206 ECONOMIC GEOLOGY OF SILVERTON QUADRANGLE, [bull. 182. 
LODES OF SAVAGE BASIN. 
General. — The upper portion of Savage Basin, although within the 
Silverton quadrangle, was included by Purington 1 in his study of the 
lodes of the Telluride area. In 1899 two mines, the Tomboy and 
Japan, were working in the upper basin, while in 1900 some work 
was also in progress on the Argentina and the Columbia. The basin 
contains several large lodes and many smaller ones, all possessing a 
common northwesterly strike. 
Tomboy mine. — The character of the Tomboy lode was so well 
described by Purington 2 in his report, written in 1897, that his 
account will be quoted almost entire, and supplemented by the obser- 
vations made in 1899 and 1900. He says: 
It is only within the past four years that the property known as the Tomboy 
has made any considerable product; especially in the last two years the output of 
the mine has surprisingly increased. The workings now on the vein comprise 
the length of two claims, very nearly, namely, the Belmont and the Tomboy, and 
several more claims have been located on the vein in its southern extension. The 
history of this mine is somewhat remarkable, considering its present large output. 
The original location on the vein was the Belmont claim, made in 1880; and in 
1886 the Tomboy claim, to the south of the Belmont, was located. Since the 
original discovery of the lode, and up to the year 1892, no considerable product 
was obtained; in fact, the vein was generally regarded as of little value and 
interests in the claim were sold and resold at very low figures. The Tomboy Gold 
Mining Company, which bought the mine in 1894, had it profitably working by 
April, 1895. In that year the product was nearly $600,000, and in 1896 the product 
was nearly $800,000. Recently the mine has again changed hands, and it is stated 
that the present monthly output averages about $90,000. 
The main adit is at 12,130 feet elevation, very near "the head of Savage Basin. 
The greater portion of the work has been done on one level, consisting of a drift 
over 3,000 feet in length, with stopes extending up to a height of 200 feet above 
the drift. As indicated on the map, a second adit, 381 feet vertically below the 
upper one, is being run to cut the vein. At the time of my visit this was 1,128 
feet in length. Its starting point is directly above the site of the Tomboy mill. 
All the portions of the vein worked during 1896 were in the upper augite-andesite, 
although the contact of this with the top of the San Juan breccias lies not far 
below. The lower adit is certainly in the breccias, but the exact level at which 
the contact occurs it is impossible at present to state. A specimen collected in a 
winze sunk 100 feet from the main level, although it contains fragments, is of the 
normal color characteristic of the augite-andesite. and is altogether so decomposed 
that its microscopic determination is impossible. It was stated that a dike accom- 
panies the Tomboy vein for a part of its length, as now developed. Although I 
can not say that the observations in the mine confirmed this statement, nor that 
the microscopic examination revealed any rock differing from that of the country 
in general, yet in view of the limited examination which was made, it can not be 
denied that a dike may exist. 3 
The peculiarities of the Tomboy vein, considered with reference to the fissure 
systems which it follows, have been described and illustrated. 4 So constantly 
does the vein shift from one to another set of fissures that it is impossible to get, 
1 Preliminary report on the mining industries of the Telluride quadrangle, Colorado: Eight- 
eenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Pt. HI, 1898. 
2 Op. cit.,pp. 838-841. 
3 No dike was seen in my own examination. F. L. R. 
4 See Purington, op. cit.,p. 778. 
