A two days' jaunt on horseback took me from Rhyolite hill, on the north, to Grouse mountain, on the south, and from Pisgah, on the west, to Wilson creek, on the east, within which boundaries some four thousand claims have been located.
The greater part of those have nothing more than the assessment work done upon them, and in many instances, this has been so indifferently done, and with such an utter abandon and disregard of the statues, that they cannot be held for a moment to comply with the legal requirements.
But, in traversing Ennis, Globe, Gold, Bull, Tenderfoot, Womack, Mineral and a score or more of hills in the district, sources of Cripple, Wilson, Requa, Squaw and other water courses, I came upon scores of properties that were being developed with more or less vigor and intelligence, some with tunnels or inclines, others with shafts or open cuts, and the owners of each full of hope and expectations.
Among those having already good indications of mineral is the Orphan Belle Mine on Bull Mountain.

George Sprague had a narrow escape from being severely injured yesterday in the Maloney mine. Sprague was working at the bottom of the shaft which is 400 feet deep when a large rock fell from the top knocking Sprague's hat from his head.

NO CLEW.
------
Robbers of the Maloney shaft Have Not Been Apprehended.

The five men who held up the engineer and other men yesterday morning at the Maloney lease on the Orphan Belle, have apparently made good their escape.
No clew has yet been found, though the police are on the lookout, and all the mills and smelters have been warned not to accept the ore if it is offered for sale.
The ore missing amounts to ten 50-pound sacks, valued at $400 a sack, or $4,000 altogether. It had been sorted and sacket the day previous, and the robbers evidently knew just what they would find.

Principal Producing Cripple Creek Mines - 1898:

Name: Ida Belle Mine (Bull Hill)
Owner: Orphan Belle Gold Mining Co.
Capital:
President:
Vice-President:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Superintendent: Wm. Heflin, Altman
Manager:
Lessees: Hostain & McGee, Altman
Description: 300-foot shaft; 40-horse power vertical Fairbanks-Morse boiler; 6x8 double flat Fairbanks-Morse friction hoist.
Employes:
Contact:
Notes:

Principal Producing Cripple Creek Mines - 1898:

Name: Orphan Bell Mine (Bull Hill)
Owner: Orphan Bell Mining and Milling Co.
Capital:
President: T. S. Hunter
Vice-President:
Secretary: D. H. Imler
Treasurer:
Superintendent: Lessees 1.
Lessees 2.
Lessees 3.
Lessees 4. Richard Fitzgerald, Cripple Creek
Manager:
Lessees: 1. F. J. Crane, Cripple Creek
2. Herington Mining and Milling Co.
3. R. M. Maloney, Cripple Creek
4. Parker & Gardener
Description:
Lessees 1. 90-foot shaft; windlass.
Lessees 2. 140-foot shaft; 60-horse power horizontal boiler; 4-drill Rand Compressor; 8x10 cylinder Mine and Smelter hoist.
Lessees 3. 315-foot shaft; 80 and 40-horse power horizontal boilers; 3-drill Rand compressor; 35-horse power 8x10 friction hoist.
Lessees 4. 75-foot shaft; 85-horse power horizontal boiler; 6-drill Band compressor; 40-horse power 8x10 cylinder Mine and Smelter hoist.
Employes:
Lessees 2. twenty-five employes.
Lessees 3. fifty-five employes.
Lessees 4. fifteen employes.
Contact:
Notes: leased.

Colorado Springs, Col., Feb. 20.—Manager Kilborn, of the Isabella Gold Mines Company, has arrived in the Cripple Creek district and is now calling for men for installing a large hoist and necessary boilers.
The new plant of machinery as soon as purchased will be installed on the Ida Bell claim, located on Bull Hill over the shaft which has already a depth of 870 feet from surface. While the property has been inactive for a period of two years it is the intention of the company to commence operations and push them with vigor.

Cripple Creek— Vidler and associates, leasing on the Maloney workings of the Isabella property, on Bull hill, are breaking ore of better than ounce and a half grade from a vein measuring almost 6 ft. between walls. This vein is under development at a depth of 250 ft. The lessees are sending out on an average of three cars a week.
A heavy monthly tonnage is being made from Isabella ground on company account, and the ore is carrying good values.

Cripple Creek—The Isabella is shipping 1,200 tons per month of smelting-grade ore and 100 tons of dump stuff is run through the mill daily.

E. F. Woods and associates have taken over the lease on the Maloney shaft of the Isabella Mines Co., formerly held by Wilson Bros.
A shipment will soon be made.

Leasers on the Maloney shaft on the Orphan Belle claim of the Isabella Mines Company, have opened up a rich ore body at the 200-foot level, which gives returns of $36.80 to $63 a ton.

Denver. Nov. 5—Lessees on the Maloney shaft of the Empire State, of the Isabella company, have discovered a new ore shoot at 350 ft. deep, and have begun shipping.

A large tonnage of milling grade ore is leaving the Orphan Bell of the Isabella Co., operated under lease by Charles Day and associates. A 25-ton car is shipped every second day, and runs between $14 and $20 per ton.
The lessee is working through the Maloney shaft, and has opened a strong body of milling grade ore lying back of what was thought by former operators to be the hanging wall of the main Maloney vein.

Isabella—The August production of the Isabella property was 1232 tons, of an average of about $25 per ton. It was produced entirely by lessees.

Isabella—The leasers on this company's properties will this month have produced approximately 1500 tons of ore, estimated at a value of 1 oz. gold per ton.
A Seattle company has taken a three-years' lease on the mill and tailings dump.

Stockholders of the Isabella Mines company are invited by a circular letter signed by C. M. Carson, vice-president of the company, to participate in the organization of the Isabella Leasing company, formed for the purpose of further development of the Isabella estate on Bull hill.
As set forth in the letter, development on company account has been impossible "because of the advance in price of mining material and labor, occasioned by the "War."

The lease, it is understood, will be granted the new company for a five-year term, with the privilege of a three-year extension, and royalties on ore marketed will be on a sliding scale.
The ground included in the lease extends from the eleventh level of the Lee shaft to the bottom, or fifteenth, level, west from the west sideline of the Orphan No. 1 and includes the Orphan No. 2, Ida Bell No. 1 and 2, Emma No. 1, Comet and Jack Rabbit lodes No. 1 to 4 inclusive, X. J. Gold, Bully, and Tom Thumb lode claims.

It is proposed, according to the circular, to start work on the 15th level of the Lee shaft, taking advantage of a cross-cut 1000 ft. long and to continue the cross-cut 300 ft. to cut the Sump and Buena Vista veins.
The veins would then be cut at a depth of 450 ft. below the Buena Vista and Sump oreshoots that produced approximately three million dollars.
It is further proposed to continue the cross-cut some 200 ft. farther to explore the junction of the Buena Vista and Maloney veins, the No. 2 vein, No. 3 vein, and finally the Emma vein.
All of these veins have produced ore in the upper workings.

Subscriptions to the leasing company stock will be limited to 6000 shares of the par value of $1 each.

The old and well-known Isabella mine, during the active speculation that formerly prevailed in Cripple Creek stocks, was for years used as the basis for numerous stock-jobbing schemes.
Owing to the relative inactivity of this mine for some time past, a movement has been started by stockholders to interest a sufficient number of such stockholders in the proposed Isabella Leasing Co., to be capitalized at $25,000 with shares at one dollar par.
Capital derived from disposal of this stock will be devoted to development of new ground. Ore produced by the leasing company will be charged royalties ranging from 8% to 30%, depending upon grade of shipments.