[ 314 ]
THROUGH UTAH.
__________
I.
LAST summer and autumn comprised our second season in Utah. Accompanied by my wife, I had leisurely travelled over the northern part of the territory, advancing into Idaho, where we passed the delightful month of August, at the comparatively unknown but wonderfully
health-restoring Soda Springs. Thence we journeyed south and east, through
the Bear Lake district and along the banks of that water, rivalling in transparent beauty and grand surroundings Lake George, Tahoe, or Geneva. Coming down from those lofty plains, six thousand feet above the level of the sea, we emerged through Logan canyon amid an indescribable magnificence of
scenery, and found our way to the city of Salt Lake, from whence we had
taken our departure.
This journey of several hundred miles had been chiefly accomplished
on horseback, by which pleasant and exhilarating method of travelling we
had been enabled to see more of the country and to form more correct ideas
of its peculiar people, than by observation in any other way.
We were everywhere most hospitably entertained, in a region which fortunately for our purpose was generally without hotels. It is scarcely necessary to remark that as ladies are more communicative with each other than with a sex less accustomed to questions and answers, I had unsurpassed opportunities for obtaining information of domestic affairs. The impressions of that tour were given to the readers of the New York "Evening Post," and I now propose to furnish similar but more general experiences of the country and people of western and southern Utah. We were told that as we had hitherto seen only Salt Lake City and the northern part of the territory, our favorable opinions would be dissipated when we beheld the ignorance, poverty, and degradation of th.e
south; but we found that those who gave us this information possessed the
first of these characteristics themselves.
We are constrained to admit that notwithstanding the abnormal practice
of matrimony which prevails in many families, the Mormons as a class are,
with this single exception, a virtuous, industrious, happy, and religious peo-
ple. In very many respects their traducers might improve their own lives
by imitating theirs. In this series of papers, when it comes in my way to
remark upon the society into which we were thrown, I shall do so with the
same impartiality I have heretofore endeavored to maintain. That there may
be no misunderstanding of my sentiments, I will say in the outset that I
consider the practice of polygamy a dark stain upon an otherwise attractive picture, a crime against the law of the land, and a serious drawback to the
prosperity of Utah. Most ardently desiring its abolition, I am opposed to all
Congressional legislation intended to accomplish it, but in reality conducing
to its continuance.
I do not know if slavery could have been brought to an end without war,
but we are all aware that there was a class of patriots who preferred to end
it in that way, and whose rancor has not abated with its extinction. There
is a similar spirit abroad as opposed to polygamy. There are "Gentile ring"
politicians in Utah, and there are ignorant and fanatical politicians in Washington. The former desire revolutionary trouble from selfish motives, and the latter legislate in accordance with their wishes chiefly from ignorance or a craving for popularity. The intent of the one and the practice of the other is only evil, and that continually.
Of course argument would be wasted on the men who compose the political
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 315
ring of Salt Lake City, but it may not be in vain to appeal to our national
legislators, and to ask them to abstain from forcible measures when the end
can be attained more readily by simply leaving polygamy to the omnipotent
jurisdiction of railroads and fashions, and to the common sense of the rising
and more cultured generation who, seeing its evil influences on their parents,
are almost universally opposed to it.
Scarcely a traveller on the pleasure trip to California omits to spend a day
or two at Salt Lake. In a short stay tourists are scarcely able to form correct opinions of everything they see and hear, although they often persuade
themselves that they have acquired the fullest information. Yet they do succeed in furnishing the press with such abundant descriptions of the town and
its immediate surroundings, that I should not be thanked for again travelling over their narrow but well-beaten paths.
I prefer to take my readers at once on excursions similar to those I have
already mentioned. These too were accomplished generally in wagons and
on horseback, in the same company and with the same advantages.
Without more preface, we will leave the city on a pleasant day about the
close of September last, and as we travel west and south we will see the
Great Salt Lake, the mountains, the valleys, the mines, and the people.
The distance from Salt Lake City to Ophir canyon is fifty-five miles. When
the Utah Western railroad is completed so far as contemplated, this will
be one of the most agreeable excursions from the city. Then it was a tedious dusty drive in the stage-coach. Still, there are many pleasant views to be had from the road, which passes across the long desert wastes and over the spurs of rugged mountains. I shall have more to say of the railroad system of Utah in the course of this narrative. In no part of the Union has it been so economically or profitably developed under more discouraging conditions.
