylor Park and giving Tin Cup a better railroad outlet 
 than she was blessed with before. 
 
 On this divide and near to Mt. Sigel, is the Porcupine 
 group of mines, embracing 4,500 feet on one vein, and 
 which shows a continuous outcrop of mineral for the whole 
 distance named. This company has a fine property and 
 appears to be doing this work right. On the principal 
 vein a cross-cut of seventeen feet was run towards the 
 hanging wall, but not to it, all mineral. The owners claim 
 an average of ^50 per ton in gold, silver and copper; of 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 12/ 
 
 which one-half ought to be free milling ore and can be 
 mined, milled and reduced to bullion at a cost of ^5 per 
 ton, with the sulphides concentrated and shipped as a 
 smelting ore. Judging from the size of this vein, its char- 
 acter of ores in connection with the country rocks in which 
 it occurs, this ore ought not to change much in composi- 
 tion for nearly 200 feet in depth. It evidently can be made 
 a very large producing property in the near future. 
 
 Chicago Park, two miles from Pitkin, has numerous 
 prospect holes through it; they appear to have been sunk 
 down to a coal seam of the cretaceous age and then aban- 
 doned. This is the first coal of this age which I had seen 
 on this slope, although from the immense mineralising 
 action of this neighborhood the coal was entirely worth- 
 less, being strongly impregnated with iron and sulphur. I 
 was pleased to know ofits occurrence, as it helped me very 
 materially to identify geological horizons. 
 
 While I cannot mention all of the prospects and indi- 
 cations which I saw in this neighborhood, I was particularly 
 struck with the properties known as the Mineral Farm. 
 
 It was claimed that this had been a geological puzzle 
 to all who had seen it; perhaps it was, and I may be over- 
 confident regarding my own judgment of undeveloped 
 properties; but I said then, and feel now, that it is one of 
 the bonanzas of the Pitkin district. 
 
 The trouble appeared to be that there was so much 
 rich float, that they did not know where to look for the ore 
 body in place. It appeared to me to be a simple matter to 
 demonstrate, and I am sure it can be found and at no ex- 
 traordinary expense either. They find float and plenty of 
 it carrying 50 to 700 ounces of silver, and quite frequently 
 native silver occurs. 
 
 I had a pleasant stop of several days at Pitkin, made 
 many acquaintances I would like to meet again, and saw 
 some things and heard of more, that I will not rest con- 
 
128 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. . 
 
 tented until the time comes for me to know more of them; 
 which I hope may be the coming year. 
 
 The Denver & South Park Railroad is doing for this 
 section what the Denver & Rio Grande is accomplishing 
 for the mining districts which it passes through. There is 
 one trouble with both of them, apparently, which I do not 
 understand, and I may be wrongly informed too, and that 
 is the attempt to force products the whole length of their 
 line to Denver and Pueblo. These two roads both meet at 
 Gunnison City, which is the natural and commercial centre 
 of all this country I have been traveling over. Now it 
 seems to me that if these two roads would combine to give 
 Gunnison what naturally belongs to her, they would, from 
 increased population, requiring the bringing in of enormous 
 supplies for their subsistence, as well as the out-freight of 
 bullion and manufactured products, have in a very short 
 time much larger freight earnings, than it will be possible 
 to get on mere transportation of the ore product over the 
 Continental Divide. 
 
 But railroad men are business men, and more fre- 
 quently farther seeing than those whose experience is 
 locally circumscribed, and to the managers of these roads 
 there may be good and sufficient reasons for discriminating 
 against a large commercial city at the point named, all I 
 can record is what seems good to me. 
 
 We had a couple of spurts of snow but the warm sun 
 had cut it off within twenty-four hours after falling, with 
 the exception of spots on the north side of the mountains, 
 the country was still bare enough for me to continue my 
 work. 
 
 Following the old stage road some nine miles up the 
 Middle Fork of Quartz Creek. I think it is (where the 
 south branch is I did not see) one comes to Woodstock, 
 the first station on the South Park Railroad west of Alpine 
 tunnel. The country rock this distance is almost wholly prim- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 129 
 
 itive granite, and not much evidences of mineral that I could 
 discern riding along the road, until one comes nearly iti 
 sight of the water tank, below here is the Silver Bell with 
 ninety feet of development, which the owners represent as 
 giving $1$ per ton silver with a trace of gold on the sur- 
 face; while the cross-cut below gives iron pyrites running 
 from $200 to ^400 per ton in gold. This is an evidence of 
 what will be found, from here on over the divide to the 
 headwaters of the Tomichi, from the fact that hereabouts 
 I saw many strong and promising veins, some apparently 
 developed properties ; but of what kind of ores, of what 
 quantity and quality, I could not tarry to learn, as I was 
 more than anxious to reach Tomichi that night, and I had 
 five miles to make from Woodstock to that town. 
 
 Before passing entirely away from Pitkin, I should say 
 that the Silver Islet people are building a mill for the treat- 
 ment of their own ores, putting up machinery and furnaces 
 to carry out the Carter-Bancroft idea of amalgamation. I 
 fear it will be another failure, as the principal is not right 
 for silver ores to save their full value. The mill was not 
 completed while I was there on my first visit, so that I 
 could not judge entirely of its possibilities, and what might 
 seem to be good in theory, viz: the roastingfurnaces might 
 fail in practical use. 
 
 I have said so much already about chlorodizing and 
 amalgamating silver ores, in referring to the Pioneer mill 
 at Irwin that it might almost seem a worn out part of the 
 story. But as near as I can learn, this Carter-Bancroft pro- 
 cess is the old Lightning amalgamation process under a 
 new title. Under the old cognomen it cost New York par- 
 ties, on property near Lake City, ^80,000 without any ade- 
 quate returns; under the last name it has reappeared at 
 Empire in Clear Creek County, to treat low grade gold 
 ores, and the only real work there that has been published 
 and attested to was over the signatures of Prof. J. Alden 
 
130 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 Smith and Mr. E. E. Burlingame, of Denver, who watched 
 the treating of about ten tons at a cost of about ;^4.50 per 
 ton, on ore that was only worth ;^3.50 per ton before it was 
 treated; I never could figure out anything so very practical 
 and good in that. Finally it turns up at Pitkin as a chlo- 
 rodizing mill for silver ores, if this practically fails, as I fear 
 it will, I do hope enough will have been paid on this pro- 
 cess for experience by mining men in this State. On the 
 other side I must be just, and add that the gentleman in 
 charge of this property and mill, assures me that he has 
 thoroughly tested the process and that it is most certainly 
 a triumphant success. Should it prove to be so, no one 
 will more cordially welcome and make known such facts 
 than myself, as it will be the first silver amalgamating mill 
 to be a success in the State of Colorado; and I should be 
 only too glad to do my part in making a success that 
 means so much to all mining districts, known everywhere. 
 A new wagon road was opened this fall from Wood- 
 stock to Tomichi ; after one crosses the divide by this road, 
 the evidences of strong v^eins with possible ore-bodies, 
 become more and more apparent. What they really were, 
 or appeared to be to me as I examined them more closely, 
 I will leave for another chapter. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I3I 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 First Knowledge of Tomichi — Fissure Veins of Gold 
 and Silver — Causes Against Its Development — 
 On the Edge of the World — Convinced of 
 Negligent Prospecting — A Recall — 
 Between Two Fires — A Ten 
 Mile Walk, then Salida— 
 The End of a Narra- 
 tion of an End- 
 less Work. 
 
 Tomichi was first known to the outside world a little 
 over three years ago; then Tomichi and White Pine stood 
 prominent as two of the new camps, of which great things 
 were expected at once, but of which great things did not 
 come. Not from any fault of the country I now find, but 
 rather from the fault of the men occupying this section. 
 They have a country with naturally boundless wealth, but 
 having the great drawback of individual inertness pertain- 
 ing to the inhabitants. The reason Tomichi did not come 
 up to first expectations at once is to be found in the now 
 realized fact, that work was not and is not being done on 
 the scale and basis which the section really warrants. 
 
 For five miles down the stream on the north side, the 
 granite is laid bare, and fissured on an average nearly every 
 500 feet, with good gold and silver veins, containing those 
 metals in a native state sometimes, veins two to seven feet 
 wide with very high grades of ore. The iron pyrites here, 
 like those of almost all rich sections are high grade, I saw a 
 picked specimen of arsenical iron that would assay ^4,100 
 of gold and silver per ton, from a dump I obtained a num- 
 ber of specimens of wire silver, and still these mines are 
 not worked, or were not at the time of my visit. 
 
 Among the claims that mio-ht be named which I 
 
132 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 visited personally, and all of which showed sufficient en- 
 couragement for more and greater development, are the Lilly, 
 Rights of Man, Alwilda, Twin Lakes lode. Little Laura, 
 Hiawatha, Tucker, Gypsy, Grand View, Niagara, Lewiston, 
 Sleeping Pet, Lehigh and Carrie tunnel. 
 
 These are all in the granite and were they anywhere 
 else than at Tomichi, they would be worked. The owners 
 claim that they have not means to develop them, but 
 should one want to buy he is asked ten prices for them. 
 This must be changed, to make the camp a success, my 
 advice is sell part of your holding for what you can get in 
 cash, take that money and develop the rest to something 
 that will sell at the larger prices; the day has gone by 
 when ^10,000 will be paid for ten and twenty foot holes; 
 and just as long as you do not see, that there is no end of 
 new mining property added to the market each year, just 
 that amount of time is lost irrevocably to you men of 
 Tomichi, and in time, a very short time too, you will freeze 
 yourselves out. Buyers will not pay thousands for what 
 they can get elsewhere for hundreds that is just as good. 
 
