According to Col. H. W. Comstock, the surface ore covers a larger area, exists in larger bodies and carries a higher average value in gold than in any lode mining district yet explored in the Rocky Mountains. It has been demonstrated in the Gold King, Buena Vista, Great View, Superior and Rose-Maud, all of which are producing high grade shipping ore from solid masses measuring from four up to twenty-five feet across.
In the Great View and in the Superior, while the ore at the surface was good, ranging from $38 to $96 per ton, it is still better at the depth attained that it was at the surface, where they made their first shipment. The same is true of the Rose-Maud, in the immediate vicinity of the Superior. At one other point, where a shaft was sunk in the gulch, between granite and porphyry, everything taken from the shaft from the surface down, as indicated by rigid tests made daily, has a productive value, and can all be treated in a stamp mill.
The ore from this shaft is better at the deepest level, now sixty-five feet, than at any point above, and it bids fair to become one of the largest producers of the district. This shaft is the only one that has been sunk to any depth from the surface down on the contact of the granite and porphyry.
There is no free milling ore, strictly speaking, in the district; but there is a vast tonnage, already uncovered and tested, that can be treated in the ordinary gold mills with little if any preliminary treatment. This is, of course, surface ore, and as we approach water level we may, and shall, undoubtedly, find it necessary to roast most of the product in order to save a reasonable percentage of its value, as much of it is exceedingly complex in character.
In the deeper workings of the Great View and Superior, tellurium is found in all of the ore, while in the Rose-Maud sylvanite abounds. The grade of these telluride ores is so high, exceeding $100 to the ton, that it will be a profitable shipping ore, notwithstanding its complex character and excess of silica.

Dr. A. J. Lanterman, having resided in Leadville and at Buena Vista for the past fourteen years, and being everywhere, is recognized as a person of the highest integrity. Since November last, he has spent more than half of his time in the Cripple Creek district and is doubtless second to none in possession of information concerning its resources. He has watched the progress of events with painstaking interest from the beginning, and his simple relation of them constitutes a pretty succinct history of the camp.

"When I first came here, the only mine with any development whatever was the Great View. The Anaconda group is a great property. It embraces seven claims — the Great View, Superior, Anaconda, Rose Maud, Grover Cleveland, Excelsior, and a mill site.
This company's first shipment was made one week ago last Thursday. It consisted of one carload, the smelter returning $211.37 per ton on the lot. Subsequent shipments have been so recent that the returns have not been received at the mine.
On the 5th I saw fifteen wagons loaded with ore leaving the mines, and on Monday last twelve more. Shipments are made to the Omaha and Grant smelter at Denver. Only the first grade ore is sent out; the second grade is treated at the company's mill, on Cripple creek.
This is a small ten-stamp concern. It was built last fall, but only ran a few days, the water freezing up and compelling it to stop. It was started up again last Thursday, and is now treating two tons per stamp, or twenty tons daily. Only forty-seven to forty-nine per cent. of the Great View ore is free milling.

"Regarding the other claims of the Anaconda? Well, I regard some of them as very promising. The Rose Maud has just made a strike of seven inches of tellurium ore, the value of which has not yet been determined. Roasted in a forge, globules of free gold cover its surface, and, judging from the tests made, must be very rich.
Some work is being done on the Excelsior, nothing on the Grover Cleveland. The company's manager informs me that he expects to ship two hundred tons a day within a very short time.

"I am not a geologist or a mineralogist, although engaged in mining for many years. I am not, therefore, bold enough to entertain a theory of the formation of this district. The generally accepted idea, however, is that the porphyry has been thrown out through the fissures in the granite, and the mineralized quartz has formed true fissures in the porphyry.
I know of but two true fissure veins which have granite walls. Upon these are located the Washington and the Blue Bell. The other claims have walls of porphyry, I should say that in the Great View is twenty-five feet and the Anaconda vein is between fifteen and twenty feet.
The vein matter is all mineralized, and no sorting is done, except in the Great View."