Isolated from the outside world of business, a self-dependent people, constantly under the ban of their countrymen, who claim a higher standard of virtue and civilization, the Mormons have been stimulated by circumstances to display a wonderful energy.
When the Union Pacific railroad extended itself to the confines of their territory, they at once realized the advantages that would accrue to them from connection with it. The "Utah Central," uniting the Union and Central Pacifics with Salt Lake, a distance south of thirty-eight miles, was immediately commenced; the Utah Southern has since been extended seventy-seven miles still further to the south, and will soon reach the southern limits of the territory. Three narrow-gauge roads, of from fifteen to twenty-five miles in length, are profitably operated in connection with this main trunk, and now the Utah Western is fairly under way,
and by the next season will have been finished forty-five miles, to Stockton
Lake, the nearest practicable approach to the rich mining districts of Ophir and Dry canyons. This country is admirably adapted to the construction and profitable running of narrow-gauge roads. The cheapness of the grading, the iron, and the equipment will combine to greatly lessen their first cost and running expenses.
Experience gained on the roads previously built has enabled the projectors of the Utah Western to avoid mistakes and to adopt such improvements that an absolute success will be insured. The grade of this road being less than that of any of the others, and the mining regions to which it advances being the most profitable localities of Utah, give it superior advantages above them all.
Whatever may have been the calculations of Brigham Young in secluding his people from the world before the idea of a Pacific railroad was entertained, he is certainly now a progressive railroad man. His sons are enthusiastically devoted to such objects, and none of them have evinced more
316 THROUGH UTAH. [SEPTEMBER,
sagacity and energy in this respect than John W. Young, to whom the Utah Western owes its inception and accomplishment. He has succeeded by his personal address and high character in overcoming the senseless prejudices of Eastern capitalists against the safety of investment among the Mormons, and has shown them, to their own advantage, that a Mormon gentleman can understand business as well as if he had been educated in Wall street, and what is better, he can conduct it more honorably. We reached the shores of the Great Lake after a drive of three hours. Such is the optical illusion caused by this rarefied atmosphere, that the city, left eighteen miles behind us, seemed to be only four or five miles distant, the houses being distinctly visible. The formation of the land contributes to this deception, ridges of mountains running north and south, and enclosing valleys of a width of about twenty-five miles, with no intervening elevations. We drove for an hour along the southern bank of Salt Lake, fanned by the breath of its sea air, and looking over its waste of waters dotted with mountain islands. It required but little imagination to transport ourselves to the shores of the Atlantic, for extending as it does ninety miles to the north, no land could be seen beyond the line of the clearly defined horizon. Some years ago a steamboat of three hundred tons was built for freight and passenger traffic, in connection with the Union and Central Pacific roads; but her fair prospects were ruined by the construction of the Utah Central, and she now lies at the wharf, her only value being her aid in making our imaginary ocean seem more real. How this great basin of salt water came to be deposited in the interior of the continent, has been a study for geographers and naturalists. The changes that are taking place in its character at the present day are observed with much interest. It was first discovered by a party of trappers long before the religious discovery of Joseph Smith. When they had taste of its waters they supposed that it was an arm of the sea coming in from the Gulf of California; but on their attempt to sail into the Pacific by that route, they experienced the same disappointment that fell upon the Dutchmen in their exploration of the North river, although they might have been led to the same conclusions from different tests.
The trappers should have realized that the water was too salt, and the
Dutchmen should have found that the water was too fresh to communicate
with the Pacific ocean. Salt making has been a business of great importance on the banks of the lake since the occupation of this territory by the Mormons. The water is so densely saline that it is impossible for a body to find the bottom.
It is a capital place to acquire the art of swimming with perfect safety. In former times three barrels of water left to evaporate would produce one barrel of salt; but the freshening within the last twenty years has so weakened it that now four barrels of it are required to obtain that quantity. It has become fresh, therefore, in a proportion of somewhat more than one per cent. yearly. Hence it follows that in less than one hundred years the name of Great Salt Lake should be changed; for by this time it will, like Mormonism, be cleared of all its impurities. I have previously noticed the regular water lines, called benches,
which are so distinctly defined on all the mountain ranges surrounding these
various valleys, and which afford such unmistakable evidence that in former
days they enclosed vast inland seas. The deep alkaline soil of the bottoms
has led to the supposition that these seas were of salt water, and that all of
them excepting this have been completely evaporated, Salt Lake being the sole survivor, and that being destined to dwindle to a puddle and then to dry up for ever. But the last part of this theory is negatived by the evident intention of the lake to assume somewhat of its original proportions; while
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 317
it is becoming fresher, it is growing larger. Within the twenty-seven years
that the country around it has been settled, it has encroached all along its
low banks nearly a mile upon the land and deepened five feet. Several fine
farms are now permanently under water, and the road on which we travelled has been moved far inward to accommodate its aggressiveness. At the
same time that this change is going on, atmospheric causes for a part of it are
apparent. The climate is becoming more mild, although it is still excessively dry. But each succeeding season brings a greater rainfall. This has
doubled within twelve years.