 At the head of the stream is Monumental Mountain, 
 composed of the same granite-porphyry that I found so 
 much of at the other end of the country. This mountain 
 makes part of the great Continental Divide, rearing a crest 
 heavenwards, until an altitude of nearly 14,000 feet is 
 reached above sea level. Below this, arfd running nearly 
 parallel with the Tomichi River, commences the great 
 contact belt, now opened more or less to Galena gulch at 
 White Pine, a distance of nearly four miles. 
 
 This belt ought to yield vast quantities of mineral, of , 
 medium and low grade ores. There is opened on it the 
 New York Claim, Pocahontas, Red Cloud, and Legal 
 Tender on Clover Mountain, which is nearly as high as 
 Monumental Mountain; of this "Nig," and I went to the 
 top, one might almost imagine themselves looking over the 
 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 1 33 
 
 edge of the world. Thousands of feet below us was the 
 valley of the Arkansas, stretching out for miles a clear and 
 uninterrupted view far down the stream to Salida. In 
 another direction we could look far across country to the 
 valley of the Gunnison; if we were not looking over edges 
 of the world, we did stand upon the very back-bone of the 
 American Continent. 
 
 Although not a Columbus by any means, in a small 
 degree I realized that I too, might at such times and places, 
 have all the feelings of the moment, when the great dis- 
 coverer first set eyes upon the New World. 
 
 Below Clover Mountain, and opposite to the town of 
 Tomichi, an entirely different formation sets in, which if it 
 does contain ore bodies will be found to have very different 
 mineral compositions from the contact veins. After this 
 again comes the cretaceous rocks and granites to Galena 
 gulch and beyond. 
 
 The most promising mines are the North Star, men- 
 tioned in a former chapter, the Parole, Iron Duke, and 
 Carbonate King. This last was opened after my first visit, 
 galena was found at grass-roots, giving in car load lots, 
 thirty-five ounces silver, and fifty-five per cent lead. The 
 first six feet gave a car load of ore, ditto the next three feet, 
 and so on, large masses of galena, no walls, and hole about 
 twelve feet deep when I saw it. Since then, or at the present 
 writing, it is reported that two car loads per day are being 
 shipped. 
 
 I think I have scolded enough about Tomichi, so will 
 leave it with the hope, that when it is my lot to revisit it, 
 that the claim owners, instead of waiting for some one to 
 buy undeveloped prc^erties, will have gone to work and 
 proved in fact that my judgment is right regarding the real 
 wealth of their own bodies. 
 
 Sargent's is the shipping point on the Denver & Rio 
 Grande Railroad for this country, and wishing to see the 
 
I 34 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 grade, I rode for about fourteen miles, down a good road, 
 very even grade, down hill, to that place. After dinner, 
 between Sargent's and Parlin's, I was caught in the worst 
 storm of sleet I ever was out in, it came up so sudden along 
 the river bottom that I could not get time to reach shelter, 
 and was drenched through in a moment almost. I stopped 
 all night at Parlin's and rode into Gunnison City before 
 breakfast, the morning of October 27, 1882. 
 
 I had traveled many miles since I had left ; seen very 
 mnch that is good now, and more that will be better when 
 developed. Much as I had seen, I could not help but feel 
 that hard as I had worked, I could not begin to do justice 
 to the country, without coming again and giving it more 
 time. 
 
 Having a few days to spare I made two trips through 
 part of the granite belt near Gunnison City. I did not find 
 anything new, but was more strongly convinced than ever, 
 that this section has not been properly prospected. 
 
 I thought I had got through, but just as I was ready 
 to leave, I received word, that just beyond Sargent's were 
 some formations which I needed to see to complete my 
 Summer's work. Not wishing to leave anything undone 
 that I could possibly accomplish this year, I took the train 
 for Sargents on November 6th. On my arrival there I 
 could not get a horse at all, nor could I learn anything of 
 the surroundings from the people of the town apparently. 
 I got rather desperate, and on the morning of the 7th I 
 started for a walk up Agate Creek, a new and apparently 
 undisturbed part of the country, as the trail was almost in- 
 visible and every few hundred feet was fresh beaver dams. 
 The ascent is quite gradual and how many miles I walked 
 I do not know; but sundown found me on top of the Con- 
 tinental Divide, rapidly feeling chilled as the elevation was 
 high and the time of the year November. I had come most 
 of the way through a country of red granite, entirely baren 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I 35 
 
 and worthless, with not a sign of a cabin or camp anywhere. 
 It was impossible to go back, and not the most cheerfuU 
 prospect to camp where I was. It took about two minutes 
 to decide that I coul9 not be worse off by going on, so 
 down the east slope of the range I went, through a mile of 
 snow, over my boot tops. To my delight, in the bottom of 
 the gulch, I found a wagon road, instead of going down the 
 gulch it struck me I might find shelter the quickest by 
 going up, as it could not be far to its head and the end of 
 the road, the evening also had got to be very dark. Less 
 than half a mile brought me to a deserted saw-mill camp, 
 with a fair cabin, a chimney and plenty of firewood lying 
 around ; a few minutes more and I had a roaring fire built 
 in the fire-place, with myself stretched out on some boxes 
 in front of it, as comfortable and contented as if I really 
 knew where I was, which I did not. Pretty well tired out 
 with the days tramp I was soon dozing, and then suddenly 
 awakened to the fact, that the cabin had another tenant 
 besides myself; the biggest, fattest, and sauciest mountain 
 rat that I ever beheld. That blessed rat had an insane idea 
 that he must try his teeth on my boots, well, he just kept me 
 up all night. I had a good look at the great comet of 1882 
 between four and five o'clock of the morning of November 
 8th anyhow, then as it was light enough to see the road 
 plainly I started down it, perfectly confident that a wagon 
 road in this country would lead to — some where — between 
 its ends, and as I was starting from the upper and worst end 
 I was satisfied I was not passing or leaving any place of 
 note behind me. 
 
 A ten-mile walk brought me to Maysville in the Ar- 
 kansas valley, where I learned that I had come down Poise's 
 gulch. I went to bed getting up in time to take the train 
 for Sal i da. 
 
 0.1 the morning of the 9th I got off the train at Mar- 
 shall Pass, with my mind fully made up to see what kind 
 
136 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 of rocks the railroad cut through between the summit of 
 the range and Sargent's. 
 
 I found tertiary and cretaceous rocks, recent lavas, 
 obsidian, porphyry and trachyte, as well as metamorphic 
 rocks and granite. I found some indications of ore and 
 veins, and I am certain I found the longest eighteen miles 
 in Gunnison County, when I reached Sargent's in the after- 
 noon with forty pounds of rocks in my sacks. 
 
 The next morning I returned to Gunnison and in a 
 few days more to Denver. 
 
 Here ends the narrative of five months geological 
 work, with what success in knowledge gained and given I 
 leave my readers to judge, I merely have the feeling that I 
 have tried. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I37 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 "Misled" Capitalists — Soft and Hard Coal Found in 
 
 Gunnison — Definition of 'Anthracite" — "What 
 
 Is It?"— A Revelation— Beautiful Building 
 
 Stone — A Little Local Reasoning — 
 
 Five Days' Search for an 
 
 Illusion — Data — Test 
 
 From Smith 
 
 Bank. 
 
 A PENNSYLVANIA EXPERT DISCUSSES THE GUNNISON COAL 
 
 BEDS. 
 
 To the Editor of the Times: 
 
 Sir : — My attention has been drawn to an article 
 headed "Cretaceous or Carboniferous" and referring to the 
 question of the occurrence of anthracite coal in Colorado, 
 that appeared in your issue of Thursday evening last, 9th 
 inst. 
 
 The article alluded to gave the substance of a conver- 
 sation that took place between two geologists, and a capi- 
 tolist who made an investment in lands believed to contain 
 anthracite coal, situated some twenty miles northwest of 
 Gunnison City. The geologists were distinctly represented 
 as agreeing in the opinion that there was no anthracite in 
 Colorado ; the hard coal of the Gunnison country not being 
 anthracite, because it was not of the same geological age as 
 that of the Pennsylvania. coal measures; while the capitalist 
 was spoken of as having been "misled," rather as though 
 he had made a serious, if not costly blunder. 
 
 The question involved is one that will sooner or later 
 be of interest to the people of Colorado in general, and there 
 is in several ways enough room for misapprehending the 
 force of statements, such as those cited, to render the truth 
 or its further elucidation desirable. Moreover, if the details 
 
138 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 
 
 pass without comment, they will convey a wrong impression 
 and may possibly work injury in quarters where considerable 
 interest in lands of like character are held, such, for instance,, 
 as Philadelphia, and I understand, Pittsburgh. I, therefore, 
 beg to offer some particulars touching the hard coal of Col- 
 orado, and shall be glad to profit by the experience of others 
 if any be incorrect. 
 
