Morgan & Co., New York Gulch, employing four men three months... Woodward & Co., New York Gulch, employing five men twelve months.. $12, 078 Brennan, Steel & Co., New York Gulch, employing four men twelve months.. 13,068 J. Shields & Co., Diamond City, employing four men ten months..... 9,360 9,909 The copper mines east of the Belt Range have not been worked during the year, so far as I am informed, nor are they likely to attract much attention until the cost of transportation is considerably lessened. JEFFERSON COUNTY. Considerable excitement has prevailed in this county in the latter part of the summer and in the fall on account of the discovery of several rich gold veins in the neighborhood of Radersburg. The placer-mines also appear to have given satisfactory returns during the comparatively short time they were in active operation. The census reports one hundred and thirty-six claims from Spring Bar, Peru, Old Bar, Overland, Rocker, Hunter Jack, Basin, Crow Creek, Wilson, Holmes, Ruckley, Mitchel, and Hogan. Although many of the older claims of this county are worked out, yields of $17, $20, and even $25 per hand per day have not been unfrequent. One hundred and twenty of the one hundred and thirty-six claims reported by the census employed three hundred and five men during an average of 4.5 months, at average wages of $100 per month. The total yield was $228,115, and the average yield per day per hand, for all of them, $6 33. The average yield of the claims paying hired help an amount exceeding $1,000 was $7 37 per hand per day. Most of the claims have, however, produced small amounts in the aggregate, and the following few are the most prominent ones: Boulder & Co., Spring Bar, employing six men six months..... $7,000 Favert, Day & Co., Basin, employing sixteen men three months. 7,000 Wm. Quinn, Crow Creek, employing five men three mouths.... 9,000 T. H. Randall, employing five men eight months. J. H. Halford, Basin, (hydraulic miae,) employing ten men four months.... 10,000 10,000 Of the quartz mines the census reports a total product of only $16,632 for the year ending June 1, 1870, and nine mills and arrastras in operation during a very small portion of the year. The Ironclad, Keeting, Diamond, and Leviathan appear to be the most prominent lodes at present. On the first J. F. Allen has a claim of 200 feet, which is opened by a shaft 90 feet in depth and by a small tunnel. The ore tested yielded $25 per ton. Nave & Co. have 600 feet, opened by a shaft 50 feet deep and a tunnel 200 feet long. Thomas Dunn has 500 feet, opened by a shaft 50 feet deep. He worked in the summer from five to eight men. Ore tested from the Robert Lee by Thomas Allen yielded $22 per ton. Blacker and Keeting have 2,200 feet on the Keeting lode, which they opened by a shaft 100 feet deep and a tunnel 200 feet long. The ore tests $30 per ton. They own also 1,800 feet on the Leviathan, the ore of which tested $30, and 1,400 feet on the Ohio, the ore being worth $26 per ton. These gentlemen worked their ore formerly in arrastras and a small mill, but have erected during the year a new fifteen-stamp mill, A week's clean-up was which was in operation since the 15th of June. G. W. Brooks owns 525 feet on the Diamond lode, the ore of which yields $25 per ton. Nave & Co. and George H. Sample seem also to have erected mills during the year, but I have no further information in regard to them. The prospects for both placer and quartz mining are represented as encouraging for the next year. MADISON COUNTY. The yield of the placer and hydraulic mines of this county has not been large, though both classes have been worked longer than in any other county. But it must be borne in mind that the localities in which placer-mining has been carried on are few, and that some of these have been continually worked since 1863, and yielded fabulous amounts in former years. Quartz-mining is permanently established in at least one district, Silver Star, where such lodes as the Everett, Green Campbell, and the Iron Rod have continued to yield handsomely, the first throughout the year. The census returns report only nine placer-claims in operation during the year ending June 1, 1870. These employed fifty-two men during an average of 6.7 months, at wages varying from $80 to $100 per month. The total yield was $40,366, and the average per hand per day $4 42. The following claims return the largest yield: $9,000 7,000 Donegan & Co., employing ten men six months.... Of hydraulic mines fifteen are reported by the census. They employed eighty-six men during an average of six months, and the average wages are given at about $125 per month. The total yield was $117,800, and the average per hand per day $8 76. Of the more important claims I mention the following: Stranig Mining Company, employing five men during six months.... ... $10,000 Southmayde & Hall, employing twelve men during five months 20,000 Summit Flume Company, employing three men during five months... Pine Grove Company, employing eight men during six months 10,000 10,000 16,000 13,300 12,500 Fifteen reduction works, beneficiating gold quartz, are reported. They employed one hundred and twenty-one men, during an average of 5.5 months, at $125 per month. The total product is given as $177,350 for the year ending June 1, 1870. The most important, economically, are: The Montana Midas Company, located in Hot Spring district, which employed thirty men during three months, and took out $10,000; the Everett, Green Campbell Company, of Silver Star district, which employed twenty men throughout the year, and took out $96,000, (this company expended $45,000 in wages and $2,370 in materials;) the Ste vens and Trivitt Mill, in the same district, which crushes ore from the Iron Rod, and employed twenty five men during six months, paying $17,000 for wages and $3,950 for materials, taking out $25,000; and Wyant Sumner's and Everson & Holman's arrastras, the former employing four men during seven