The lake is fed by Bear river on the north and Jordan on the south, besides
some small rivulets that find their way into it. Every year their volumes increase, and contribute to the filling up of the great basin into which they pour themselves. Notwithstanding this, the increase of the lake cannot be thus
accounted for, as they are still but insignificant streams. It must be true that new fresh-water fountains have burst out from the bottom, and are the chief causes of the increase. A like phenomenon has produced the lake near which we afterward passed at Stockton, where on the ground encamped upon by Connors army there is now a body of water two miles square and of considerable depth. If these changes go on as they have commenced, the Zion of Brigham Young will ere long become completely submerged. His enemies will say that a second flood has been commissioned to overflow the desert that he has reclaimed, because of the sins of the people, and that like Sodom and Gomorrah these modern cities of the plain have been overwhelmed as a punishment for their unnatural crimes. But those judgments are yet afar off. Brigham teaches that when Utah is destroyed all the earth will perish likewise, excepting that favored spot, Jackson county, Missouri. There it was that a divine revelation commanded him to build a temple which, although destroyed by the ruthless Gentiles, is destined to rise again from its ashes. All the low lands around it will rise at the same time, and the chosen remnant of mankind will flock to this elevated plateau, from whence, like Noah looking over the bulwarks of the ark, they
shall behold the drowning Gentiles struggling in the deep waters, while
Mormons, in dry, white robes, with harps in their hands, shall touch the
strings like heroes, in mockery at the ruin of the universe. Then Jackson
county itself is to be caught up, and its glorified saints are to be distributed
among the stars of the firmament, where with crowns on their heads they
are to reign for ever and ever. Thus the gradual rise of Salt Lake is not an
indication of their destruction, but a harbinger of their glory.
Leaving Salt Lake far behind us, our way led over the spur of the Oquirrh
ridge, which there terminates and forms the eastern boundary of Tooele
valley. Soon after we had dined at a wretched "half-way" house, we came in sight of the pretty little town of Tooele, that springs into life by the side of a mountain stream, enriching it by its irrigation and presenting it in beautiful contrast with the surrounding desert waste. It is not like a town laid out in blocks and squares, but it is literally an accumulation of garden spots. Each house is surrounded by
the foliage of fruit trees and vines, almost hiding it in their leafy bowers. These were loaded down with apples, pears, peaches, melons, and grapes, which, being gathered, are dried and preserved for use and exportation. Entering one of the gardens, we were offered an abundance of the delicious produce. The peaches were large and luscious -- quite equal in flavor to those gathered on the Delaware.