"What others think of them will be of more value than will my opinion. I am more than pleased with the outlook, and I am spending my money with confidence. I have been much encouraged by the visit of Professor Jones, of Utah, who spent six days here in the interest of Gen. Palmer and the Rio Grande Western railway.
He said to me before leaving: 'I have been examining mines for the past eight years—probably averaging one hundred a year. I have never seen a more promising district than this. In fact, the Anaconda is the greatest prospect I ever saw. The Buena Vista is doubtless a splendid mine. Rich however, as some of the vein matter is, I do not believe the mother vein has yet been found. I believe it and the greatest mines are yet to be discovered!'
When the professor was here Anaconda stock was selling at 25 cents. Knowing that he had bought some of it, I questioned him as to how long he intended holding it, to which he responded: 'When it reaches $2.50 I will sell, and it should go to that point very soon.'"

The mines of the Anaconda company are regarded as the greatest wonders of the Cripple Creek district. They consist of three claims on the southeastern slope of Gold hill, the Superior, Great View and Anaconda; one across the gulch, on what I believe is called Little Bull mountainEnnis Mountain [aka Raven Hill], the Rose Maud; and three in Squaw gulch, directly south of Gold hill, the Excelsior, Oro Fino and Grover Cleveland.

The principal developments have been in the three first named, although a shaft is being rapidly sunk on the fourth, the Rose Maud, with gratifying results.

The chief interest in the Superior, Great View and Anaconda is in the manner in which they are being opened, the counterpart of their workings, present and prospective, being found nowhere else in this country, I believe, save at the Father De Smet mine, at Deadwood.

A very extensive dyke of mineralized porphyry runs across Gold hill northeast and southwest, and these claims extend along its coarse their entire length. The apex of the vein is in places scarcely more than six feet from the surface. On the southeast a distinct wall of porphyry is outlined. On the northwest seventy-five feet of prospecting had, at the time I visited the property, failed to disclose any wall.

The company started in on the southeast end-line of the three claims, and are working northwestward, by a series of open cuts and shallow shafts, it being intended to strip the vein, its entire length within their lines, of the shallow surface, and quarry from the top, precisely as granite is quarried.

To a certain depth this of course can be done more economically than any other way, and the future is already being provided against by the running of a tunnel into the hill from the level of the gulch.

At present the development has the appearance of a wide cut in the hillside, as if made for a railroad. Timbering will of course not be necessary, or at least only a small amount of cribbing on the upper side line, to prevent the surface ground from falling into the workings.

There will be, for a long time to come, and until water level is reached, no water to contend with, no timbering and no bad air. The work of extracting the ore will be carried on in the sunlight, the product will be loaded on to wagons at the surface, and transported down to the mill or the railroad in the gulch below.

Thus it will be seen the Anaconda's chief property constitutes an ideal mine.

The Rose-Maud, and the three claims in the same consolidation down the hill and across the gulch, are separate propositions, but if the reasonable expectations of the owners are realized, the Rose-Maud is likely to develops into a bonanza itself.

The vein material which I saw being loaded from the mines on Gold Hill was complex, and I should say that if the same general characteristics continue, the bulk of the product will be shipped to the smelters in the valley, as but little of it, comparatively speaking, is free milling.

There are thin streaks of crystalized quartz found in cavities, resembling some ore I saw taken from the Amethyst mine at Creede; there are also streaks of tellurium, not dissimilar to that of Boulder county, and again rich streaks of coarse free gold.

In seams between the rocks is found considerable quantities of a coarse mineralized gravel, and the manager told me all of this was being shipped, its contents being about as valuable as the quartz or the tellurium.

I washed several pans of this dirt, and found colors, as well as black sand, said to be rich in gold contents.

The Anaconda company owns a fifteen stamp mill, which I have before referred to, at the mouth of Squaw gulch, now running on selected lots of ore, but of insufficient capacity to handle any large percentages of the possible product.

A comfortable office has also been erected at the foot of Gold hill, where some very seductive samples of mineral from the various properties in the vicinity are exhibited.

From statements made to me by different parties, and which pass current on the ground, as to the precious metal contents of the ores, I have compiled the exhibit of values appended, and is given for what it is worth:

Claim.	Average Assays.	Smelter or Mill Returns.	Picked Specimens.
Rose Maud (stamp mill)		$200	$2,000
Great View	$50 to $500	$90
Anaconda		$217.87	$1,050

THE ANACONDA'S DIVIDEND.
CRIPPLE CREEK, April 29.—The Anaconda will declare a dividend of 4 cents per share on the 1st of May.