 There are certainly two kinds of coal found in Gunni- 
 son region, namely : bituminous or soft coal and the hard 
 coal, commonly called anthracite. A statement has been 
 published to the effect that there exists a large deposit of 
 coal specified as the semi-bituminous. Some details were 
 given, but very little seems to be known about it and no 
 samples are obtainable that I am aware of 
 
 With respect to the first of the two sorts undoubtedly 
 existing, no one has apparently thought for an instant of 
 questioning the propriety of its familiar name. It is called 
 "bituminous coal" because it is "bituminous" — or contain- 
 ing bitumen. A name more accurate in its designation 
 could hardly be devised or applied ; indeed any other, even 
 more convenient or appropriate could not now come into 
 use. Bituminous coal is so called on the one account wher- 
 ever found, those giving and using that name are little likely 
 to confound it with other descriptions of coal, and seldom 
 if ever, think of the geological epoch during which it was 
 formed. 
 
 As regards the the hard coal of the Gunnison country, 
 on somewhat similar grounds, I demand that it receive 
 without question its just and proper title, by which it may 
 always be known and distinguished, namely, anthracite. 
 
 I am disposed to doubt that the geologists, already 
 spoken of, meant to convey the idea that, because the coal 
 was not, geologically, of the same age as the anthracite of 
 Pennsylvania, it was not anthracite at all. If so I submit 
 that their distinction has been drawn from an abstract rather 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I 39 
 
 than an economic or practical standpoint, which later, I 
 hold, should hav'e been the one to determine the question, 
 being much the more important in its relations thereto. In 
 this connection it might have been instructive to have 
 touched upon the geological age or ages of the hard coals 
 recognized as anthracites that exist, though to a limited ex- 
 tent outside of Pennsylvania; notably, in Rhode Island, and 
 in several countries in Europe: Wales, France, Germany 
 and Russia. The name anthracite, indeed, first used to 
 designate a peculiar form of mineral coal by the German 
 mineralogist, Karsten, about the beginning of the present 
 century, was doubtless originally bestowed upon a sample 
 from a European deposit. It was given as a mineralogical 
 necessity to a coal that has been characterized by Dana, 
 substantially, as follows: "A hard, compact variety of min- 
 eral coal of high lustre, consisting largely of carbon, con- 
 taining but little bitumen, and remarkably free from sul- 
 phur." There is not, however, in this definition the 
 slightest requirement that the coal must belong to any par- 
 ticular geological epoch. 
 
 Without presuming in any way to dispute the assign- 
 ment of the Gunnison hard coal by experienced geologists 
 to any age, arrived at as a result of their investigation, it 
 would be difificult to say why this coal should not be called 
 anthracite if it present the distinctive characteristics com- 
 prised in the definition thereof That it does so can be 
 readily shown. 
 
 It is anthracite in external character. Being desirous 
 as a Pennsylvanian of satisfying myself concerning the ques- 
 tion of Colorado anthracite. I, last September, visited 
 Crested Butte, in the Gunnison region, were both the soft 
 and hard coals occur in close proximity, though not to- 
 gether, so far as explored; the soft coal out-cropping along 
 the face of the hill that forms the south side of the narrow 
 gulch of Coal Creek, while the hard coal is found but a 
 
HO GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 short distance beyond the mouth of the gulch to the north. 
 In company with two Pennsylvania coal operators of many 
 years' experience, I examined the hard-coal veins at the 
 several different points where development has been done. 
 We found the coal hard, dense, compact and lustrous ; not 
 to be distinguished from Pennsylvania coal. The question 
 of its being other than anthracite coal never presented itself 
 and was never raised. The extensive acquaintance of the 
 others amongst Pennsylvania coals led to their concluding 
 that it corresponded nearest in physical characteristics to 
 what we know as Buck Mountain coal. All the coal in the 
 veins is not of the same hardness, some portions are harder 
 than others, but the difference is scarcely greater than what 
 might exist in other hard coal veins. The question is only 
 relative, and one cannot justly say it is softer than Pennsyl- 
 vania anthracite, since this, as is well known, is also vari- 
 able. It would not, I judge, be difficult to select the coun- 
 terparts of the Colorado coal as to differing degrees of 
 hardness amongst those of Pennsylvania. 
 
 This coal is anthracite from its combustion. It shows 
 the usual incandesence with retention of form. Little if 
 any flame is seen after thorough ignition. It developes an 
 intense heat, "lasts" a long time, and is a slow-burning, red- 
 ash coal. 
 
 It is anthracite from its specific gravity. This is Penn- 
 sylvania coals varies from 1.3 to 1.7, giving an average of 
 1.5. The figures I have determined from four samples of 
 the hard coal from Crested Butte vary from 1.4 to 1.5, with 
 an average of i .4. 
 
 It is anthracite from its composition. The rough var- 
 iations in the constituents of Pennsylvania anthracites, as 
 determined by analyses in the laboratory of the State Geo- 
 logical Survey, are as follows : 
 
GUNNISON, THE DONANZA COUNTY. I4I 
 
 Water 2 to 4 per cent. 
 
 Violatile matter 4 to 6 per cent. 
 
 Fixed carbon 80 to 90 per cent. 
 
 Ash 4 to 10 per cent. 
 
 Sulphur 1.4 to 1.5 per cent. 
 
 1 subjoin the composition of a hard coal from Crested 
 
 Butte : 
 
 Water 0.73 per cent. 
 
 Volatile matter 5.63 per cent. 
 
 Fixed carbon 87.83 per cent. 
 
 Ash 5.81 percent. 
 
 100.00 
 
 The deduction as to the value of the above may easily 
 be drawn. 
 
 I understand that hard coal has been discovered else- 
 where in the Gunnison, of greater thickness than at Crested 
 Butte, and it is claimed, containing ninety-two per cent, of 
 fixed carbon. Of this I have not had an opportunity of ex- 
 amining the full analysis. 
 
 If, now, I have not shown the Gunnison hard coal to 
 be anthracite, I feel like asking, after the manner of the 
 capitalists already cited, "What is it?" 
 
 I contend that it is anthracite, but whether it really be 
 so, or whether the capitalists have to supply it with a new 
 name such as "anthracoid" — meaning "like anthracite," 
 there is this to be said : there is no cause for discourage- 
 ment on this score; the coal is excellent and when it is 
 once mined and marketed at a fair price consumers will care 
 but little whether it is "cretaceous or carboniferous." 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 Charles Henry Baker, 
 
 Mining Engineer. 
 Denver, November 15, 1881. — Denver Times. 
 
 The foregoing appeared in the Denver Times, and after- 
 wards in the Gunnison News-Democrat. 
 
 The following is my reading of these coals, and may 
 
142 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 be taken as a reply to the query regarding the tertiary coal 
 measures of Gunnison County : 
 
 Thinking it might help to settle the question, as well 
 as give some additional information of possible practical 
 value; this being the result of personal observation during 
 a close examination lasting nearly five months, spent in 
 and around these coal measures, with a view to determine 
 their age, structure, and, in a measure, their commercial 
 value as seen locally, and in comparison with data obtained 
 from other sections. 
 
 The first five years of my geological work being 
 among the coal measures of Missourj and Kansas, I have 
 always been much interested in what had been brought to 
 me in the way of specimens from the Gunnison country 
 coals. For two years these specimens had come, the par- 
 ties having the same claiming the product to be anthracite. 
 This I disputed, as no one could inform me of any change 
 in the connecting rocks that showed an opportunity for a 
 change in the coal, by metamorphism, from a bituminous 
 coal to an anthracite. In fact, I considered (without tests) 
 that the appearance of the specimens were, in gravity, frac- 
 ture, and luster, against such a result. The coals appeared 
 more like the Albertites of Nova Scotia, or a coal highly 
 charged with bitumen. On the other hand, the chemists' 
 analyses shown me, gave such high results in fixed carbon 
 that it must be rated as an anthracite ; and if the latter, the 
 rocks accompanying the coal-seam must show a corres- 
 ponding change. As stated, of this none could tell me, 
 and, as a geologist, I must confirm what the chemist had 
 shown, or find out the reason why. 
 
 The geological structure of this coal measure forma- 
 tion, as seen by myself in the Crested Butte and Ohio 
 Creek basins, was a revelation, as nothing like it is known 
 or described in any works that I have; many things ap- 
 peared to be reversed, and not at all analogous to other 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 1 43 
 
 known localities where coals occur. So great was this dif- 
 ference that I must give the facts as seen by an ordinary 
 observer, and then try correctly to describe the geological 
 structure, adding thereto a description of the characteristics 
 of other sections, that the difference may be realized. 
 
 Take the first opening back of Crested Butte town, and 
 to my amazement the coal lay upon shale, with a solid 
 sandstone roof; and for 1,500 feet thick, as these measures 
 appear to be, the rock formation is shale, coal and sand- 
 stone; no limestone belongs to this series, and nowhere 
 does any animal life appear to have existed in the waters 
 that deposited the sediments making the present existing 
 sandstones and shales. All other coal measures known 
 have most abundant remains of shell-fish in the limestones, 
 sandstones, and shales of their respective ages. 
 
 The only fossils are the impressions of leaves of land 
 plants and trees, that floated out to sea, sank, and left a 
 record in the sands, saying here was a tropical climate, as 
 most beautiful palm-leave impressions are obtained in one 
 horizon, as well as many other leaves grown in a like lat- 
 itude or climate, whose names I do not know. 
 
 The sandstone itself is a marvel, in places many feet 
 thick, and repeated just the same many times in different 
 strata; as, in looking for a cause that would account for 
 the absence of life in these waters, I found the sandstone 
 was not the detritus from the wearing away of other rocks, 
 but was a precipitation of particles of quartz from a hot sea 
 carrying an excess of silica in solution, cemented by a small 
 amount of material that was produced from dissolved feld- 
 spar; not a rounded pebble in the whole series, but even- 
 grained and homogeneous throughout. 
 
