Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1859 — Latent front the Mines—None of the Diggings Pitying but Gregory’s. [ARTICLE]

Latent front the Mines—None of the Diggings Pitying but Gregory’s.

[From the St. Joseph West, July 6.

We had the pleasure of a visit from Mr. j Harrv McCoy, who left Denver City June 24. Mr. McCoy is well known to many persons in this community as a gentleman in every way reliable. His statements, so far as hi's knowledge extended, are true beyond a doubt, and fron. his well known intelligence and energy we have no question but that he learned all tint could be known about the mines up to the time he left. Mr. McCoy left St. Joseph on the 10th of February last. He went to the mines with the full determination to find out all'about hem before his return, and ho has prosecuted his inquiries steadily with that view, during his four manths’stay there. His report is not so favorable as some that have lately been received. He left because he couldn’t | make money enough to induce him to stay: says that there are only eight or ten claims that pay for working at all; that these are in the Gregory diggings; that all the reports about the richness of other mines are absolutely false, and that these eight or ten leads or claims pay on an average, about SSO per day to the nnn. Mr. McCoy thinks that there were, when he lelt, as many as twenty-five or thirty thousand in and about the mines, most of whom were not. of course, making anything. The whole face of the country has been torn up by prospecting parties, most of whom had become discouraged and quit. All the diggings except Gregory’s, viz: Jefferson, Jackson, Boulder. South Platte, Cherry Creek, &.C., had been deserted, and the miners were leaving in <rreat numbers. Not less than 2,509 or ’3,000 wagons, Mr. McCoy thinks, are on their way home at this time—most of them making for St. Joseph. Very many, however, have gone in other directions, some to California and Oregon, and not a few to Sonora, though these last will hardly he able to pass the several tribes of savage Indians, such as the Apaches and Muhaves—who are showing a disposition to he very troublesome. Many of those who remained at the mines were working for what the}'could get—g->n- ! orally for their bo rd—two meals a day. In regard to the character of the leads which have been found to pay, Mr. McCoy says they are quartz leads, running south-east and north-west, and have been traced as far as nine miles, they can be traced by a blossom of a chocolate color, and in the form of boulders. The gold is formed immediately on the lead—"ulside ol the lead it is impossible to find even the color of gold. The dirt and quartz is the color of yellow clay, and when it. has been found to pay—pays \ handsomely; out as a general thing few are I s.ccess ul —not more than one out of five ! hundred. There is a great scarcity of water, 1 which makes mining very difficult and expensive. ° A new town had been laid out at the loot o’ the mountain 1 'ailing to 'Gregory’s Diggings, by a company of Yankees, called' Rocky Mountain City. Lots were selling at ten dollars a piece, one dollar down, and j the ba! nee in twelve m mills. A great fire occurred on the mountains a j . hurt lime beloi e .Mr. McCoy leit. It started j amongst the dry [lines scattered over the country, and spread ir; every direction. ] Twenty persons, it was said, had been burned j up. The lire was still raging. Mr. a cCov thinks that tne mines that j have been found to pay will-support u set- ; tleinent of 5,060 person-—not more—-and lie | advises everybody to stay at home.