1828 REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. 



risk, lie leased it to a miner to work it, pay all expenses, and receive four-fifths of 

 the ore. The miner got ont a little over 11 tons of ore, and taking it to the proprie- 

 tor's mill at Lake City, received an amount which defrayed all his expenses and left 

 him $4,000 ahead. It lias produced the highest average of any mine in the district, 

 mill-runs varying, as we were iuformed at the works, from 365 to 810 ounces ; the total 

 average of the eleven tons was 440 ounces, the last run being of old ore from the dump, 

 which lowered the previous average of 600 ounces. For 500 feet opened, the lode has 

 shown the same pay streak of 10 to 15 inches. It is, therefore, a most valuable prop- 

 erty. 



Most of the ore of this district is taken to Lake for reduction. Smelting works with 

 a capacity of 10 tons daily were erected at Capitol City, but were not found in oijera- 

 tion. The proprietor had too many creditors, we were informed. 



From the Galena one naturally gravitates down Hensen Creek to the 



LAKE DISTRICT, 



which possesses the metropolis of the southwest, and being the most accessible on ac- 

 count of its good roads, is very naturally the seat of larger capital than any other dis- 

 trict of the San Juan. It borders on Galena upon the west, the Park District on the 

 southwest, and lies wholly in Hinsdale County. Its richest and most prominent lodes 

 are Hotchkiss, Ute, Ule, Belle of the West, Belle of the East, Silver Coin, J. J. Crooke, 

 Plutarch, Pride of America, Red Rover, Cora, Pacific, Big Casino, Mayflower, East 

 Boston, Little Chief, Mountain Lion, Atlantic, Plantation, and California. 



By the register of the United States land-office at Lake City we were informed 

 that there were recorded in this district 5,000 mining locations. Comparatively few, 

 however, of this immense number are in an advanced condition, most of them resting 

 on assessments. 



The mines in general are of argentiferous galena, with gray copper ; to a less extent 

 the black sulphurets are seen, while in a single case both silver and gold occur. This 

 remarkable exception to the usual mines of Lake is the Hotchkiss lode, in which valu- 

 able traces of sylvanite, with other telluride ores, occur the assays being extraordi- 

 narily high, running to $40,000. It is one of the best developed mines in the district, 

 belonging to the Crookes. It may, however, be considered as pockety in its nature, 

 the rich deposits not being continuous, nor lying in a positive and well defined fissure- 

 vein. 



The Belle of the West, but 2£ miles from Lake, is a fine characteristic lode, dis- 

 covered in 1875. The vein, a true fissure, varying from 3 to 5 feet, possesses a pay streak 

 of 9 to 18 inches width, the Constituents of the ore being argentiferous galena, with 

 gray copper, black sulpkurets also occurring. Hundreds of tons have been taken from 

 the mine, its production being over 50 per month ; its assays have been as high as 

 $1,200 while the mill runs, the real test of enduring worth, were from $6,250, the lowest, 

 to $390. Over and above expenses, it was stated to have made a return to the owners 

 on their investment, of 25 to 66 per cent per annum. 



Upon Hensen Creek are the Ute and Ule, belonging to the Crookes, of which the for- 

 mer is the most valuable, and, as might be expected from their immense capital, in an 

 advanced state of development, being, in this respect, at the time, the leading mine 

 of the San Juan. They lie upon a slope of one of the Uncompahgre Mountains, on 

 Hensen Creek, about 4 miles from town, and were purchased by the Crookes in August, 

 1876, for $120,000. They began development with the Ute. This lode properly should 

 be Ouray, as it was named by the original locator, after the renowned chieftain of the 

 Indian tribes not far distant, the orthography of whose name he could not correctly 

 manage. 



The Ule has a tunnel of 200 feet, with drifts at its end in either direction upon the 

 vein. Finding that its ore, the pay streak of which was 18 inches, did not develop as 

 expected, being rather mediocre compared with- the Ute, work was abandoned and 

 attention turned to the latter which possesses a pay streak of fully 3 feet, with high- 

 grade ore containing gray copper. 



In the visit to the Ute, there were noted 7 tunnels and 3 large shafts, with levels and 

 connecting winzes. At the close of the previous season (1876), shafts 2 and 3 showed 

 4 feet of solid mineral; in some places the vein was " pinched" or more narrow, but 

 this average was still about the same, with an increased depth. The ore of shaft No. 

 1 was first class, milling 80 to 400 ounces. Mr. Simons, the efficient superintendent, 

 with eleven years' experience in the mines of Central City, stated that during his man- 

 agement, ten months previous to October, 1877, there had been taken from the lode 

 1,600 tons of ore, and that the whole body removed from the mine aggregated "400 

 fathoms," that term being applicable to the vein area. The resulting amount would 

 be 14,400 square feet of the vein's thickness, equal to 2,000 tons of ore, from their own 

 weight averages, for while the pound weight of a foot cube of quartz is 168, tetrahedrite 

 or gray copper 300, and galena 468 pounds, the mineral is of unequal distribution. In 

 passing through the entire mine, not without some difficulty, by the way, a hole in one 