 I examined loo square miles of these measures, and in 
 the midst of it all found 2,000 acres of anthracite coal, the 
 finest of its kind known on the continent, a four-foot vein, 
 
144 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 giving from 90 to 943^ per cent, of fixed carbon, and no 
 iron or sulphur in an appreciable quantity. 
 
 To finish with, 1,000 feet of conglomerate had a1: one 
 time been deposited over the whole of this, and in another 
 locality recent lavas were found overlying these tertiary 
 sandstones. 
 
 If the above, which can be seen by any one, was not a 
 geological problem, I have never met one. To solve it, I 
 had to find the rocks of the next oldest age, which proved 
 to be cretaceous, large shale beds of this age existing 
 partly metamorphosed to a slate, and containing the 
 characteristic fossil — Inoceramiis — of the cretaceous seas. 
 
 The closing of this age gave me the key to very much,^ 
 as locally it is marked by one of the most stupendous erup- 
 tions of volcanic paste that ever was known, covering hun- 
 dreds of square miles on a cretaceous sea-bottom, not only 
 flowing over these muds, where lived the In oceramus, hut slIso 
 elevated in enormous masses, which now show as mountain 
 ranges, as well as single mountains or cones. This volcanic 
 mass is now geologically identified as granite porphyry, its 
 constituents being silica, horn-blende, feldspar, a small 
 amount of mica, and occasionally a small crystal of sani- 
 dine. The feldspar separated into beautiful crystals, with 
 perfect sides and terminations, some of them of large size, 
 held most firmly by the silica which makes the bulk of the 
 paste. So much harder is this inclosing paste that it was 
 difficult to get good specimens of the crystals, the latter de- 
 composing more readily, and leaving perfect casts in the 
 rock. 
 
 This granite porphyry would make the most beautiful 
 building stone, as it is more easily quarried than Maine 
 granite, more readily dressed, is just as durable, will take 
 as high a polish, and when finished is as beautiful as any 
 marble known, has no mineral constitutents to oxidize and 
 stain, and is in inexhaustible quantities. It comprises such 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 145 
 
 mountains as Crested Buttcs, Gothic, Carbon, Edgely, 
 Beckwith and Marcellina, as well as the ranges known as 
 Ragged Mountains, the Anthracite range, and Wheatstone 
 group. Near to part of these now run two railroads, and 
 in time along these lines will be mammoth quarries ; for 
 here is a better rock to sendEast than the East can possibly 
 send west. 
 
 The next move of nature in this locality was to elevate 
 these submarine mountains above sea-level, so that shallow 
 marshy seas were at their bases. The climate was at this 
 sea-level I think, more tropical than any thing that we are 
 acquainted with at the present time ; as not only was the 
 latitude such as to have hot seasons, but, in addition, tow- 
 ering up thousands of feet in every direction, were these 
 mountains of volcanic material, giving ofiflarge volumes of 
 heat by radiation: large masses of volcanic rock cool slowly 
 in the atmosphere. In the gorges and open shallow seas 
 of this tertiary age, at the feet of these mountains, and 
 among all of this warmth — and very great moisture there 
 must have been in the atmosphere, too — commenced the 
 growth of the plants that now make these tertiary coals. 
 How long time is, under such circumstances, as we reckon 
 it, we can have no data; but sufficient was the period of 
 rest here, for these plant-growths to accumulate several 
 feet thick. 
 
 Here, I want to do a little local reasoning, that in 
 principle may apply to other eruptive localities. To begin 
 with, this eruptive matter must have been'' the product of 
 internal heat below the earth's surface; the overlying crust 
 must have been proportionately strong to]J,hold such a vast 
 quantity, confined, with its cumulative force of steam and 
 gas ; when this power had accujnulated sufficiently to exert 
 itself, the eruptive power was in ratio to the results pro- 
 duced, which again was in proportion to^thickness or resist- 
 ance of the overlying earth-crust; after the eruption, there 
 
 I 
 
146 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 would be an internal cavity approximating in size to the 
 cubic contents of the mass recently brought to the surface; 
 the original surface rocks would have the tonnage to sup- 
 port represented by the mass of eruptive material; this 
 weight on the underlying shell then became to a greater or 
 less extent plastic, and, without internal support, would 
 cause a local sinking at varying periods, which periods of 
 subsidence were represented by changes in the more recent 
 sediments which' were afterward deposited on the new floor 
 or sea-bottom ; and each and every one of such changes of 
 sea depths can be counted by the variations in the newer 
 strata of rocks. 
 
 Noting the above reasoning, in these coal basins, we 
 find after a time a subsidence, and on top of the coal plants 
 flowed a greater depth of water. The mountains were still 
 hot, the exposed surfaces somewhat decomposed, this influx 
 of water was heated to a great degree, and took into solu- 
 tion silica, which coming in contact with the organic mat- 
 ter in the then sea bottom, was precipitated, and also by 
 the gradual cooling of the waters. 
 
 Here this section for a time was stationary, and the 
 sands gradually filled with these watery depths until an- 
 other shallow sea was repeated, and a subsidence followed 
 which washed all of the loose movable soil of the adjoining 
 lands and islands into the deep sea. This material made 
 the mud deposit — shales now — which follows the sand- 
 stone. On these muds, in shallow water, the growth of 
 the coal plants again commenced, to be followed in repeti- 
 tion by what has already been shown; and this was re- 
 peated six different times, or eighteen different subsidences 
 and periods of rest are now shown to have occurred here 
 locally; perhaps more, if we could get at the deepest part 
 of any one of these basins. The strata built up, as near as 
 I could ascertain, aggregates i ,500 feet in thickness. 
 
 Then followed a greater subsidence at once than at 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 14/ 
 
 any single time previous; a wider r.rea of territory was 
 acted upon by deeper waters; and instead of sandstones, 
 resulting from precipitation, we have i,ooo feet of con- 
 glomerate, which covered all of the named mountains of 
 granite porphyry. 
 
 This tertiary age was closed by the eruption of the 
 lava showing on the dividing ridge between Ohio Creek 
 and East River near Howville or Jack's Cabin. Subse- 
 quent erosion shows this lava on top of the tertiary sand- 
 stones, and subsequent erosion has worn down these sedi- 
 mentary rocks deposited in the old mountain gorges be- 
 tween peaks and ranges of granite porphyry, laying clear 
 the structure from the latest strata to where it began, and 
 all to be seen and reasoned out as I have shown. 
 
 Now for the anthracite. I spent two days on Anthra- 
 cite range, camping out to get at the following : Standing 
 on the top of this range, it could be seen that, at the time 
 of the recent or lava eruption, a deep gorge or crevice had 
 opened from the eruptive point through between Wheat- 
 stone group and Mount Carbon. The opening came 
 against the end of the Anthracite range, with the effect of 
 setting or splitting off a single mountain mass by itself. 
 This crevice, evidently, was also filled with eruptive mat- 
 ter, not coming to the surface, but exerting force and pres- 
 sure sufficiently to slowly crowd this single mountain north- 
 ward, which in its turn pressed against the coal measure 
 strata built up at its feet and against its sides with such 
 force that these originally horizontal sedimentary rocks 
 were raised to an angle of 2i°. The heat and pressure 
 generated by this rock movement metamorphosed a coal- 
 bed under 2,000 acres from a bituminous coal to a four-foot 
 vein of the finest anthracite that is now known. Here 
 geology and chemistry agree, and at this point, I think, 
 Mr. Charles Henry Baker, M. E., is answered that it is an- 
 thracite. 
 
148 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY.' 
 
 The eruption of this lava raised the tertiary beds so 
 that all of the strata dip away from the lava outcrop, 8^ 
 feet in each 100 feet; although in the Ohio Creek basin, I 
 think, from what I saw, that the dip gradually increases as 
 the lava mesa is approached. The sedimentar}^ rocks 
 broke in short cross-sections ; along these breaks, lines of 
 erosion now exist, wearing the surface into numerous gul- 
 lies, exposing the coal-seams and thus making opportuni- 
 ties for original discoveries. 
 
 In the Ohio Creek basin, the greatest development is 
 in the South Park coal-seam, opened under the superin- 
 tendence of Mr. William Housley. The v/ork is laid out 
 on the English or long-wall system, and certainly showed 
 the best work and most economical result of any of the de- 
 velopments which I examined. In this basin, another 
 vein, the Richardson, has been opened on the Augusta and 
 Owens claims, as well as on many others. 
 
 A section of these coal measures in the Crested Butte 
 basin, where they are principally worked, would approxi- 
 mate as follows : 
 
 No. I. 300 feet from top of hill is i foot of coal. 
 
 No. 2. 80 feet below this is 3 feet of coal. 
 
 No. 3. 65 feet below this is 4 feet of coal. 
 
 No. 4. 185 feet below this is 6 feet of coal. 
 
 No. 5. 78 feet below this is 10 feet of coal. 
 
 No. 6. To this add in the Ohio Creek 
 
 basin 200 feet below is 7 feet of coal. 
 
 Seam No. i is practically worthless. 
 
 Seam No. 2 is that opened and known as the Howard 
 F. Smith bank, up Slate River. 
 
 Seam No. 3 is opened on the Smith & Jefferson claim, 
 on the Weaver property, and one place between the anthra- 
 cite coal near Irwin, on Anthracite range, is in this horizon. 
 