This little village, now so peaceful and quiet, was lately the scene of intense political excitement; the newspapers have been full of the election quarrels at Tooele. They have not related to Republicanism or Democracy. Such trifling issues did not affect
318 THROUGH UTAH. [SEPTEMBER,
votes in any degree. The people did not trouble themselves about the third term question, nor if there was a prospect of another rebellion, would they have thought the subject worthy of their consideration. The great question was, shall Judge Rowberry, the Mormon bishop, who for years had presided at the Probate Court, retain his office, or shall the Gentile Brown occupy his place? In short, it was a religious fight. Bunyan's Holy War and Milton's Paradise Lost could only approach in prose or poetry to an idea of the fury of the battle. Mormon hosts were marshalled against the Gentile cohorts, the one considering themselves the armies of the Lord, and the others willing to be called the soldiers of Lucifer, so that they might gain the victory. Mormonism pressed every man and woman into its service, and the Gentile element ransacked all the mining camps of the country for its supplies. It was Lowlander against Highlander -- the
saints dwelling on the plains against the irreverent "cusses" of the mountains who had invaded the soil, heretofore sacred to the religion of the prophet. It was the first organized attempt to gain a Gentile foothold in any part of the territory. The means used for the assault were as unscrupulous as those wielded for the defence. Governor Woods descended from the dignity of his office to mingle in the broil, threatening, when he was interrupted in his speech, to punch the head of his assailant, and to "boot out" the county clerk if he did not "dry up." Parson Smith, of the Methodist persuasion, is such a muscular Christian that when he was damned by some devout Mormons, he replied to them that he was not allowed to swear, but, suiting the action to the words by throwing off his coat, he would "lick the whole crowd, three at a time." Per contra, in a rather more quiet style of warfare, when they found the election was going against them, the Mormon Judge and his clerk carried off the records of the court, which were not recovered without much difficulty. There was doubtless a great deal of illegal voting on both sides, from Mormon women who paid no taxes, and from Gentile miners who constituted themselves residents of two or three different camps at the same time. The end attained was a Gentile victory. The Probate Court is now in Gentile hands, and as Salt Lake City is in the same district, it is
proposed to bring Brigham Young and all the great polygamists of that city
to trial in Tooele; and to put down by this decisive blow the twin relic of barbarism, which has so heavily weighed upon the consciences of those virtuous mining Gentiles, so that they can henceforward drink their whiskey without molestation, and use their pistols and bowie knives in peace. This must be accomplished before the next election, for in the mean time Brigham, warned by the disastrous results of this campaign, will not fail to pour a sufficient Mormon reinforcement into Tooele county to insure a victory for the church, by reinstating the deposed judge and his clerk.
II.
LIKE travellers on Sahara, we had espied the green oasis of Tooele from afar. We had entered beneath its shady trees and luxuriated in its fruitful gardens, and now, leaving it regretfully behind, we were whirled along by our six-horse team, through clouds of dust, over the desert again. All was a barren waste of stunted sage brush and alkali, till after three hours drive we came to the Gentile settlement of Stockton, presenting itself in a strong contrast to the charming little village of the saints. There the people, having planted their own vines and fig trees, were content to sit down beneath them and enjoy their fruits, with no ambitious desires of aggrandizement; they are satisfied with the sure returns of husbandry, from which, after paying their tithing to the
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 319
church, there is an abundance left to supply all the absolute wants of life.
Tooele is a picture of happiness, if not the realization of what can never be
fully attained; Stockton seemed to be a representation of misery sought for
and found.
Pitched on one of the bleakest spots that could be selected, where no tree can take root, and scarcely a sagebrush can show its head, built of rambling piles of logs, the only exception an abortive frame house called a hotel, where bad dinners are eaten and worse liquors are quaffed, it is the home of a few workmen, who are employed in the neighboring furnaces of ore. What wages these men earn to repay them for passing any part of their existence in this execrable hole I do not know, but I am sure that a Tooele Mormon would not exchange his home for this, unless some special exaltation be promised for the
world to come. A Mormon will do everything for that. A man will fill his home with wives, and a woman will go into polygamy, thus living in a hell upon earth, with the joyful anticipation of a heaven in the future. Some such consideration as this might induce them to make a short stay in Stockton. It would be the only thing that would influence me.
The Chicago Furnace Company own the works situated a mile beyond the town. This is operated by them for smelting the ore from their own mine, and also that which is offered to them by others. it is a very profitable concern, and being under efficient management is regarded with as great if not greater confidence than any other establishment of the kind in the district.
Passing the lake of recent formation, referred to in the last chapter, and which adds such a pleasing feature to the otherwise dreary landscape, we drove on toward Ophir.
From the level of Salt Lake our ascent had been gradual. Although over what appeared to be vast plains, it was scarcely discernible. But now it was quite apparent as we drew on toward the foot hills of the range looming up grandly before us.
