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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
To higher ground. The Homestake mine shipped some argentiferous galena containing nickel, but there was no market near at hand for silver ores” (Henderson, 1926).A third period in the history of the area, the carbonate period, began around 1874, when William H. Stevens and Alvinus B. Wood formed a partnership in order to construct a 19-km (12-mile) ditch to transport water (from the Arkansas River) to California Gulch to assist with sluicing operations, in hopes of discovering new placers and veins. “The original plans contemplated applying the hydraulic process to the new ground now covered by the southwestern half of the city of Leadville” (Hall, 1889; Blair, 1980). The ditch “was an immediate success after its completion in 1875, except that Wood and Stevens were plagued with that same heavy black sand that had confounded placer operations in the gulch since those halcyon days of 1860.” They collected samples from the gulch; an Alma assayer showed the ore “ran twenty-seven percent lead and fifteen ounces of silver to the ton” (Blair, 1980).Keeping this new secret, “Wood and Stevens quietly prospected the upper slopes of the gulch until they located an outcropping in the area that Stevens had surveyed in 1865” (Blair, 1980). When samples showed it contained a high percentage of lead and 20 to 40 ounces of silver, they “did not make their discovery known until they were in a fair way to secure government titles to nine claims. These were taken up lengthways along what they considered the crest or apex of the lodes” and crossed the gulch, extending high up on the hills (Fossett, 1880). “By the fall of 1875 they controlled a considerable portion of California Gulch” (Blair, 1980).The names of the principal locations commencing at the south were the Dome, Rock, Stone, Lime, Bull’s Eye and Iron claims. The ore was first found in place on the Rock claim, where it was over 10 feet thick. It was rich in lead, but carried only a small amount of silver (Fossett, 1880). Stevens was a promoter knowledgeable in mining matters, but Wood on the other hand
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