 Seam No. 4 is opened by the Colorado Coal and Iron 
 Company, and in Baxter's gulch. In the Ohio Creek 
 basin. No. 4 is represented by the Richardson, Augusta, 
 Kubeler and Owens openings. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BQNANZA COUNTY. 1 49 
 
 No. 5 is the coking coal vein now worked in the 
 Crested Butte basin, by the Colorado Coal and Iron Com- 
 pany. 
 
 No. 6 is only known in the Ohio Creek basin and in 
 the South Park Company's openings. 
 
 The eruption of the lava caused the Assuring of these 
 tertiary rocks, so that now we have what has hitherto been 
 unknown, namely, silver veins containing rich ruby and 
 native silver ores, passing through coal measures. Where 
 these veins break through, the coal-seams are liable to be 
 broken and faulted ; and in immediate vicinity to the fis- 
 sure-vein, the coal will contain more or less iron and sul- 
 phur ; at the same time, fragments of the coal will be 
 found in the gangue-rock of the crevice. 
 
 Having some remarkable analyses of fixed carbon 
 shown me from an opening up Slate River, three miles be- 
 yond Crested Butte,. I went especially to examine the open- 
 ings on the property. This vein would be the No. 2 of the 
 series. The coal originally outcropped in a small gulch 
 eroded into the side of the ridge rising from Slate River, 
 and opposite to the entrance to 0-be-Joyful basin. 
 
 The coal was followed in for nearly 200 feet, most of 
 it being good merchantable coal,. some of it having fixed 
 carbon enough to be rated as an anthracite, and showing 
 remarkably well in the face for this No. 2 vein. Numer- 
 ous cracks or faults occur in the roof of sandstone, now 
 making mud seams; near these, the coal was broken and 
 worthless. 
 
 A new opening has been made into the hill from the 
 head of the gulch, now nearly 300 feet in. On one side of 
 this opening the coal is constant ; on the other, a fissure- 
 vein filled with eighteen inches of calc-spar, coming from 
 the direction of 0-be-Joyful gulch. This will certainly 
 carry mineral with depth, and makes a connecting link 
 through to the veins of Washington gulch, and absolutely 
 
150 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 proves in fact what I had first advanced as a theory, that 
 in locaHties the mineral veins would be found passing 
 through coal-seams. 
 
 I followed these tertiary rocks across the head of 
 Washington gulch, between Gothic and Baldy mountains, 
 back of Belleview mountain, down the valley of Rock 
 Creek, over Mineral Point, Meadow and Arkansas moun- 
 tains ; and could see where they again came in below the 
 lake near Rock Creek. Here erosion shows these old 
 tertiary sea-bottoms to have been deep enough for the 
 coal-seams to again appear, and report says there are much 
 stronger veins than those in the particularly described 
 basins. 
 
 The coal series of the Front range of Colorado, as well 
 as in Middle and South Parks, belong to the cretaceous 
 age. While I found cretaceous rocks in abundance on the 
 Avest slope in the section examined this season, I did not 
 find the coal of the same age, except in one locality, namely, 
 Chicago Park, two miles from Pitkin. Here some holes 
 have been sunk, disclosing the coal, but also showing, 
 from evident and easily perceived causes, that it is worth- 
 less, being highly charged with iron and sulphur. The 
 quantity here also must.be very limited. 
 
 As to the character of plants that grew in these waters 
 to make these coal-seams, there appears to be such a 
 diversity of opinion among the highest authorities, that I 
 do not think this character of metamorphism has been suf- 
 ficiently proved as yet. This I would like to record, that 
 from my personal work this season, the great difference be- 
 tween ordinary bituminous coal, and that which is called 
 the coking coal, would certainly seem to arise from a 
 material difference in the original vegetation. 
 
 I spent five days at Jack's Cabin, examining the rocks 
 in connection with the lava outcrop, principally, because I 
 had been informed that large bodies of hematite iron ex- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I5I 
 
 isted here; in fact, one of the United States geological re- 
 ports gives this locality as the place where the largest body 
 of iron ever seen occurs. After five days' work, I could 
 not find it, and came to the conclusion that the first ex- 
 amination was a hasty one, and the conclusion jumped to 
 that this black lava was hematite iron, when, as a matter of 
 fact, it does not contain ten per cent, of iron. 
 
 I thoroughly examined the eroded basins between two 
 lava mesas, hoping to find evidence of the coal-seams here, 
 and that the heat and pressure from the over-lying erup- 
 tive rock would have changed such coal to an anthracite, 
 but I could not find a particle. At present, I feel, from the 
 showing, that the basin is not eroded to great enough depth 
 to catch the coal-seams. On the other hand, there is a pos- 
 sibility, for all that now shows, that on this edge of the coal 
 basin the underlying rocks rose, and only allowed the up- 
 per coal measure strata of sandstones and shales to be de- 
 posited over the older rocks, and the coal-seams do not 
 exist. 
 
 I note the above from the fact, that, farther up on the 
 Slate River, this same thing has occurred, from about the 
 entrance to 0-be-Joyful basin. The cretaceous shales ap- 
 pear by the roadside, and above them is the overflow of 
 granite porphyry, overlain in turn by the strata of tertiary 
 rocks, but only having in places the upper veins of coal 
 Nos. I and 2, while the two seams worked by the Colorado 
 Coal and Iron Company are entirely wanting. This oc- 
 currence is repeated up Coal Creek, a short distance from 
 the Colorado Coal and Iron Company's openings; a break 
 occurs across the hill between Coal Creek and Baxter's 
 gulch, which, I believe, will mark the end of the two lower 
 veins of this basin westward. 
 
 Such results as are set forth in the above paragraphs 
 show how limited in the real coal area of the Crested Butte 
 basin, while on the Ohio Creek side, such things do not ap- 
 
152 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 pear to have occurred, which makes the area of this latter 
 basin ver}^ much greater for a possible product of mer- 
 chantantable coal. 
 
 In speaking of the geology of coal sections, Dr. J. S. 
 Newberry says "that many of the coal-seams of Ohio have 
 been worked into, and exposed the following phenomena 
 to view : 
 
 "i. A fire-clay below each seam, permeated with 
 roots and rootlets of stigmaria. 
 
 "2. A coal-seam having a maximum thickness of six 
 feet in the bottom of the basin, thinning out to feather 
 edges. 
 
 "3. The coal on the margin of the basins is some- 
 times thirty or forty feet above its place in the the bottom. 
 
 "4 An average of two one half per cent, of ash. 
 
 "5. A roof composed of argillaceous shale, of which 
 the lower layers are crowded with impressions of plants." 
 
 The above might be used for a general description of 
 all bituminous coal fields of the carboniferous age. 
 
 The field I examined differs from No. i, in that there 
 is no appreciable amount of fire-clay, and argillaceous 
 shales make the floor; from No. 2 in that in one place I 
 found the seam of coal full size, abutting directly against 
 granite porphyry, although, when the field is fully ex- 
 plored, there may be localities thinning out to feather 
 edges, the same as in Ohio. 
 
 ¥0. 3 might be found to differ locally in all coal 
 basins. Of No. 4 the same might be said. 
 
 I think these tertiary coals average more than two and 
 one half per cent of ash. 
 
 They differ from No. 5 in that the roof is sandstone, 
 and the shale occurs below the coal. 
 
 A recent examination of the cretaceous coal at 
 Golden, Colorado, shows veins varying from six to sixteen 
 feet thick, average nine feet, standing nearly vertical, a 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I 53 
 
 slight dip to the west, with a roof of fire-clay , affording ex- 
 cellent material for the manufacture of fire-brick and terra- 
 cotta. 
 
 Concerning the economic values of the tertiary coals, 
 I obtained the following data. Tests were from the Smith 
 bank : 
 
 Moisture at 105 degrees 1.16 
 
 Volatile matter of red heat 4.70 
 
 Fixed carbon 90.20 
 
 Ash 3.94 
 
 Specific gravity at 60° Fahrenheit 1.4 19, a cubic foot 
 
 of coal weighing eighty-eight pounds. Of five samples: 
 
 Moisture and volatile matter was 7-346 
 
 Fixed carbon 85.062 
 
 Ash 7-592 
 
 Other tests gave the lowest fixed carbon at seventy- 
 seven per cent. Average amount of sulphur is 0.403 from 
 three separate veins. 
 
 In caI,orific power, the maximum amount of carbon is 
 
 80.80. 
 
 Pennsylvania anthracite gives 77-88 
 
 Colorado " " 74.08 
 
 Canon City, Colorado, cretaceous coal..., 69.61 
 
 Wyoming cretaceous coal 63.74 
 
 VVeberCanon, Utah coals 57-57 
 
 California coals 55-26 
 
 The above is the statement made by Charles P. Wil- 
 liams, chemist, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 , Had the anthracite from the Anthracite range section 
 been used for a comparison of calorific power, I am confi- 
 dent the record would have equaled the best Pennsylvania 
 anthracite, as this coal is constant in fixed carbon from 
 ninety to ninety-four and one half per cent. 
 
 From another source I learn that the amount of illum- 
 inating gas from these tertiary coals is seven one quarter 
 cubic feet per pound of coal, or 14,500 cubic feet per toi\ 
 of 2,000 pounds, not equaled anywhere as far as now 
 known, except perhaps by the Albertites of Nova Scotia. 
 