Notwithstanding reports at Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver to the contrary, the Anaconda mines are still shipping ore which averages as great assay values as formerly.

FREMONT, Colo., June 12.—Cripple Creek is proving not altogether a low grade camp. An assay of Anaconda ore taken from across the breast in a recent strike on a mill run of 1000 pounds, gave a return of six and a half ounces in gold.
And a shipment to Denver of twenty-three tons of Anaconda ore passed through the streets to-day.

Mr. J. Brackly is in from Cripple Creek and gave a few interesting facts Wednesday morning concerning Colorado's newest gold camp. The Anaconda tunnel, which is one of the best ventures for the good of Cripple Creek, has now been driven 300 feet and will eventually be carried in 800 feet before completed.
Mining at the Anaconda is carried on after the principle of the Antioch in this district, in that the ore is taken from a large quarry, and the new tunnel is being driven for the purpose of getting under the chute and handling the ore to much better advantage, as well as to thoroughly prospect the ground.

Anaconda Machinery Burned.

The engine house and all the machinery of the Anaconda Mining company at Cripple Creek was entirely destroyed by fire Wednesday morning.
The loss is estimated at upwards of $50,000. A box of giant powder had taken fire, and as there were several hundred pounds more close by, an alarm was immediately given to the men at work, who removed the bulk of explosive to a place of safety.
No accidents are reported.

In the meantime a stampede of the inhabitants of Barry took place to the Blue Bell tunnel, half a mile down the hill, where they remained in a state of anxiety not easily described till assured that all danger was over.

Anaconda Machinery Burned.

The engine house and all the machinery of the Anaconda Mining company at Cripple Creek was entirely destroyed by fire Wednesday morning.
The loss is estimated at upwards of $50,000. A box of giant powder had taken fire, and as there were several hundred pounds more close by, an alarm was immediately given to the men at work, who removed the bulk of the explosive to a place of safety. No accidents are reported.
In the meantime a stampede of the inhabitants of Barry took place to the Blue Bell tunnel, half a mile down the hill, where they remained in a state of anxiety not easily described till assured that all danger was over.

No stock on 'change has created as much mystery as the Anaconda. When the big consolidation took place this stock was gilt edged. Immense blocks were sold and the very fanciest prices realized.
The doubting Thomases were told that there was in sight piles upon piles of rich ore. No expert was sent to examine the properties, and the gullible stockholders went into it with their eyes apparently closed to this lack of caution.
The stock sold well and no trouble was experienced in getting rid of it at a big price. It is said that the officers gave it out cold on 'change about six weeks or two months ago, that the company was in debt $50,000.
Now with 200,000 shares of stock said to be sold, they claim a debt of $45,000, and Dave Moffat, the president of the company, is interested in Dave Moffat of the First National bank to the tune of this amount.
No one seems to know exactly what the future will bring forth. Predictions are made that the First National bank will foreclose and sell the claims to—well, the heavy stockholders.
The whole business looks very dirty, and no one for a moment doubts but there has been a bold, barefaced effort made to freeze out the small stockholders.
To do this they work the bluff, and rumors of "poor ore" and "losing money" are put in circulation. The stockholders and brokers fall over each other in their efforts to dispose of their customers' belongings.

Anaconda Mining Company—The mine resumed work on the 1st inst., after being shut down for nearly five months. Only a small force was put to work, the intention being to develop the property and get it into shape for an extensive output when the French mill is started in April, as the company is under contract to furnish the mill 40 tons of ore daily.
The mine will be in charge of Mr. Hoskins.

Anaconda Mining Company.—The returns of the recent shipment of ore to Denver smelters have been received. Twenty-two tons of high and low grade ore was sent.
The high grade ran $430 to the ton, and the low grade $130. These are the best results from Anaconda ore which have yet been had.

The Anaconda has fine ores showing free gold as its part of the Cripple Creek District representations of the Colorado State Exhibit displays at the Colombia Exposition.

