APPENDIX SS. 1817 



Wages in June for ordinary hands, $2.50 per day, and board, 35 men being then at 

 work at the Little Annie property. 



This district was also passed in August and revisited in October. In the three and 

 a half months, June to October 12, 3,200 tons had been treated, the total production 

 aggregating $140,000. The mill of the company, of 10 stamps, being unable to treat 

 all the ore mined, its reduction was let by contracts varying from $8 to $10 ; loss to 

 company thereby during the season estimated at $20,000. 



In the examinations of this mine there was noticeable, in an unusual degree, a per- 

 fect system of economy in all the details of the business. The tramway referred to, on 

 which the car at each trip transported to the works below a load of 2-£ tons of ore, was 

 built in heavy snows and storms, at a cost of but $1.50 per foot. Later during the 

 summer the wages of the hands, which had been $2 in June, were reduced to $1.50, 

 and a tunnel of 100 feet in leugth, running into the southern face of the mine, was 

 contracted for at $7.50 per linear foot. Tunnel construction elsewhere in the San Juan 

 varied from $15 to $30, according to locality. 



The Ida Mine had several hundred tons upon the dump ; assays rich, up to $5,000, 

 but reduction process unsuccessful, the gold escaping the quicksilver and the amalgam 

 yielding only iron. The San Juan, consolidated, has failed entirely, and the panning- 

 mill had been dismantled and the machinery removed in October. 



No mills were in operation at this latter date, save the Little Annie and Queen, 

 working in all 23 men on ore of the Little Annie. 



The Odin tunnel was at this time personally examined, there being over 3 feet of 

 snow on the ground. Extent, 48 feet ; no results whatever beyond the usual porphyry. 



THE DECATUR DISTRICT 



lies upon the South Fork of the Alamosa, directly below and to the south of the Sum- 

 mit, and is also gold. When it was personally visited in October, most of the mines, 

 very few in number, were deserted. Several men, however, were present, working 

 their lodes, the gangue carrying iron pyrites. 



An arrastra was observed near a collection of abandoned cabins, beside which was 

 an unnecessary large tunnel, being 15 feet by 10 in the clear, of a length of 150 feet, a 

 large dump-pile and a lot of selected ore lying near by. The principal lodes of the 

 district, with their values, as we were informed by miners thereon, are as follows: Star 

 of the West, assaying $85 ; Carrie, assaying $60 ; 1776 lode, assaying $50. 



The water of several streams flowing into the South Fork hereabout was excessively 

 bitter and disagreeable from the alum tastes imparted by the decomposing pyrites 

 throughout their drainage area. Some ore of the Golden Star lode at Sperry's Mill at 

 the Summit gave a mill-run of $10 per ton. 



In their bearing on the mineral wealth of the San Juan, the mines of this section, 

 as far as observation extended, may be wholly discarded. Nothing thereof indicat- 

 ing their present or prospective value was anywhere learned. 



THE ALAMOSA DISTRICT, 



also a gold region, what there is of it, lies farther below the Decatur, and along the 

 same river. 



The lodes, Avhen examined in October last, were everywhere abandoned. As a gen- 

 eral factor in the mining interests of the San Juan, this district may be wholly ig- 

 nored. 



Both the Decatur and Alamosa lie in Conejos County. 



The region at the head of the Continental Divide, upon the Summit watershed of the 

 Rio San Juan, has been prospected slightly only, and thus far with but little success. 



In August w r e were shown a specimen of argentiferous galena from a lode discov- 

 ered, it was said, upon the Upper Navajo. 



The regions thus far mentioned are outlying and to the east of the great seat of min- 

 eral wealth of the San Juan. To pass directly to outlying points to the west, we reach 



THE LA PLATA DISTRICT, 



in La Plata County, upon the river of the same name, about and above Parrott City, 

 and the most southerly mining section of the country. Operations in this district date 

 back several years, when a wonderful activity for a while existed. The capitalists 

 investing here, for whom the town was named, were Messrs. Parrott & Co., of San 

 Francisco. Parties in their interest, and to whom they liberally supplied the required 

 capital, reached this locality from the Pacific coast and began prospecting. Finding 

 from a season's operations in sluice-mining that a valuable bar existed along the river, 

 preparations for a thorough hydraulic system were entered upon. Through misman- 

 agement or other causes dissatisfaction ensued, and the supplies of capital ceasing all 

 operations were suspended and the camp was, when visited, thoroughly dead. 