154 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 
 
 Of the coking coal seam, the following was obtained 
 from Mr. James K. Robinson, superintendent of the Color- 
 ado Coal and Iron Company's mine. Sample came from 
 1,200 feet in, and was the latest test up to October 6, 1882 
 
 Water 72 
 
 Volatile matter 23.24 
 
 Fixed carbon 7i-9i- 
 
 Ash 3.93 
 
 In comparison, Connellsville coal shows : 
 
 Moisture 1.260 
 
 Volatile matter 30. 107 
 
 Fixed carbon 59-6 16 
 
 Ash 8.233 
 
 Sulphur o 784 
 
 While tests from a coking coal in Kentucky ranged in 
 
 Volatile matter 30.060 to 37.160 
 
 Fixed carbon 54.740 to 62.100 " 
 
 Moisture 2.000 to 8.000 
 
 Ash 2.900 to 4.340 
 
 Sulphur 494 to 1.475 
 
 Thus showing these tertiary coals far ahead in econ- 
 omic value. 
 
 The average value of bituminous coal at Golden, 
 Colo., for two years has been $2,-30 per ton; cost of min- 
 ing and hauling, ;^2.57 per ton. In the East, this grade of 
 coal is worth, on an average, ^1.22 per ton; cost of mining, 
 ;^0.88. 
 
 Connellsville coke at the ovens is worth ^$1.75 per ton, 
 and a protective freight tariff in favor of Colorado produc- 
 tion of $20 to ^45 per ton. 
 
 With the above named freights, Gunnison County 
 ought to get a share of that business on a very profitable 
 basis. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 155 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 4 
 
 The Final Summing Up of the V<. ork Done. 
 
 The following might be considered a general summing 
 up ot the geology and connecting mining interests of what 
 I found in these five months' constant work, over an area 
 of territory covering 3,000 square miles; through which I 
 have daily traveled, examining its geological and mineral 
 bearing sections. Walking and riding nearly i;500 miles 
 to thoroughly learn the same; and, I now realize that it has 
 been a more complete examination than has ever been at- 
 tempted before. 
 
 This district, examined, is bounded by the North Fork 
 of Anthracite Creek, Treasury Mountain, Crystal basin, and 
 below Sheep Mountain on the north, the head of Conun 
 drum gulch, Teocalli and Italian mountains, heads of 
 Spring Creek, Quartz Creek and Tomichi River on the 
 east. The Granite belt south and southwest of Gunnison 
 City, for forty miles, through from Pitkin to Cebolla on the 
 south. The coal measures of Ohio Creek, the Anthracite 
 range and Ruby mining districts on the west. 
 
 Of this-3,ooo square miles I find nearly 2,000 of it 
 would be embraced under the head of mineral lands; nearly 
 100 square miles as coal lands; the rest as ranch, grazing 
 and timber lands, including some barren rocky districts in 
 which nothing of practical utillity has yet been discovered. 
 
 The geological structure would be found to be briefly 
 as follows : 
 
 A belt of primitive or archaen granite extends from the 
 Continental Divide on the head waters of Quartz Creek 
 and Tomichi River, through southwest to White Earth 
 River, a distance of over 55 miles, averaging ten miles in 
 
156 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 
 
 width; is well fissured and evidently contains the basis of 
 many fine gold mines, as well as large bodies of iron ore; 
 the latter are shown more strongly at Cebolla, while the 
 gold veins are most prospected in the neighborhood of 
 Pitkin down to Ohio City, seven miles, and some near 
 Tomichi, the best districts to my mind not being prospected 
 and worked at all yet. 
 
 This same granite is encountered again in Swan basin, 
 eight miles from Irwin, on the Anthracite Creek slope, it is 
 also the dividing crest of Poverty gulch, showing twenty 
 feet wide and half a mile in length, at over 12,000 feet ele- 
 vation. It makes the underlying rock of Paradise and Carl 
 Schurz, or Bear basins; it is the rock of Snow Mass moun- 
 tains; from here continues almost in a direct line south, 
 showing as the dividing range between Conundrum gulch 
 and Gothic, or head of Copper Creek, continues down and 
 along Taylor Park and River, and through to the Contin- 
 ental Divide at the head of Tomichi River, or place of be- 
 ginning. 
 
 I am thus particular in describing these rocks, owing 
 to their governing influence on the quantity and quality of 
 the minerals that are found in connection with them. 
 
 Of sedimentary rocks I could not find those of the 
 Devonian and Silurian ages at all, unless they are repre- 
 sented by some detached localities of small area, showing 
 now thin bedded and metamorphosed to mica schists, etc. 
 
 The oldest sedimentary rocks to be identified, were 
 the sandstones near Gunnison City, and a limestone with 
 fossils a few miles up Brush Creek; these rocks are car- 
 boniferous. 
 
 This period was closed by the eruption of the red- 
 feldspathic granites, which occur most abundantly on 
 Cement and Brush Creeks. I also found some evidences 
 of the same on Taylor River, Quartz Creek and the 
 Tomichi. The closing of the carboniferous age on this 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 15/ 
 
 slope does not appear to have been attended with the same 
 extensive eruption of red granite, as is evidenced on the 
 eastern slope or Front range of the Rocky Mountain 
 system. 
 
 The principal mineral veins of this period are marked 
 as very wide, filled with a quartz porphry gangue, partially 
 mineralized with a very low grade ore, principally iron sul- 
 phides, and generally not of practical value, except where 
 more recent veins break through this rock again, allowing 
 a reconcentration of the mineral particles. Where this has 
 occurred the ore appears to be exceptionally rich in the 
 last formed veins. 
 
 Following the eruption of the red granite, came the 
 building up of the cretaceous rocks, consisting of sand- 
 stones, limestones, and shales alternating. No coal occurs 
 here with these rocks same as is shown in connection with 
 those of the same age along the Front range, excepting a 
 small and very limited era in Chicago Park, two miles from 
 Pitkin, and which is now practically worthless, owing to 
 subsequent changes, which have thorough charged it with 
 iron and sulphur. This little spot is all of the cretaceous 
 coal I have so far found on this slope. The closing of the 
 cretaceous age in this described section, was marked by 
 one of the most stupendous eruptions ever recorded, cover- 
 ing hundreds of square miles with one class of eruptive 
 material, building up not only single mountains but moun- 
 tain ranges, and one peak with this rock for its dome, is 
 one of the highest in the State, viz: Monumental Moun- 
 tain at the head of Tomichi River, and of nearly 14,000 feet 
 elevation. 
 
 This rock is known as Granite porphyry, and is the 
 material of such ranges as the Wheatstone group, Ragged 
 mountains and the Anthracite range, also of single peaks, 
 such as Crested Butte, Gothic, Carbon, Edgely, Beckwith 
 and Marcellina. As has been noted before, I believe it to 
 
158 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 be one of the finest building stones on the continent- 
 
 The heat and pressure (for this eruption occurred at 
 great sea depths) generated during this age or Granite 
 porphyry eruption, partially metamorphosed these cretace- 
 ous rocks, the sandstones to quartzites, the shales to slates^ 
 and the limestones towards a marble in some localities. 
 
 Now, geologically speaking, before we can have min- 
 eral sections, we must first have volcanic or eruptive 
 centers, from which long, and generally parallel fissures ex- 
 tend through the earth's crust. The fissures principally^ 
 follow one general course, and if carefully traced on, or by 
 the surface evidences, will be found to lead from one erup- 
 tive point to another, and so on for many miles, especially- 
 through a mountainous and mineral bearing country. 
 
 These fissures and eruptive places also denote a 
 mechanical fact, that they always occur along a line of 
 greatest weakness in the earth's crust, and this deduction 
 gives a common reason for the continuance of mineral belts 
 in a general course. 
 
 These fissures are filled with mineral atoms, derived 
 from the country rocks through which the crevices open^ 
 representing practically a concentration of atoms, taken up 
 in solution from the neighboring country rock. The waters- 
 passing along these earth crust openings being mainly 
 thermal, and of strong solvent powers. T. Sterry Hunt 
 says the solvent powers of cold water are sufificient to take 
 into solution any known mineral element, and in thermal 
 waters this power is increased. Of this fact I obtained ab- 
 solute proof in nature, in one locality finding iron pyrites, 
 galena, zinc and quartz crystals, all being deposited to-day 
 as a precipitant from a cold water stream. 
 
 Agassiz says, when referring to the possible ages of 
 mountain chains, that the power required for the eruption 
 of volcanic masses is in proportion to the thickness of earth 
 crust to be broken through, that the results obtained are 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. I 59 
 
 in proportion to power used or required, consequently the 
 largest eruptive masses and highest mountain ranges are of 
 the latest ages. Now follow out this method as applied to 
 mineral sections, and if my deductions are correct as stated, 
 regarding the forming of mineral veins, as the resultant of 
 the Assuring of the earth's crust by eruptive forces; then 
 the amount and size of veins with their ore contents should 
 be in proportion to the eruptive masses, produced at the 
 commencement of the era or age, represented by the erup- 
 tive rock. 
 
 This section having locally the largest amount of this 
 character of material known in any one locality, it would 
 be reasonable to look for a proportionate amount of min- 
 eral and fissure vein products, and if absolute proof of the 
 correctness of such reasoning is not found in this described 
 section of Gunnison County, it never will be proved by the 
 geology of any other section of the world. 
 