The breast of the Anaconda tunnel is looking very well indeed. It is now in 1,080 feet, and surveys just made prove that they are within thirty-five feet of the Rustler vein. As work proceeds and greater length and depth is attained the indications are becoming more apparent that the tunnel is in close proximity to that well known vein.
The material is becoming more of a bluish character and in every way strongly resembles the ore of the Rustler.

A party of members of the Colorado Scientific Society attending the 127th Regular Meeting held at the Masonic Hall in Cripple Creek July 1st, 1895, visited on the 2nd of July the Anaconda Tunnel.
This double-tracked tunnel entered Gold Hill over 1,200 feet. The vein at a depth of 500 feet was 30 feet in width.

Presently we are at the Anaconda mine, with its open quarry at the top of the hill, from which so many thousands were taken in the early days of the camp, and a series of tunnels down the side of the hill on the line of the ore deposit, whilst at the foot of the hill is a long tunnel of several thousand feet driven in on the ore deposit. We enter one of the shorter tunnels half way up the hill, and find the men at work on a breast of ore, which, however, shows no ore to the naked eye, only lava rock, very similar to that found all around.
The Anaconda seems to lie in a dyke of porphyritic andesite, with very well marked crystals of feldspar in a dark purplish base.

Principal Producing Cripple Creek Mines - 1898:

Name: Anaconda
Owner: Anaconda Gold Mining Co.
Capital: $5,000,000
President: D. H. Moffat
Vice-President:
Secretary: R. H. Reid
Treasurer: Geo. E. Ross-Lewin
Superintendent:
Manager: N. H. Cone
Lessees:
Description: 4,500-foot tunnel; steam
Employes: seventy-five employes
Contact: postoffice. Anaconda.
Notes: own Anaconda group

TO THE SPRINGS.
In Judge Pennington's court yesterday was heard the case of Steve Quick and James McClellan, charged with having stolen tools from the Wilcox lease on the Anaconda. Quick was given sixty days and McClellan fifteen days in the county jail.

ANACONDA/VICTOR NEWS.
—————————
TWO IN ONE DAY.
Two men were injured yesterday in the Anaconda mine, but neither seriously.
One, named Fraker, was tramming, and was hurt by a rock falling on him from the stope.
The other, a man named Canty, was badly bruised up by falling. He was brought to his home in Victor.

The 1897 production was approximately for the Anaconda 8,000 tons.

THE ANACONDA.
The way cars are being loaded at the Anaconda it is quite evident that Mr. D. H. Moffat wants to put something in somebody's pocket along about Christmas day.
Just now Anaconda is producing more extensively than it has for months past, but the grade of the mineral is an unknown quantity.

Anaconda Gold Mining Company.—At the annual meeting of the stockholders the old board of directors was reelected. The reports of the officers show that the ore shipped had a net value of $5,524, at an expense of about $22,000, making a loss of over $16.000. Work was discontinued on company account in April, as no large bodies of ore were discovered. At present 25 sets of lessees are at work, and 16 are shipping ore. A 2 years’ lease has just been granted on the lower levels to responsible parties, who are doing considerable work, and are very sanguine of opening ore. The company received royalties from lessees to the amount of $24,531. Total receipts for the year, $36,998; cash on hand January 1, 1902, $21,940: total. $58,938. Expenditures, $31,027; cash on hand, January 1, 1903, $27,911. The company has agreed to give $4,000 toward the construction of the drainage tunnel.

Carl Johnson, the "lucky Swede," of Cripple Creek, has just opened ore of very high grade on his lease at Anaconda property, and the indications are that he will be a wealthy man before the lease expires. Johnson has been very successful in finding ore on all of his leases.

THE CREEK STILL BOOMING.
———
Cripple Creek, Jan. 21.—Hartman and Peterson leasing on the old Anaconda mine has opened up a three foot vein of sylvanite running seventeen ounces in gold to the ton.