months, and producing $14,000, the latter an equal number of men during the same length of time, and producing $12,000. The business of the Everett, Green Campbell Company has been su perintended by Mr. Charles D. Everett, of Cleveland, Ohio, who is one of the principal shareholders, and to whose prudent and efficient management much of the success of the company is due. This gentleman left Montana in the winter of 1870, and it is to be hoped that the business of the company may not suffer from this cause, especially as the Ev erett, Green Campbell is in reality the only quartz-mining enterprise in Madison County about the full success of which there is no more doubt. BEAVER HEAD COUNTY. The census returns for the year ending June 1, 1870, report twenty. three claims active in this county during nine months on an average. All of these are located at Bannack and vicinity. Their total product is given as $281,424, and the following claims are the most prominent: Bannack Ditch Company Cañon Ditch Company Pioneer Ditch Company Van Winkle Clark Bar... American Bar Pat White's Ditch Drain Ditch Company. White's Ditch Company. $41, 184 22,000 22,000 13,200 There are only two mills beneficiating gold quartz, and one smelting works, smelting argentiferous galena and silver ores, reported in operation by the census. The two mills employed eighteen men during nine months, and the wages reported are only $50 per month, which is proba bly a mistake. The N. E. Wood Mill, which is constructed according to the plan of S. W. Bullock, of New York, and described in my last report, employed, according to the census, nine men during nine months, and produced $88,000. R. Hopkins's mill is also mentioned in last year's report. It employed nine men during nine inonths, and produced $41.800, according to the authority mentioned. The Tootle furnace is the only one of the many erected in the Argenta district which has been running, as far as I am informed, but I am unable to give its product. It was in operation, however, during the greater part of the year. Some new districts have been discovered in this county, but have as yet remained undeveloped. Vipond district is one of these. It is claimed that a section of country twenty miles long and eight miles wide is covered with float quartz, some of which is reported very rich. An occasional boulder is found of immense size, containing rich ore. Several new discoveries have been made lately that are thought to be of great importance. One of them, called the "Brick," has an eight inch crevice filled with solid quartz of good quality. Messrs. Beck Patten, Mansfield, Spurr, and others, will sink upon their leads during the winter, and doubtless by next summer the value of the district will be determined. There is no question as to the richness of the rock, but as yet sufficient developments have not been made to fully determine the character of the veins. MISSOULA AND GALLATIN COUNTIES. From these two counties I have received very little information. From the former the census returns show seventy-six piacer-claims in operation during an average of 2.2 months. They employed three hundred and seventy-eight men, at wages averaging $70 per month. The total product was $88,765, and the yield per hand per day $4 16. All these claims are located on Cedar Creck, which is, if I am informed correctly, the locality on account of which considerable excitement and a partial stampede was raised in the early spring. This may also account for the very short time during which the placers were worked. Most of the claims reported by the census yielded less than $1,000, and only two have produced much larger amounts. These are the following: Mansinger & Co., claim 400 feet front, employed twelve men two months.. Barnett & Co., claim 800 feet front, employed fourteen men three months.... $9,000 10,000 There were also discovered, later in the year, new mines on Big Rock Creek, a few miles west of the Deer-Lodge county-line and about fifty miles nearly due southwest from Deer Lodge City. In September news reached me that these mines were paying well. Messrs. Carpenter, Pickett & Cogswell had completed a ditch three and one-half miles long, and they were reported to have taken out as much as $25 to the band per day. The gold obtained was very fine, being worth $21 50, currency, per ounce. I have no information in regard to any mining which may have been carried on in Gallatin County during the year, and am inclined to believe that no results of any importance have been reached. It was in this county, in the town of Bozeman, that Henry P. Comstock, to whom is generally accorded the credit of the discovery of the Comstock lode in Nevada, (though his claim has been often disputed,) found his death by his own hands, while accompanying the Big Horn expedition. The valley of the Upper Yellowstone, which has so long excited general curiosity on account of the wonderful reports coming from that region, has been explored in August and September by an expedition, of which Mr. H. D. Washburne, the surveyor general of Montana, was a member. This gentleman published in the Helena Herald the following account of the expedition: The Yellowstone expedition left Fort Ellis on the 22d of August, through the Bozeman Pass, finding it all that the Bozemanites claim for it-easy and practicable-and camped for the first night on Trail Creek, having a fine view of the mountains beyond the Yellowstone. The next day they struck the valley, and their journey up the river commenced. They camped for the night at the ranch of Mr. Bottler, the last settler up the river. Crow Indians were quite plenty during the day, and a heavy rain at night gave anything but a pleasing aspect to the commencement of the trip; but a bright sun, about 10 o'clock, made everything right, and we moved to the cañon of the river, about fourteen miles distant, and camped on one of the loveliest spots in Montana. Two small streams put in from the