The sun had been pouring hotly down upon us all the day, and it was an inexpressible relief and pleasure when we entered the mouth of the canyon, and the first tall cliff on the left threw its shadow over our path, permitting us to trace its dark outlines on the opposite mountain, whose summit was still in a blaze of brightness. In this delightful coolness of evening below, under the light of sunshine from above, we followed up the canyon for three miles, and arrived at the city of Ophir. Like all the mining "cities" of these mountains, Ophir is a mere camp, containing a few stores, bar-rooms, and shanties for the supplies and accommodation of the miners, who are mostly distributed in the hills, only visiting the cities for their necessities, or for the enjoyment of Sunday after their own fashion. One of the buildings serves the purpose of city hall, lyceum, dance-house, and church, as occasion demands. On the day after our arrival the pulpit scaffolding was occupied in the morning by an Episcopal clergyman, and in the evening by a Catholic priest, both of whom came in one coach from Salt Lake. When the latter preached, his Protestant brother aided with us in making the congregation to number a little more than a dozen. On the previous evening the hall had been crowded with dancers, who kept up a hideous noise till morning. Nevertheless it is fair to say that Sunday was very quietly observed, and there were few cases of drunkenness that caused much disturbance. But the Ophir citizens are not church-going as a class, though as tolerant as they are ignorant in religious matters. The other Sunday a Methodist clergyman officiated, opening the services by requesting them to
sing the hymn commencing,
"O for a closer walk with God."
After the meeting one of the congregation thanked him for his preaching,
adding; "But, parson, you, was more.
320 THROUGH UTAH. [SEPTEMBER,
comp'mentry than we deserves. I dunno's Ophir camps any better'n the rest
of 'em; we all walks a good deal closter the other way." I have a photograph of the hotel restaurant of Monsieur Simon, where last year I was so comfortably lodged, and where we were now welcomed by the proprietor with the same ceremony observed at a "descent" before a Parisian hotel. The hotel restaurant itself in the picture, but far more in the reality, presents a ludicrous contrast to its
background of Zion mountain, towering three thousand feet above it. Whenever a stranger comes into these camps he is immediately encompassed by a crowd of kindly disposed gentlemen, who are willing to divide their interests in the most promising mines, which only require a little of your money for their development. They have prospects of wonderful "indications," "true fissure veins," "limestone and quartzite formations," "hanging and foot walls," "carbonate," "chloride," and other certainties of producing unlimited quantities
of rich ore, thousands of tons of which are frequently in sight. They want you to invest in the running of tunnels and the sinking of shafts, and then to "put the mine in the market," in New York or London. As to "prospects," the mountains are as full of them as sandbanks are ever bored by swallows for their nests. The
laboring miners are universally poor. They keep themselves industriously in that condition; toiling away at their "prospects" until their flour and bacon give out, and then working by the day in the large mines until they get money enough to buy powder and provisions to work on another prospect, when they find a "trace" or "cropping out" that affords them any hope. They have known or have heard of a few men who, having "struck a good thing," have risen from a condition like their own to the rank of millionaires, and why should not the same good fortune at last be theirs? Instead of gambling with dice and cards, they gamble with the spade and pick, working harder and gaining as little. Among the thousand blanks there is occasionally a prize. The Walker brothers have drawn their full share. They came to Utah as members of the Mormon Church, toiled in the canyons, cutting and drawing wood, gained a little property in this way, invested in land and merchandise, paying their tithing with regularity, until they accumulated a property on the income of which they did not care to pay ten per cent. One day they were reminded of their duty by Brigham Young, and they sent him a check for ten thousand dollars. Brigham returned it with a notice
that it was insufficient, whereupon they tore it up, paid tithing no longer,
and left the Church. They say the Lord has prospered them ever since.
Brigham says the devil has been their friend. No matter who has assisted
them, the Walkers have done something for themselves. Their great
warehouses are potent rivals of "Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution,"
and every hole of ground into which they dig becomes a mine of wealth.
They own them in every canyon, and here in Ophir they reign supreme.
What wonder is it that poor men, who but a few years ago worked side
by side with these Walker brothers, should ask themselves, As we have
been equals once, why should we not be equals again?
III.