Colorado Boss No. 1—This Bull hill property, belonging to the Cripple Creek Consolidated Company, is being operated under lease by C. M. Crowder and associates. The shaft, which is now at a depth of 150 feet, will be sunk an additional 600 feet, and levels run every 100 feet.
These lessees have also secured a lease on the lower workings of the Anaconda, which adjoins their claim. A winze is being sunk from a level 400 feet below the tunnel level, from which a good grade of shipping ore is being taken.
A lease has also been secured on the south end of the Iron Master property of the Doctor-Jack Pot company by these parties, who contemplate sinking a shaft here. Should good ore be opened in any of the three properties, it is probable that all three leases will be worked from their main shaft.

THE COLORADO MINE OPERATORS’ ASSOCIATION.
——————
Documents recently filed in the Teller county records contain a clause which demonstrates beyond question that the fight against the Western Federation of Miners by the Colorado Mine Operators’ Association is being systematically waged.

The documents referred to are articles of incorporation of the Milwaukee Mutual Mining Company and a lease from the Anaconda Mining Company to the Milwaukee company, whereby the south half of block 46, all of block 47, and part of the Grover Cleveland claim, are leased for a term of two years, the Milwaukee Company agreeing to perform 100 shifts per month. The clause referred to is as follows:

"The lessees hereby agree that they will employ no labor upon the premises that is not satisfactory to the company and to the Mine Owners’ Association, and that on or before the 10th day of each month, during the term of the lease, they shall furnish to the secretary of the Cripple Creek District Mine Owners' Association at its offices in Cripple Creek, Colorado, a list of all the men employed by them, and they will promptly discharge any man by them employed upon notice so to do by the company.
The lessees further agree that they will adhere to and abide by all regulations established by the Cripple Creek District Mine Owners’ Association with reference to the discharge and employment of labor."

The contracting parties are P. H. Jones and C. J. Billersbeck, for the Milwaukee company, and F. J. Sigel, president, and F. J. Campbell, secretary, of the Anaconda company.

Milwaukee Mutual Mining Company.—This company has been incorporated to work ground leased from the Anaconda Mining Company. The lessees agree to employ no labor on the ground leased that is unsatisfactory to the Anaconda company or the Mine Owners' Association, and further agree to furnish on or before the 10th day of each month during the time of the lease, to the secretary of the Cripple Creek Mine Owners' Association a list of all the men employed by them, and to discharge any man upon notice to do so by the company.

Anaconda.—A rich strike is said to have been made on this company's property on Gold hill by Lessee Carl Johnson, who is operating in a winze on the 400-foot level, about 150 feet southeast of the shaft.
The new vein is a flat one, and has been proved up for a distance of forty feet. It contains a streak of ore in the center six inches in width, said to carry twenty-five ounces gold to the ton.

Anaconda.—Block 20 of this mine, operated by lessees, has a five-foot vein, giving values of about $40 a ton. This find was made about six weeks ago and is still continuing to show signs of improvement.

Colorado Springs, Nov. 16.—The output from different sets of lessees operating on the Anaconda estate for the month of October reached a total of 400 tons of $30 ore. This output is a slight decrease in this territory's usual monthly production, and is due to the large amount of development work now in progress.

Anaconda.—Operations have been resumed on the south end of this property, the work consisting of sinking a shaft at the mouth of the tunnel.
When sufficient depth has been obtained a crosscut will be driven to reach the extension of the rich Mary McKinney vein.

Anaconda.—Block 20, which is leased to Messrs. Peterson and Coe, is showing up well, a large body of ore having been opened up twenty feet from the surface giving assays of about $30 a ton.

Colorado Springs. Col., Feb. 8.—The big strike made last week in the bottom of the 100-foot winze sunk from the 400-foot winze level of the main Anaconda Tunnel, has been proven twenty feet in depth, and the ore is holding four feet wide and showing an abundance of sylvanite. The samples indicate that everything will average $30 to the ton in gold without sorting.

The vein will extend across the Anaconda property for a distance of 900 feet, and is the same as the one being broken by John Sharpe on the Work.

Excitement is intense at Cripple Creek over two new great finds of ore made in the Anaconda mine.

The big strike made last week in the bottom of the 100-foot winze sunk from the 400-foot level of the main Anaconda tunnel at Cripple Creek has been proven 20 feet in depth. The ore is holding four feet wide, and will average $30 to the ton.