 Commence at the head of Slate River, cross over the 
 divide to the head of Rock Creek, pass around Galena 
 Mountain into Crystal basin at the foot of Treasury Moun- 
 tain, and every few hundred feet there is vein after vein of 
 ores, large and strong, carrying iron, zinc, galena and cop 
 per sulphides. These veins break through cretaceous 
 slates, which character of country rock adds nothing to the 
 value of the vein product, but rather allows a deterioration 
 from the fact, that the slate is friable, breaks and crumbles 
 into the fissures, mixes country rock with the vein material, 
 thus enlarging the crevices, allows them to become irregu- 
 lar, and generally cursed by the prospector and miner. 
 However, in this locality it is but small depth, compara- 
 tively speaking, to the underlying country rock, viz: prim- 
 itive granite, and into which the veins must pass. Here^ 
 as noted elsewhere in this book, the ore will be found to 
 be concentrated into fissures with good and true walls, also 
 
l6o GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY, 
 
 an increase will be found in the quality, especially of the 
 gold and copper product. 
 
 So great was the mineralizing action, especially in one 
 of the basins named, that the rocks parted between layers 
 of quartzite, slate and limestones allowing bands of ore to 
 form in horizontal beds between the strata, as well as in 
 the vertical fissures that are found breaking across the 
 stratified rocks. These flat veins have a general inclination, 
 or dip of 30° above a horizontal line, but at some depth 
 will pass into the granite. 
 
 This basin, I believe to be the most wonderful mineral 
 section now known. The principal base ores are iron, 
 zinc, galena and copper sulphides, earring a fair average 
 value in gold and silver; the latter, where combined with 
 antimonial galena, rises to a grade of several hundred 
 ounces per ton. One vein, a flat one, can be traced from 
 the point of Treasury* Mountain, where| it is opened four- 
 teen feet solid in ore, round to the entrance of the basin, 
 fully two and a half miles, and a continuous average ore 
 body of at least ten feet solid of mineral. 
 
 From the principal mine opened, ore was shipped by 
 burros eight miles, by wagon six miles, by rail to Denver 
 at ^8.00 per ton freight, and then after deducting smelter 
 charges and cost of mining paid the owners, ^45.00 per ton 
 net in car load lots. I saw one car load of lead ore that 
 was settled for at the rate of seventy-seven per cent, for the 
 metallic lead, while a picked assay test gave eighty-six per 
 cent, of the same metal in the ore, the highest grade galena 
 now known. The copper sulphides give twelve to fifteen 
 per cent, metallic copper. 
 
 From this single basin can be produced — it is only a 
 question of the number of men put at work — more tons of 
 ore per twenty-four hours than the whole Leadville district 
 now produces, — nearly 1,500 tons per day — and of as fair 
 an averag-e grrade in value. 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. l6l 
 
 On the other side of the basin is another large vein, 
 across the surface of which, where I had the rocks in place, 
 I broke mineralized rock for a space of 150 feet wide. 
 
 To this section and veins of this age may be added, 
 Paradise basin, Baldy Mountain, part of Belleview, Mineral 
 Point, Meadow and Sheep mountains, all of them according 
 to my reasoning, showing a good foundation for the belief 
 that the ores will increase in quality, after certain depths 
 are passed, except Sheep Mountain. 
 
 On this mountain the ores will be no better in quality 
 for great depths, than the sulphides show at the top of the 
 veins, from the fact that the cretaceous rocks show much 
 greater strength here than elsewhere, it being nearly 3,000 
 feet down to Rock Creek from the mountain top, and all 
 stratified rocks. This places the granite the practical 
 source of supply, at this locality, to deep to act as a gov- 
 erning influence over the whole vein product. 
 
 However, the lower grade ores found here will prob- 
 ably increase in quantity with depth, if not in quality. 
 
 Coming back to this age of veins, we have on the 
 headwaters of the Slate River, veins breaking through an 
 older vein formation, viz: the quartz porphyry, here the 
 zinc sulphides as a re-concentration, rise in value to over 
 500 ounces of silver per ton, the highest grade zinc I have 
 met. 
 
 The next district of this age we find by passing from 
 the head of Copper Creek to Conundrum gulch. Prospect- 
 ing has only begun here and the real value of the section 
 not proved. 
 
 Next in order is the head of Brush Creek, and over 
 Pearl Pass to Ashcroft. 
 
 Between Pearl Pass and Ashcroft occurs the largest 
 outcrop of ore I have ever seen, with but one exception. 
 
 The next section will be found geographically as the 
 head of Cement Creek and Taylor River. Here prospecting 
 
1 62 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 has only begun, but the veins and geological structure be- 
 ing the same as the Rock Creek country, many good things 
 ought to be found, as well as large ore bodies. 
 
 After this came south of Italian Mountain to the head 
 of Spring Creek. 
 
 The cretaceous limestones commence to show here, 
 and make contact veins highly charged with galena sul- 
 phides. 
 
 The Doctor mine is the principal one opened, and with 
 only the development of one season, has $160,000 gross in 
 sight. Next to this is the King lode claim, out of which I 
 saw large masses of galena taken from an open cut. More 
 of these ore bodies ought to be foK.md near here and doubt- 
 less will be in tlie future. 
 
 This belt probably extends from the head of Spring 
 Creek, across the Taylor River, through or near by Union 
 Park, above the head of the lesser Ohio Creek, above Pit- 
 kin, crossing the heads of Quartz Creek, and showing an 
 abundance of ore in the Silver Islet, Fairview, Way Up and 
 Silent Friend properties, as well as many prospects on the 
 same belt too numerous to mention. 
 
 At the head of the North Fork of Quartz Creek, many 
 other veins pass through in the direction of Tin Cup. It 
 is at the head of this creek that the Porcupine group of 
 mines is situated, already described in another place. 
 About six miles from Pitkin this great contact series of 
 veins crosses the North Fork of Quartz Creek on to 
 Prospect Mountain. Here the only mine opened is the 
 Celestial, from which iron ore to be used as a flux, was be- 
 ing shipped to St. Elmo. Some very high gold assays 
 were claimed from this mine, one showing thirteen oz. gold 
 per ton. 
 
 From Prospect Mountain the contact I have been fol- 
 lowing appears to pass over to the east side of the Con- 
 tinental Divide, sweeping around by Hancock, and re-ap- 
 
GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 163 
 
 pearing again on the west slope at the head ofTomichi 
 River and below Monumental and Clover mountains. 
 
 These mountains are capped with granite porphyry, 
 here the eruptive rock broke up the line of possible con- 
 tact. However, where it has come in again it has lost 
 nothing in strength, as there is 6,000 feet opened that 
 shows the third largest outcrops of mineral, and now the 
 greatest possibilities of galena ores of any part of the belt. 
 The North Star, Carbonate King, Iron Mask, Iron Duke, 
 Iron King, and other claims in Galena guch, at White Pine 
 are on this belt. 
 
 From this place I found the contact veins again crossed 
 the range, some where above Agate Creek, on the west 
 slope, re-appearing in the Arkansas valley near Maysville. 
 
 To this point is as far as I have traced the veins of the 
 granite porphyry age of eruptive rock, but the granite on 
 the west side of the Tomichi appears also to be fissured for 
 five miles down stream. This I have called particular at- 
 tention to, when describing this locality in a former chap- 
 ter, and refer to it as a very rich gold and silver section, 
 but not worked as it should be. 
 
 In giving a condensed statement of the mineral belt of 
 this age, it would appear as follows : That it is continuous 
 through from Snow Mass to White Pine, a distance in an 
 air line of over 100 miles; that the veins vary in width 
 from ten to 500 feet; that the belt is three to five miles in 
 width; that the strongest veins originally had heavy 
 bodies of iron as the surface ores followed by zinc, galena 
 and possibly copper as depth is gained in mining; that 
 subsequent surface erosion has cut off most of the iron, but 
 the galena can be found with the limestone, more or less 
 constant the whole distance, and where the whole of the 
 limestone is eroded, I find the veins constant in granite, a 
 larger percentage of copper as base, and the ores higher 
 grade in gold and silver ; that in a geological sense the 
 
164 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 veins and ore products are in proportion to the granite 
 porphyry eruption, and a direct result of the same geolog- 
 ical age, viz : the closing of the cretaceous period. 
 
 Further, that this belt of veins and ores of the same 
 age, ought to continue on the other side of the nucleus 
 described, crossing over to and continuing in connection 
 with the Uncompahgre range as it does with the Elk Moun- 
 tain system, varying only in quality of ores as the country 
 rocks may change. 
 
 The quieting down of this locality, after the great and 
 radical changes just described, allowed the commencement 
 of a new geological period, viz: the tertiary which pro- 
 ceeded to build up locally as I have attempted to illustrate, 
 with its coal formations, in the preceding chapter, so that 
 with reference to the rock formation of this latest age, 
 I may now pass on to the time of their close. This is a 
 repetition of the two preceding ages, inasmuch we find that 
 the carboniferous period was closed by an eruption of red, 
 feldspathic granite, the cretaceous age by a local eruption 
 of granite porphyry, and now the tertiary we find was 
 terminated by the eruption of lava, the principal locality 
 showing, is on the dividing ridge of Ohio Creek and East 
 River, a few miles from Gunnison City. 
 
 This time the eruptive power was not required to rend 
 the overlying rocks to the same extent as noted in the pre- 
 vious ages. Consequently the eruptive material produced 
 was not so great in quantity, nor the accompanying fissuring 
 of the rocks larger in proportion than would be naturally 
 looked for in a comparative ratio to the other results pro- 
 duced. 
 
