niÄftt« their requirements.
nia mine" al wealth of Lemhi
Jntv 'life© many sections of the
C ? ty waö first known through its
"tSUvorie». Since 1866 there
?aC „nt been a year but what Lemhi
DOt «,„0 nroduced gold For the
f 'ew yea P rs after 1866 . the rush
„„in waq on . towns
placer ë n ieht and many
tnriav with a' few cabins
♦a 1 thriving towns Such
were then thr ymg to^ns ^ S uch ;
mining towns last as long as the
placer gold 18 , s , , .
tbe rich pay atreaks> short
lived. This stage of m g
county has gone through with To
give exact figures of the output of
the placers is impossible, as the,
gold was used as a medium of ex
change, carried to all points in the,
west, and some is thought to have
reached China, as many of the
leases were taken by Chinamen. At
that time no record was kept by the
government, and the opinion of
those who lived in the camps and
knew of the production places the
recovery of gold from Leesburg, Big
Creek, Moose Creek and adjoining
sections from $15,000,000 to $40,
The old workings were
very rich, and due to the cost of ,
supplies, the price of labor and the
that
County
first
for
sections,
WO,000.
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OF LEADORE, IDAHO.
TOWN'
SAGEBRUSH NEAR THE NEW
CLEARING
m ..
"othods then in use only the rich
Pay streaks could be mined. In the
bish to handle the most ground
Possible in a day, a large part of
J"« fine gold went over with the
tailings and in some cases a part of
Je quick, so todav we find that all
we old tailings' pan gold and
amalgan Like other placer camps
these tailings will be handled
a Saln, 1. t this time by the dredge,
As won ' be expected the rims and
Poorer ound were left behind,
? nce t t time up to the present
date Pa of this ground has been
' v the prospectors but manv
les of P rims virgin ground,
tailings are awaiting the
prospecting of a d?ed4ng
' It is the ooinfon * of the
o!d tint miners in these camps that
as W»cL gold remains in the ground
38 wer, v e i tiken out in thf Plao
ers of lemhl county On Kirtlev.
t Geer tso: and Bohannon Creeps all
ette st of qafmon placer gold
recovered ?ov CnV years
first work
worker,
square ■
and
o
dioroug
COl Qpan
ber n
Past.
Kirtley Creek
was
led in the nrGA g
shoveling into t '
equipped for hydrau"VW
day is being operated -
(most „ ertot „ P r e«U " J f
On orirtsou creek t ■- ■ ' " ,'1^
value of tho \ur,è' 1 ." " Urdl
soight after On Bohannon S
wp finti u.ti-'eM-. Hjnannon Lreek
However m iph ,S and.;
Unent rV VomV. haB . be6 u
hydrânlir n J S l drëe l . raf:t W1 ^ b
hydraulic means of working the
ground and for the past twenty
I , 8 1 as bs ®? a steady producer,
and is today still worked. To the
North of Salmon, down the Salmon
River, we find all the bars in the
r.ver contain placer gold, and in
many cases they are being worked
by small sluices and the rocker each
year. In the Gibbonsville section
quite a little gold has been recover
ed from the placers, and the ground
is being worked by hydraulic meth
od today. Many stories have been
set afloat about the wonderful rich
ness of the bars along the Salmon
River, and in the past year an east
ern company has equipped several
boats with supplies and have com
menced to give the entire lower
river section a thorough prospecting,
also to work several bars already
prospected. Much of the large area
. . , „«re nneu for en
covered by P lace *^ 18 op . or pat .
try today, and tnai. * rova ltv
ented may be leaseu nd j eas ' 3
basis, or is y open, tor o*. u ad a
to those who win »f 6 n ° r0 rhis
thorough prospect■ L u . Yemhi
fact, many prospecti f - . ... as .
