CHAPTER XIV. MISCELLANEOUS. VERMONT. The following article in regard to the gold discoveries in the State of Vermont was furnished by Mr. Anthony Blum, president of the Rooks Mining Company: "DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN VERMONT. "The first certain knowledge of the existence of native gold in Vermont was in 1851, when Mathew Kennedy, at or near the north end of the now so-called Plymouth gold mines, found what he supposed to be a very fine specimen of iron pyrites, imbedded in quartz rock. After having these specimens tested it was found the supposed pyrites were nuggets of pure gold, and more than $5 worth of gold was taken out of about 1 cubic foot of quartz rock. A search was made in the vicinity of the discovery, without much success. "In 1855 William Hunkerson, an experienced California gold-miner, came to Tyson Furnace, Plymouth, Windsor County, Vermont, on a visit, and being impressed with the likeness of the region to the goldbearing formation of California, and believing that placer gold could certainly be found here, began to prospect on Reading Pond Brook, in the south part of the town of Plymouth, where he obtained the first gold found in the streams or alluvial deposits of Vermont. "In 1856 placer mining was begun on Reading Pond Brook and on Buffalo Brook, its largest northern branch, and also on Gold Brook, at Plymouth Five Corners, and during that year and the next four years a large amount of gold was taken out and some large nuggets were found. Lawyer and Eddy took out below the junction of Reading Pond and Buffalo Brooks a nugget worth $14. A Mr. Williams, on the next claim below, took out one worth $31, and quite a number of other nuggets were found for 1 mile or more below the junction of the brooks, worth from $1 to $5 each. "William Hunkerson worked a very rich claim at Plymouth Five Cor ners and took out several very valuable nuggets, one of which was worth $9.30. After the death of Mr. Hunkerson, Joseph W. Wilder and Augustus Trudo, managers for a Boston company, took out quite a large amount of gold from these diggings. There were many claims dug over on Reading Pond Brook, Buffalo Brook, and Gold Brook, farther north. Among those most successful in finding gold in paying quantities were Beals & Graves, Lawyer & Eddy, the Wells Brothers, William Hunkerson, Dunham & Brown, A. S. Day, Wilder & Trudo, and Virgel Woodcock, and the product of these placer workings amounted to over $20,000 in gold taken out prior to the year 1879. Something was done about this time in testing the quartz veins which were found in the southern part of Plymouth, and assays from surface croppings that were made ranged from $2.50 to $57 per ton. "In the spring of 1880 Charles C. Rooks, of Stonewall, Ind. T.; Joseph R. Harris, of Saint Louis, Mo.; Joseph C. Blum, of Towanda, Pa., under the management of Anthony Blum, of Colorado, commenced a thorough system of gold placer mining, with 13 men, shoveling in sluices on Reading Pond Brook, and while thus removing alluvial deposits a promising vein of gold-bearing ore was uncovered. The placer diggings, producing to a limited extent, were stopped, and work pushed by night and by day on the vein discovery. A mill, boardinghouse, dwellings, barn, and other buildings were erected, the mine and mill were furnished with machinery, and on the second day of October, 1882, the Rooks Mining Company was organized under the laws of New York, with Anthony Blum manager, and purchased this new discovery, the entire plant, and about 400 acres mineral land hitherto worked by placer mining. The new company carried out the plan of their predecessors, and started the mines and mills into practical operation on the 17th day of September, 1883. "The vein is visible by its surface croppings a distance of about 1 mile. Development on the vein consists of a shaft, 235 feet deep, 6 by 8; drift, 100 feet long, 6 by 7; cross-cut, 70 feet long, 5 by 7; tunnel, 116 feet long, 5 by 7; a tunnel tapping bottom of shaft, 350 feet long, 6 by 7, the working entrance of the mine. The vein has an average width of 6 feet, incased between permanent continuous walls. The vein-matter is an auriferous crystalline matrix, pregnated with sulphurets of iron, while occasionally free gold is found in cavities that have become oxidized, and in the oxide of which our vein-matter is tarnished and interstratified; yet the gold generally is coated with a foreign matter, which we remove with chemicals in process of milling the same, in order that mercury may take up the gold. All the vein between walls is worked, and yields an average of $46.29 gold per ton. The product of the mine and mill from September 17 to December 31, 1883, was $5,026.59; for calendar year 1884 was $62,485.30; total, $67,511.89; running only by day up to May 19, 1884, afterwards by day and by night, in 10-hour shifts for one day's work. "The foregoing is from a plant of 6 tons capacity per day. The company are making arrangements to erect a mill of a daily capacity of 100 tons, when it is thought the yield can be largely increased." As the mining company of which Mr. Blum writes produced during the past year over $60,000 worth of gold, a description of it is thought worthy of a place in this report. H. Ex. 268- -29 |