THE pursuits of Utah people may be classed like medicines, "vegetable" and "mineral." The Mormons are almost strictly agricultural, and the Gentiles devote themselves nearly universally to mining labor and speculation. Brigham encourages his saints to cultivate the soil, and preaches farming to them as a religious duty. The wisdom of his advice is apparent in the success attending its practice. They abandon the precarious chances of the
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 321
mines to others, who too often, after years of unavailing toil and broken down with disease, are forced to admit the worldly wisdom of the prophet. The entire attention of the dwellers in these mountains is given to silver mining, smelting, and milling. Where there is an abundance of lead present in the ore -- and it frequently runs from forty to sixty per cent. -- the silver is extracted by the process of smelting. The furnaces generally purchase the rough mineral as it comes from the mines on a basis of forty to fifty per cent. lead; that is, if the ore yield that amount, the smelter takes it for his work and delivers over to the miner one dollar per ounce for all the silver that it contains. If the basis agreed upon falls short, the miners pay the smelter the difference per ton. If it overruns, the payment is reversed. Good smelting ore is that which being clear of pyrites comes up to the basis required, and then yields to the miner, to pay
him for the cost of his labor and transportation, thirty ounces of silver to the ton. Besides the mines of smelting ore, there are many of milling; that is, they produce a greater amount of silver than some of the others, but so little of lead that the silver cannot be extracted by the smelting process. It is therefore crushed in stamp mills. This is milling ore. It is likewise mostly purchased by those who convert it into bullion. The rate given is nicely graded according to the assay. Mr. Dunn, the superintendent of Walker Brothers' Pioneer mill, obligingly gave us a list of their rates. The lowest ore which will pay for crushing is that yielding $40 per ton; on this they return twenty-five per cent.; on that yielding $100, fifty per cent.; $200, sixty-five per cent.; $500, seventy-nine per cent.; $1,000, eighty-three per cent. These are mentioned to give an idea of the scale of intermediate assays. In the case of the mill, as in the other method of working by the smelter, there are no charges exacted beyond the amount of the pretty little commission which it will be seen these establishments appropriate to themselves. But their expenses are very heavy; charcoal and coke are the only fuels that can be used for smelting; the former is becoming every day more scarce in this thinly wooded
country, and coke has been supplied from Pittsburgh, Pa., at a cost of $35 per ton. As to the mills, there is not a sufficiency of the ore they require to keep them in operation more than four months in the year. Nevertheless, when well managed, smelting and milling both give large profits. Mr. Dunn's establishment is a model of neatness and order. We were shown all the processes by which the
ore was crushed with steam power and ground into a paste, which is then amalgamated, passed through retorts, and run into bullion. Not the least
curious were the tests, and the scale of infinitesimal weights, by which the ten-
thousandth part of a grain can be determined, the weigher using a microscope to enable him to find the atom that influences his balances. The great requirement for Utah mining, as will be readily inferred from what has been said, is the proper fuel for smelting purposes. When this is obtained more abundantly, the low-grade ores, which will not pay for working, will give steady employment to all the furnaces at present partially operated, and will cause many more to be profitably run. The railroads now being rapidly constructed in the south and southwest will bring coal cheaply to market. Some of this coal, especially that from San Pete, two hundred and fifty miles from Salt Lake, it is claimed, can be
coked, but owing to the quantity of sulphur it contains, the experiments thus far have not been entirely satisfactory. Great hopes are entertained that the new process of desulphurizing, recently put into operation by Mr. Goodspeed, an enterprising gentleman from New York, will prove a complete success. If it should meet well-founded expectations, it will prove not only a fortune for him, but will add millions yearly to the bullion product of Utah. Low-grade
322 THROUGH UTAH. [SEPTEMBER,
mines now abandoned will start again into life, and prospects will deepen into shafts and tunnels. Such an impulse will be given to mining enterprise that a Gentile population will pour into the territory sufficient to out-vote the Mormons and satiate the ambition of those virtuous office-seekers whose morality is daily shocked by the iniquities around them. Mr. Goodspeed may prove a more successful missionary than the Rev. Dr. Newman. We spent a day in climbing the mountains on horseback and on foot, with the purpose of looking at some of the mines on the summit of Zion mountain. At an almost perpendicular height of twenty-five hundred feet above the village, and consequently eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea, is a mine owned
by the Walker Brothers, which they work to supply the demands of their mill, getting out yearly, without any special development, the interest on the sum of $1,500,000, the price at which they offer to sell this little bit of their property. As we wound up the mountain on the opposite side of the valley to a still higher point, we looked down upon their extensive works and tramways, on which the
ore slides to the mills.
