151 
PRELIMINARY REVIEW OF THE MINING INDUSTRY. 
I 
The breccia caps of Mineral, Carbonate, and Tenderfoot hills are dotted with 
prospect dumps and even shafts several hundred feet deep. Nothing of permanent 
value is recorded from Mineral Hill, though fairly productive placers have been 
worked at its southwestern base, almost in the town of Cripple Creek. 
On Carbonate Hill the Elkliorn has been a small producer; on Tenderfoot Hill 
the Friday, Hoosier, Black Diamond, and Mollie Kathleen contribute to the produc¬ 
tion. Two miles north-northwest of Cripple Creek is the Galena mine, the vein of 
which follows, for a part of its course, a phonolite dike in granite and has a small out¬ 
put to its credit. About the same distance north of the city is the small volcanic 
center of Copper and Rhyolite mountains. At the former the Fluorine mine has 
produced $160,000, and low-grade ore is now being cyanided. Prospects are found 
on Rhyolite Mountain, and in fact all over the flat, granite country between it and 
Trachyte Mountain. The Lincoln mine, near Gillett, and several other prospects 
farther south, along a belt of phonolite dikes, have produced a little ore. It is 
claimed that there are low-grade veins on both sides of Bernard Creek, northwest of 
Gillett , in a region of granite with occasional dikes and masses of phonolite. Trachyte 
Mountain, southeast of Gillett, is covered by phonolite, and a little ore is occasionally 
found in veins at its southern foot. Some work has also been done on Cow Mountain, 
about 4 miles northeast of Bull Hill. 
The eastern margin of the central volcanic area, east of Victor Pass and 
extending southward across Big Bull Mountain to Brind Mountain, has thus far failed 
to produce anything of importance, though well covered by prospects. A survey 
of these outlying parts of the district serves to emphasize strongly the remarkable 
concentration of deposits within the narrow limits of the central volcanic area. 
EXTEXT OF UNDERGROUND DEVELOPMENT. 
At the time of the earlier survey the deepest shafts, those of the Moose, Phar¬ 
macist, and Anna Lee mines, were down only about 400 feet, while few of the other 
mines were over 200 feet in depth. Many subsequently prominent mines were then 
mere prospects or had not been located. 
The deepest shaft at present is the Lillie, which is over 1,500 feet deep, although 
the Stratton’s Independence shaft, 1,400 feet deep, has the lowest sump in the 
district. The American Eagle shaft is nearly as deep as the Lillie, while there are 
about 20 other shafts over 1,000 feet in depth, and at least 100 shafts deeper than the 
deepest workings existing in 1894. As regards absolute elevations, the Gold Hill 
shafts are down to a level of scarcely 9,000 feet above sea; the Elkton, El Paso, and 
Lillie shafts descend to 8,750 feet; Stratton’s Independence reaches the lowest level 
at 8,450 feet; while the Gold Coin shaft, at 8,550 feet, is of interest from the fact 
that the deepest ore shoot in the district is now being stoped from its twelfth level. 
The amount of drifting and cross cutting accomplished since the earlier survey 
is more than commensurate with the increased number and depth of the shafts, and 
the district is further intersected in various directions and at different levels by 
two long tunnels run for drainage purposes and by a dqzen or more extensive adits, 
many of which have their portals in the granitic rocks and extend well into the 
central part of the breccia area. 