 The eruptive rock of this age was a black vesicular 
 lava, proving an eruption into the atmosphere by the large 
 number of air-cells or blebs in the material. This occurred 
 just south of the Wheatstone group, and flowed over the 
 tertiary formation some square miles. Subsequent erosion 
 
GUNNISON, THP: BONANZA COUNTY. 1 65 
 
 cut the mass in two, leaving at the present time, two flat or 
 table-Hke formations several feet thick, capping a dividing 
 ridge between the two named streams. 
 
 When the lava eruption occurred, a proportionate 
 amount of fissures opened, proving again a mechanical fact 
 in relation to veins, which is, that they always open through 
 lines of weakness in the earth's crust. For these latest 
 fissures followed the lines of the old gorges between moun- 
 tains of granite porphyry, then filled with tertiary strata, 
 instead of following possible direct lines, and Assuring such 
 mountains, I did not find a single vein of mineral passing 
 through the large mountain masses of granite porphyry. 
 While on the other hand the gorges between these moun- 
 tains were full of them. 
 
 As these veins are of the latest age, so they are in 
 proposition to the eruption, that they are the direct conse- 
 quence of, and as compared to the veins of the immediately 
 preceding age, are quite limited in extent. But they carry 
 the richest ores of the whole section, as proved by the de- 
 velopments at Irwin, the product being ruby silver with na- 
 tive metal also, and very high grade zinc and galena sul- 
 phides. It is only in connection with these described rocks 
 and age of veins, that I found ruby silver ores. 
 
 The opening of these fissures started the present lines 
 of erosion and drainage, so that now the country presents 
 the appearance of a number of mineral basins eroded down 
 into the coal measures, with granite porphyry peaks and 
 croppings occurring in every direction around them. 
 
 A beautiful illustration occurs in these districts of the 
 direct influence of country rock through which the fissures 
 opened, over the character of the vein product. I could 
 start at the head of one of these basins, where the vein 
 material outcrops in the conglomerate, and the ore would 
 be low grade, principally zinc, iron and galena sulphides, 
 with only a value of $15.00 to $20.00 per ton in silver. 
 
1 66 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 Follow the same vein down to where the conglomerate is 
 removed by erosion, and the vein outcropped in the real 
 coal measure sandstones, there ruby and native silver be- 
 gins to appear with the named sulphides, but the gangue 
 combining with the ores, is still silica. Follow the same 
 vein down to where all of the coal measure strata has been 
 eroded, and the vein outcrops in granite porphyry, here I 
 find the same rich ores as ruby and native siver, silver 
 glance, also high grade galena and zinc, but the gangue 
 changes from quartz to calc-spar. 
 
 This is the first experience that miners had in Color- 
 ado of rich silver veins occurring through horizontal coal 
 measure strata, and with such an anomaly to work in, it is 
 not to be wondered at that mistakes have occurred, some 
 of them expensive ones. But where I can get rich ruby 
 and native silver ores outcropping at grass roots, with sul- 
 phides of iron, zinc and galena, as I have on many claims 
 in the Ruby district, I am not afraid to bank on the future 
 product of the section. These ores go down, and are in 
 just as permanent true fissure veins, as those occurring in 
 any other geological section known. 
 
 This section is bounded on the north by the North 
 Fork of Anthracite Creek, on the west by the South Fork 
 of the same, on, the south by Coal Creek, and on the east 
 by the Slate River. 
 
 It comprises such basins as Ruby district, Ruby gulch 
 Justice Elk, Independence, Coon, Evans, Peeler, Redwell, 
 Deniocrat, Hardscrabble and 0-be-Joyful basins. 
 
 In Swan, Mineral and Kansas basins. Poverty gulch as 
 well, and also the North Fork of Anthracite Creek, the 
 ores change in accordance with the change in the country 
 rock, while Iron and Silver basins do not show much to 
 be counted upon for pay of any kind of ore whatever. 
 
 The head of Washington gulch, eight miles from 
 Crested Butte, gives ores of the same character as the Ruby 
 district, and I am certain the same belt extends further on, 
 passing to the east of Belleview Mountain, but not now de- 
 veloped enough to prove the value of the ore bodies. 
 
GUNNISON, THE KONANZA COUNTY. 16/ 
 
 On dcveloi)nicnt some of the veins of this ago will be 
 found passing through coal seams of the tertiary period. 
 
 The foregoing represents as succinctly as possible a 
 resume of what is the general characteristics in mineral 
 wealth of this country, so that I have found in brief, that 
 within a radius of sev^enty-five miles of Gunnison City, there 
 are 2,000 square miles of mineral lands, with more ore per 
 square mile than was ever seen before in the world to 
 know it. 
 
 That the drainage of all but three points is towards a 
 common center meeting at Gunnison; that the whole coun- 
 try is readily accessible, having two competing railroads, 
 narrow gauge, with a prospect of a third and broad gauge 
 road within three years ; that branch lines have been or 
 will be extended to both coal sections; that Gunnison 
 County has expended this year (1882) ;$ioo,coo in making 
 good wagon roads from railroad points to all of the most 
 developed mining camps. 
 
 That, although this country is barely three years old, 
 work enough has been done to prove that these mineral 
 sections are permanent and productive. 
 
 That Gunnison City is located in the centre of the 
 largest mineral belt now known; with coal fuel the nearest 
 by of the very best quality, and in quantity sufficient to 
 smelt the ores produced. 
 
 That this season saw one of the most successful con- 
 centrating mills in the State, built in this part of the coun- 
 try, viz: at Elko on Rock Creek. 
 
 That, personally, I have not visited a single mining 
 camp, but that is capable, in time, of furnishing forty to 
 1,000 tons per twenty-four hours, of concentrating ore for 
 just such mills, and which are the practical mills for all 
 mining districts. 
 
 That, at Gunnison City there is now a smelting fur- 
 nace building by one of the most successful men, connected 
 with ore reduction (lead ores) in the United States. 
 
 That, I have seen, personally, enough gold and silver 
 districts, in this described territory, to produce more of 
 those values per annum, after the next five years' develop- 
 ment, than was the output of the whole State of Colorado 
 in the year 1882. 
 
 That, I have seen lead ore enough, and indications of 
 it sufficient to warrant the statement, that the product will 
 in time compare favorably with the output of the State of 
 Missouri. 
 
1 68 GUNNISON, THE BONANZA COUNTY. 
 
 That, I have examined more iron ores than is now 
 known in either of the States of Pennsylvania or Missouri. 
 
 That, I have seen districts enough, with copper sul- 
 phides in their veins, to run a smelter plant on the Copper- 
 Matte basis, ten times as large as the present works at 
 Argo, Colo. (Hill's works). 
 
 Such works ought to be established at a central point 
 like Gunnison City ; that the gold ores of Ohio City, Pit- 
 kin, the Granite Belt and Tomichi, could meet the copper 
 sulphides half way in transportation and be reduced with 
 them. 
 
 That, within this territory I have found Tellurium ores. 
 
 That, I have been over more than eight square miles 
 of territory containing nickel and eobalt — more than was 
 ever seen before in paying quantities. 
 
 That, there is 350 square miles of gold territory, al- 
 most wholly unimproved, in which it may be possible to find 
 Iridium, Palladium and Platinum. 
 
 That, I have found traces of tin, but have not proved 
 its existence in paying quantities. 
 
 That, there is building stone of unsurpassed quality 
 and inexhaustible quantity; that limestones, gypsum and 
 marbles exist in large quantities. 
 
 That, I have found that rare mineral Uranium to exist 
 in paying quantities. 
 
 That, while I did not find fire-clay at all, I found im- 
 mense quantities of ordinary clay for building brick. 
 
 Last, but not least, the climate is unsurpassed, eleva- 
 tion not too great, nor winters too severe, but that work 
 in the mines can be carried on the whole year through 
 with a proper preparation, that the valleys are mild, w^ell 
 watered, and the finest stock country in Colorado. 
 
 What more I would ask can be wanted, to make a 
 large and prosperous city at a central point in this desdribed 
 region, where all of the products of this unusually natural 
 rich section, can meet on a down hill grade, at a common 
 center to be handled, while the same place in turn will be 
 the distributing center of this whole section for what is 
 consumed. 
 
 Such are the present and prospecting advantages of 
 Gunnison City, the commercial center of the future Bon^ 
 anza County of Colorado, as seen by the writer. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 ■>• «. 
 
 J^flJI^edule: 25 ceft^e^on first day overdae 
 f'^W' * 50 C^aj^o^Jpanh day overdue . 
 
 h day ov^Zta^ 
 
 ,NOV 4 1947 
 
 ,eN.^'^^^^^ 
 
 
 MAR25 196S3 5 
 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 JUL 3 1 1952 
 
 LD 21-100m-12,'46(A2012sl6)4120 
 
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 NOV 4 19 !^7 
 
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 590159 
 
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 90159 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
JOHN K. HALLOWELL, 
 
 Mines Examined and Reported Upon 
 ■ at Reasonable Prices. 
 
 Address : Room 9 Witter I'A^c^, 
 
 Cor. :6iJtVi'd Blake Sts., 
 * ' ■ Denver, Colorado. 
 
 F. G. TAXON, 
 
 ' Ore ^v^illin.g^ ^v^a.c]r:Lin.er3r 
 
 Concentraiiiig Mills a Specially. Mills 
 Dcsi,i>ned and lUiilt under Contracts, adapted to 
 Ores of any Locality. 
 
 Investigations made 01 ores, and advise 
 ! given as to proper Machinery to ns(\ 
 
 Address: Room 9 Witter Block, 
 
 Cor.J6tli and Blake Sts., 
 
 Denver. Colorado.