Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1877 — A Valuable Mill Site. [ARTICLE]

A Valuable Mill Site.

A few months ago Harrison Gray purchased the wooden shell of the old Union mill in Gold Hill for SI,OOO. The mill having been dismantled, and the machinery all taken away, the owners drought they were getting a good price for the rotten lumber, and probably laughed in their sleeves at Mr. Gray’s greenness. The purchaser immediately put some men to work at the south end of the mill, taking up the flumes and sluices, and came upon the hole in the ground where the waste had been allowed to run when the mill was in operation. This hole had been made at this place because a tunnel was known to pass within a few feet, and the refuse, being in a liquid state, would flow off through the tunnel. The flumes had no sooner been removed than the presence of quicksilver was made apparent. Closer examination revealed the fact that a space of ground about four by five feet was permeated with small globules of pure quicksilver, canning a heavy percentage of gold and silver. This Sound was all dug up and sluiced until a aft twenty-five feet deep and six wide had been dug, when a connection was made with the tunnel and a large deposit of quicksilver was found in such purity that it can be raised to the surface by shovelfuls. The only preliminary work necessary is to carefully skim the surface ground and put it out of the way, when there lies revealed a genuine quicksilver and gold mine. How much of a deposit there is has not been ascertained, as the parties at work there are very reticent, but it is known that between SB,OOO and SIO,OOO has already been taken out and sold. A great part of the amalgam carries a higher percentage of gold than of silver, because the mill was running in the early days of mining on the Comstock, when the ores were worked for the gold alone and the silver was allowed to flow off. There is no doubt but that the deposit will be found to continue to the bedrock, which is probably fifty leet deeper than has yet been attained in the tunnel. For about three months there were five) men employed there, and the yield was about sixty pounds of amalgam per day, but since connection has, been made with the tunnel only two men have been employed, who take out about forty pounds of quicksilver per day on an average. Parties who are anxious to get old mill sites oft their hands will probably be more careful in future and examine them well before disposing of than.—PirgtHtß UVa.) CArowcta.