APPENDIX SS. 1829 



of the winzes being too small for the "fat man" of our party, there were, moreover, 

 seen about 1,000 tons more, broken and awaiting facilities for removal and hoisting. 

 The deepest shaft was 125 feet, and throughout there were about 500 feet of level 

 traversed. Outside near the various adits were 20 miners' cabins and stables for stock ; 

 40 men were employed, wages being as usual $3 per day and board; cost of tunneling 

 from $20 to $25 per foot. These are Lake's representative and handsomest lodes ; but 

 mines are not her stronghold; in reduction facilities she stands pre-eminent, and of all, 

 the Crookes' establishment is the chief. In fact the Crookes have made Lake City 

 what she is, the undoubted metropolis of the San Juan and the center of her trade, 

 their total investment being given on the best authority as over $250,000. 



The reduction works of the district, all located in Lake City, are three in number, 

 and in the order of their capacity are Crookes', the Ocean Wave, and Van Gieson's. 

 There is also a separate and small establishment, not far from Van Gieson's for the 

 sampling of ore. 



Crookes' Concentration Works, as they are generally called, are located on the Lake 

 Fork of the Gunnison at Crookeville, about a mile from Lake City proper, on the road 

 from the southeast, and commanding a view of the town. There are four in the firm, 

 father and sons, eastern men, and proprietors of the large smelting and refining works 

 in New York City. Being all thoroughly practical men, they have been eminently 

 successful. They located their establishment here as the most accessible point within 

 the mining region ; theirs was the first to come, others followed them, capital gath- 

 ered to the same point, and Lake City, destined to remain the leading place of South- 

 west Colorado, is the result. To their works there is in general no admittance ; with 

 the enforced exclusion of the general public, and newspaper men in particular, rumors 

 are afloat of mysterious processes in metallurgy that are kept from curious eyes, like 

 the Swansea over the sea. Not so. The Crookes are thoroughly business men, and 

 came to attend to it. With their magnificent machinery and its great success, their 

 business became so great that intruders were in the way, and so they are excluded. 

 Moreover there were from 300 to 400 idle men in town in the spring (1877), all allured by 

 statements far and wide as to the silver mines found everywhere. They all weut to 

 Crooke, sr. , for work and told the same story in general. A newspaper man he there- 

 fore abhors, as they informed me, from the "false statements about the paradise of 

 San Juan," and the prospectus of one of the western railroads has as strong an effect 

 upon him as a red rag to a mad bull. Their water power is one of the falls of 33 feet 

 in the stream. It is utilized with a 26-inch Leffel turbine wheel and is equivalent to 

 75-horse power. Their concentration works, the general name of their establishment, 

 consist of concentration works proper, smelting works, chlorination works, and a 

 stamp-mill. 



In 1876, they began building, and at the end of that season had expended $50,000. 

 The main building, erected for concentration, was 96 by 32 feet and 65 feet high. There 

 were six floors, and all of them filled with machinery from top to bottom. Blake crush- 

 ers, Krom concentrators, and numerous screens, hoppers, and dryers used in concentra- 

 tion were everywhere, in seemingly endless confusion, dazing the beholder. It seeiued 

 like another Machinery Hall on a small scale ; to essay an accurate description of their 

 works without being an expert metallurgist or a mechanical engiueer would be as futile 

 as to attempt to portray the terrible nature of the canons of the Uncompahgre or the 

 ruggedness of the summits of the Needle Mountains. 



The coarse ore is received above, on the sixth floor, as it comes from the mines ; it- 

 comes out below, au absolutely impalpable powder, perfectly free from dust or rock, 

 fine mineral alone. In the shape of bullion, it is shipped to their refineries in Xew 

 York. The concentration department was enlarged 50 by 40 feet, during the seasou of 

 1877, with similar machinery, in the shape of Blake crushers, Krom- concentrators, &c, 

 until its capacity has reached 75 tons daily. 



The smelting-works contain four reverberatory furnaces, two sweaters, and two 

 roasters, with another furnace building. The whole is a large building in four com- 

 partments, or perhaps, more properly, four buildings combined, 96 by 75 feet. These 

 four furnaces, and the one erecting, have a capacity of 6 to 8 tons daily. They, however, 

 never charge over a ton, and ordinarily but 1,800 pounds each. Huge piles of hogs- 

 heads of tin scraps and turnings used in fluxing were in the yards, and droppings were 

 noticed for miles along the road over which they had come. The chlorination works 

 are of the usual order, 75 by 50 feet ; the chlorides are shipped to New York City for 

 refinement. The stamp mill was 75 by 50 feet, and contained 15 stamps. 



The blast furnace, a Fraser & Chalmer, was erected during the season of 1877 ; ca- 

 pacity, 25 tons daily. In the yards were noticed large stacks of ore in desulphurization 

 beds. It is possible that an approximate idea of the enormous quantity of machinery 

 in the shape of Blake crushers, Cornish rolls, Frue vanners, Krom concentrators, &c., 

 may be gathered from the fact that from the railroad they transported 30 tons, which 

 cost them by slow freight 4-J- cents per pound. Additions being made were still incom- 

 plete, and Avhen finished, the several classes of works under their management will 

 form the largest and most complete establishment in the State, and will be the only 