Our trail led first to Dry canyon, to arrive at which we passed through Jacob City. This city, not "set upon a hill," but hanging like a collection of crows nests on the side of a mountain, cannot be approached on wheels. Sure-footed horses and mules are rather doubtful of their foothold in its streets, paved with boulders and drained by the gully of a torrent. If heavy rains should swell the stream as they are liable to do, or an avalanche of snow, which every winter threatens, should descend, the flimsy structures of Jacob City would fly down into the abyss below like a pile of shingles before the storm. Precarious indeed
is the existence or the capital of Dry canyon. As we ascend, we see on the left the celebrated Mono mine, one half of which was cheaply sold last summer for $400,000. We met Mr. Gisborne, who owns the other half. The net income of the mine is said to average $60,000 per month. When we looked at Mr. Gisborne, residing in Jacob City, clothed in a shabby suit that at most could not have cost
twenty dollars, smoking a cigar made far away from Cuba, and all his surroundings betokening a man in debt for his last meal, we asked ourselves,
what is the use to him of an income of $360,000 per year? A little boy once wished he was a king, for then he would swing on a gate all day and lick lasses. We perhaps would do something similar if we had the income of Mr. Gisborne. We would buy a house on the Fifth avenue, loaf about the streets of New York, visit the clubs, and do nothing. We would have the dyspepsia and die of ennui.
I apprehend that Mr. Gisborne values his immense fortune only as a proof of
his success as a business man, and is far happier in his mountain life, in
exuberant health, than he would find himself if he followed any bad advice
that we could give him.
On the other side of the valley is the scarcely less noted Chicago mine. There we dismounted and descended into the bowels of the earth, down a shaft for hundreds of feet, through tunnels and drifts, dropping down on ladders, crawling on all fours through damp caverns, as we carried lighted candles in our hands, meeting begrimed workmen, and startled by the report of subterranean blasts. Here we saw the ore, deep buried for ages, now to be excavated, smelted, refined, coined and made into wealth for the luxury of those who will never see
and pity as we have done the hard toil by which it is being obtained. A very productive property in the mountains is a beautiful spring of water, running in a small stream over a great cliff of a thousand feet, and then descending in thin spray to an unapproachable chasm. The proprietor located this claim, and there he has established himself for the sale of all
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 323
the water on the mountain; for it is only after the melting of the snows that, for a short time, the water-courses are known in this Dry canyon. There is no drilling or blasting needed to produce wealth for this fortunate man. He sells the water for two and a half cents per gallon, thus realizing thousands of dollars annually without the outlay of a penny. The Mono and the Chicago may give out, but the
spring is not likely to dry up. Leaving our horses at a place where their further progress was impracticable, we proceeded on foot, though often swinging by our arms from one craggy rock to another, over the topmost ridge, to survey some prospects in which the gentlemen who accompanied us were interested. The location of a prospect is determined by various indications, the chief of which is the presence of a yellow ochre-colored dust. This leads to croppings, the ore on the surface containing mineral. These croppings afford encouragement for the miner to sink a tunnel, upon which he works nine times out of ten without success. We returned to the place where our horses had been left, and mounting them again, rode over the divide above the Chicago mine to the side of the mountain sloping down toward Ophir.
At a distance of a mile and a half above the village we came to the Gray Rock mine, of which Col. Kelley, a veteran miner, is the manager and a large owner. His superintendent politely waited upon us through the shaft and tunnels, pointing out the course of the vein, which measured four and a half feet, the assays of it showing thirty to forty per cent. of lead and thirty to fifty ounces of silver. The upper tunnel is 100 feet long; the one below it is 300 feet, and it is under contract to go 100 feet more. After walking 250 feet in the second tunnel, we came to an air shaft connecting the two tunnels, and at the same point another shaft of 100 feet is contracted for development into a proposed tunnel below. It is already down sixty feet, and is constantly showing richer ore. It was
explained to us that this is a true fissure vein; that is to say, the mine is located where one formation is split off from another, by a convulsion of nature, so that it cuts the stratification. When ore is thus found, the inference is that a greater body of mineral below, has split the mountain. Therefore the miner, with an almost certain expectation, is encouraged to penetrate the earth until he arrives at the rich deposit which caused the fissure where the ore was first discovered, near the surface. These fissure veins are rather uncommon. Veins generally run with instead of across the stratification. Indeed; most of the mines are of this
character. Many of them are very profitable, but there is a much greater
uncertainty about the continuance of fissure veins. The walls that enclose the veins are smooth surfaces of brimstone and quartzite, or limestone and slate, sometimes limestone on both sides. Good and bad veins are found in all these formations. Although in the course of our toilsome yet pleasurable days work we visited several other mines, I shall not weary or confuse my readers with any more descriptions, the working of the Chicago and Gray Rock, two of the most
prominent, being fair samples of the whole. If all that has been said can be digested as well as the good supper at M. Simons was assimilated after our excursion upon the mountains, some ideas will be formed perhaps not
previously entertained of silver-mining operations.
JOHN CODMAN.
|