Anaconda—J. J. Winter and associates, leasing block No. 24, have opened a good body of ore at a comparatively shallow depth. It is reported that at the fifty-foot level a four-foot vein of shipping grade was encountered.

Anaconda—Exploration is being conducted at the 1,000-foot level, and ore has been struck. Lessees are shipping about two cars a week from block 20, where the shoot varies from three to six feet in width.

Anaconda—Twelve sets of lessees are at work in this property, most of them being in ore. Fifty-dollar ore is being taken out from a shoot on the 850 level.

Denver, Colo.—The Mary McKinney and the Anaconda property at Cripple Creek have been consolidated by exchange of shares. F. F. Sactelo, of Colorado Springs, will be president of the new company.

Mary McKinney—The company recently granted a lease on block No. 3 of the recently acquired Anaconda estate to A. B. Humphrey of Denver. About $25,000 will be expended by the new lessee.

Cripple Creek.—E. A. Porter & Company, operating on the south end of the Anaconda claims of the Mary McKinney, have made a big strike at a depth of 200 feet. The vein is 2½ ft. wide and returns high values. The matter all the way across runs 2 to 5 ounces.

Cripple Creek.—The ore body opened by E. A. Corder on the south end of the Anaconda now measures almost 4 ft. between walls and is carrying values of a to 7 ozs. per ton.

The Western Investment Company of Victor, operating on an extensive scale in this district, has installed a compressor at the Anaconda tunnel, now owned by the Mary McKinney Company. The plant will furnish power for a number of leases.

In the Gold Hill section Lessees McMillan & Stoner, operating on Block 46 by upraise from the Anaconda tunnel level, have entered a rich ore shoot. They have been breaking 18 inches of quartz that showed rusty gold and sylvanite and averaged $400 to $500 a ton. A sacked shipment is being prepared.
The property is owned by the Mary McKinney Company.

At the Anaconda property of the Mary McKinney Company, leasers are reported to have made rich strikes lately and ore running from $200 to $1,000 is being broken from 3 to 6-inch seams for shipment.

Cripple Creek—A big strike were made the past week in the Anaconda, where McMillan & Co., leasing on block 46, were drifting in an easterly direction at a depth of 280 ft., when they cut into a shoot 18 ft. wide carrying 4 ozs. to $500 per ton.

Cripple Creek—A sensational strike is reported as having been made by Stoner & McMillen leasing on block 46 of the Anaconda property of the Mary McKinney. The ore assays from $400 upwards.
The strike occurred in an upraise from the Anaconda tunnel level and about 300 ft. below surface on the south slope of Gold hill.

Denver.—The ore body opened a month ago by E. A. Corder on the south end of the Anaconda belonging to the Mary McKinney, is yielding ore worth 16 ozs. to the ton. The shoot is 18 ins. wide.

McLeod Bros, have secured a lease on the No. 2 shaft of the Anaconda holdings of the Mary McKinney Co., on Gold hill and will start operations immediately.
A steam-hoist is now being installed.

During January ore was shipped by lessees of the Mary McKinney Co. from the tunnel workings on the old Anaconda Co. holdings, now part of the Mary McKinney estate.

Bob Mullen has secured a lease on the Anaconda claim of the Mary McKinney company and expects to erect a 100-ton mill near Mound City, using the Portland process.
Mullen and associates will purchase all old dumps of the camp and already have options on a number. The mill will be enlarged from time to time, until it has a capacity of 1,000 tons daily.

A promising discovery has been made by J. L. Wilson in the Anaconda tunnel penetrating Gold hill from the south. He has opened an orebody on the junction of the Virginia M and Work veins at a short distance from the portal of the tunnel and will shortly commence production.

The discovery made by J. L. Wilson in the Anaconda tunnel of the Mary McKinney company on the southern slope of Gold hill persists with development. The vein cut, between 3 and 4 ft. wide, is assaying from $30 to $160 per ton.
Shipping commenced last week.

Eight sets of lessees on the property of the Mary McKinney company, three in the main shaft, three in the Anaconda, and two sets in the Howard-shaft workings are mining and shipping medium-grade ore to Golden Cycle mill at Colorado Springs.
No work is being done on company account.