[L.P.W., Letter from the New Colorado Mines, Daily Alta California, January 28, 1863]

 

LETTER FROM THE NEW COLORADO MINES.

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[From an Occasional Correspondent of the Alta California.]

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El Dorado Cañon, Colorado District. )

January 10, 1863. )

            Editors Alta: In my last communication I promised to let you hear from me as soon as an opportunity presented itself for sending a letter. There being no regular mail line between these mines and Los Angeles, we are obliged to send our letters by any persons who may happen to have business in the settlements; or by teamsters who are freighting goods to the Colorado, and you must therefore make all due allowances for irregular correspondence. We are promised a line of stages to run between Los Angeles and El Dorado Cañon, inside of three months. If so, I will then keep you well posted in regard to this country.

More Silver Discoveries.

            Since writing my last, there have been discovered and recorded numerous other leads of satisfactory richness, among the most prominent of which are the "San Francisco," "Nightingale," "Alta," "Oneida," "Osceola," "Crescent City," "Cosmopolite," "John Moss," "Morning Star," and "Rising Sun." The "Los Angeles" is turning out even better than was ever anticipated. Ore is now being taken out of the "Teshutticup" and "Queen City," which assays as high as any ever brought from Washoe. The "Great Eastern" is far outstripping the greatest expectations of the most sanguine. The "Osceola" was recorded by Mr. Mogo, Surveyor of Swamp and Overflowed Lands of San Bernardino County, who has gone to Sacramento to resign his position, settle up his business there, and then return and develop his lead. Before leaving the Cañon, he had started men to work running a tunnel, and they have struck some very rich ore, and Mr. Mogo can now very safely consider his fortune made.

            The leads here bear great resemblance to those of Old Mexico, which have been worked for centuries. The richness of the leads are greatly enhanced from the large quantities of ore which they will yield, all of them increasing in width as you sink on them, and also in richness. Some of the leads which are but a few inches in width on the surface, increase to that number of feet in a short distance down, being what are called "A" lodes. There is no scarcity of water here for milling purposes, as the Colorado river runs within five miles of us, and is navigable for twenty-five miles above the cañon. There is good timber about fifty miles above the cañon, which can be very easily rafted down, and in the spring a great quantity of floatwood can be had by placing booms across the river above the cañon.

            Another great advantage this mining region has, is that all the leads are well defined and crop out of the ground so that they can be easily traced fur a great distance, some of the leads having as many as six extensions taken up on them.

            At a distance of about twenty miles below the cañon of the river there is good farming land, and already have parties taken up ground and commenced raising vegetables to supply the miners of Colorado District. The Indians raise corn, beans, pumpkins and watermelons, and have a supply of the latter for six months in the year. Col. Vineyard's mill is still progressing, and will be in operation in a short time, when you may then expect to hear more directly of the vast mineral wealth of this region, and, if I mistake not, Washoe will be far outdone, although she has years the start of us.

Advantages for a Trading Post.

            Before closing this communication, I would like to call the attention of capitalists and merchants to the fact that ere long El Dorado Cañon is destined to become the chief emporium of the Salt Lake trade, and those who now invest their time and money in  establishing a trading post here, will be the first to reap brilliant and deserving reward for their trouble and investments. There are several and obvious reasons why this place will, sooner or later, become the trading mart for the Salt Lake market, and by that means alone—if not by its mineral wealth— start up a city here which will compare with the largest of our inland cities on the Pacific slope. Already have we been visited by capitalists who have bought mining property, but the thoughts of establishing a trading post here seems to have slipped their minds, or else they prefer investing in silver leads to merchandising. My reasons for knowing that this is destined to be the trading post for Salt Lake, are, substantially, as follows: The goods which now partly supply the Salt Lake trade, are freighted from Los Angeles, at about twenty or twenty-five cents per pound, a distance of about eight hundred miles. Goods can be shipped from San Francisco all the way by water to El Dorado Cañon, for, at most, " five cents per pound, and from thence to Salt Lake for ten cents; saving by this route about ten cents per pound on the freight, and also cutting off about three hundred miles of travel over anything but a desirable road—a great portion of it being a vast desert.

L. P. W.