INTRODUCTION. XXVIl 
electric light and power to the town and its mines, and no city in the 
State has better light for domestic purposes than Aspen. 
For the transportation of ore down from and supplies up to the mines, 
situated high up on the hills, several aerial wire tramways of different 
systems are in operation. On both Aspen and Smuggler mountains long 
drainage tunnels have been run for drainage and extraction purposes. The 
longest of these, the Cowenhoven tunnel. which is owned by a separate 
and distinct company, is over 8,300 feet long, and is designed to tap all 
the mines beyond the Smuggler on Smuggler Mountain. 
Of late years, since the largest and richest of the magnificent bodies of 
silver ore thus far discovered, and for which Aspen is justly famous, have 
been worked out, and since the mining profit has been so greatly reduced 
in all the mines of the district by the decline in the price of silver, the 
system of leasing the whole or parts of a mine to individuals or groups of 
miners has become common, as it is in other parts of Colorado. Under this 
system, while the mine owner may receive less profit from rich ground, 
the loss, if any, is distributed among a number of individuals and becomes 
proportionately smaller im each case. Greater economies are practiced 
where each miner has a personal interest in keeping the costs down to 
the very lowest figure, so that it is possible under this system to extract 
ore at a small profit, especially in old and abandoned workings, on which 
the company itself would probably lose money. 
Various systems of leasing are employed in the district. Sometimes 
one or more individuals lease the whole of a mine and sublet it in portions 
to individual miners or groups of miners. The lessee frequently pays men 
to work for him at “grub wages,” furnishing them only food and allowing 
a contingent interest in the profits. 
In other cases the mine is divided into blocks of varying dimensions, 
which are leased to the highest bidder, the company retaining control of the 
mine and furnishing power, foremen, engineers, timbermen, skip tenders, 
etc., and requiring each lessee to work in a systematic manner and to keep 
his portion of the mine in proper condition. 