County find their ; after
sured. The t he
"Mother Lode- f oem
gold in th I ! , -, a to
discovered, so the . ■ , work .
all. With the gf unf Ie s a
ed out. Lem-.n com. .. .,., n ies
fine field the df- ' rough
to give the : ny c.. s nv
test, and m: n0
a - od mar v
The que?- J ation
not beta '
du- it. S. . ; , ve:e
from the - v . ime n -
sent to the Govrin f Expo.--;
al Plant at rite ^.a.. v
tion in 19 f riif ,. u -^ y[lneT ^
found in th C g 1905
Hesor. >es ot he go]d
These -how
< v r e, Ilmenite, chromite and
' V * he junction of Moyer'
^ Creeks, stream tin is found
». the placer ground. 1
h '"' a lhe other P lacer sections
na e no detailed report on the
C ° DtfeDtS of A th * biack . sand - i
Quartz M.nmg.
As soon as the early excitment off
the plac . er discoveries had subsided,
prospecting for gold in the moun
tains was commenced. Many rich
bodies or ore have been found, and
much rich ore packed by pack trains
to market. The prospecting has
not proven fruitless, but has proven
that not one gold section is found
in the county, but that the entire
county contains veins carrying good
values in gold. As in the case of
placer mining in the early days of
the country, the production of the
county has not been kept, but con-ver
servative mining men place same
close to $10,000,000. Comparatively
speaking, very little deep mining
has been done in the county, but
what has been done shows that the
values in the ore GO DOWN. Many
mines were equipped with mills for
treating oxidized ores, and have
found that the ores turned base
close to the surface and the mills as
lava beds are found in some lo
.
:
:
equipped would not save the gold,
The county has had its day of WILD
C AT MINING, and in the past few
ve ars mining has been taken from
this stage and placed upon a more
business like footing. The change
has had the effect of placing more
c n fidence in those who come into
u - e country and has let the prospector
know that when he offers his prop-!
e rty to the public he must expect
most thorough examination. Largejent.
seC tions of the country have been
only run over by the prospectors
and. where the ground has been lo
cated. surface cuts and shallow
sha f ts represent the work den?. The
valleys are sedimentary in origin,
sandstone, limestone and conglomer-.
ate extending over the foothills to
the mountains prooer. and in some
casss the limestone extending to the
tops of the highest peaks. Tne
mountains are formed of granite,
qliar tzite f schists, gneiss, rhyolite.|
porphyry and shales, cut by dikes
of dacite. porphyry and syenite. In
the sounthern part of the county
calitles.
Gold is found in every section of
the county, being mined today in
the Main Ridge, Olbhonavllle,
Ulysses, Shoup, Leesburg. Arnett
Creek, Yellow Jacket, Forney, Leeo
^rg Range. Pahslmaroi Range and
Gilmore sections of the county,
Along the Main Range we find
gold in both contact and fissure
veins in schists, quartzites and por
phyry formations.
richest ore in the county is coming
from this range and the finest speci
mens of free gold are In the quartz,
Generally some one of the copper
ores is found associated with the
gold, and the surface croppings will
generally show the green copper
stain (malachite). In some cases a
little galena in bunches is found
with the ore, in which case the sil
values are also good. All the
ores found in the Main Ridge car
ry silver, and in a few cases the
ores are especially rich in silver. No
particular section of the range need
be singled out,
found
peaks to the base of the moun
tains.
on the surface, one would be
led to predict that below the oxid
ized zone he would find both pryite
Some of the
as the veins are
from the summit of the
From the ores as found
and chalcoprite.
In the Gibbonsville District we
find several mines with a record of
production in the years gone by,
with several thousand feet of de
velopment work. This section has
several stamp mills and one cyanide
; plant. The gold is found in pyrltlc
ores and the question of treatmer
has kept the district from prodi
aüng in the past few years. At p- -
under toe new management,
district is again in the list of pro
ducero.
In the Shoup country the o es are
also base in character as ^ n as
any depth is reached. Here we find
! several properties well eveloped
with large ore reserves in sight, but
owned by outside parties w 10 have
seen fit to let the properties He
idle in the past few years.
the greatly reduced rates on con
centrate shipments, these properties
will, no doubt, in the near future
receive more attention Many prom
ismg prospects are found in this
section and several are being work
e
With