east from an elevation near camp. The river and valley can be seen stretching away far to the north, the river-bank plainly defined by the trees skirting its margin. South the river can be seen pouring through the cañon, while far away to the east and west the mountain peaks were then covered with snow, the setting sun brightening both in its last rays before night's mantle was thrown over the party. We passed through the cañon next morning, and found it about six miles long, the trail leading us along the side of the torrent, and sometimes hundreds of feet above it. Night found us at the mouth of Gardiner River, a fine mountain stream coming from the south, and entering the Yellowstone just below the Grand Cañon, over thirty miles in length and nearly equally divided by the East Fork. The cañon proving impracti cable, we took to the mountains, camping one night in them, and the next night a few miles above. The river runs for sixteen miles in nearly a due west course here. Our camp was on a fine stream coming in from the opposite side of the East Fork, and designated by us as Tower Creek. The camp was called Camp Comfort. Game and trout were abundant. We found here our first hot springs, small but attractive, and of five or six different kinds-sulphur, iron, &c. This cañon of the river is grand. Basaltic columns of enormous size are quite numerous. But the great attraction here was the falls on the creek, near our camp. The stream is about as large as the Prickly Pear, and for a mile rushes down with fearful velocity. It seems at some time to have been checked by a mountain range, through which it has torn its way, not entirely removing the barrier, but tearing through, leaving portions still standing; and these, by the elements, have been forced into sharp pinnacles. Looking from the cañon below, it appears like some old castle with its turrets dismantled but still standing. From between two of these turrets the stream makes its final leap of 110 measured feet, and then, as if satisfied with itself, flows peacefully into the Yel'owstone. We attempted to compare it with the famous Minnehaha, but those who had seen both said there was no comparison. It was not as terrible in its sublimity as Niagara, but beautiful and glorious. You felt none of the shrinking back so common at the great fall, but rather as you stood below and gazed upon its waters broken into white spray, you felt as though you wanted to dash into it and catch it as it fell. By a vote of the majority of the party this fall was called Tower Fall. The cañon of the main river here runs in a southwest direction. The party crossed over a high range of mountains and in two days reached the Great Falls. In crossing the range, from an elevated peak a very fine view was had. The country before us was a vast basin. Far away in the distance, but plainly seen, was the Yellowstone Lake; around the basin the jagged peaks of the Wind River, Big Horn, and Lower Yellowstone ranges of mountains; while just ever the lake could be seen the tops of the Tetons. Our course lay over the mountains and through dense timber. Camping for the night eight or ten miles from the falls, we visited some hot springs that, in any other country, would be a great curiosity, boiling up two or three feet, giving off immense volumes of steam, while their sides were incrusted with sulphur. It needed but a little stretch of imagination on the part of one of the party to christen_them "Hellbroth Springs." Our next camp was near the Great Falls, upon a small stream running into the main river between the upper and lower falls. This stream has torn its way through a mountain range, making a fearful chasm through lava rock, leaving it in every conceivable shape. This gorge was christened the "Devil's Den." Below this is a beautiful cascade, the first fall of which is 5 feet, the second 20 feet, and the final leap 84 feet. From its exceedingly clear and sparkling beauty it was named "Crystal Cascade." Crossing above the upper falls of the Yellowstone, you find the river one hundred yards in width, flowing peacefully and quiet. A little lower down it becomes a frightful torrent, pouring through a narrow gorge over loose boulders and fixed rocks, leaping from ledge to ledge, until, narrowed by the mountains and confined to a space of about 80 feet, it takes a sudden leap, breaking into white spray in its descent, 115 feet. Two hundred yards below, the river again resumes its peaceful career. The pool below the falls is a beautiful green, capped with white. On the right-hand side a clump of pines grows just above the falls, and the grand amphitheater, worn by the maddened waters on the same side, is covered with a dense growth of the same. The left side is steep and craggy. Towering above the falls, half-way down and upon a level with the water, is a projecting crag, from which the falls can be seen in all their glory. No perceptible change can be seen in the volume of water here from what it was where we first struck the river. At the head of the rapids are four apparently enormous boulders, standing as sentinels in the middle of the stream. Pines are grow ing upon two of them. From the upper fall to the lower there is no difficulty in reaching the bottom of the cañon. The lower falls are about half a mile below the upper, where the mountains again, as if striving for the mastery, close in on either side, and are not more than 70 feet apart. And here the waters are thrown over a perpendicular fall of 350 feet. The cañon below is steep and rocky, and volcanic in its formation. The water, just before it breaks into spray, has a beautiful green tint, as has also the water in the cañon below. Just below, on the left-hand side, is a ledge of rock, from which the falls and the cañon may be seen. The mingling of green water and white spray with the rainbow tints is beautiful beyond description. The cañon is a fearful chasm, at the lower falls a thousand feet deep, and growing. |